Scripture Readings
The Season After Pentecost
Proper 26 (31) in Year C
For the Sunday during 30 October through 5 November
If you are observing All Saints Sunday, use the readings for All Saints Day.
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)
The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received.
How long, O LORD, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not save?
Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.
I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
and what answer I am to give to
this complaint.
Then the LORD replied:
“Write down the revelation
and make it plain on tablets
so that a herald may run with it.
For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
it speaks of the end
and will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it;
it will certainly come and will
not delay.
“See, he is puffed up;
his desires are not upright—
but the righteous will live by
his faith.
—Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4, NIV
Go
to the top of this pagePsalm (Alternate One)
Righteous are you, O LORD,
and your laws are right.
The statutes you have laid down are righteous;
they are fully trustworthy.
My zeal wears me out,
for my enemies ignore your words.
Your promises have been thoroughly tested,
and your servant loves them.
Though I am lowly and despised,
I do not forget your precepts.
Your righteousness is everlasting
and your law is true.
Trouble and distress have come upon me,
but your commands are my delight.
Your statutes are forever right;
give me understanding that I may
live.
—Psalm 119:137-144, NIV
Old Testament (Alternate Two)
Hear the word of the LORD,
you rulers of Sodom;
listen to the law of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
“The multitude of your sacrifices—
what are they to me?” says the
LORD.
“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened
animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs
and goats.
When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?
Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your evil assemblies.
Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts
my soul hates.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood;
wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds
out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong,
learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.
“Come now, let us reason together,”
says the LORD.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.
—Isaiah 1:10-18, NIV
Psalm (Alternate Two)
Blessed is he
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man
whose sin the LORD does not count
against him
and in whose spirit is no deceit.
When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night
your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was sapped
as in the heat of summer. Selah
Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess
my transgressions to the LORD”—
and you forgave
the guilt of my sin. Selah
Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you
while you may be found;
surely when the mighty waters rise,
they will not reach him.
You are my hiding place;
you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance.
—Psalm 32:1-7, NIV
Epistle
[From] Paul, Silas and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians
in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace and peace to you from God
the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We ought always to thank God for
you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing
more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other
is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about
your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials
you are enduring.
With this in mind, we constantly
pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling,
and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours
and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the
name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him,
according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
—2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12, NIV
Gospel
Jesus entered Jericho and was
passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he
was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who
Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the
crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see
him, since Jesus was coming that way.
When Jesus reached the spot, he
looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately.
I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and
welcomed him gladly.
All the people saw this and began
to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
But Zacchaeus stood up and said
to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions
to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I
will pay back four times the amount.”
Jesus said to him, “Today salvation
has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
—Luke 19:1-10, NIV
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