Lessons for November 12, 2006 – Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

The first lesson

1 Kings 17:8-16
 
    Then the Lord said to Elijah, 9 "Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. There is a widow there who will feed you. I have given her my instructions." 10 So he went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the village, he saw a widow gathering sticks, and he asked her, "Would you please bring me a cup of water?" 11 As she was going to get it, he called to her, "Bring me a bite of bread, too."  12 But she said, "I swear by the Lord your God that I don't have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die." 13 But Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid! Go ahead and cook that 'last meal,' but bake me a little loaf of bread first. Afterward there will still be enough food for you and your son. 
14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There will always be plenty of flour and oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!" 15 So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her son continued to eat from her supply of flour and oil for many days. 16 For no matter how much they used, there was always enough left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah. 
(NLT)

Psalm 146
 
L.  Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, I tell myself. 
C.  I will praise the Lord as long as I live.
L.  I will sing praises to my God even with my dying breath.
C.  Don't put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there. 
L.  When their breathing stops, they return to the earth, and in a moment all their plans come to an end. 
C.  But happy are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God. 
L.  He is the one who made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them.
C.  He is the one who keeps every promise forever,  who gives justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry.
L.  The Lord frees the prisoners.  The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
C.  The Lord lifts the burdens of those bent beneath their loads.
L.  The Lord loves the righteous.  The Lord protects the foreigners among us.
C.  He cares for the orphans and widows, but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.
L.  The Lord will reign forever. O Jerusalem, your God is King in every generation!
C.  Praise the Lord!  (NLT)

The second lesson

Hebrews 9:24-28 
    For Christ has entered into heaven itself to appear now before God as our Advocate. He did not go into the earthly place of worship, for that was merely a copy of the real Temple in heaven. 25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the earthly high priest who enters the Most Holy Place year after year to offer the blood of an animal. 26 If that had been necessary, he would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But no! He came once for all time, at the end of the age, to remove the power of sin forever by his sacrificial death for us. 27 And just as it is destined that each person dies only once and after that comes judgment, 28 so also Christ died only once as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again but not to deal with our sins again. This time he will bring salvation to all those who are eagerly waiting for him.  (NLT)
 
The Gospel Lesson

 Mark 12:38-44 
    Here are some of the other things he taught them at this time: "Beware of these teachers of religious law! For they love to parade in flowing robes and to have everyone bow to them as they walk in the marketplaces. 39 And how they love the seats of honor in the synagogues and at banquets. 40 But they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property, and then, to cover up the kind of people they really are, they make long prayers in public. Because of this, their punishment will be the greater." 41 Jesus went over to the collection box in the Temple and sat and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. 42 Then a poor widow came and dropped in two pennies. 43 He called his disciples to him and said, "I assure you, this poor widow has given more than all the others have given. 44 For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has."  (NLT)