TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST PSALM READING

     Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.

     I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”

     As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.

     The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods. I will not pour out their libations of blood or take up their names on my lips.

     Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.

     The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.

     I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.

     I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is a my right hand, I will not be shaken.

     Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure,

      because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

     You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Psalm 16

TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST FIRST READING

     “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, wil arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people — everyone  whose name is found written in the book — will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.

Daniel 12:1-3

TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST GOSPEL READING

      As he taught, Jesus sad, “Watch out for teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severly.”

     Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.

      Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything — all she had to live on.”

Mark 12:38-44

TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST SECOND READING

      For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Not did he enter heaven to offer himself  again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Hebrews 9:24-28

TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST PSALM READING

     Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul.

      I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

     Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.

      When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.

      Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God,

     the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them– the Lord, who remains faithful forever.

      He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free,

      the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous.

      The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

      The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord.

Psalm 146

TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST FIRST READING

     Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food .” So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”

       “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” She replied,”Idon’t have any bread–only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it– and die.”

      Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land.'”

      She went away and didd as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

1 Kings 17:8-16

TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST GOSPEL READING

      One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given thema good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments which is the most important?”

     “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is  this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your heart and mind and all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

     “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

     When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared askhim any more questions.

Mark 12:28-34

TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST SECOND READING

      When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of the goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once and for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkledon those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

Hebrews 9:11-14