Scripture Readings

The Season After Pentecost
Proper 11 (16) in Year C
For the Sunday during 17 through 23 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)

     This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. “What do you see, Amos?” he asked.
     “A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered.
     Then the LORD said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
     “In that day,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing. Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”
Hear this, you who trample the needy
     and do away with the poor of the land,
     saying,
“When will the New Moon be over
     that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
     that we may market wheat?”—
skimping the measure,
     boosting the price
     and cheating with dishonest scales,
buying the poor with silver
     and the needy for a pair of sandals,
     selling even the sweepings with the wheat.
     The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.
“Will not the land tremble for this,
     and all who live in it mourn?
The whole land will rise like the Nile;
     it will be stirred up and then sink
     like the river of Egypt.
     “In that day,” declares the Sovereign LORD,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
     and darken the earth in broad daylight.
I will turn your religious feasts into mourning
     and all your singing into weeping.
I will make all of you wear sackcloth
     and shave your heads.
I will make that time like mourning for an only son
     and the end of it like a bitter day.
“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD,
     “when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
     but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
Men will stagger from sea to sea
     and wander from north to east,
searching for the word of the LORD,
     but they will not find it.
—Amos 8:1-12, NIV

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Psalm (Alternate One)

Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man?
     Why do you boast all day long,
     you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?
Your tongue plots destruction;
     it is like a sharpened razor,
     you who practice deceit.
You love evil rather than good,
     falsehood rather than speaking the truth. Selah
You love every harmful word,
     O you deceitful tongue!
Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin:
     He will snatch you up and tear you from your tent;
     he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
The righteous will see and fear;
     they will laugh at him, saying,
“Here now is the man
     who did not make God his stronghold
but trusted in his great wealth
     and grew strong by destroying others!”
But I am like an olive tree
     flourishing in the house of God;
I trust in God’s unfailing love
     for ever and ever.
I will praise you forever for what you have done;
     in your name I will hope, for your name is good.
     I will praise you in the presence of your saints.
—Psalm 52, NIV

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Old Testament (Alternate Two)

     The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
     He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.”
     “Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.”
     So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahs of fine flour and knead it and bake some bread.”
     Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.
     “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.
     “There, in the tent,” he said.
     Then the LORD said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
—Genesis 18:1-10a, NIV

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Psalm (Alternate Two)

LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
     Who may live on your holy hill?
He whose walk is blameless
     and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heart
     and has no slander on his tongue,
     who does his neighbor no wrong
     and casts no slur on his fellowman,
who despises a vile man
     but honors those who fear the LORD,
who keeps his oath
     even when it hurts,
who lends his money without usury
     and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things
     will never be shaken.
—Psalm 15, NIV

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Epistle

     He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
     Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
     Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness—the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
     We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.
—Colossians 1:15-28, NIV

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Gospel

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
—Luke 10:38-42, NIV

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