The Sermon on the Mount, 1877, Carl Heinrich Bloch, Oil on copper at Frederiksborg Slot, Hillerød (Note: todays reading of Luke 6:17-49 is sometimes referred to as the Sermon on the Plain)

Prime Timers

The Prime Timers were a Bible study group at St. Martin's for eight years. One of the goals of our founder Jackie Rose was to have a weekly web page for the group and all the pages are still online here. The group disbanded but the readings below are being kept up to date.

Lectionary readings

The Lectionary Readings for Sunday, February 13 are for Year C Sixth Sunday After the Epiphany: Jeremiah 17:5-10; Psalm 1; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 and Luke 6:17-26. The text is from the Bible Study Tools - New Revised Standard Version.

Jeremiah 17:5-10

⁵ Thus says the Lord:

Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
     and make mere flesh their strength,
     whose hearts turn away from the Lord.

⁶ They shall be like a shrub in the desert,
     and shall not see when relief comes.

They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
     in an uninhabited salt land.

⁷ Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
     whose trust is the Lord.

⁸ They shall be like a tree planted by water,
     sending out its roots by the stream.

It shall not fear when heat comes,
     and its leaves shall stay green;

in the year of drought it is not anxious,
     and it does not cease to bear fruit.

⁹ The heart is devious above all else;
     it is perverse—
     who can understand it?

¹⁰ I the Lord test the mind
     and search the heart,

to give to all according to their ways,
     according to the fruit of their doings.

Psalm 1

¹ Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
     or take the path that sinners tread,
     or sit in the seat of scoffers;

² but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
     and on his law they meditate day and night.

³ They are like trees planted by streams of water,
     which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.
     In all that they do, they prosper.

⁴ The wicked are not so,
     but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
     nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

⁶ for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
     but the way of the wicked will perish.

1 Corinthians 15:12-20

¹² Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; ¹⁴ and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. ¹⁵ We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. ¹⁷ If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

²⁰ But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.

Luke 6:17-26

¹⁷ He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. ¹⁸ They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. ¹⁹ And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

²⁰ Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

    "Blessed are you who are poor,
         for yours is the kingdom of God.

 ²¹ "Blessed are you who are hungry now,
         for you will be filled.

    "Blessed are you who weep now,
         for you will laugh.

  ²² "Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you,
         revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.
   ²³ Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven;
         for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

  ²⁴ "But woe to you who are rich,
         for you have received your consolation.

  ²⁵ "Woe to you who are full now,
         for you will be hungry.

    "Woe to you who are laughing now,
         for you will mourn and weep.

  ²⁶ "Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

Thanks to Bible Study Tools for today's text.