Scripture Readings
The Season After Pentecost
Proper 9 (14) in Year A
For the Sunday during 3 through 9 July
Scripture readings are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® NIV® ©1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. All rights reserved.
Alternate One:
Old Testament
Psalm
Alternate Two:
Old Testament
Psalm
Epistle Reading
Gospel Reading
Old Testament (Alternate One)
So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. The LORD
has blessed my master abundantly, and he has become wealthy. He has given him
sheep and cattle, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, and camels
and donkeys. My master’s wife Sarah has borne him a son in her old age, and
he has given him everything he owns. And my master made me swear an oath, and
said, ‘You must not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites,
in whose land I live, but go to my father’s family and to my own clan, and
get a wife for my son.’
“When I came to the spring today, I said, ‘O LORD,
God of my master Abraham, if you will, please grant success to the journey on
which I have come. See, I am standing beside this spring; if a maiden comes out
to draw water and I say to her, “Please let me drink a little water from your
jar,” and if she says to me, “Drink, and I’ll draw water for your camels too,”
let her be the one the LORD has chosen for my master’s son.’
“Before I finished praying in my heart, Rebekah
came out, with her jar on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew
water, and I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’
“She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder
and said, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too.’ So I drank, and she watered
the camels also.
“I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’
“She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor,
whom Milcah bore to him.’
“Then I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets
on her arms, and I bowed down and worshiped the LORD. I praised the LORD, the
God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right road to get the granddaughter
of my master’s brother for his son. Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness
to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so I may know which way to turn.”
“I will go,” she said.
So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along
with her nurse and Abraham’s servant and his men. And they blessed Rebekah and
said to her,
“Our sister, may you increase
to thousands upon thousands;
may your offspring possess
the gates of their enemies.”
Then Rebekah and her maids got ready and mounted
their camels and went back with the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left.
Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he
was living in the Negev. He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and
as he looked up, he saw camels approaching. Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac.
She got down from her camel and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field
coming to meet us?”
“He is my master,” the servant answered. So she
took her veil and covered herself.
Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. Isaac
brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she
became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s
death.
—Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67, NIV
Go
to the top of this pagePsalm (Alternate One)
Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear:
Forget your people and your father’s house.
The king is enthralled by your beauty;
honor him, for he is your lord.
The Daughter of Tyre will come with a gift,
men of wealth will seek your favor.
All glorious is the princess within [her chamber];
her gown is interwoven with gold.
In embroidered garments she is led to the king;
her virgin companions follow her
and are brought to you.
They are led in with joy and gladness;
they enter the palace of the king.
Your sons will take the place of your fathers;
you will make them princes throughout the land.
I will perpetuate your memory through all generations;
therefore the nations will praise you for ever
and ever.
—Psalm 45:10-17, NIV
—OR—
Listen! My lover!
Look! Here he comes,
leaping across the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag.
Look! There he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattice.
My lover spoke and said to me,
“Arise, my darling,
my beautiful one, and come with me.
See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.
Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.
The fig tree forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
my beautiful one, come with me.”
—Song of Solomon 2:8-13, NIV
Old Testament (Alternate Two)
Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!
Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and having salvation,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
and the war-horses from Jerusalem,
and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
His rule will extend from sea to sea
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.
Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope;
even now I announce that I will restore twice as
much to you.
—Zechariah 9:9-12, NIV
Psalm (Alternate Two)
The LORD is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.
The LORD is good to all;
he has compassion on all he has made.
All you have made will praise you, O LORD;
your saints will extol you.
They will tell of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might,
so that all men may know of your mighty acts
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
The LORD is faithful to all his promises
and loving toward all he has made.
The LORD upholds all those who fall
and lifts up all who are bowed down.
—Psalm 145:8-14, NIV
Epistle
I do not understand what I do. For what I
want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want
to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who
do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that
is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot
carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do
not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do,
it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: When I want to do good,
evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but
I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law
of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks
be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
—Romans 7:15-25a, NIV
Gospel
“To what can I compare this generation? They
are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
“’We played the flute for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not mourn.’
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The
Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.”’ But wisdom is proved right by her
actions.”
At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise
and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was
your good pleasure.
“All things have been committed to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the
Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle
and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy
and my burden is light.”
—Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30, NIV
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