Psalm 52:1-9

Colossians 1:15-28

Luke 10:38-42

READINGS FOR SUNDAY, JULY 21, 2019

Psalm 52:1-9

Our first reading is Psalm 52, verses 1 through 9. You will find it projected on the monitors. We will read the psalm together, alternating by whole verse.

¹ You mighty, why do you boast of wickedness

against the godly all day long?

² Continually you plot ruin;

your tongue is like a sharpened razor

that commits deceit.

³ You love evil more than good

       and lying more than speaking the truth.

⁴ You love all words that devour,
  O you deceitful tongue.
⁵ Oh, that God would demolish you utterly,

topple you, and snatch you from your dwelling,

and root you out of the land of the living!

⁶ The righteous shall see and be awestruck,

and they shall laugh at you, saying,

⁷ “This is the one who did not take God for a refuge,

but trusted in great wealth

and found strength in destruction.”

⁸ But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God;

         I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.

⁹ I will thank you forever for what you have done;

         in the presence of the faithful

I will long for your name,

         for it is good.

Colossians 1:15-28

Our second reading is from the 1^st chapter of Paul’s letter to the Colossians, verses 15 through 28. You will find this on pages 956-957 of the pew Bible.

¹⁵[Christ Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;¹⁶for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. ¹⁹For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
 

²¹And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²²he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him—²³provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.

 ²⁴I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. ²⁵I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, ²⁶the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. ²⁷To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

Word of God, word of life.

Thanks be to God.

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