Psalm 52

¹Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?
The steadfast love of God endures all the day.
²Your tongue plots destruction,
like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.
³You love evil more than good,
and lying more than speaking what is right.
⁴You love all words that devour,
O deceitful tongue.
⁵But God will break you down forever;
he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living.
⁶The righteous shall see and fear,
and shall laugh at him, saying,
⁷“See the man who would not make
God his refuge,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches
and sought refuge in his own destruction!”
⁸But I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
forever and ever.
⁹I will thank you forever,
because you have done it.
I will wait for your name, for it is good,
in the presence of the godly.

Old Testament Reading Leviticus 24

¹The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil from beaten olives for the lamp, that a light may be kept burning regularly. ³Outside the veil of the testimony, in the tent of meeting, Aaron shall arrange it from evening to morning before the Lord regularly. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. ⁴He shall arrange the lamps on the lampstand of pure gold before the Lord regularly.

⁵“You shall take fine flour and bake twelve loaves from it; two tenths of an ephah shall be in each loaf. ⁶And you shall set them in two piles, six in a pile, on the table of pure gold before the Lord. ⁷And you shall put pure frankincense on each pile, that it may go with the bread as a memorial portion as a food offering to the Lord. ⁸Every Sabbath day Aaron shall arrange it before the Lord regularly; it is from the people of Israel as a covenant forever. ⁹And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the Lord’s food offerings, a perpetual due.”

¹⁰Now an Israelite woman’s son, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the people of Israel. And the Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel fought in the camp, ¹¹and the Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the Name, and cursed. Then they brought him to Moses. His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. ¹²And they put him in custody, till the will of the Lord should be clear to them.

¹³Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁴“Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. ¹⁵And speak to the people of Israel, saying, Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. ¹⁶Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.

¹⁷“Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. ¹⁸Whoever takes an animal’s life shall make it good, life for life. ¹⁹If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, ²⁰fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him. ²¹Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, and whoever kills a person shall be put to death. ²²You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God.” ²³So Moses spoke to the people of Israel, and they brought out of the camp the one who had cursed and stoned him with stones. Thus the people of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses.

New Testament Reading Luke 12:54—13:17

⁵⁴He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens. ⁵⁵And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. ⁵⁶You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

⁵⁷“And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? ⁵⁸As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison. ⁵⁹I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.”

¹There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. ²And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? ³No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. ⁴Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? ⁵No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

⁶And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. ⁷And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ ⁸And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. ⁹Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

¹⁰Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. ¹¹And there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. ¹²When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” ¹³And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. ¹⁴But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” ¹⁵Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? ¹⁶And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” ¹⁷As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.