PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
John 1:1-4
Reader: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All
things came into being through him, and without him not one thing
came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the
life was the light of all people.
All: Gracious God, as we open the scriptures today, speak your
Word to us, that we may be recreated in your Son, Jesus Christ.
In his life, may we have new life. In his light, may we see light.
Amen.
FIRST READING
Genesis 1:24-31
24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every
kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every
kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals of the earth of every
kind and the cattle of every kind and everything that creeps upon the
ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our
likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over
the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the
earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
27 So God created humans in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply
and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the
sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves
upon the earth.” 29 God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding
seed that is upon the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its
fruit; you shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and
to every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth,
everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for
food.” And it was so. 31 God saw everything that he had made, and
indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning,
the sixth day.
Reader: Word of God. Word of life.
All: Thanks be to God.
SECOND READING
Leviticus 26:3-22, 34-35, 40-45
3“If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe
them faithfully, 4 I will give you your rains in their season, and the land
shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5
Your threshing shall overlap the vintage, and the vintage shall overlap
the sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full and live securely in your
land. 6 And I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no
one shall make you afraid; I will remove dangerous animals from the
land, and no sword shall go through your land. 7 You shall give chase to
your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8 Five of you
shall give chase to a hundred, and a hundred of you shall give chase to
ten thousand; your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 9 I will
look with favor upon you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I
will maintain my covenant with you. 10 You shall eat old grain long
stored, and you shall have to clear out the old to make way for the new.
11 I will place my dwelling in your midst, and I shall not abhor you.
12 I will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 I am the Lord your
God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be their slaves no
more; I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.
Penalties for Disobedience
14 “But if you will not obey me and do not observe all these
commandments, 15 if you spurn my statutes and abhor my ordinances, so
that you will not observe all my commandments and you break my
covenant, 16 I in turn will do this to you: I will bring terror on you,
consumption and fever that waste the eyes and cause life to pine away.
You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will set
my face against you, and you shall be struck down by your enemies;
your foes shall rule over you, and you shall flee though no one pursues
you. 18 And if in spite of this you will not obey me, I will continue to
punish you sevenfold for your sins. 19 I will break your proud glory, and
I will make your sky like iron and your earth like copper. 20 Your
strength shall be spent to no purpose: your land shall not yield its
produce, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
21 “If you continue hostile to me and will not obey me, I will continue to
plague you sevenfold for your sins. 22 I will let loose wild animals
against you, and they shall bereave you of your children and destroy
your livestock; they shall make you few in number, and your roads shall
be deserted.
34 “Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbath years as long as it lies desolate,
while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest and
enjoy its Sabbath years. 35 As long as it lies desolate, it shall have the rest
it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were living on it.
40 “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors—
their treachery against me and also their continued hostility to me, 41 so
that I in turn was hostile to them and brought them into the land of their
enemies—if, then, their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make
amends for their iniquity, 42 then will I remember my covenant with
Jacob; I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my
covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
43 For the land shall be deserted by them and enjoy its Sabbath years by
lying desolate without them, while they shall make amends for their
iniquity, because they dared to spurn my ordinances, and they abhorred
my statutes. 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies,
I will not spurn them or abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and
break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God, 45 but I will
remember in their favor the covenant with their ancestors whom I
brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, to be their
God: I am the Lord.”
Reader: Word of God. Word of life.
All: Thanks be to God.