Weekly scripture readings

Scripture Readings week of 09.29.2025

Sunday 10.05.2025

Lamentations 1:1-16

The Deserted City

1 How lonely sits the city that once was full of people!How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations!She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal.

² She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks;among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her;all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.

³ Judah has gone into exile with suffering and hard servitude;she lives now among the nations, and finds no resting-place;her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress.

⁴ The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to the festivals;all her gates are desolate, her priests groan;her young girls grieve, and her lot is bitter.

⁵ Her foes have become the masters, her enemies prosper,because the Lord has made her suffer for the multitude of her transgressions;her children have gone away, captives before the foe.

⁶ From daughter Zion has departed all her majesty.Her princes have become like stags that find no pasture;they fled without strength before the pursuer.

⁷ Jerusalem remembers, in the days of her affliction and wandering,all the precious things  that were hers in days of old.When her people fell into the hand of the foe, and there was no one to help her,the foe looked on mocking over her downfall.

⁸ Jerusalem sinned grievously, so she has become a mockery;all who honoured her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness;she herself groans, and turns her face away.

⁹ Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future;her downfall was appalling,  with none to comfort her.‘O Lord, look at my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!’

¹⁰ Enemies have stretched out their hands over all her precious things;she has even seen the nations invade her sanctuary,those whom you forbade to enter your congregation.

¹¹ All her people groan as they search for bread;they trade their treasures for food to revive their strength.Look, O Lord, and see how worthless I have become.

¹² Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?  Look and see

if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me,which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.

¹³ From on high he sent fire; it went deep into my bones;he spread a net for my feet; he turned me back;he has left me stunned, faint all day long.

¹⁴ My transgressions were bound^[c] into a yoke;by his hand they were fastened together;they weigh on my neck, sapping my strength;the Lord handed me over to those whom I cannot withstand.

¹⁵ The Lord has rejected all my warriors in the midst of me;he proclaimed a time against me to crush my young men;the Lord has trodden as in a wine press the virgin daughter Judah.

¹⁶ For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears;for a comforter is far from me, one to revive my courage;my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed.

¹⁷ Zion stretches out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her;the Lord has commanded against Jacob that his neighbours should become his foes;Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them.

¹⁸ The Lord is in the right, for I have rebelled against his word;but hear, all you peoples, and behold my suffering;my young women and young men have gone into captivity.

Psalm 137

Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem

¹ By the rivers of Babylon—there we sat down and there we wept    when we remembered Zion.² On the willows^[a] there we hung up our harps.³ For there our captors asked us for songs,and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,    ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’

⁴ How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?⁵ If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!⁶ Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you,if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.

⁷ Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem’s fall,how they said, ‘Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations!’⁸ O daughter Babylon, you devastator!^[b]    Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us!⁹ Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!

2 Timothy 1:1-14

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,

² To Timothy, my beloved child:

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thanksgiving and Encouragement

³ I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.

⁴ Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. ⁵ I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.

⁶ For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; ⁷ for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.

⁸ Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, ⁹ who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace.

This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, ¹⁰ but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

¹¹ For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, ¹² and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him.

 ¹³ Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴ Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

Luke 17:5-10

⁵ The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’

⁶ The Lord replied, ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you.

⁷ ‘Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, “Come here at once and take your place at the table”?

⁸ Would you not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink”?

⁹ Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded?

¹⁰ So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!”’