FIRST
READING: Hebrews
10: 32 - 39
32
But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you
endured a hard struggle with sufferings,
33
sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and affliction, and
sometimes being partners with those so treated.
34
For you had compassion on the prisoners, and you joyfully accepted
the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves
had a better possession and an abiding one.
35
Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great
reward.
36
For you have need of endurance, so that you may do the will of God
and receive what is promised.
37
"For yet a little while, and the coming one shall come and shall
not tarry;
38
but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my
soul has no pleasure in him."
39
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of
those who have faith and keep their souls.
PSALM:
Psalms 37:
3 - 6, 23 - 24, 39 - 40
3
Trust in the LORD, and do good; so you will dwell in the land, and
enjoy security.
4
Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your
heart.
5
Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.
6
He will bring forth your vindication as the light, and your right as
the noonday.
23
The steps of a man are from the LORD, and he establishes him in whose
way he delights;
24
though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD is the
stay of his hand.
39
The salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; he is their refuge
in the time of trouble.
40
The LORD helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the
wicked, and saves them, because they take refuge in him.
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.
