Open Word

FIRST READING

Malachi 3:16-4:6

Verse 16. At that time those who feared the LORD spoke with one another, and the LORD listened and heard them. So a scroll of remembrance was written before Him regarding those who feared the LORD and honored His name. Verse 17. “They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. Verse 18. So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.” Verse 1. “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.” Verse 2. “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall. Verse 3. Then you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the LORD of Hosts. Verse 4. “Remember the law of My servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him for all Israel at Horeb. Verse 5. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD. Verse 6. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

PSALM

Psalm 125

A song of ascents. Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion. It cannot be moved; it abides forever.

As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His people, both now and forevermore.

For the scepter of the wicked will not rest upon the land allotted to the righteous, so that the righteous will not put forth their hands to injustice.

Do good, O LORD, to those who are good, and to the upright in heart.

But those who turn to crooked ways the LORD will banish with the evildoers. Peace be upon Israel.

SECOND READING

Mark 9:9-13

Verse 9. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus admonished them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. Verse 10. So they kept this matter to themselves, discussing what it meant to rise from the dead. Verse 11. And they asked Jesus, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” Verse 12. He replied, “Elijah does indeed come first, and he restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected? Verse 13. But I tell you that Elijah has indeed come, and they have done to him whatever they wished, just as it is written about him.”