FIRST
READING: Micah 6:
1 - 4, 6 - 8
1
Hear what the LORD says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
and let the hills hear your voice.
2
Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the LORD, and you enduring
foundations of the earth; for the LORD has a controversy with his
people, and he will contend with Israel.
3
"O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied
you? Answer me!
4
For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from
the house of bondage; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
6
"With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before
God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with
calves a year old?
7
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands
of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"
8
He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD
require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk
humbly with your God?
PSALM:
Psalms 50:
5 - 6, 8 - 9, 16 - 17, 21, 23
5
"Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by
sacrifice!"
6
The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge!
[Selah]
8
I do not reprove you for your sacrifices; your burnt offerings are
continually before me.
9
I will accept no bull from your house, nor he-goat from your folds.
16
But to the wicked God says: "What right have you to recite my
statutes, or take my covenant on your lips?
17
For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.
21
These things you have done and I have been silent; you thought that I
was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge
before you.
23
He who brings thanksgiving as his sacrifice honors me; to him who
orders his way aright I will show the salvation of God!"
GOSPEL:
Matthew 12:
38 - 42
38
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, "Teacher, we
wish to see a sign from you."
39
But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks
for a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the
prophet Jonah.
40
For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the
whale, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth.
41
The men of Nin'eveh will arise at the judgment with this generation
and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and
behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
42
The queen of the South will arise at the judgment with this
generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to
hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than
Solomon is here.
