Tuesday in Season after Pentecost

Semicontinuous (Track 1)

FIRST READING

Genesis 17:1-27

Verse 1. When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless. Verse 2. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.” Verse 3. Then Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, Verse 4. “As for Me, this is My covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. Verse 5. No longer will you be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. Verse 6. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will descend from you. Verse 7. I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. Verse 8. And to you and your descendants I will give the land where you are residing— all the land of Canaan— as an eternal possession; and I will be their God.” Verse 9. God also said to Abraham, “You must keep My covenant— you and your descendants in the generations after you. Verse 10. This is My covenant with you and your descendants after you, which you are to keep: Every male among you must be circumcised. Verse 11. You are to circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and this will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. Verse 12. Generation after generation, every male must be circumcised when he is eight days old, including those born in your household and those purchased from a foreigner — even those who are not your offspring. Verse 13. Whether they are born in your household or purchased, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh will be an everlasting covenant. Verse 14. But if any male is not circumcised, he will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.” Verse 15. Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, do not call her Sarai, for her name is to be Sarah. Verse 16. And I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will descend from her.” Verse 17. Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at the age of ninety?” Verse 18. And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live under Your blessing!” Verse 19. But God replied, “Your wife Sarah will indeed bear you a son, and you are to name him Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. Verse 20. As for Ishmael, I have heard you, and I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He will become the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. Verse 21. But I will establish My covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year.” Verse 22. When He had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him. Verse 23. On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or purchased with his money— every male among the members of Abraham’s household— and he circumcised them, just as God had told him. Verse 24. So Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised, Verse 25. and his son Ishmael was thirteen; Verse 26. Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on the same day. Verse 27. And all the men of Abraham’s household— both servants born in his household and those purchased from foreigners— were circumcised with him.

PSALM

Psalm 119:41-48

May Your loving devotion come to me, O LORD, Your salvation, according to Your promise.

Then I can answer him who taunts, for I trust in Your word.

Never take Your word of truth from my mouth, for I hope in Your judgments.

I will always obey Your law, forever and ever.

And I will walk in freedom, for I have sought Your precepts.

I will speak of Your testimonies before kings, and I will not be ashamed.

I delight in Your commandments because I love them.

I lift up my hands to Your commandments, which I love, and I meditate on Your statutes.

Complementary (Track 2)

FIRST READING

Hosea 8:11-14

Verse 11. Though Ephraim multiplied the altars for sin, they became his altars for sinning. Verse 12. Though I wrote for them the great things of My law, they regarded them as something strange. Verse 13. Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they eat the meat, the LORD does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt. Verse 14. Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; Judah has multiplied its fortified cities. But I will send fire upon their cities, and it will consume their citadels.

PSALM

Psalm 40:1-8

For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the LORD; He inclined to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me up from the pit of despair, out of the miry clay; He set my feet upon a rock, and made my footsteps firm.

He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.

Blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust, who has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.

Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us — none can compare to You — if I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I can count.

Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require.

Then I said, “Here I am, I have come — it is written about me in the scroll:

I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.”

SECOND READING

Hebrews 13:1-16

Verse 1. Continue in brotherly love. Verse 2. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Verse 3. Remember those in prison as if you were bound with them, and those who are mistreated as if you were suffering with them. Verse 4. Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers. Verse 5. Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.” Verse 6. So we say with confidence: “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” Verse 7. Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Verse 8. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Verse 9. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods of no value to those devoted to them. Verse 10. We have an altar from which those who serve at the tabernacle have no right to eat. Verse 11. Although the high priest brings the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, the bodies are burned outside the camp. Verse 12. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate, to sanctify the people by His own blood. Verse 13. Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore. Verse 14. For here we do not have a permanent city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Verse 15. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess His name. Verse 16. And do not neglect to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.