FIRST
READING: Ezekiel 17:
22 - 24
22
Thus says the Lord GOD: "I myself will take a sprig from the
lofty top of the cedar, and will set it out; I will break off from
the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant
it upon a high and lofty mountain;
23
on the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bring
forth boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar; and under it
will dwell all kinds of beasts; in the shade of its branches birds of
every sort will nest.
24
And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD bring low
the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and
make the dry tree flourish. I the LORD have spoken, and I will do
it."
PSALM:
Psalms 92: 2 - 3, 13 - 16
2
to declare thy steadfast love in the morning, and thy faithfulness by
night,
3
to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre.
13
They are planted in the house of the LORD, they flourish in the
courts of our God.
14
They still bring forth fruit in old age, they are ever full of sap
and green,
15
to show that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no
unrighteousness in him.
SECOND
READING: 2 Corinthians 5:
6 - 10
6
So we are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home
in the body we are away from the Lord,
7
for we walk by faith, not by sight.
8
We are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and
at home with the Lord.
9
So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that
each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in
the body.
GOSPEL:
Mark 4: 26 - 34
26
And he said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter
seed upon the ground,
27
and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout
and grow, he knows not how.
28
The earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the
full grain in the ear.
29
But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because
the harvest has come."
30
And he said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or
what parable shall we use for it?
31
It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;
32
yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all
shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air
can make nests in its shade."
33
With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able
to hear it;
34
he did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own
disciples he explained everything.
