Scripture Readings
The Season After Pentecost
Proper 16 (21) in Year A
For the Sunday during 21 through 27 August
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)
Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph,
came to power in Egypt. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have
become much too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they
will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies,
fight against us and leave the country.”
So they put slave masters over them to oppress
them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for
Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread;
so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They
made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds
of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.
The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives,
whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, “When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth
and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is
a girl, let her live.” The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what
the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. Then the king
of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have
you let the boys live?”
The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are
not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives
arrive.”
So God was kind to the midwives and the people
increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God,
he gave them families of their own.
Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people:
“Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”
Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite
woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he
was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no
longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then
she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.
His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to
bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket
among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. She opened it and saw the
baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,”
she said.
Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall
I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
“Yes, go,” she answered. And the girl went and
got the baby’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse
him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. When
the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son.
She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”
—Exodus 1:8-2:10, NIV
Go
to the top of this pagePsalm (Alternate One)
If the LORD had not been on our side—
let Israel say—
if the LORD had not been on our side
when men attacked us,
when their anger flared against us,
they would have swallowed us alive;
the flood would have engulfed us,
the torrent would have swept over us,
the raging waters
would have swept us away.
Praise be to the LORD,
who has not let us be torn by their teeth.
We have escaped like a bird
out of the fowler’s snare;
the snare has been broken,
and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
—Psalm 124, NIV
Old Testament (Alternate Two)
”Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness
and who seek the LORD:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
and to the quarry from which you were hewn;
look to Abraham, your father,
and to Sarah, who gave you birth.
When I called him he was but one,
and I blessed him and made him many.
The LORD will surely comfort Zion
and will look with compassion on all her ruins;
he will make her deserts like Eden,
her wastelands like the garden of the LORD.
Joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the sound of singing.
”Listen to me, my people;
hear me, my nation:
The law will go out from me;
my justice will become a light to the nations.
My righteousness draws near speedily,
my salvation is on the way,
and my arm will bring justice to the nations.
The islands will look to me
and wait in hope for my arm.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
look at the earth beneath;
the heavens will vanish like smoke,
the earth will wear out like a garment
and its inhabitants die like flies.
But my salvation will last forever,
my righteousness will never fail.
—Isaiah 51:1-6, NIV
Psalm (Alternate Two)
I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;
before the “gods” I will sing your praise.
I will bow down toward your holy temple
and will praise your name
for your love and your faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things
your name and your word.
When I called, you answered me;
you made me bold and stouthearted.
May all the kings of the earth praise you, O LORD,
when they hear the words of your mouth.
May they sing of the ways of the LORD,
for the glory of the LORD is great.
Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly,
but the proud he knows from afar.
Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you preserve my life;
you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes,
with your right hand you save me.
The LORD will fulfill [his purpose] for me;
your love, O LORD, endures forever—
do not abandon the works of your hands.
—Psalm 138, NIV
Epistle
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of
God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to
God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the
pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then
you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing
and perfect will.
For by the grace given me I say to every one of
you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of
yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has
given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members
do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body,
and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according
to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion
to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach;
if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of
others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently;
if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
—Romans 12:1-8, NIV
Gospel
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea
Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others
say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say
I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the
Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah,
for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell
you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates
of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven;
whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on
earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone
that he was the Christ.
—Matthew 16:13-20, NIV
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