Open Word

Semicontinuous (Track 1)

FIRST READING

1 Samuel 2:22-36

Verse 22. Now Eli was very old, and he heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Verse 23. “Why are you doing these things?” Eli said to his sons. “I hear about your wicked deeds from all these people. Verse 24. No, my sons; it is not a good report I hear circulating among the LORD’s people. Verse 25. If a man sins against another man, God can intercede for him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to their father, since the LORD intended to put them to death. Verse 26. And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with man. Verse 27. Then a man of God came to Eli and told him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Did I not clearly reveal Myself to your father’s house when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh’s house? Verse 28. And out of all the tribes of Israel I selected your father to be My priest, to offer sacrifices on My altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod in My presence. I also gave to the house of your father all the food offerings of the Israelites. Verse 29. Why then do you kick at My sacrifice and offering that I have prescribed for My dwelling place? You have honored your sons more than Me by fattening yourselves with the best of all the offerings of My people Israel.’ Verse 30. Therefore, the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now the LORD declares: Far be it from Me! For I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disdained. Verse 31. Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that no one in it will reach old age. Verse 32. You will see distress in My dwelling place. Despite all that is good in Israel, no one in your house will ever again reach old age. Verse 33. And every one of you that I do not cut off from My altar, I will cause your eyes to fail and your heart to grieve. All your descendants will die by the sword of men. Verse 34. And this sign shall come to you concerning your two sons Hophni and Phinehas: They will both die on the same day. Verse 35. Then I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest. He will do whatever is in My heart and mind. And I will build for him an enduring house, and he will walk before My anointed one for all time. Verse 36. And everyone left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver or a morsel of bread, pleading, “Please appoint me to some priestly office so that I can eat a piece of bread.”’”

PSALM

Psalm 99

The LORD reigns; let the nations tremble! He is enthroned above the cherubim; let the earth quake!

Great is the LORD in Zion; He is exalted above all the peoples.

Let them praise Your great and awesome name — He is holy!

The mighty King loves justice. You have established equity; You have exercised justice and righteousness in Jacob.

Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at His footstool; He is holy!

Moses and Aaron were among His priests; Samuel was among those who called on His name. They called to the LORD and He answered.

He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud; they kept His decrees and the statutes He gave them.

O LORD our God, You answered them. You were a forgiving God to them, yet an avenger of their misdeeds.

Exalt the LORD our God and worship at His holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy.

Complementary (Track 2)

FIRST READING

1 Samuel 21:1-6

Verse 1. Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And when Ahimelech met David, he trembled and asked him, “Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?” Verse 2. “The king has given me a mission,” David replied. “He told me no one is to know about the mission on which I am sending you. And I have directed my young men to meet me at a certain place. Verse 3. Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found.” Verse 4. “There is no common bread on hand,” the priest replied, “but there is some consecrated bread — provided that the young men have kept themselves from women.” Verse 5. David answered, “Women have indeed been kept from us, as is usual when I set out. And the bodies of the young men are holy even on common missions. How much more so today!” Verse 6. So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there but the Bread of the Presence, which had been removed from before the LORD and replaced with hot bread on the day it was taken away.

PSALM

Psalm 78:1-4, 52-72

A Maskil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my instruction; listen to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the beginning,

that we have heard and known and our fathers have relayed to us.

We will not hide them from their children but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might and the wonders He has performed.

He led out His people like sheep and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.

He led them safely, so they did not fear, but the sea engulfed their enemies.

He brought them to His holy land, to the mountain His right hand had acquired.

He drove out nations before them and apportioned their inheritance; He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

But they tested and disobeyed God Most High, for they did not keep His decrees.

They turned back and were faithless like their fathers, twisted like a faulty bow.

They enraged Him with their high places and provoked His jealousy with their idols.

On hearing it, God was furious and rejected Israel completely.

He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He had pitched among men.

He delivered His strength to captivity, and His splendor to the hand of the adversary.

He surrendered His people to the sword because He was enraged by His heritage.

Fire consumed His young men, and their maidens were left without wedding songs.

His priests fell by the sword, but their widows could not lament.

Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a mighty warrior overcome by wine.

He beat back His foes; He put them to everlasting shame.

He rejected the tent of Joseph and refused the tribe of Ephraim.

But He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved.

He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the earth He has established forever.

He chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds;

from tending the ewes He brought him to be shepherd of His people Jacob, of Israel His inheritance.

So David shepherded them with integrity of heart and guided them with skillful hands.

SECOND READING

John 5:1-18

Verse 1. Some time later there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Verse 2. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool with five covered colonnades, which in Hebrew is called Bethesda. Verse 3. On these walkways lay a great number of the sick, the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. Verse 5. One man there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. Verse 6. When Jesus saw him lying there and realized that he had spent a long time in this condition, He asked him, “Do you want to get well?” Verse 7. “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am on my way, someone else goes in before me.” Verse 8. Then Jesus told him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.” Verse 9. Immediately the man was made well, and he picked up his mat and began to walk. Now this happened on the Sabbath day, Verse 10. so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! It is unlawful for you to carry your mat.” Verse 11. But he answered, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” Verse 12. “Who is this man who told you to pick it up and walk?” they asked. Verse 13. But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while the crowd was there. Verse 14. Afterward, Jesus found the man at the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.” Verse 15. And the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Verse 16. Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews began to persecute Him. Verse 17. But Jesus answered them, “To this very day My Father is at His work, and I too am working.” Verse 18. Because of this, the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him. Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.