Revised Common Lectionary

⁸The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.⁹But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac.¹⁰So she said to Abraham, "Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac."¹¹The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son.¹²But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you.¹³As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring."¹⁴So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

¹⁵When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes.¹⁶Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, "Do not let me look on the death of the child." And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.¹⁷And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.¹⁸Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him."¹⁹Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.

²⁰God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow.²¹He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

1bShould we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?²By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?³Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?⁴Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.⁶We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.⁷For whoever has died is freed from sin.⁸But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.⁹We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.¹⁰The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.¹¹So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

²⁴"A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master;²⁵it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

²⁶"So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.²⁷What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.²⁸Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.³⁰And even the hairs of your head are all counted.³¹So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

³²"Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven;³³but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

³⁴"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.³⁵For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;³⁶and one's foes will be members of one's own household.³⁷Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;³⁸and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.³⁹Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.