Reflecting on the Sixteenth
Sunday after Pentecost
Year C

Daily Readings for Monday
September 26, 2022

Prayer

God Eternal, 

you inspired Jeremiah to buy a piece of land 

when no one could see a future in it. 

Grant us such commitment to the future of your people, 

that you will always have workers for your vineyard 

and harvesters for your fields. Amen.

 

Psalm 119:49-56

Your promise gives me life

 

Remember your word to your servant,

in which you have made me hope.

This is my comfort in my distress,

that your promise gives me life.

The arrogant utterly deride me,

but I do not turn away from your law.

When I think of your ordinances from of old,

I take comfort, O Lord.

Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked,

those who forsake your law.

Your statutes have been my songs

wherever I make my home.

I remember your name in the night, O Lord,

and keep your law.

This blessing has fallen to me,

for I have kept your precepts.

 

Jeremiah 32:16-35

Jeremiah’s prayer, God’s assurance

 

After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying: Ah Lord God! It is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. You show steadfast love to the thousandth generation, but repay the guilt of parents into the laps of their children after them, O great and mighty God whose name is the Lord of hosts, great in counsel and mighty in deed; whose eyes are open to all the ways of mortals, rewarding all according to their ways and according to the fruit of their doings. You showed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and to this day in Israel and among all humankind, and have made yourself a name that continues to this very day. You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and outstretched arm, and with great terror; and you gave them this land, which you swore to their ancestors to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey; and they entered and took possession of it. But they did not obey your voice or follow your law; of all you commanded them to do, they did nothing. Therefore you have made all these disasters come upon them. See, the siege ramps have been cast up against the city to take it, and the city, faced with sword, famine, and pestilence, has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you spoke has happened, as you yourself can see. Yet you, O Lord God, have said to me, “Buy the field for money and get witnesses”—though the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans.

 

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: See, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too hard for me? Therefore, thus says the Lord: I am going to give this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and he shall take it. The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city shall come, set it on fire, and burn it, with the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal and libations have been poured out to other gods, to provoke me to anger. For the people of Israel and the people of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth; the people of Israel have done nothing but provoke me to anger by the work of their hands, says the Lord. This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built until this day, so that I will remove it from my sight because of all the evil of the people of Israel and the people of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger—they, their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets, the citizens of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned their backs to me, not their faces; though I have taught them persistently, they would not listen and accept correction. They set up their abominations in the house that bears my name, and defiled it. They built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter my mind that they should do this abomination, causing Judah to sin.

 

Revelation 3:14-22

Being rich or poor in God

 

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God’s creation:

 

“I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest, therefore, and repent. Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”

 

 

Prayer

Holy God, 

you reach out in love through Jesus Christ to save us 

so that we may live as faithful servants of you alone. 

Unchain us from our desire for wealth and power 

so that we may, in turn, release others 

from the prisons of poverty, hunger, and oppression. Amen.

 

Psalm 62

I wait on God

 

For God alone my soul waits in silence;

from him comes my salvation.

He alone is my rock and my salvation,

my fortress; I shall never be shaken.

How long will you assail a person,

will you batter your victim, all of you,

as you would a leaning wall, a tottering fence?

Their only plan is to bring down a person of prominence.

They take pleasure in falsehood;

they bless with their mouths,

but inwardly they curse.    Selah

For God alone my soul waits in silence,

for my hope is from him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation,

my fortress; I shall not be shaken.

On God rests my deliverance and my honor;

my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.

Trust in him at all times, O people;

pour out your heart before him;

God is a refuge for us.    Selah

Those of low estate are but a breath,

those of high estate are a delusion;

in the balances they go up;

they are together lighter than a breath.

Put no confidence in extortion,

and set no vain hopes on robbery;

if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.

Once God has spoken;

twice have I heard this:

that power belongs to God,

and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord.

For you repay to all

according to their work.

 

Amos 6:8-14

Justice turned into poison

 

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.

 

Revelation 3:14-22

Being rich or poor in God

 

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God’s creation:

 

“I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest, therefore, and repent. Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”

 

 

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Prayer reprinted from Revised Common Lectionary Prayers, © 2002 Consultation on Common Texts. Reproduced by permission.

Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings copyright © 2005 Consultation on Common Texts admin. Augsburg Fortress. Reproduced by permission. No further reproduction allowed without the written permission of Augsburg Fortress.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.


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