Sunday 9 December 2040

1A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse,and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.2The Lord’s Spirit will rest on him:the spirit of wisdom and understanding,the spirit of counsel and might,the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.3His delight will be in the fear of the Lord.He will not judge by the sight of his eyes,neither decide by the hearing of his ears;4but he will judge the poor with righteousness,and decide with equity for the humble of the earth.He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.5Righteousness will be the belt around his waist,and faithfulness the belt around his waist.6The wolf will live with the lamb,and the leopard will lie down with the young goat,the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together;and a little child will lead them.7The cow and the bear will graze.Their young ones will lie down together.The lion will eat straw like the ox.8The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole,and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.9They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain;for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord,as the waters cover the sea.

10It will happen in that daythat the nations will seek the root of Jesse,who stands as a banner of the peoples;and his resting place will be glorious.

1God, give the king your justice;your righteousness to the royal son.2He will judge your people with righteousness,and your poor with justice.

7In his days, the righteous shall flourish,and abundance of peace, until the moon is no more.8He shall have dominion also from sea to sea,from the River to the ends of the earth.

12For he will deliver the needy when he cries;the poor, who has no helper.13He will have pity on the poor and needy.He will save the souls of the needy.

17His name endures forever.His name continues as long as the sun.Men shall be blessed by him.All nations will call him blessed.

4For whatever things were written before were written for our learning,that through perseveranceand through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.5Now the God of perseveranceand of encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus,6that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the Godand Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

7Therefore accept one another,even as Christ also accepted you,to the glory of God.8Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God,that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers,9and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.As it is written,

“Therefore I will give praise to you among the Gentilesand sing to your name.”

1In those days, John the Baptizer came,preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying,2“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”3For this is hewho was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness,make the way of the Lord ready!Make his paths straight!”

4Now John himself wore clothing made of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist.His food was locusts and wild honey.5Then people from Jerusalem,all of Judea,and all the region around the Jordan went out to him.6They were baptized by him in the Jordan,confessing their sins.

7But when he saw many of the Phariseesand Sadducees coming for his baptism,he said to them, “You offspring of vipers,who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?8Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance!9Don’t think to yourselves,‘We have Abraham for our father,’for I tell youthat God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.10Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees.Therefore every treethat doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down,and cast into the fire.

11“I indeed baptize you in water for repentance,but he who comes after me is mightier than I,whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.12His winnowing fork is in his hand,and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor.He will gather his wheat into the barn,but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.”