Scripture Readings

The Season After Pentecost
Proper 20 (25) in Year C
For the Sunday during 18 through 24 September

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)

O my Comforter in sorrow,
     my heart is faint within me.
Listen to the cry of my people
     from a land far away:
“Is the LORD not in Zion?
     Is her King no longer there?”
“Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,
     with their worthless foreign idols?”
“The harvest is past,
     the summer has ended,
     and we are not saved.”
Since my people are crushed, I am crushed;
     I mourn, and horror grips me.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
     Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no healing
     for the wound of my people?
Oh, that my head were a spring of water
and my eyes a fountain of tears!
I would weep day and night
     for the slain of my people.
—Jeremiah 8:18-9:1, NIV

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Psalm (Alternate One)

O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance;
     they have defiled your holy temple,
     they have reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
They have given the dead bodies of your servants
     as food to the birds of the air,
     the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth.
They have poured out blood like water
     all around Jerusalem,
     and there is no one to bury the dead.
We are objects of reproach to our neighbors,
     of scorn and derision to those around us.
How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever?
     How long will your jealousy burn like fire?
Pour out your wrath on the nations
     that do not acknowledge you,
on the kingdoms
     that do not call on your name;
for they have devoured Jacob
     and destroyed his homeland.
Do not hold against us the sins of the fathers;
     may your mercy come quickly to meet us,
     for we are in desperate need.
Help us, O God our Savior,
     for the glory of your name;
deliver us and forgive our sins
     for your name’s sake.
—Psalm 79:1-9, NIV

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Old Testament (Alternate Two)

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.”
—Amos 8:4-7, NIV

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Psalm (Alternate Two)

Praise the LORD.
     Praise, O servants of the LORD,
     praise the name of the LORD.
Let the name of the LORD be praised,
     both now and forevermore.
From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
     the name of the LORD is to be praised.
The LORD is exalted over all the nations,
     his glory above the heavens.
Who is like the LORD our God,
     the One who sits enthroned on high,
who stoops down to look
     on the heavens and the earth?
He raises the poor from the dust
     and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
he seats them with princes,
     with the princes of their people.
He settles the barren woman in her home
     as a happy mother of children.
Praise the LORD
—Psalm 113, NIV

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Epistle

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time. And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles.
—1 Timothy 2:1-7, NIV

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Gospel

      Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’
      “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg—I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’
      “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
     “‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.
     “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’
     “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’
     “‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied.
     “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’
     “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
      “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
      “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
—Luke 16:1-13, NIV

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