Saturday in Season after Pentecost

Semicontinuous (Track 1)

FIRST READING

Jeremiah 17:14-27

Verse 14. Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for You are my praise. Verse 15. Behold, they keep saying to me, “Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come now!” Verse 16. But I have not run away from being Your shepherd; I have not desired the day of despair. You know that the utterance of my lips was spoken in Your presence. Verse 17. Do not become a terror to me; You are my refuge in the day of disaster. Verse 18. Let my persecutors be put to shame, but do not let me be put to shame. Let them be terrified, but do not let me be terrified. Bring upon them the day of disaster and shatter them with double destruction. Verse 19. This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and stand at the gate of the people, through which the kings of Judah go in and out; and stand at all the other gates of Jerusalem. Verse 20. Say to them, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, all people of Judah and Jerusalem who enter through these gates. Verse 21. This is what the LORD says: Take heed for yourselves; do not carry a load or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. Verse 22. You must not carry a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath day, but you must keep the Sabbath day holy, just as I commanded your forefathers. Verse 23. Yet they would not listen or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks and would not listen or receive My discipline. Verse 24. If, however, you listen carefully to Me, says the LORD, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, and keep the Sabbath day holy, and do no work on it, Verse 25. then kings and princes will enter through the gates of this city. They will sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses with their officials, along with the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever. Verse 26. And people will come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, and from the foothills, the hill country, and the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and thank offerings to the house of the LORD. Verse 27. But if you do not listen to Me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying a load while entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in its gates to consume the citadels of Jerusalem.’”

PSALM

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O LORD, You have searched me and known me.

You know when I sit and when I rise; You understand my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down; You are aware of all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, O LORD.

You hem me in behind and before; You have laid Your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

For You formed my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and I know this very well.

My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all my days were written in Your book and ordained for me before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God, how vast is their sum!

If I were to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand; and when I awake, I am still with You.

Complementary (Track 2)

FIRST READING

Deuteronomy 29:2-20

Verse 2. Moses summoned all Israel and proclaimed to them, “You have seen with your own eyes everything the LORD did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to all his land. Verse 3. You saw with your own eyes the great trials, and those miraculous signs and wonders. Verse 4. Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear. Verse 5. For forty years I led you in the wilderness, yet your clothes and sandals did not wear out. Verse 6. You ate no bread and drank no wine or strong drink, so that you might know that I am the LORD your God. Verse 7. When you reached this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us in battle, but we defeated them. Verse 8. We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Verse 9. So keep and follow the words of this covenant, that you may prosper in all you do. Verse 10. All of you are standing today before the LORD your God— you leaders of tribes, elders, officials, and all the men of Israel, Verse 11. your children and wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your wood and draw your water— Verse 12. so that you may enter into the covenant of the LORD your God, which He is making with you today, and into His oath, Verse 13. and so that He may establish you today as His people, and He may be your God as He promised you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Verse 14. I am making this covenant and this oath not only with you, Verse 15. but also with those who are standing here with us today in the presence of the LORD our God, as well as with those who are not here today. Verse 16. For you yourselves know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we passed through the nations on the way here. Verse 17. You saw the abominations and idols among them made of wood and stone, of silver and gold. Verse 18. Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that bears such poisonous and bitter fruit, Verse 19. because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’ This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. Verse 20. The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven

PSALM

Psalm 1

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers.

But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does.

Not so the wicked! For they are like chaff driven off by the wind.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

For the LORD guards the path of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

SECOND READING

Matthew 10:34-42

Verse 34. Do not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. Verse 35. For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Verse 36. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ Verse 37. Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; Verse 38. and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Verse 39. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Verse 40. He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives the One who sent Me. Verse 41. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. Verse 42. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is My disciple, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.”