Psalm 53

¹The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;
there is none who does good.
²God looks down from heaven
on the children of man
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
³They have all fallen away;
together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.
⁴Have those who work evil no knowledge,
who eat up my people as they eat bread,
and do not call upon God?
⁵There they are, in great terror,
where there is no terror!
For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you;
you put them to shame, for God has rejected them.
⁶Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
When God restores the fortunes of his people,
let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

Old Testament Reading Job 14

¹“Man who is born of a woman
is few of days and full of trouble.
²He comes out like a flower and withers;
he flees like a shadow and continues not.
³And do you open your eyes on such a one
and bring me into judgment with you?
⁴Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
There is not one.
⁵Since his days are determined,
and the number of his months is with you,
and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
⁶look away from him and leave him alone,
that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.

⁷“For there is hope for a tree,
if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
and that its shoots will not cease.
⁸Though its root grow old in the earth,
and its stump die in the soil,
⁹yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put out branches like a young plant.
¹⁰But a man dies and is laid low;
man breathes his last, and where is he?
¹¹As waters fail from a lake
and a river wastes away and dries up,
¹²so a man lies down and rises not again;
till the heavens are no more he will not awake
or be roused out of his sleep.
¹³Oh that you would hide me in Sheol,
that you would conceal me until your wrath be past,
that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
¹⁴If a man dies, shall he live again?
All the days of my service I would wait,
till my renewal should come.
¹⁵You would call, and I would answer you;
you would long for the work of your hands.
¹⁶For then you would number my steps;
you would not keep watch over my sin;
¹⁷my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
and you would cover over my iniquity.
¹⁸“But the mountain falls and crumbles away,
and the rock is removed from its place;
¹⁹the waters wear away the stones;
the torrents wash away the soil of the earth;
so you destroy the hope of man.
²⁰You prevail forever against him, and he passes;
you change his countenance, and send him away.
²¹His sons come to honor, and he does not know it;
they are brought low, and he perceives it not.
²²He feels only the pain of his own body,
and he mourns only for himself.”

New Testament Reading John 6:41–59

⁴¹So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴²They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” ⁴³Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. ⁴⁴No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. ⁴⁵It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— ⁴⁶not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

⁵²The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” ⁵³So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁵⁵For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. ⁵⁸This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.