Tuesday in Season after Pentecost

Semicontinuous (Track 1)

FIRST READING

Jeremiah 7:16-26

Verse 16. As for you, do not pray for these people, do not offer a plea or petition on their behalf, and do not beg Me, for I will not listen to you. Verse 17. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? Verse 18. The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven; they pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger. Verse 19. But am I the One they are provoking? declares the LORD. Is it not themselves they spite, to their own shame? Verse 20. Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the produce of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished. Verse 21. This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! Verse 22. For when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not merely command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices, Verse 23. but this is what I commanded them: Obey Me, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must walk in all the ways I have commanded you, so that it may go well with you. Verse 24. Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. Verse 25. From the day your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets again and again. Verse 26. Yet they would not listen to Me or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks and did more evil than their fathers.

PSALM

Psalm 10

Why, O LORD, do You stand far off? Why do You hide in times of trouble?

In pride the wicked pursue the needy; let them be caught in the schemes they devise.

For the wicked man boasts in the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the LORD.

In his pride the wicked man does not seek Him; in all his schemes there is no God.

He is secure in his ways at all times; Your lofty judgments are far from him; he sneers at all his foes.

He says to himself, “I will not be moved; from age to age I am free of distress.”

His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and violence; trouble and malice are under his tongue.

He lies in wait near the villages; in ambush he slays the innocent; his eyes watch in stealth for the helpless.

He lies in wait like a lion in a thicket; he lurks to seize the oppressed; he catches the lowly in his net.

They are crushed and beaten down; the helpless fall prey to his strength.

He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He hides His face and never sees.”

Arise, O LORD! Lift up Your hand, O God! Do not forget the helpless.

Why has the wicked man renounced God? He says to himself, “You will never call me to account.”

But You have regarded trouble and grief; You see to repay it by Your hand. The victim entrusts himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless.

Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call him to account for his wickedness until none is left to be found.

The LORD is King forever and ever; the nations perish from His land.

You have heard, O LORD, the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their hearts. You will incline Your ear,

to vindicate the fatherless and oppressed, that the men of the earth may strike terror no more.

Complementary (Track 2)

FIRST READING

Ezekiel 20:18-32

Verse 18. In the wilderness I said to their children: ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers or keep their ordinances or defile yourselves with their idols. Verse 19. I am the LORD your God; walk in My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them. Verse 20. Keep My Sabbaths holy, that they may be a sign between us, so that you may know that I am the LORD your God.’ Verse 21. But the children rebelled against Me. They did not walk in My statutes or carefully observe My ordinances — though the man who does these things will live by them — and they profaned My Sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the wilderness. Verse 22. But I withheld My hand and acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out. Verse 23. However, with an uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them throughout the lands. Verse 24. For they did not practice My ordinances, but they rejected My statutes and profaned My Sabbaths, fixing their eyes on the idols of their fathers. Verse 25. I also gave them over to statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live. Verse 26. And I pronounced them unclean through their gifts — the sacrifice of every firstborn in the fire — so that I might devastate them, in order that they would know that I am the LORD. Verse 27. Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel, and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: In this way also your fathers blasphemed Me by their unfaithfulness against Me. Verse 28. When I brought them into the land that I swore to give them and they saw any high hill or leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices, presented offerings that provoked Me, sent up their fragrant incense, and poured out their drink offerings. Verse 29. So I asked them: ‘What is this high place to which you go?’ (And to this day it is called Bamah. ) Verse 30. Therefore tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord GOD says: Will you defile yourselves the way your fathers did, prostituting yourselves with their abominations? Verse 31. When you offer your gifts, sacrificing your sons in the fire, you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. So should I be consulted by you, O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will not be consulted by you! Verse 32. When you say, ‘Let us be like the nations, like the peoples of the lands, serving wood and stone,’ what you have in mind will never come to pass.

PSALM

Psalm 109:21-31

But You, O GOD, the Lord, deal kindly with me for the sake of Your name; deliver me by the goodness of Your loving devotion.

For I am poor and needy; my heart is wounded within me.

I am fading away like a lengthening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust.

My knees are weak from fasting, and my body grows lean and gaunt.

I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.

Help me, O LORD my God; save me according to Your loving devotion.

Let them know that this is Your hand, that You, O LORD, have done it.

Though they curse, You will bless. When they rise up, they will be put to shame, but Your servant will rejoice.

May my accusers be clothed with disgrace; may they wear their shame like a robe.

With my mouth I will thank the LORD profusely; I will praise Him in the presence of many.

For He stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save him from the condemners of his soul.

SECOND READING

Revelation 3:7-13

Verse 7. To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the One who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open. Verse 8. I know your deeds. Behold, I have placed before you an open door, which no one can shut. I know that you have only a little strength, yet you have kept My word and have not denied My name. Verse 9. As for those who belong to the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews but are liars instead, I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I love you. Verse 10. Because you have kept My command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. Verse 11. I am coming soon. Hold fast to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. Verse 12. The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will never again leave it. Upon him I will write the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from My God), and My new name. Verse 13. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.