Monday in Season after Pentecost

Semicontinuous (Track 1)

FIRST READING

Song of Solomon 2:8-13

Verse 8. Listen! My beloved approaches. Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills. Verse 9. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice. Verse 10. My beloved calls to me, “Arise, my darling. Come away with me, my beautiful one. Verse 11. For now the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. Verse 12. The flowers have appeared in the countryside; the season of singing has come, and the cooing of turtledoves is heard in our land. Verse 13. The fig tree ripens its figs; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come away, my darling; come away with me, my beautiful one.”

Complementary (Track 2)

FIRST READING

Jeremiah 27:1-11, 16-22

Verse 1. At the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD. Verse 2. This is what the LORD said to me: “Make for yourself a yoke out of leather straps and put it on your neck. Verse 3. Send word to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon through the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. Verse 4. Give them a message from the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, to relay to their masters: Verse 5. By My great power and outstretched arm, I made the earth and the men and beasts on the face of it, and I give it to whom I please. Verse 6. So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I have even made the beasts of the field subject to him. Verse 7. All nations will serve him and his son and grandson, until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will enslave him. Verse 8. As for the nation or kingdom that does not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and does not place its neck under his yoke, I will punish that nation by sword and famine and plague, declares the LORD, until I have destroyed it by his hand. Verse 9. But as for you, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your interpreters of dreams, your mediums, or your sorcerers who declare, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’ Verse 10. For they prophesy to you a lie that will serve to remove you from your land; I will banish you and you will perish. Verse 11. But the nation that will put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave in its own land, to cultivate it and reside in it, declares the LORD.” Verse 16. Then I said to the priests and to all this people, “This is what the LORD says: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, ‘Look, very soon now the articles from the house of the LORD will be brought back from Babylon.’ They are prophesying to you a lie. Verse 17. Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon and live! Why should this city become a ruin? Verse 18. If they are indeed prophets and the word of the LORD is with them, let them now plead with the LORD of Hosts that the articles remaining in the house of the LORD, in the palace of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, not be taken to Babylon. Verse 19. For this is what the LORD of Hosts says about the pillars, the sea, the bases, and the rest of the articles that remain in this city, Verse 20. which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he carried Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem. Verse 21. Yes, this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says about the articles that remain in the house of the LORD, in the palace of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem: Verse 22. ‘They will be carried to Babylon and will remain there until the day I attend to them again,’ declares the LORD. ‘Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.’”

PSALM

Psalm 131

A song of ascents. Of David. My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty. I do not aspire to great things or matters too lofty for me.

Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, both now and forevermore.

SECOND READING

Genesis 27:30-46

Verse 30. As soon as Isaac had finished blessing him and Jacob had left his father’s presence, his brother Esau returned from the hunt. Verse 31. He too made some tasty food, brought it to his father, and said to him, “My father, sit up and eat of your son’s game, so that you may bless me.” Verse 32. But his father Isaac replied, “Who are you?” “I am Esau, your firstborn son,” he answered. Verse 33. Isaac began to tremble violently and said, “Who was it, then, who hunted the game and brought it to me? Before you came in, I ate it all and blessed him — and indeed, he will be blessed!” Verse 34. When Esau heard his father’s words, he let out a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, O my father!” Verse 35. But Isaac replied, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.” Verse 36. So Esau declared, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me twice. He took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing.” Then he asked, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?” Verse 37. But Isaac answered Esau: “Look, I have made him your master and given him all his relatives as servants; I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?” Verse 38. Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, O my father!” Then Esau wept aloud. Verse 39. His father Isaac answered him: “Behold, your dwelling place shall be away from the richness of the land, away from the dew of heaven above. Verse 40. You shall live by the sword and serve your brother. But when you rebel, you will tear his yoke from your neck.” Verse 41. Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” Verse 42. When the words of her older son Esau were relayed to Rebekah, she sent for her younger son Jacob and told him, “Look, your brother Esau is consoling himself by plotting to kill you. Verse 43. So now, my son, obey my voice and flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran. Verse 44. Stay with him for a while, until your brother’s fury subsides— Verse 45. until your brother’s rage against you wanes and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?” Verse 46. Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a Hittite wife from among them, what good is my life?”

SECOND READING

Romans 1:18-25

Verse 18. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Verse 19. For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. Verse 20. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse. Verse 21. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts. Verse 22. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, Verse 23. and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Verse 24. Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another. Verse 25. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise! Amen.