Scripture Readings

The Season After Pentecost
Proper 24 (29) in Year A
For the Sunday during 16 through 22 October

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)

     Moses said to the LORD, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”
     The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
     Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”
     And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”
     Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
     And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
     Then the LORD said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
—Exodus 33:12-23, NIV

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Psalm (Alternate One)

The LORD reigns,
     let the nations tremble;
he sits enthroned between the cherubim,
     let the earth shake.
Great is the LORD in Zion;
     he is exalted over all the nations.
Let them praise your great and awesome name—
     he is holy.
The King is mighty,
     he loves justice—
you have established equity;
     in Jacob you have done what is just and right.
Exalt the LORD our God
     and worship at his footstool;
     he is holy.
Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
     Samuel was among those who called on his name;
they called on the LORD
     and he answered them.
He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud;
     they kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them.
O LORD our God, you answered them;
     you were to Israel a forgiving God,
     though you punished their misdeeds.
Exalt the LORD our God
     and worship at his holy mountain,
     for the LORD our God is holy.
—Psalm 99, NIV

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Old Testament (Alternate Two)

The LORD reigns, let the nations tremble; he sits enthroned between the cherubim, let the earth shake. Great is the LORD in Zion; he is exalted over all the nations. Let them praise your great and awesome name—he is holy. The King is mighty, he loves justice—you have established equity; in Jacob you have done what is just and right. Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his footstool; he is holy. Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel was among those who called on his name; they called on the LORD and he answered them. He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud; they kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them. O LORD our God, you answered them; you were to Israel a forgiving God, though you punished their misdeeds. Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy.
—Isaiah 45:1-7, NIV

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Psalm (Alternate Two)

Sing to the LORD a new song;
     sing to the LORD, all the earth.
Sing to the LORD, praise his name;
     proclaim his salvation day after day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
     his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
     he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the nations are idols,
     but the LORD made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before him;
     strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations,
     ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
     bring an offering and come into his courts.
Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness;
     tremble before him, all the earth.
[Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns.”
The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
     he will judge the peoples with equity.
Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
     let the sea resound, and all that is in it;
     let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;
     they will sing before the LORD, for he comes,
     he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
     and the peoples in his truth.]
—Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13)

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Epistle

Paul, Silas and Timothy,
     To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
     Grace and peace to you.
     We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
     For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.
—1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, NIV

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Gospel

      Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
     But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?”
     “Caesar’s,” they replied.
     Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
     When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
     That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. Finally, the woman died. Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”
     Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
     When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
     Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
     Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
     While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”
     “The son of David,” they replied.
     He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.” ’ If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.
—Matthew 22:15-22, NIV

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