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Event Series Event Series: Proper 26 – Year C

Proper 26 – Year C

2 November 2025 All day

Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

My name is Habakkuk and I am a prophet. I went to God seeking an explanation for the way things are.

For crying out loud, LORD!
How long will it be before you listen?
How long do I have to scream blue murder
before you come to the rescue?

Why do you make me witness so much evil?
Why am I forced to see such things?
Everywhere I look: violence and carnage,
fighting and madness on every side.

Law and order are out the window.
Justice is a joke.
The corrupt ride roughshod over decent people,
and twisted laws protect them as they do.

So what have you got to say, LORD?
I’m not budging from this spot until you answer.
I’m going to stand right here, all eyes and ears,
until you respond to my complaint.

Then the LORD answered me, saying:

Get the vision down in writing
in words that everyone can understand,
and get it to the publishers on the double.

The vision I have made known is still true.
When the time is right, what it speaks of will happen.
It may seem to be taking its time in coming,
but hang in there. It will happen.
You can count on it.

Some people won’t have a bar of it
because they are all spineless fluff;
but those who are fair dinkum live by it
with enduring courage and integrity.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

You always do the right thing, LORD,
and your judgments are spot on. 

You have set out your instructions for us,
marking the way of honesty and integrity.

When I see opponents ignoring your teachings,
I get so angry I could explode.

Your promises have tested true over and over
and I will cherish your every word as I serve you.

I might be a nothing, a no one,
but I know how to stick to your ways.

Your commitment to what’s right never ends
and your law is the essence of truth.

Tough times have come to torment me,
but your teachings still put a smile on my face.

Your directions are the ultimate in justice;
they show me the way to fullness of life.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

To the church in Thessalonica; a people who belong to God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah.

This letter comes to you from the three of us: Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy.

We greet you as God’s own children and wish you all the best – God’s love and peace given through the Lord Jesus the Messiah.

Sisters and brothers, we are constantly expressing our thanks to God for you. How could we not?! Your faith is growing in leaps and bounds, and your love for each other continues to expand and deepen. We have even found ourselves boasting about you when we’ve been visiting God’s people in other churches. We go on and on about how your commitment and faith have remained rock-solid, despite the campaign of vilification and abuse you have had to endure.

Through these tough times we continue to pray that God will enable you to live up to your calling. We pray too that God will be at work among you, to make sure that every goal you set yourselves in faith and integrity is achieved. In that way, your lives will be putting the name of our Lord Jesus up in lights. In your union with him, you will also be sharing the glory because in extravagant generosity, our God and the Lord Jesus the Messiah always share the glory.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

The road Jesus was on took him through the town of Jericho. There was a man named Zacchaeus there who was despised as a traitor, because he had made his fortune working as a debt collector for the Roman occupation forces. He was eager to lay eyes on Jesus, but so was everyone else and he couldn’t see past the crowd because he was too short. So he nicked up the street a bit and climbed a tree in order to get a good view when Jesus came past. When Jesus got to that point on the road, he looked up and called out to him, “Zacchaeus, come on down. I need you to put me up at your place for the night.”
    Zacchaeus nearly fell out of his tree in his eagerness to welcome Jesus into his home. The onlookers, though, were outraged, and they began to grumble. “This Jesus has lost the plot. He’s gone home with the scum of the earth.”

Zacchaeus stood up and said to Jesus, “I’m turning over a new leaf, Lord. I am giving half of everything I own to the poor, and anybody I have ripped off, I am repaying four times over.”

In reply, Jesus announced, “God’s new life has broken out in this house today. Just like his ancestor Abraham, this man is one of God’s chosen ones. You see, the New Human has come to search for the lost and rescue them.”

©2004 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prior to the revision of the Lectionary in 1992, the 1st reading and the psalm that responded to it were chosen to link thematically with the gospel reading. After hearing the critique of those who said that the Hebrew Scriptures, from which the first reading is usually chosen, should be allowed to speak with their own voice rather than just add support to the gospel reading, the Lectionary was revised so that during Ordinary Time, the 1st reading runs in its own semi-continuous series, working through various books of the Hebrew Bible. The older themed series continues to be available as an alternative.

The weekly prayers offered here at LaughingBird Resources are based on the four readings above, and do not draw on the themed 1st reading and psalm.

During the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah as kings of Judah, the LORD spoke through Isaiah, the son of Amoz. This is a message Isaiah was given about Judah and Jerusalem.

Listen to what I say, for I am the LORD.
You rulers are no better than the rulers of Sodom!
You people are no better than the people of Gomorrah!
So take note of what I have to say.

What do I care for all your sacrifices?
I have had a gutful of them.
If I see one more burnt offering
– be it a ram or a grain-fed calf –
I think I’m going to puke.
I can’t stand all this blood you keep offering
from slaughtered bulls, lambs and goats.

What on earth makes you think
that this is the way to please me?
Get out of my temple and stay out.
Your gifts are wasted.
Your incense is nothing but a smokescreen.
I can’t stand all your sacred days and special gatherings;
your pomp and ceremony doesn’t hide your evil ways.

You can fill your calendar with special events
to celebrate this, that and the other thing,
but I despise them deep in my guts.
They have drained my patience;
I can’t put up with even one more.

You can raise your hands to me in prayer,
but I’ll look away;
You can pray till you’re blue in the face
but I’ll block my ears.
All I see on your hands is blood;
all I hear in your prayers is excuses.

Clean up your act;
scrub yourselves clean, inside and out;
don’t let me see any more corruption from you.
Quit your evil,
learn to do the right thing;
make justice your goal,
prevent the use and abuse of people;
stand up for the vulnerable,
take sides with the forgotten.

Come on, let’s sort this out.
I am the LORD. Listen to me.
Your sins are as red as scarlet,
but they will be white as snow;
they are crimson like blood,
but they will be like fresh-cut wool.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

What a blessing it is to be among those you have forgiven, LORD,
those whose record of wrongdoing you have wiped clean.

People who are honest about their lives
have everything going for them;
they never have to cover their tracks
or worry that they’ll be in your bad books.

I used to keep my sins to myself, LORD,
but they poisoned me from within;
wasting my body,
tormenting my mind.

Day and night I felt your eyes following me;
I lived in fear that you’d see right through me.
The joy of living evaporated
in the burning heat of my guilt.

Then I decided to come clean with you, LORD,
to own up to all I’d done and stop living a lie.
I made a full confession to you, LORD,
and you gave me a full pardon, forgiving all my sin.

Now, like all your faithful people, LORD,
I am always ready to open myself to you in prayer.
When trouble breaks its banks,
your faithful ones are on safe ground.

You are like a bomb shelter for us, LORD;
you protect us from danger.
Thanks to you, LORD, we can still laugh;
we can dance around singing songs of freedom.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for through you, our faith is growing abundantly
and our love for one another is increasing.

All that exists was established by your decree,
and even when wickedness has surrounded your people
your vision held firm for the appointed time
and your righteous people lived by their faith.

In Jesus the Christ,
you have come to seek out and save the lost.
When those stunted by sin were drawn to him
he offered your gracious welcome and inspired repentance.
Through your power
he is fulfilling every good resolve and work of faith.
When he was killed in a perversion of justice,
you raised him from the dead,
and now you are glorifying him in us,
and us in him,
and through your grace
you are establishing your eternal justice
in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore with .....

©2004 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

We thank you for coming in Jesus Christ
at the appointed time,
to seek out and save the lost
and to fulfil every good resolve and work of faith.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for through you, our faith is growing abundantly
and our love for one another is increasing.

All that exists was established by your decree,
and even when wickedness has surrounded your people
your vision held firm for the appointed time
and your righteous people lived by their faith.

In Jesus the Christ,
you have come to seek out and save the lost.
When those stunted by sin were drawn to him
he offered your gracious welcome and inspired repentance.
Through your power
he is fulfilling every good resolve and work of faith.
When he was killed in a perversion of justice,
you raised him from the dead,
and now you are glorifying him in us,
and us in him,
and through your grace
you are establishing your eternal justice
in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

©2004 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Christ came to seek out and to save the lost
and by grace he makes us worthy of his call.
Made righteous in him by faith, we will live.

Sisters and Brothers,
  your sins are forgiven;
    be at peace.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Go now and live by faith.
Patiently trust in God’s promised future;
live by God’s teachings,
and let your love for one another increase.

And may God give you grace and peace;
May Christ Jesus make you worthy of his call;
And may the Holy Spirit fulfil in you
every good resolve and work of faith.

We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
   In the name of Christ. Amen.

©2004 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

  1. For crying out loud, Lord!
    A sermon on Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 by Nathan Nettleton
  2. Good News for the Rich
    A sermon on Luke 19:1-10 by Nathan Nettleton
  3. Growing in Faith and Love
    A sermon on 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12 by Nathan Nettleton
  4. Salvation Comes Calling
    A sermon on Luke 19:1-10 by Nathan Nettleton
  5. The Problem of Being Little
    A sermon on Luke 19:1-10 by Ian Cook
  6. The Scandal of the Scared Little Rich Guy
    A sermon on Luke 19:1-10 by Nathan Nettleton