Sunday, September 15, 2019
Lectionary 24, Year C

First Reading: Exodus 32:7-14

While Moses is on Mount Sinai, the people grow restless and make a golden calf to worship. Today’s reading shows Moses as the mediator between an angry God and a sinful people. Moses reminds God that the Israelites are God’s own people and boldly asks mercy for them.

⁷The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; ⁸they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ” ⁹The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. ¹⁰Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.”
¹¹But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹²Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. ¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” ¹⁴And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

Semicontinuous First Reading: Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28

The sinfulness of the people will surely bring their destruction. God’s searing wind of judgment, in the form of a massive foreign army, will reduce the land to its primeval state of waste and void, as it was at the beginning of Genesis.

¹¹At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A hot wind comes from me out of the bare heights in the desert toward my poor people, not to winnow or cleanse—¹²a wind too strong for that. Now it is I who speak in judgment against them.

²²“For my people are foolish,
they do not know me;
they are stupid children,
they have no understanding.
They are skilled in doing evil,
but do not know how to do good.”

²³I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void;
and to the heavens, and they had no light.
²⁴I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking,
and all the hills moved to and fro.
²⁵I looked, and lo, there was no one at all,
and all the birds of the air had fled.
²⁶I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert,
and all its cities were laid in ruins
before the Lord, before his fierce anger.
²⁷For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.
²⁸Because of this the earth shall mourn,
and the heavens above grow black;
for I have spoken, I have purposed;
I have not relented nor will I turn back.

Psalm: Psalm 51:1-10

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. (Ps. 51:1)

Semicontinuous Psalm: Psalm 14

The Lord looks down from heaven upon us all. (Ps. 14:2)

¹Fools say in their hearts, “There | is no God.”
They are corrupt, every deed is vile; there is no one who does | any good.
²The Lord looks down from heaven up- | on us all,
to see if there is anyone who is wise, who seeks | after God. R
³They have all proved faithless; all alike | have turned bad;
there is none who does good; | no, not one.
⁴Have they no knowledge, all those | evildoers
who eat up my people like bread and do not call up- | on the Lord?
⁵See how they trem- | ble with fear,
because God is in the company | of the righteous.
⁶Your aim is to confound the plans of | the afflicted,
but the Lord| is their refuge.
⁷Oh, that Israel’s deliverance would come | out of Zion!
When the Lord restores the fortunes of the people, Jacob will rejoice and Israel | will be glad. R

Second Reading: 1 Timothy 1:12-17

The letters to Timothy are called the Pastoral Epistles because they contain advice especially intended for leaders in the church. Here the mercy shown to Paul, who once persecuted the church, is cited as evidence that even the most unworthy may become witnesses to the grace of God.

¹²I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, ¹³even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, ¹⁴and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. ¹⁶But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. ¹⁷To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Gospel: Luke 15:1-10

Jesus tells two stories that suggest a curious connection between the lost being found and sinners repenting. God takes the initiative to find sinners, each of whom is so precious to God that his or her recovery brings joy in heaven.

¹Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to [Jesus.] ²And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
³So he told them this parable: ⁴“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? ⁵When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. ⁶And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ ⁷Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
⁸“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ ¹⁰Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

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