Preparing for the Second
Sunday after Pentecost

Year C

Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15

The righteous flourish like a palm tree

 

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,

to sing praises to your name, O Most High;

to declare your steadfast love in the morning,

and your faithfulness by night,

to the music of the lute and the harp,

to the melody of the lyre.

For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;

at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

The righteous flourish like the palm tree,

and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

They are planted in the house of the Lord;

they flourish in the courts of our God.

In old age they still produce fruit;

they are always green and full of sap,

showing that the Lord is upright;

he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

 

Proverbs 15:1-9

A gentle tongue is a tree of life

 

A soft answer turns away wrath,

but a harsh word stirs up anger.

The tongue of the wise dispenses knowledge,

but the mouths of fools pour out folly.

The eyes of the Lord are in every place,

keeping watch on the evil and the good.

A gentle tongue is a tree of life,

but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

A fool despises a parent’s instruction,

but the one who heeds admonition is prudent.

In the house of the righteous there is much treasure,

but trouble befalls the income of the wicked.

The lips of the wise spread knowledge;

not so the minds of fools.

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord,

but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord,

but he loves the one who pursues righteousness.

 

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

The trumpet of resurrection

 

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.