A reading from the Book of Numbers 21:4-9, 21-35

⁴From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way.⁵The people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food."⁶Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.⁷The people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people.⁸And the Lord said to Moses, "Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live."⁹So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

²¹Then Israel sent messengers to King Sihon of the Amorites, saying,²²"Let me pass through your land; we will not turn aside into field or vineyard; we will not drink the water of any well; we will go by the King's Highway until we have passed through your territory."²³But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel to the wilderness; he came to Jahaz, and fought against Israel.²⁴Israel put him to the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as to the Ammonites; for the boundary of the Ammonites was strong.²⁵Israel took all these towns, and Israel settled in all the towns of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages.²⁶For Heshbon was the city of King Sihon of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and captured all his land as far as the Arnon.²⁷Therefore the ballad singers say, "Come to Heshbon, let it be built; let the city of Sihon be established.²⁸For fire came out from Heshbon, flame from the city of Sihon. It devoured Ar of Moab, and swallowed up the heights of the Arnon.²⁹Woe to you, O Moab! You are undone, O people of Chemosh! He has made his sons fugitives, and his daughters captives, to an Amorite king, Sihon.³⁰So their posterity perished from Heshbon to Dibon, and we laid waste until fire spread to Medeba."³¹Thus Israel settled in the land of the Amorites.³²Moses sent to spy out Jazer; and they captured its villages, and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.³³Then they turned and went up the road to Bashan; and King Og of Bashan came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.³⁴But the Lord said to Moses, "Do not be afraid of him; for I have given him into your hand, with all his people, and all his land. You shall do to him as you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon."³⁵So they killed him, his sons, and all his people, until there was no survivor left; and they took possession of his land.

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles 17:22-34

²²Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, "Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way.²³For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands,²⁵nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.²⁶From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live,²⁷so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us.²⁸For 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we too are his offspring.'²⁹Since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.³⁰While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent,³¹because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."

³²When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, "We will hear you again about this."³³At that point Paul left them.³⁴But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

A reading from the Gospel according to Luke 13:10-17

¹⁰Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.¹¹And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.¹²When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment."¹³When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.¹⁴But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day."¹⁵But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water?¹⁶And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?"¹⁷When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

A reading from the Book of Numbers 22:1-21

²²The Israelites set out, and camped in the plains of Moab across the Jordan from Jericho.²Now Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites.³Moab was in great dread of the people, because they were so numerous; Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel.⁴And Moab said to the elders of Midian, "This horde will now lick up all that is around us, as an ox licks up the grass of the field." Now Balak son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time.⁵He sent messengers to Balaam son of Beor at Pethor, which is on the Euphrates, in the land of Amaw, to summon him, saying, "A people has come out of Egypt; they have spread over the face of the earth, and they have settled next to me.⁶Come now, curse this people for me, since they are stronger than I; perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land; for I know that whomever you bless is blessed, and whomever you curse is cursed."⁷So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand; and they came to Balaam, and gave him Balak's message.⁸He said to them, "Stay here tonight, and I will bring back word to you, just as the Lord speaks to me"; so the officials of Moab stayed with Balaam.⁹God came to Balaam and said, "Who are these men with you?"¹⁰Balaam said to God, "King Balak son of Zippor of Moab, has sent me this message:¹¹'A people has come out of Egypt and has spread over the face of the earth; now come, curse them for me; perhaps I shall be able to fight against them and drive them out.'"¹²God said to Balaam, "You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed."¹³So Balaam rose in the morning, and said to the officials of Balak, "Go to your own land, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you."¹⁴So the officials of Moab rose and went to Balak, and said, "Balaam refuses to come with us."

¹⁵Once again Balak sent officials, more numerous and more distinguished than these.¹⁶They came to Balaam and said to him, "Thus says Balak son of Zippor: 'Do not let anything hinder you from coming to me;¹⁷for I will surely do you great honor, and whatever you say to me I will do; come, curse this people for me.'"¹⁸But Balaam replied to the servants of Balak, "Although Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God, to do less or more.¹⁹You remain here, as the others did, so that I may learn what more the Lord may say to me."²⁰That night God came to Balaam and said to him, "If the men have come to summon you, get up and go with them; but do only what I tell you to do."²¹So Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the officials of Moab.

A reading from the Letter to the Romans 6:12-23

¹²Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.¹³No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.¹⁴For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.¹⁵What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!¹⁶Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?¹⁷But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted,¹⁸and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.¹⁹I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.²⁰When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.²¹So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death.²²But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life.²³For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 21:12-22

¹²Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.¹³He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you are making it a den of robbers."¹⁴The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them.¹⁵But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they became angry¹⁶and said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, 'Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself'?"¹⁷He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

¹⁸In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry.¹⁹And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, "May no fruit ever come from you again!" And the fig tree withered at once.²⁰When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, "How did the fig tree wither at once?"²¹Jesus answered them, "Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' it will be done.²²Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive."

A reading from the Book of Numbers 22:21-38

²¹So Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the officials of Moab.

²²God's anger was kindled because he was going, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the road as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him.²³The donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand; so the donkey turned off the road, and went into the field; and Balaam struck the donkey, to turn it back onto the road.²⁴Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side.²⁵When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it scraped against the wall, and scraped Balaam's foot against the wall; so he struck it again.²⁶Then the angel of the Lord went ahead, and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left.²⁷When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it lay down under Balaam; and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff.²⁸Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and it said to Balaam, "What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?"²⁹Balaam said to the donkey, "Because you have made a fool of me! I wish I had a sword in my hand! I would kill you right now!"³⁰But the donkey said to Balaam, "Am I not your donkey, which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I been in the habit of treating you this way?" And he said, "No."³¹Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road, with his drawn sword in his hand; and he bowed down, falling on his face.³²The angel of the Lord said to him, "Why have you struck your donkey these three times? I have come out as an adversary, because your way is perverse before me.³³The donkey saw me, and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let it live."³⁴Then Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, "I have sinned, for I did not know that you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now therefore, if it is displeasing to you, I will return home."³⁵The angel of the Lord said to Balaam, "Go with the men; but speak only what I tell you to speak." So Balaam went on with the officials of Balak.

³⁶When Balak heard that Balaam had come, he went out to meet him at Ir-moab, on the boundary formed by the Arnon, at the farthest point of the boundary.³⁷Balak said to Balaam, "Did I not send to summon you? Why did you not come to me? Am I not able to honor you?"³⁸Balaam said to Balak, "I have come to you now, but do I have power to say just anything? The word God puts in my mouth, that is what I must say."

A reading from the Letter to the Romans 7:1-12

¹Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only during that person's lifetime?²Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband.³Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.⁴In the same way, my friends, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.⁵While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.⁶But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.

⁷What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet."⁸But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead.⁹I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived¹⁰and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.¹¹For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.¹²So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 21:23-32

²³When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, "By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?"²⁴Jesus said to them, "I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things.²⁵Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?" And they argued with one another, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?'²⁶But if we say, 'Of human origin,' we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet."²⁷So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." And he said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

²⁸"What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.'²⁹He answered, 'I will not'; but later he changed his mind and went.³⁰The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, 'I go, sir'; but he did not go.³¹Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.³²For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.

A reading from the Book of Numbers 22:41-23:12

⁴¹On the next day Balak took Balaam and brought him up to Bamoth-baal; and from there he could see part of the people of Israel.

¹Then Balaam said to Balak, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me."²Balak did as Balaam had said; and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.³Then Balaam said to Balak, "Stay here beside your burnt offerings while I go aside. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet me. Whatever he shows me I will tell you." And he went to a bare height.⁴Then God met Balaam; and Balaam said to him, "I have arranged the seven altars, and have offered a bull and a ram on each altar."⁵The Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, "Return to Balak, and this is what you must say."⁶So he returned to Balak, who was standing beside his burnt offerings with all the officials of Moab.⁷Then Balaam uttered his oracle, saying: "Balak has brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains: 'Come, curse Jacob for me; Come, denounce Israel!'⁸How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced?⁹For from the top of the crags I see him, from the hills I behold him; Here is a people living alone, and not reckoning itself among the nations!¹⁰Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number the dust-cloud of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!"¹¹Then Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but now you have done nothing but bless them."¹²He answered, "Must I not take care to say what the Lord puts into my mouth?"

A reading from the Letter to the Romans 7:13-25

¹³Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin.¹⁵I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good.¹⁷But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.¹⁹For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.²¹So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand.²²For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self,²³but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 21:33-46

³³"Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.³⁴When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce.³⁵But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.³⁶Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way.³⁷Finally he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.'³⁸But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, 'This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance."³⁹So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.⁴⁰Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?"⁴¹They said to him, "He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time."⁴²Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes'?⁴³Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.⁴⁴The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls."⁴⁵When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them.⁴⁶They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

A reading from the Book of Numbers 23:11-26

¹¹Then Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but now you have done nothing but bless them."¹²He answered, "Must I not take care to say what the Lord puts into my mouth?"

¹³So Balak said to him, "Come with me to another place from which you may see them; you shall see only part of them, and shall not see them all; then curse them for me from there."¹⁴So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah. He built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.¹⁵Balaam said to Balak, "Stand here beside your burnt offerings, while I meet the Lord over there.¹⁶The Lord met Balaam, put a word into his mouth, and said, "Return to Balak, and this is what you shall say."¹⁷When he came to him, he was standing beside his burnt offerings with the officials of Moab. Balak said to him, "What has the Lord said?"¹⁸Then Balaam uttered his oracle, saying: "Rise, Balak, and hear; listen to me, O son of Zippor:¹⁹God is not a human being, that he should lie, or a mortal, that he should change his mind. Has he promised, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?²⁰See, I received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.²¹He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob; nor has he seen trouble in Israel. The Lord their God is with them, acclaimed as a king among them.²²God, who brings them out of Egypt, is like the horns of a wild ox for them.²³Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel; now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, 'See what God has done!'²⁴Look, a people rising up like a lioness, and rousing itself like a lion! It does not lie down until it has eaten the prey and drunk the blood of the slain."²⁵Then Balak said to Balaam, "Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all."²⁶But Balaam answered Balak, "Did I not tell you, 'Whatever the Lord says, that is what I must do'?"

A reading from the Letter to the Romans 8:1-11

¹There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.²For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.³For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,⁴so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.⁵For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.⁶To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.⁷For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law—indeed it cannot,⁸and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.⁹But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

¹⁰But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.¹¹If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 22:1-14

¹Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying:²"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.³He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come.⁴Again he sent other slaves, saying, 'Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.'⁵But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business,⁶while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them.⁷The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.⁸Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy.⁹Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.'¹⁰Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.¹¹"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe,¹²and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?' And he was speechless.¹³Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'¹⁴For many are called, but few are chosen."

A reading from the Book of Numbers 24:1-13

¹Now Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, so he did not go, as at other times, to look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness.²Balaam looked up and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe. Then the spirit of God came upon him,³and he uttered his oracle, saying: "The oracle of Balaam son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is clear,⁴the oracle of one who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls down, but with eyes uncovered:⁵how fair are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel!⁶Like palm-groves that stretch far away, like gardens beside a river, like aloes that the Lord has planted, like cedar trees beside the waters.⁷Water shall flow from his buckets, and his seed shall have abundant water, his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted.⁸God who brings him out of Egypt, is like the horns of a wild ox for him; he shall devour the nations that are his foes and break their bones. He shall strike with his arrows.⁹He crouched, he lay down like a lion, and like a lioness; who will rouse him up? Blessed is everyone who blesses you, and cursed is everyone who curses you."

¹⁰Then Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam, and he struck his hands together. Balak said to Balaam, "I summoned you to curse my enemies, but instead you have blessed them these three times.¹¹Now be off with you! Go home! I said, 'I will reward you richly,' but the Lord has denied you any reward."¹²And Balaam said to Balak, "Did I not tell your messengers whom you sent to me,¹³'If Balak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord, to do either good or bad of my own will; what the Lord says, that is what I will say'?

A reading from the Letter to the Romans 8:12-17

¹²So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—¹³for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.¹⁴For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!"¹⁶it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

¹⁷and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 22:15-22

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said.¹⁶So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality.¹⁷Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?"¹⁸But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites?¹⁹Show me the coin used for the tax." And they brought him a denarius.²⁰Then he said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?"²¹They answered, "The emperor's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's."²²When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

A reading from the Book of Numbers 24:12-25

¹²And Balaam said to Balak, "Did I not tell your messengers whom you sent to me,¹³'If Balak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord, to do either good or bad of my own will; what the Lord says, that is what I will say'?¹⁴So now, I am going to my people; let me advise you what this people will do to your people in days to come."

¹⁵So he uttered his oracle, saying: "The oracle of Balaam son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is clear,¹⁶the oracle of one who hears the words of God, and knows the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls down, but with his eyes uncovered:¹⁷I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near— a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the borderlands of Moab, and the territory of all the Shethites.¹⁸Edom will become a possession, Seir a possession of its enemies, while Israel does valiantly.¹⁹One out of Jacob shall rule, and destroy the survivors of Ir."²⁰Then he looked on Amalek, and uttered his oracle, saying: "First among the nations was Amalek, but its end is to perish forever."²¹Then he looked on the Kenite, and uttered his oracle, saying: "Enduring is your dwelling place, and your nest is set in the rock;²²yet Kain is destined for burning. How long shall Asshur take you away captive?"²³Again he uttered his oracle, saying: "Alas, who shall live when God does this?²⁴But ships shall come from Kittim and shall afflict Asshur and Eber; and he also shall perish forever."²⁵Then Balaam got up and went back to his place, and Balak also went his way.

A reading from the Letter to the Romans 8:18-25

¹⁸I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.¹⁹For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God;²⁰for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope²¹that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now;²³and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.²⁴For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?²⁵But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 22:23-40

²³The same day some Sadducees came to him, saying there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, saying,²⁴"Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.'²⁵Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died childless, leaving the widow to his brother.²⁶The second did the same, so also the third, down to the seventh.²⁷Last of all, the woman herself died.²⁸In the resurrection, then, whose wife of the seven will she be? For all of them had married her."²⁹Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.³⁰For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.³¹And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God,³²'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is God not of the dead, but of the living."³³And when the crowd heard it, they were astounded at his teaching.

³⁴When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together,³⁵and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.³⁶"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"³⁷He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'³⁸This is the greatest and first commandment.³⁹And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'⁴⁰On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."