Scripture Readings

The Season After Pentecost
Proper 8 (13) in Year C
For the Sunday during 26 June through 2 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)

     When the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; the LORD has sent me to Bethel.”
     But Elisha said, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.
     Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here; the LORD has sent me to the Jordan.”
     And he replied, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them walked on.
     Fifty men of the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
     When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?”
     “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.
     “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise not.”
     As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart.
     He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.
—2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14, NIV

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Psalm (Alternate One)

I cried out to God for help;
     I cried out to God to hear me.
When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;
     at night I stretched out untiring hands
     and my soul refused to be comforted.
     the years of the right hand of the Most High.”
I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
     yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
I will meditate on all your works
     and consider all your mighty deeds.
Your ways, O God, are holy.
     What god is so great as our God?
You are the God who performs miracles;
     you display your power among the peoples.
With your mighty arm you redeemed your people,
     the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
The waters saw you, O God,
     the waters saw you and writhed;
     the very depths were convulsed.
The clouds poured down water,
     the skies resounded with thunder;
     your arrows flashed back and forth.
Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind,
     your lightning lit up the world;
     the earth trembled and quaked.
Your path led through the sea,
     your way through the mighty waters,
     though your footprints were not seen.
You led your people like a flock
     by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
—Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20, NIV

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Old Testament (Alternate Two)

     The LORD said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.”
     So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother good-by,” he said, “and then I will come with you.”
     “Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?”
     So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.
—1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21, NIV

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Psalm (Alternate Two)

Keep me safe, O God,
     for in you I take refuge.
I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord;
     apart from you I have no good thing.”
As for the saints who are in the land,
     they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.
The sorrows of those will increase
     who run after other gods.
I will not pour out their libations of blood
     or take up their names on my lips.
LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
     you have made my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
     surely I have a delightful inheritance.
I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
     even at night my heart instructs me.
I have set the LORD always before me.
     Because he is at my right hand,
     I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
     my body also will rest secure,
because you will not abandon me to the grave,
     nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
You have made known to me the path of life;
     you will fill me with joy in your presence,
     with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
—Psalm 16, NIV

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Epistle

     It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
     You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
     So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
     The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
     But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
—Galatians 5:1, 13-25, NIV

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Gospel

     As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went to another village.
     As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
     Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
     He said to another man, “Follow me.”
     But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
     Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
     Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.”
     Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
—Luke 9:51-62, NIV

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