Open Word

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 13:1-11

Verse 1. This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water.” Verse 2. So I bought a loincloth in accordance with the word of the LORD, and I put it around my waist. Verse 3. Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time: Verse 4. “Take the loincloth that you bought and are wearing, and go at once to Perath and hide it there in a crevice of the rocks.” Verse 5. So I went and hid it at Perath, as the LORD had commanded me. Verse 6. Many days later the LORD said to me, “Arise, go to Perath, and get the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.” Verse 7. So I went to Perath and dug up the loincloth, and I took it from the place where I had hidden it. But now it was ruined— of no use at all. Verse 8. Then the word of the LORD came to me: Verse 9. “This is what the LORD says: In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. Verse 10. These evil people, who refuse to listen to My words, who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who go after other gods to serve and worship them, they will be like this loincloth — of no use at all. Verse 11. For just as a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, so I have made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to Me, declares the LORD, so that they might be My people for My renown and praise and glory. But they did not listen.

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 29:31-35

Verse 31. When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. Verse 32. And Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Reuben, for she said, “The LORD has seen my affliction. Surely my husband will love me now.” Verse 33. Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she said, “Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has given me this son as well.” So she named him Simeon. Verse 34. Once again Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was named Levi. Verse 35. And once more she conceived and gave birth to a son and said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” So she named him Judah. Then Leah stopped having children.

SECOND READING

John 13:1-17

Verse 1. It was now just before the Passover Feast, and Jesus knew that His hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the very end. Verse 2. The evening meal was underway, and the devil had already put into the heart of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Verse 3. Jesus knew that the Father had delivered all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was returning to God. Verse 4. So He got up from the supper, laid aside His outer garments, and wrapped a towel around His waist. Verse 5. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel that was around Him. Verse 6. He came to Simon Peter, who asked Him, “Lord, are You going to wash my feet?” Verse 7. Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Verse 8. “Never shall You wash my feet!” Peter told Him. Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me.” Verse 9. “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not only my feet, but my hands and my head as well!” Verse 10. Jesus told him, “Whoever has already bathed needs only to wash his feet, and he will be completely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” Verse 11. For He knew who would betray Him. That is why He said, “Not all of you are clean.” Verse 12. When Jesus had washed their feet and put on His outer garments, He reclined with them again and asked, “Do you know what I have done for you? Verse 13. You call Me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, because I am. Verse 14. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. Verse 15. I have set you an example so that you should do as I have done for you. Verse 16. Truly, truly, I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Verse 17. If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.