Old Testament Reading
Jeremiah 20:7–13
7O LORD, you have deceived me,
and I was deceived;
you are stronger than I,
and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all the day;
everyone mocks me.
8For whenever I speak, I cry out,
I shout, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the LORD has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long.
9If I say, “I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,”
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
10For I hear many whispering.
Terror is on every side!
“Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”
say all my close friends,
watching for my fall.
“Perhaps he will be deceived;
then we can overcome him
and take our revenge on him.”
11But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble;
they will not overcome me.
They will be greatly shamed,
for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonor
will never be forgotten.
12O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous,
who sees the heart and the mind,
let me see your vengeance upon them,
for to you have I committed my cause.
13Sing to the LORD;
praise the LORD!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
from the hand of evildoers.
Epistle
Romans 6:12–23
12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.
13Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
14For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
15What then? Are we to 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 who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
18and, 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 lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
20When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.
22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Holy Gospel
Matthew 10:5a, 21–33
5These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, . . .
21“Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death,
22and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
23When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
24“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.
25It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his 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 that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
27What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
28And do 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? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
30But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
31Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
32So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,
33but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
