Scripture Readings

The Season After Pentecost
Proper 12 (17) in Year C
For the Sunday during 24 through 30 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 began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD.” So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
     Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”
     Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them. Yet I will show love to the house of Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the LORD their God.”
     After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. Then the LORD said, “Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.
     “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’
—Hosea 1:2-10, NIV

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Psalm (Alternate One)

You showed favor to your land, O LORD;
     you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
You forgave the iniquity of your people
     and covered all their sins. Selah
You set aside all your wrath
     and turned from your fierce anger.
Restore us again, O God our Savior,
     and put away your displeasure toward us.
Will you be angry with us forever?
     Will you prolong your anger through all generations?
Will you not revive us again,
     that your people may rejoice in you?
Show us your unfailing love, O LORD,
     and grant us your salvation.
I will listen to what God the LORD will say;
     he promises peace to his people, his saints—
     but let them not return to folly.
Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,
     that his glory may dwell in our land.
Love and faithfulness meet together;
     righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
     and righteousness looks down from heaven.
The LORD will indeed give what is good,
     and our land will yield its harvest.
Righteousness goes before him
     and prepares the way for his steps.
—Psalm 85, NIV

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Old Testament (Alternate Two)

     Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”
     The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
     The LORD said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
     Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?”
     “If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”
     Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”
     He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”
     Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”
     He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
     Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?”
     He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”
     Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”
     He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”
—Genesis 18:20-32, NIV

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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

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Epistle

     So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
     See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
     For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
     When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
     Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
—Colossians 2:6-19, NIV

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Gospel

     One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
     He said to them, “When you pray, say:
“‘Father,
     hallowed be your name,
     your kingdom come.
     Give us each day our daily bread.
     Forgive us our sins,
     for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.’”
     Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’
     “Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
     “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
     “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
—Luke 11:1-13, NIV

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