Bible Readings - July 15, 2024

Reading 1 

Isaiah 1:10-17

Hear the word of the LORD,

princes of Sodom!

Listen to the instruction of our God,

people of Gomorrah!

What care I for the number of your sacrifices?

says the LORD.

I have had enough of whole-burnt rams

and fat of fatlings;

In the blood of calves, lambs and goats

I find no pleasure.

When you come in to visit me,

who asks these things of you?

Trample my courts no more!

Bring no more worthless offerings;

your incense is loathsome to me.

New moon and sabbath, calling of assemblies,

octaves with wickedness: these I cannot bear.

Your new moons and festivals I detest;

they weigh me down, I tire of the load.

When you spread out your hands,

I close my eyes to you;

Though you pray the more,

I will not listen.

Your hands are full of blood!

Wash yourselves clean!

Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes;

cease doing evil; learn to do good.

Make justice your aim: redress the wronged,

hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.

Psalm 50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21-23

“Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,

for your burnt offerings are before me always.

I take from your house no bullock,

no goats out of your fold.”

“Why do you recite my statutes,

and profess my covenant with your mouth,

Though you hate discipline

and cast my words behind you?”

When you do these things should I be silent?

Do you think that I am like you?

I accuse you, I lay out the matter before your eyes.

“Now understand this, you who forget God,

lest I start ripping apart and there be no rescuer.

Those who offer praise as a sacrifice honor me;

I will let him whose way is steadfast

look upon the salvation of God.”

Matthew 5:10

Blessed are they who are persecuted

for the sake of righteousness,

for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

Gospel 

Matthew 10:34-11:1

Jesus said to his Apostles:

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.

I have come to bring not peace but the sword.

For I have come to set

a man against his father,

a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

and one’s enemies will be those of his household.

“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,

and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;

and whoever does not take up his cross

and follow after me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds his life will lose it,

and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

“Whoever receives you receives me,

and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.

Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet

will receive a prophet’s reward,

and whoever receives a righteous man

because he is righteous 

will receive a righteous man’s reward.

And whoever gives only a cup of cold water

to one of these little ones to drink

because he is a disciple–

amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”

When Jesus finished giving these commands to his Twelve disciples,

he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.