Scripture Readings

The Season After Pentecost
Proper 29 (34) in Year C, Christ the King Sunday
For the Sunday during 20 through 26 November

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)

     “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD. Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the LORD. “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the LORD.
“The days are coming,” declares the LORD,
     “when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely
     and do what is just and right in the land.
In his days Judah will be saved
     and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name by which he will be called:
     The LORD Our Righteousness.
—Jeremiah 23:1-6, NIV

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Psalm (Alternate One)

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
     because he has come and has redeemed his people.
He has raised up a horn
     of salvation for us
     in the house of his servant David
(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
     salvation from our enemies
     and from the hand of all who hate us—
to show mercy to our fathers
     and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
     to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
     and to enable us to serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
     And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
     for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
to give his people the knowledge of salvation
     through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
     by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
     and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
—Luke 1:68-79, NIV

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Old Testament (Alternate Two)

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Psalm (Alternate Two)

God is our refuge and strength,
     an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
     and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
     and the mountains quake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
     the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
     God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
     he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD Almighty is with us;
     the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Come and see the works of the LORD,
     the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
     he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
     he burns the shields with fire.
“Be still, and know that I am God;
     I will be exalted among the nations,
     I will be exalted in the earth.”
The LORD Almighty is with us;
     the God of Jacob is our fortress.
—Psalm 46, NIV

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Epistle

[Be] strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
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.
—Colossians 1:11-20, NIV

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Gospel

When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
     The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”
     The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”
     There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
     One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
     But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
     Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
     Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
—Luke 23:33-43, NIV

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