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The Tuesday Lectionary Group invites you to share some of your favorite scriptures, which we will then share with all members.
Please email them to:
maryann13fenstermacher@gmail.com.
Here are this week's scriptures for study and meditation:
Psalm 86:8-13 My Lord! There is no one like you among the gods! There is nothing that can compare to your works! All the nations that you've made will come and bow down before you, Lord; they will glorify your name, because you are awesome, and a wonder-worker. You are God. Just you. Teach me your way, Lord, so that I can walk in your truth. Make my heart focused only on honoring your name.
I will give thanks to you, my Lord, my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify your name forever, because your faithful love toward me is awesome and because you've rescued my life from the lowest part of hell.
Numbers 14:11-19 The Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people disrespect me? And how long will they doubt me after all the signs I've performed among them? I'll strike them down with a plague and disown them. Then I'll make you into a great nation, stronger than they.” Moses said to the Lord, “The Egyptians will hear, for with your power you brought these people up from among them. They'll tell the inhabitants of the land. They've heard that you, Lord, are with this people. You, Lord, appear to them face to face. Your cloud stands over them. You go before them in a column of cloud by day and in a column of lightning by night. If you kill these people, every last one of them, the nations who heard about you will
say, 'The Lord wasn't able to bring these people to the land that he solemnly promised to give them. So he slaughtered them in the desert.' Now let my master's power be as great as when you said, 'The Lord is
very patient and absolutely loyal, forgiving wrongs and disloyalty. Yet he doesn't forgo all punishment, disciplining the grandchildren and great-grandchildren for their ancestors' wrongs.' Please forgive the wrongs of these people because of your absolute loyalty, just as you've forgiven these people from their time in Egypt until now.”
Romans 4:1-8 So what are we going to say? Are we going to find that Abraham is our ancestor on the basis of genealogy? Because if Abraham was made righteous because of his actions, he would have a reason to brag, but not in front of God. What does the scripture say? Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Workers' salaries aren't credited to them on the basis of an employer's grace but rather on the basis of what they deserve.
But faith is credited as righteousness to those who don't work, because they have faith in God who makes the ungodly righteous. In the same way, David also pronounces a blessing on the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from actions: Happy are those whose actions outside the Law are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Happy are those whose sin isn't counted against them by the Lord.
Matthew 20:8-16 “...When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, 'Call the workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired, and moving on finally to the first.' When those who were hired at five in the afternoon came, each one received a denarion. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each of them also received a denarion. When they received it they grumbled against the land owner, 'These who were hired last worked one hour, and they received the same pay as we did even though we had to work the whole day in the hot sun.' But he replied to them, 'Friend, I did you no wrong. Didn't I agree to pay you a denarion? Take what belongs to
you and go. I want to give to this one who was hired last the same as I give to you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you resentful because I'm generous?' So those who are last will be first. And those who are first will be last.”
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