FIRST READING Proverbs 3:1-10
1My child, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; 2for length of days and years of life and abundant welfare they will give you. 3Do not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. 4So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and of people. 5Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. 6In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. 7Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. 8It will be a healing for your flesh and a refreshment for your body. 9Honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce; 10then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.
THE PSALM Psalm 98
1Sing a new song to the LORD, who has done marvelous things,
whose right hand and holy arm have won the victory.
2O LORD, you have made known your victory, you have revealed your righteousness in the sight of the nations.
3You remember your steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.
4Shout with joy to the LORD, all you lands; lift up your voice, rejoice, and sing.
5Sing to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the voice of song.
6With trumpets and the sound of the horn shout with joy before the king, the LORD.
7Let the sea roar, and all that fills it, the world and those who dwell therein.
8Let the rivers clap their hands, and let the hills ring out with joy before the LORD, who comes to judge the earth.
9The LORD will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.
SECOND READING Hebrews 6:13-20
13 When God made a promise to Abraham, because he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14saying, ‘I will surely bless you and multiply you.’ 15And thus Abraham,* having patiently endured, obtained the promise. 16Human beings, of course, swear by someone greater than themselves, and an oath given as confirmation puts an end to all dispute. 17In the same way, when God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it by an oath, 18so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us. 19We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, 20where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest for ever according
to the order of Melchizedek
THE GOSPEL LESSON Luke 21:1-4
1He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; 2he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. 3He said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; 4for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.’
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