Preparing for the Sixth
Sunday after Pentecost

Year C

Prayer

Psalm 52

I am like a green olive tree

 

Why do you boast, O mighty one,

of mischief done against the godly?

All day long you are plotting destruction.

Your tongue is like a sharp razor,

you worker of treachery.

You love evil more than good,

and lying more than speaking the truth.    Selah

You love all words that devour,

O deceitful tongue.

But 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.    Selah

The righteous will see, and fear,

and will laugh at the evildoer, saying,

“See the one who would not take

refuge in God,

but trusted in abundant riches,

and sought refuge in wealth!”

But I am like a green olive tree

in the house of God.

I trust in the steadfast love of God

forever and ever.

I will thank you forever,

because of what you have done.

In the presence of the faithful

I will proclaim your name, for it is good.

 

Amos 6:1-14

Punishment for self-indulgence

 

Alas for those who are at ease in Zion,

and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria,

the notables of the first of the nations,

to whom the house of Israel resorts!

Cross over to Calneh, and see;

from there go to Hamath the great;

then go down to Gath of the Philistines.

Are you better than these kingdoms?

Or is your territory greater than their territory,

O you that put far away the evil day,

and bring near a reign of violence?

Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory,

and lounge on their couches,

and eat lambs from the flock,

and calves from the stall;

who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp,

and like David improvise on instruments of music;

who drink wine from bowls,

and anoint themselves with the finest oils,

but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!

Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile,

and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.

The Lord God has sworn by himself

(says the Lord, the God of hosts):

I abhor the pride of Jacob

and hate his strongholds;

and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.

 

If ten people remain in one house, they shall die. And if a relative, one who burns the dead, shall take up the body to bring it out of the house, and shall say to someone in the innermost parts of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” the answer will come, “No.” Then the relative shall say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”

 

See, the Lord commands,

and the great house shall be shattered to bits,

and the little house to pieces.

Do horses run on rocks?

Does one plow the sea with oxen?

But you have turned justice into poison

and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—

you who rejoice in Lo-debar,

who say, “Have we not by our own strength

taken Karnaim for ourselves?”

Indeed, I am raising up against you a nation,

O house of Israel, says the Lord, the God of hosts,

and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath

to the Wadi Arabah.

 

Luke 8:4-10

Jesus speaks in parables

 

When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: “A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.” As he said this, he called out, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”

 

Then his disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables, so that

 

‘looking they may not perceive,

and listening they may not understand.’”