Sunday, October 16, 2016
Liturgical Season: 
VII The Season of Sleebo
Special Significance: 
V Sunday after sleebo

Mt 23:1-12

Denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees. 1a Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, 2* saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. 3Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. 4b They tie up heavy burdens* [hard to carry] and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. 5* c All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. 6* d They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, 7greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’ 8* As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. 9Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. 10Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Messiah. 11e The greatest among you must be your servant. 12f Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Lv 2:1-13

Grain Offerings. 1* a When anyone brings a grain offering to the LORD, the offering must consist of bran flour. The offerer shall pour oil on it and put frankincenseb over it, 2and bring it to Aaron’s sons, the priests. A priest shall take a handful of the bran flour and oil, together with all the frankincense, and shall burn it on the altar as a token of the offering,* a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.c 3The rest of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons,d a most holye portion from the oblations to the LORD.

4When you offer a grain offering baked in an oven, it must be in the form of unleavened cakes made of bran flour mixed with oil, or of unleavened wafers spread with oil.f 5If your offering is a grain offering that is fried on a griddle,g it must be of bran flour mixed with oil and unleavened. 6Break it into pieces, and pour oil over it. It is a grain offering. 7If your offering is a grain offering that is prepared in a pan, it must be made of bran flour, fried in oil. 8A grain offering that is made in any of these ways you shall bring to the LORD. It shall be presented to the priest, who shall take it to the altar. 9The priest shall then remove from the grain offering a token and burn it on the altar as a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD. 10The rest of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons, a most holy portion from the oblations to the LORD.

11* Every grain offering that you present to the LORD shall be unleavened, for you shall not burn any leaven or honey as an oblation to the LORD.h 12Such you may present to the LORD in the offering of the first produce that is processed,i but they are not to be placed on the altar for a pleasing odor. 13You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not let the salt of the covenant with your God* be lacking from your grain offering. On every offering you shall offer salt.j

Jb 6:1-13

Job’s First Reply. 1Then Job answered and said:

2Ah, could my anguish but be measured

and my calamity laid with it in the scales,

3They would now outweigh the sands of the sea!

Because of this I speak without restraint.

4For the arrows of the Almighty are in me,a

and my spirit drinks in their poison;

the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

5Does the wild donkey bray when it has grass?*

Does the ox low over its fodder?

6Can anything insipid be eaten without salt?

Is there flavor in the white of an egg?

7I refuse to touch them;

they are like loathsome food to me.

8Oh, that I might have my request,

and that God would grant what I long for:

9Even that God would decide to crush me,

that he would put forth his hand and cut me off!

10Then I should still have consolation

and could exult through unremitting pain,

because I have not transgressed the commands of the Holy One.

11What strength have I that I should endure,

and what is my limit that I should be patient?

12Have I the strength of stones,

or is my flesh of bronze?

13Have I no helper,b

and has my good sense deserted me?

Ps 82:1-8

1A psalm of Asaph.

God takes a stand in the divine council,

gives judgment in the midst of the gods.a

2“How long will you judge unjustly

and favor the cause of the wicked?b

Selah

3“Defend the lowly and fatherless;

render justice to the afflicted and needy.

4Rescue the lowly and poor;

deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”c

5*The gods neither know nor understand,

wandering about in darkness,

and all the world’s foundations shake.

6I declare: “Gods though you be,*d

offspring of the Most High all of you,

7Yet like any mortal you shall die;

like any prince you shall fall.”

8Arise, O God, judge the earth,*

for yours are all the nations.

Is 41:1-7

1Keep silence before me, O coastlands;*

let the nations renew their strength.

Let them draw near and speak;

let us come together for judgment.

2Who has stirred up from the East the champion of justice,

and summoned him to be his attendant?

To him he delivers nations

and subdues kings;

With his sword he reduces them to dust,

with his bow, to driven straw.

3He pursues them, passing on without loss,

by a path his feet scarcely touch.

4Who has performed these deeds?

Who has called forth the generations from the beginning?a

I, the LORD, am the first,

and at the last* I am he.

5The coastlands see, and fear;

the ends of the earth tremble:

they approach, they come on.

6Each one helps his neighbor,

one says to the other, “Courage!”

7The woodworker encourages the goldsmith,

the one who beats with the hammer, him who strikes on the anvil,

Saying of the soldering, “It is good!”

then fastening it with nails so it will not totter.

Acts 22:22-29

Paul Imprisoned. 22m They listened to him until he said this, but then they raised their voices and shouted, “Take such a one as this away from the earth. It is not right that he should live.”* 23And as they were yelling and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 24the cohort commander ordered him to be brought into the compound and gave instruction that he be interrogated under the lash to determine the reason why they were making such an outcry against him. 25n But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion on duty, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman citizen and has not been tried?”* 26When the centurion heard this, he went to the cohort commander and reported it, saying, “What are you going to do? This man is a Roman citizen.” 27Then the commander came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” “Yes,” he answered. 28The commander replied, “I acquired this citizenship for a large sum of money.” Paul said, “But I was born one.” 29At once those who were going to interrogate him backed away from him, and the commander became alarmed when he realized that he was a Roman citizen and that he had had him bound.

1 Tm 6:11-16

Exhortations to Timothy.* 11But you, man of God,* avoid all this. Instead, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.i 12Compete well for the faith. Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called when you made the noble confession in the presence of many witnesses.j 13I charge [you] before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who gave testimony under Pontius Pilate for the noble confession,k 14to keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ 15that the blessed and only ruler will make manifest at the proper time, the King of kings and Lord of lords,l 16who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, and whom no human being has seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal power. Amen.m

Lk 20:27-40

The Question About the Resurrection.o 27Some Sadducees,* those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to him,p 28* saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, ‘If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.’q 29Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. 30Then the second 31and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. 32Finally the woman also died. 33Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her.” 34Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and are given in marriage; 35but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise.* 37That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called ‘Lord’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;r 38and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”s 39Some of the scribes said in reply, “Teacher, you have answered well.” 40And they no longer dared to ask him anything.t