Saturday 24 July 2032

1The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,2“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house,and proclaim this word there,and say, ‘Hear the Lord’s word,all you of Judah,who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.’”

3The Lord of Armies,the God of Israel says,“Amend your ways and your doings,and I will cause you to dwell in this place.4Don’t trust in lying words,saying, ‘The Lord’s temple,the Lord’s temple,the Lord’s temple, are these.’5For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings,if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;6if you don’t oppress the foreigner,the fatherless, and the widow,and don’t shed innocent blood in this place,and don’t walk after other gods to your own hurt,7then I will cause you to dwell in this place,in the land that I gave to your fathers,from of old even forever more.8Behold, you trust in lying words that can’t profit.9Will you steal, murder,commit adultery, swear falsely,burn incense to Baal,and walk after other gods that you have not known,10then come and stand before me in this house,which is called by my name,and say, ‘We are delivered,’that you may do all these abominations?11Has this house, which is called by my name,become a den of robbers in your eyes?Behold, I myself have seen it,” says the Lord.

3My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of the Lord.My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

4Yes, the sparrow has found a home,and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young,near your altars, Lord of Armies, my King, and my God.

5Blessed are those who dwell in your house.They are always praising you.6Blessed are those whose strength is in you,who have set their hearts on a pilgrimage.8They go from strength to strength.Every one of them appears before God in Zion.

11For a day in your courts is better than a thousand.I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God,than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

24He set another parable before them,saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a manwho sowed good seed in his field,25but while people slept,his enemy cameand sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away.26But when the blade sprang up and produced grain,then the darnel weeds appeared also.27The servants of the householder came and said to him,‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field?Where did these darnel weeds come from?’

28“He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’

“The servants asked him,‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’

29“But he said, ‘No,lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel weeds,you root up the wheat with them.30Let both grow together until the harvest,and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers,“First, gather up the darnel weeds,and bind them in bundles to burn them;but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”