7th Sunday of Summer

Leviticus 19:15-19; 20:9-14

15 “You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. ¹⁶ You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand forth against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord.

17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbor, lest you bear sin because of him. ¹⁸ You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

19 “You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall there come upon you a garment of cloth made of two kinds of stuff.

⁹ For every one who curses his father or his mother shall be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother, his blood is upon him.

10 “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death. ¹¹The man who lies with his father’s wife has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall be put to death, their blood is upon them. ¹² If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be put to death; they have committed incest, their blood is upon them. ¹³ If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them. ¹⁴ If a man takes a wife and her mother also, it is wickedness; they shall be burned with fire, both he and they, that there may be no wickedness among you.

Isaiah 30:1-15

A Rebellious People

30 “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord,

“who carry out a plan, but not mine;

and who make a league, but not of my spirit,

that they may add sin to sin;

² who set out to go down to Egypt,

without asking for my counsel,

to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh,

and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!

³ Therefore the protection of Pharaoh shall turn to your shame,

and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.

⁴ For though his officials are at Zoan

and his envoys reach Hanes,

⁵ every one comes to shame

through a people that cannot profit them,

that brings neither help nor profit,

but shame and disgrace.”

⁶ An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb.

Through a land of trouble and anguish,

from where come the lioness and the lion,

the viper and the flying serpent,

they carry their riches on the backs of

donkeys,

and their treasures on the humps of camels,

to a people that cannot profit them.

⁷ For Egypt’s help is worthless and empty,

therefore I have called her

“Rahab who sits still.”

⁸ And now, go, write it before them on a tablet,

and inscribe it in a book,

that it may be for the time to come as a witness for ever.

⁹ For they are a rebellious people,

lying sons,

sons who will not hear

the instruction of the Lord;

¹⁰ who say to the seers, “See not”;

and to the prophets, “Prophesy not to us what is right;

speak to us smooth things,

prophesy illusions,

¹¹ leave the way, turn aside from the path,

let us hear no more of the Holy One of Israel.”

¹² Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,

“Because you despise this word,

and trust in oppression and perverseness,

and rely on them;

¹³ therefore this iniquity shall be to you

like a break in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse,

whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant;

¹⁴ and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel

which is smashed so ruthlessly

that among its fragments not a shard is found

with which to take fire from the hearth,

or to dip up water out of the cistern.”

¹⁵ For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,

“In returning and rest you shall be saved;

in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”

And you would not,

1Thessalonians 2:14-3:13

¹⁴ For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judea; for you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, ¹⁵ who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all men ¹⁶ by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they may be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God’s wrath has come upon them at last!

Paul’s Desire to Visit the Thessalonians Again

17 But since we were deprived of you, brethren, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face; ¹⁸ because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us. ¹⁹ For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? ²⁰ For you are our glory and joy.

3 Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, ² and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s servant in the gospel of Christ, to establish you in your faith and to exhort you, ³ that no one be moved by these afflictions. You yourselves know that this is to be our lot. ⁴ For when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction; just as it has come to pass, and as you know. ⁵ For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent that I might know your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and that our labor would be in vain.

Timothy’s Good Report

6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you—⁷ for this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith; ⁸ for now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord. ⁹ For what thanksgiving can we render to God for you, for all the joy which we feel for your sake before our God, ¹⁰ praying earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?

11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you; ¹² and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men, as we do to you, ¹³ so that he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Luke 18:1-14

The Parable of the Widow and the Unrighteous Judge

18 And he told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. ² He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man; ³ and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Vindicate me against my adversary.’ ⁴ For a while he refused; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor regard man, ⁵ yet because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by her continual coming.’ ” ⁶ And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. ⁷ And will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? ⁸ I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

The Parable of the Pharisees and the Tax Collector

9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others: ¹⁰ “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.’ ¹³ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”