Scripture Paraphrases – LaughingBird

The Laughing Bird Scripture Paraphrases were inspired by “The Message”, the scripture paraphrase work of Eugene Peterson, and in many places is indebted to that work. During the Easter season, 2000, our congregation tried using “The Message” for the scripture readings in worship and found that while its contemporary idiom and vivid imagery made the lections more lively and confronting, there were two problems. Firstly, The Message seems to have been written for private reading rather than for reading out loud. Peterson often renders ideas by using newly hyphenated words or visual emphases that which work very well to the eye but are difficult to read in a way that carries to the ear. Secondly, being an idiomatic paraphrase, it was very American and often used idioms or words that were unfamiliar to Australian ears. So, being unable to find an Aussie equivalent, we began producing one. These readings are deliberately Australian and are written for reading out loud. It probably won’t ever be a full Bible, but it now covers everything included in the Revised Common Lectionary. Our experience is that they arrest people’s attention and demand a hearing when read out loud, but we don’t recommend making them generally available to people for use in their personal Bible study. There is still something important about wrestling with the strange “otherness” of the scriptures.

This passage is set for the following occasions:
- Trinity Sunday in Year A
-the Great Paschal Vigil
-the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord in Year B (1:1-5)
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

At the outset, when God created the universe,
the earth was lifeless and shapeless;
a deep ocean of chaos, shrouded in darkness;
brooded over by the Spirit of God.

Then God called for light,
and light appeared.
God saw that light was a good thing,
and separated it from the darkness.
God named the light Day,
and the darkness Night.
Evening passed and morning came;
the first day was done.

Then God called for a clear space
to keep out the water on either side.
God made the clear space
and the water was split in two, above and below.
That is what happened,
and God named the space Sky.
Evening passed and morning came;
the second day was done.

Then God called for the waters under the sky
to be pooled into one place
and for dry land to appear elsewhere.
That is what happened,
and God named the dry land Earth
and the pooled waters Sea.
God saw that this was a good thing.

Then God called for the earth to produce vegetation:
plants and trees, rich with fertile fruits and seed,
and that is what happened.
The earth burst forth with vegetation of every kind;
grasses and vines, shrubs and trees,
fertile with seeds and fruits of every kind.
God saw that this was a good thing.
Evening passed and morning came;
the third day was done.

Then God called for lights in the space called sky;
lights to shine from above and light up the earth,
to separate day from night,
and to mark out the months, seasons and years.
That is what happened;
God made stars to fill the sky
and two big lights:
a bright one to dominate the day,
and a soft one to take over at night.
God set them all in the sky
to light up the earth and determine day and night;
to separate out the light from the darkness.
God saw that this was a good thing.
Evening passed and morning came;
the fourth day was done.

Then God called for the waters to fill with living creatures,
and for the skies to fill with birds flying over the earth.
God created all the creatures that live and move in the water,
the enormous monsters of the sea and the teeming fish,
and every kind of bird that wings its way through the air.
God saw that this was a good thing
and set them up for life,
encouraging the fish to multiply and fill the seas
and the birds to multiply all over the earth.
Evening passed and morning came;
the fifth day was done.

Then God called for the earth to bring forth all sorts of living creatures:
insects, reptiles, mammals;
animals of every kind, tame and wild.
That is what happened;
God made wild animals of every kind to fill the earth,
every kind of herd and flock,
and every creature that runs or jumps or crawls on land.
God saw that this was a good thing.

Then God said:
“We will make people in our own image,
modelling them on ourselves.
We will entrust to them the fish of the sea,
the birds of the air, the flocks and herds,
and all the wild animals and creepy-crawlies.”

So God created people as a reflection of God,
created them to be like God,
created them male and female.

God set them up for life,
and encouraged them to multiply and fill the earth.
God told them to exercise control over the earth
and to manage the fish of the sea,
the birds of the air and every living thing on earth.

God said to the people:
“Look, I have given you the grain crops
that grow and reproduce themselves all over the earth,
and all the trees that grow from seed and bear fruit;
they are all yours for food.
I have also provided vegetation galore
as food for the animals, birds and creepy-crawlies,
for everything that lives and breathes.

So it all happened, just as God said.
Everything God had made was there to be seen
and God was delighted with it all.
Evening passed and morning came;
the sixth day was done.

With that, the universe was complete,
along with everything that fills it.
With the work finished,
God took the seventh day off.

After all the work God had done,
the seventh day was a well earned rest.
So God made the seventh day special,
a sacred day,
because that day was God’s day off
after all the work of creating everything.

So that’s the family lineage of the universe;
the story of how everything came to be.

Genesis 2: 15-17; 3: 1-7

This passage is set for the following occasion:
- 1st Sunday in Lent in Year A
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

The LORD God put the humans in the garden of Eden so that they could tend the garden and look after it. The LORD God gave them these instructions: “You are free to eat the fruit from every tree in the garden except one. There is one tree whose fruit you must not eat, for just one bite of it and your minds will start dividing everything up into good and evil. The day that happens, you lose your life.”

Now, among the wild animals which the LORD God had made, the most devious of all was the snake. The snake approached the woman one day and said, “Did God tell you you couldn’t eat fruit from the trees in the garden?”

The woman replied, “We are free to eat fruit from any tree in the garden except for one tree in the middle. God told us not to eat its fruit or even touch it because if we do we will die.”

But the snake said to the woman, “You would not die. God knows very well that if you eat that fruit you will be able to see what you cannot yet see. You will be like God, because you be able to judge good and evil.”

Then the woman stared at the fruit on the tree. It was beautiful, and not only looked delicious, but now it looked to her like a desirable shortcut to great wisdom, so she took a piece of the fruit and ate it. The man was with her, so she gave some to him and he ate it too. Suddenly they saw everything through different eyes. Feeling exposed, and needing to cover up, they sewed fig leaves together to hide their nakedness.

Genesis 2: 18-24

This passage is set for the following occasion(s):
- Proper 22 in Year B (themed series)
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

After creating the man, the LORD God said, “It is a bit tough for the man to be all alone. I will make a partner for him, to share the load.”

So getting to work, the LORD God formed from the ground all the land animals and the birds of the air. The LORD brought them to the man to see what he would make of them. The man gave each living creature its first name, and the names stuck. He named them all: the wild animals, the farm animals, and the birds of the air. But none of them made the grade as a suitable partner for the man. So the LORD God put the man into a deep sleep, out for the count. While the man was under, the LORD removed one of his ribs and sealed up the flesh where it had come from. And then, using the rib from the man’s side, the LORD God fashioned a woman, and brought her to the man. This time the man said,

“Yes! At last! One of my own kind!
My own flesh and blood!
This one will be called Woman,
because there is a part of me in her from the start.”

That is why men and women leave their parents and tie the knot with one another. They become an item — one flesh.

Genesis 3: 8-15

This passage is set for the following occasion(s):
- Proper 5 in Year B
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

In the cool of the evening breeze, Adam and Eve heard the LORD God walking towards them in the garden. They panicked and hid behind the some trees, trying to avoid coming face to face with the LORD God. But the LORD God was looking for them, and called out to them, saying, “Where are you?”

The man said, “I heard you coming through the garden and I panicked because I was stark naked, so I dived for cover.”

The LORD God asked, “Who pointed out that you were naked? It never bothered you before. Have you eaten fruit from the tree that I clearly told you not to eat from?”

The man said, “It wasn’t my fault. You put this woman here with me. She gave me the fruit and I ate it.”

So the LORD God turned to the woman and said, “What’s the story? What have you done?”

The woman replied, “I was tricked into eating it by the snake.”

So the LORD God passed sentence on each of them, beginning with the snake, saying,

“A curse upon you for what you have done.
You of all the animals, cursed!
You of all the wild creatures, cursed!

Down on your belly you go!
Face down: you can eat dust
for the rest of your life!

You and the woman will be sworn enemies.
There will always be war
between your offspring and hers.

Her offspring will go for your head
and you will go for his heel.

Genesis 6:9-22; 7:24; 8:14-19

This passage is set for the following occasions:
- 9th Sunday between Epiphany and Lent in Year A
- Proper 4 in Year A
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

This is the story of Noah. Noah was a man who always did the right thing by everybody: the only person of real integrity on the earth in that generation. Noah and his wife had three sons named Shem, Ham and Japheth.

The rest of the human race had become totally corrupt and violent, and God was sick of the sight of it. Seeing how depraved everyone had become, God spoke to Noah and said:

“I have made up my mind to wipe the human race off the face of the earth, because they have made the earth a violent and heartless place. So now I am going to destroy them and wipe the planet clean, ready for a fresh start. Build yourself an enormous lifeboat according to these specifications. Use marine-quality timbers for the construction and apply a waterproof lining of tar, inside and out. Build it with three deck levels and many cabins. The overall dimensions are to be as follows: a length of 150 metres; a width of 25 metres; and a height of 15 metres. Build a roof over the top with a half metre clearance between it and the top of the side walls. Build the lifeboat with a single entrance on the side.

“What I am going to do is completely flood the earth with water to wipe out everything that lives and breathes on it. Every creature on earth will die. But I am going to form a new alliance with life on earth, setting it up with you. You are to move into the lifeboat along with your wife, your sons, and their wives. You are also to take on board a male and a female of every kind of living creature to keep them alive with you. Every kind of bird, every kind of animal, and every kind of creepy-crawly on earth: take with you a breeding pair of each to keep them alive. You are also to store a full range of food on board the life-boat; enough to feed your family and all the animals.”

So Noah went ahead and followed God’s instructions to the letter. Sure enough, the swollen waters flooded the earth for one hundred and fifty days. Even after that, everyone had to stay on board for nearly three months more while the earth dried out. Eventually God said to Noah:

“It is time for you and your whole family to leave the lifeboat. Unload all the living creatures that are with you; all the birds and animals and creepy-crawlies of every kind. Release them so that they can breed like rabbits and restock the earth.”

So Noah disembarked with his wife and their sons and their son’s wives. And out of the lifeboat with them came all the animals, all the creepy-crawlies, and all the birds – breeding pairs of every kind of creature that lives on the earth.

Genesis 7: 1-5, 11-18 ; 8: 6-18 ; 9: 8-13

This passage is set for the following occasion(s):
-the Great Paschal Vigil
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

The LORD said to Noah:

“I want you and your family to board the giant lifeboat you have built, because you are the only person alive who does the right thing in my eyes. It is time to move the animals on board too. Take seven breeding pairs of every kind of animal that can be offered in worship, one breeding pair of every kind that cannot, and seven pairs of every kind of flying bird. In this way we will ensure the survival of all their species on the earth. You’ve only got seven days before the rain starts, so get cracking. I will make it bucket down, day and night, for forty days, to wipe every living thing from the face of the earth, everything I have created.”

So Noah got stuck into it and followed the LORD’s instructions to the letter. Noah was six hundred years old at the time, and sure enough, on the seventeenth day of the second month that year, great torrents of water came flooding up from beneath the ground and the clouds burst from above. Rain bucketed down, day and night, for forty days. The very day it began, Noah finished loading the lifeboat and moved in with his wife, his three sons — Shem, Ham and Japheth — and their three wives. On board they had loaded every kind of animal, wild and domestic, every kind of creepy-crawly, and every kind of bird and flying animal. There were breeding pairs of every species that lives and breathes on the earth, and they all went on board the lifeboat with Noah. Noah had rounded them all up and herded them into the boat, just as God had instructed him, and when they were all aboard, the LORD closed the door to keep them in.

The flood waters surged over the earth for forty days, and as the waters rose the lifeboat floated up well clear of the ground below. The waters continued to swell, becoming deeper and deeper over the earth, but the lifeboat floated safely on the surface.

When the rain stopped after forty days, Noah opened a window in the lifeboat he had built, and released a crow. It never came back, but kept flying back and forth until the waters had dried up. So Noah released a pigeon, in order to find out whether the waters had subsided enough to find dry land. But the pigeon returned to the boat, because the water was still too deep and it couldn’t find anywhere else to land. Noah put out his hand for the bird to land on and brought it back inside. He waited another seven days and then released the pigeon from the boat again. That evening the pigeon came back carrying a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak, so Noah knew that the waters had subsided enough for the land to begin drying out. Seven days later he released the pigeon again, and this time it never came back.

They had been in the lifeboat for nearly a year before the flood was gone completely. It was New Year’s Day when Noah opened up the roof of the boat and took a look around. He could see that the ground was still soggy, but drying fast. Eventually, on the twenty seventh day of the second month that year, the earth was dry enough, and God said to Noah:

So Noah disembarked with his wife and their sons and their son’s wives. Then God said to Noah and his family:

Genesis 9: 8-17

This passage is set for the following occasion(s):
- 1st Sunday in Lent in Year B
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

God said to Noah and his family:

“I, myself, am forging an alliance with you, and with all your descendants to come, and with every living creature; all the birds, domestic animals, and wild animals of the earth who came out of the lifeboat with you. In the terms of this alliance which I am forging with you, I am giving you my word that never again will all life be wiped out by a flood. There will never be another flood that will totally destroy the earth. I am making this alliance between me and you and all the living creatures that are with you, and I am signing it in the clouds. The rainbow that I have put in the clouds for you all to see is my signature on the alliance between me and the earth. Whenever I make the clouds gather and my rainbow signature becomes visible there, I will remember the alliance that governs my relationship with you and with every living creature on earth. I will remember, and the waters will never again become a flood that wipes out all life on earth. I will see the rainbow which I have signed in the clouds and remember that I am party to a permanent binding alliance with every living creature of every kind on the earth. I assure you, Noah, that with this signature that you see in the clouds, I have sealed the alliance between me, God, and the entire community of living creatures on the earth.”

Genesis 11: 1-9

This passage is set for the following occasion:
-the Day of Pentecost in Year C
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

In ancient times, everyone in the whole world spoke the same language and could understand each other clearly. As the human race spread out towards the East, they settled the plains region in an area known as Shinar. Once there, an enormous project was proposed:

“Come one and all, let’s build ourselves a great city with the world’s tallest skyscraper. Let’s use the latest technology: kiln-fired bricks instead of stone, and bitumen instead of mortar. Let’s earn ourselves a global reputation for innovation and excellence. If we don’t, we’ll be nothing but mediocre little mobs, scattered all over the world!”

So the project was begun, and the LORD came down for a look. Seeing the construction of the city and the skyscraper underway, the LORD said:

“Look, these people are getting too big for their boots, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. United by a common language and common ambition, there will be no stopping them. Come, let us go down and reprogram their tongues so that they will begin to speak in different languages and not be able to understand each other.”

So the LORD split them up into different language groups and scattered them across the face of the globe. The construction of the city was abandoned. The place came to be known as Babel because it was there that the peoples’ languages became like confused babble to one another and they split up into separate tribes that kept away from each other.

Genesis 12: 1-9

This passage is set for the following occasion:
- Proper 5 in Year A
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

The LORD spoke to Abram, and said:

“Get up and leave your country, your relatives and the family of your parents, and move to the land that I will show you. I will make things go well for you and see that your descendants become a great nation. I will see to it that you are remembered as one of the greats; as one whose life was a blessing to others. I will do good to those who do good to you, and I will pull the rug out from under anyone who pulls the rug out from under you. Life will be better for everyone on earth because of you.”

So, at the age of seventy five, Abram got up and left Haran, just as the LORD had told him to. He took with him his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all their labourers. They packed up all the possessions they had accumulated over the years in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan.

When they arrived in the land of Canaan, Abram pushed on as far as Shechem, to the sacred site known as the tree of Moreh. The Canaanite people were living in the land at the time, but the LORD turned up and made a promise to Abram, saying, “I will give this land to your descendants.”

Abram built a monument to the LORD there, so that the place where the LORD had appeared to him might be a place for offering worship. After that, he set out again and headed into the hill country to the east of Bethel. He set up camp between Bethel and Ai, and there he built another monument to the LORD and called on the LORD in prayer. From there, Abram pushed south towards the Negeb Desert, making the journey one stage at a time.

Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18

This passage is set for the following occasions:
- 2nd Sunday in Lent in Year C
- Proper 14 in Year C (v.1-6) (Themed series)
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

The LORD spoke to Abram in a vision, saying, “Abram, don’t you worry about a thing. I am your armour-plated protection and you will be greatly rewarded for your loyalty to me.”

But Abram said, “Thank you, Lord GOD, but the only thing I really want is the one thing you’ve never given me: children. I have longed for children of my own but you have not given me any. When I die, there will be no one to carry on my family name, and since the only person born in my house is Eliezer, my Turkish servant; he will inherit everything I own.

But the LORD spoke to Abram again, saying, “Eliezer will not be your heir. You will be able to pass on your property to a child of your own.”

The LORD took Abram outside and said, “Look at the night sky, Abram. See if you can count how many stars there are. You can’t, can you? Well, your descendants will be as uncountable as the stars in the night sky.”

Abram took the LORD’s word on trust, and for that the LORD regarded him as a good man.

The LORD spoke to Abram further, saying, “It was me who brought you safely here when you emigrated from the Chaldean land of Ur. It was me who gave you this land.”

But Abram said, “Lord GOD, how can I know for sure that this land is mine to keep?”

The LORD replied, “Okay, I’ll go through the ritual of a binding promise. On pain of death, you will have my word. You go and set up what is customary for the ceremony.”

So the next morning, Abram slaughtered three animals: a heifer, a ram, and a female goat — each three years old. He cut them in half and laid the halves opposite each other in two lines. He also killed a turtledove and a pigeon and laid one in each line. For the rest of the day, while he waited for the ceremony to commence, he was kept busy protecting the carcasses from the birds of prey.

When the sun went down, Abram was surrounded by a dense and awesome darkness, and he fell into a deep sleep. When the last glow was gone from the sky and everything was pitch black, the presence of the LORD appeared as a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch, and passed between the pieces of animal carcass. That completed the ritual, and in that way, the LORD made a binding promise to Abram, saying, “You have my word that I will give this land to your descendants, all the way from the Egyptian border to the great Euphrates river.”

Genesis 17: 1-7, 15-16

This passage is set for the following occasion(s):
- 2nd Sunday in Lents in Year B
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

One day, when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD turned up and spoke to him, saying, “I am God Almighty. You are to live your life openly before me, with absolute integrity. I will put in place an alliance between me and you, and under its terms, I will make sure you have a huge number of descendants.”

Abram dropped in his tracks with his face to the ground as God continued to speak to him, saying:

“I, myself, am forging this alliance with you: I am promising that you will be the ancestor of a whole bunch of nations. You are not to be known by the name Abram anymore. From now on, your name will be Abraham, because it means ‘the father of many’, and that is what you will be. I will make everything go well for you, and your family will multiply rapidly. From among your offspring, whole nations and kings will emerge. I will put this alliance in place between me and you and all who are to come in your family line through all generations. This alliance will last forever, committing me to being God to you and to your descendants after you for all time.

Your wife Sarai is in on this alliance too. However her name is to change too. From now on her name will be Sarah. I will see to it that things go well for her, and what’s more, she and you will conceive a child together and she will give birth to a son. I will make things go well for Sarah, and in time, nations and great rulers will trace their family line back to her.”

Genesis 18: 1-15; 21: 1-7

This passage is set for the following occasions:
- Proper 6 in Year A
- Proper 11 in Year C (18:1-10a) (themed series)
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

One blazing hot summer afternoon, Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his tent, when the LORD appeared to him. Looking up, Abraham saw three strangers approaching him. He immediately jumped up and hurried to welcome them as honoured guests. He said, “Please allow me the honour of sharing the hospitality of my home with you. Come in. Take a bath. Put your feet up for a bit. Let me serve you up a meal so that you can leave refreshed and strengthened. I would count it a favour to have the opportunity to serve you in this way.”

So they said, “Thank you, we accept.”

Abraham hurried into the tent and said, “Sarah. Quick! Knock up a batch of scones while I organise the barbecue.”

Then he ran out to his grazing herd and butchered a prime calf. He instructed one of his workers to prepare the best cuts for the barbecue. When it was all ready, he served it up for his guests with a yoghurt dip and plenty to drink, and waited on them while they ate.

During the meal, they said to him, “Where is your wife, Sarah?”

Abraham replied, “She’s inside; in the tent.”

Then one of the three said, “Mark my words! I’ll be back this way in about a year’s time, and by then your wife Sarah will have a son.”

Sarah was in the tent behind them as they talked, and she overheard this. Knowing well that she and Abraham were both elderly, and that she had long since passed menopause, she laughed to herself, saying, “Fat chance! Am I going to have such pleasure at my age; and with my husband past it too?”

The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and question whether she can have a child at her age? Is there any good thing that the LORD is incapable of doing? I will be back this way in about a year’s time, just as I said, and Sarah will have a son.”

Sarah was shocked that she had been caught, and blurted out, “I didn’t mean to laugh.”“Yes, but you did laugh,” replied the LORD.

The LORD was good to Sarah and followed through on the promise made to her. Sarah fell pregnant to Abraham and gave birth to a baby son. This happened when they were both old and grey — Abraham was already one hundred years old when the child was born. Sarah gave birth to their son right at the time that God had spoken about. Abraham named his son Isaac, and circumcised him when he was eight days old, because that is what God had told him to do. Sarah said, “Now God has given me something to laugh about! And everyone who hears the news will laugh with me! Once no one would have dared raise the topic of me having a baby with Abraham, but now I have given birth to the old man’s son!”

Genesis 18: 20-32

This passage is set for the following occasions:
- Proper 12 in Year C (themed series)
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

The LORD said to Abraham, “The reports I am hearing about the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are full of allegations of callous depravity and corruption. I have decided to go down and see for myself whether the situation is really as horrendous as the reports make out. Perhaps the people are really not so bad, but I need to know.”

So the visitors set off in the direction of Sodom, leaving Abraham in the presence of the LORD. Abraham turned to the LORD and said, “Surely you wouldn’t just wipe out everybody; the good along with the bad? What if there are fifty decent, honest people in the city? Will you still go ahead and wipe out the city instead of sparing it for the sake of the fifty good people who live there? Far be it from you to be so indiscriminate, to lump the good people in with the evil, and punish them all the same. How could you? You are the one who sits in judgment over all the earth; surely you must be seen to be fair in your own actions.”

The LORD replied, “If I find fifty decent, honest people in Sodom, I will pardon the whole city for their sake.”

Abraham spoke up again, saying, “I know I am way out of line challenging you, Lord — mere mortal that I am — but what if the count falls five short? Would five people make such a difference that you would go ahead and destroy the whole city?”

The LORD replied, “I will hold fire if I find forty-five decent people.”

Abraham pressed on: “What if you could only find forty there?”

The LORD replied, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.”

Then Abraham said, “Forgive me for pushing the issue, Lord, but what if you can only rustle up thirty?”

The LORD replied, “I will hold fire if I find thirty of them.”

“Maybe I’m pushing my luck, speaking to you like this, Lord,” said Abraham, “but let’s say you found only twenty. What then?”

The LORD replied, “For the sake of twenty I will spare the city.”

Abraham said, “Lord, please don’t be angry with me if I speak one more time; but what if you can find only ten good people in Sodom?”

“Then for the sake of those ten,” the LORD answered, “I will not destroy the city.”

Genesis 21: 8-21

This passage is set for the following occasion:
- Proper 7 in Year A
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

Sarah nursed her son Isaac until he was about three years old, and on the day he was weaned, his father Abraham threw a big party to celebrate. But Sarah saw Ishmael — the son of Abraham and his Egyptian servant, Hagar — laughing with Isaac. She said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son. I don’t want my son Isaac having to share his inheritance with the son of a slave woman. Kick them out of here.”

Abraham felt really cut up over this, because both of the boys were his sons. But God said to him, “Don’t stress over your servant and her son. Go along with whatever Sarah demands of you, because it is Isaac’s descendants who will be known as your offspring. But I know that Ishmael is also your son, so I will make sure his descendants become a great nation too.”

So, early the next morning, Abraham got up and packed some food and water into a backpack and put it on Hagar’s shoulders. Then he sent her and the child away. She left and wandered aimlessly in the desert wilderness known as Beer-sheba. The water Abraham had packed for them soon ran out and, in despair, Hagar abandoned the child under a bush. She herself went and sat down about a hundred metres away because she couldn’t bear to watch the child die there in the desert. As she sat there, she cried loudly and bitterly. God heard the sounds of distress from the child and sent a messenger from heaven to speak to Hagar. The messenger said, “What is the matter, Hagar? You have got nothing to fear, because God has heard the boy crying where you left him. Come on. Pick the child up and don’t let go of him again, because I will make him the father of a great nation.”

Then God opened her eyes and she spotted a small water hole. She refilled her water containers with clean water and gave the boy some to drink.

God was on-side with Ishmael, and he grew up living in the wilderness where he became an expert bushman and hunter. He lived in the desert at Paran, and his mother got a wife for him from her homeland, Egypt.

Genesis 22: 1-18

This passage is set for the following occasions:
-the Great Paschal Vigil
- Proper 8 in Year A (v.1-14)
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

This is the story of how God put Abraham to the test to find out whether he really had what it takes.

God called to him, saying, “Abraham!”

“At your service,” Abraham replied.

God said, “Go and get Isaac, your son, your only son whom you love. Take him to the mountain that I will point out to you in the land of Moriah. There you are to sacrifice him to me on an altar as a burnt offering.”

So Abraham got up early the next morning and chopped wood for the fire on the altar. He saddled his donkey and set out for the place that God had told him to go with Isaac and two of his hired hands. After three day’s journey, Abraham could finally see their destination in the distance. He said to the two hired hands, “Wait here with the donkey while the boy and I go on up there to worship. We will then return and meet you back here.”

Abraham got Isaac to carry the wood for the burnt offering, and he himself carried the knife and the coals for starting the fire. As the two of them walked on together, Isaac spoke to Abraham saying, “Father!”

“At your service, son,” Abraham replied.

“Haven’t we forgotten something?” Isaac asked. “We’ve got everything we need to get the fire going, but we haven’t brought a lamb to sacrifice as a burnt offering.”

Abraham said, “God will personally provide the lamb for the sacrifice, my son.”

So the two of them walked on together. When they arrived at the spot that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar and stacked the wood on it ready for the fire. Then he tied up his son Isaac, and laid him on top of the wood on the altar. He took the knife in hand and was about to kill his son, when the messenger of the LORD called to him from heaven, saying, “Abraham, Abraham!”

“At your service,” he replied.

The messenger said, “Put down your knife and don’t hurt the boy in any way, for now I know what I needed to know. Since you have not even drawn the line at giving up your only son for me, I know that you trust God, no matter what.”
As he looked up, Abraham saw a ram with its horns entangled in the scrub. So he went and got it, and offered up the ram on the altar as a burnt offering in place of his son.

From then on, Abraham called that place “The LORD will provide,” and a saying was coined that you still hear today: “On the LORD’s mountain all will be provided.”

The messenger of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven again, saying, “This is what the LORD says to you:

I swear to you, and give you my personal guarantee, that because you have done what I told you to do, and not even drawn the line at giving up your only son for me, I will do the right thing by you and set you up for life. I will see to it that your descendants become as countless as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the seashore. They will defeat their enemies and take over their cities and towns. Through your offspring, a better life will be available to everyone on earth, because you obeyed when I spoke to you.”

Genesis 24: 34-38, 42-49, 58-67

This passage is set for the following occasion:
- Proper 9 in Year A
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

Abraham’s trusted servant addressed Rebekah’s family, saying:

“I work for Abraham and he has sent me here. The LORD has set my boss up very nicely. He has become a very wealthy man, with huge holdings of livestock, investments in silver and gold, a large workforce, and convoys of transport animals. My boss and his wife Sarah became the parents of a son in their old age, and they have signed over their entire fortune to him. My boss has given me the job of finding a suitable wife for his son, but he made me promise that I would not let him marry one of the local Canaanite girls. Instead he has sent me to find a wife for his son from here among his own relatives.

“So, when I pulled up at the waterhole here today, I prayed that the God of my boss would put me on the right track. I said, ‘O LORD, I have arrived here at this waterhole where the young women come to collect water. I will ask the first one who comes for a drink, and she will offer me a drink and offer to draw water for my camels as well. LORD, let her be the one you have chosen to be the bride of my boss’s son.’

“Even before I finished my prayer, Rebekah came out to fill her water container. After she had gone down to the waterhole and collected her water, I asked her for a drink. Without hesitation she offered me a drink from her water container and then offered to draw more water for my camels. So I accepted the drink and she watered my camels. Then I asked her whose daughter she was, and she told me that her father was Bethuel, the son of Nahor and Milcah. I knew then that she came from among my boss’s relatives, so I put on her the ring and the jewellery he had sent. Then I bowed my head and gave thanks to the LORD, the God who my boss Abraham worships. The LORD had put me on the right track so that I could find a suitable wife for my boss’s son from among his own people.

Now then, let me know whether you will do the right thing by my boss. Or if not, tell me straight, so that I will know which way to turn.”

So the family called Rebekah and asked her, “Are you willing to go with this man?”

“I am,” she said.

So they farewelled their sister Rebekah, and sent her off with Abraham’s servant and his drivers. They also sent with her the family servant who had been her childhood nanny. They gave Rebekah their blessing, saying to her,

“Sister, may you become the mother of millions;
may your descendants triumph in everything they do.”

With that, Rebekah and the servant girls who were going with her got up and were seated on the camels. They set off, following Abraham’s servant as he headed for home; mission accomplished.

Now Isaac was living in the southern part of Canaan, near a waterhole called ‘the Eye of God’. One evening as he was out walking to unwind at the end of the day, he looked up and saw the convoy of camels approaching. Rebekah saw him in the distance, and quickly slipped off her camel and asked the servant, “Who is that man coming towards us?”

The servant replied, “That’s him, Master Isaac.”

So she made herself ready, with her veil over her face. The servant told Isaac all about the success of his mission. Then Isaac met Rebekah and took her home and she became his wife. As the new leading woman of the tribe, she was given the home that had belonged to Isaac’s late mother, Sarah. Isaac loved Rebekah greatly, and she was a comfort to him as he grieved the death of his mother.

Genesis 25: 19-34

This passage is set for the following occasion:
- Proper 10 in Year A
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

This is the story of the children of Isaac. Isaac was the son of Abraham, and he was forty years old when he married Rebekah. Rebekah was the daughter of Bethuel and the sister of Laban – Arameans from northern Syria. Despite many years of trying, Isaac and Rebekah were unable to get pregnant, so Isaac prayed to the LORD for help. The LORD granted his request, and Rebekah fell pregnant. Her pregnancy was so difficult that it seemed as though there was a war going on in her womb and she felt like she would be better off dead. In desperation she went to ask the LORD what was going on, and the LORD said to her:

“You are going to have twins who will grow into two nations;
two peoples who will always be at each other’s throats.
The firstborn will have brute strength on his side,
but he will end up serving the younger one.”

Sure enough, when the time came for her to give birth, she delivered twins. The first one was such a hairy baby that he looked like he was wrapped in a red rug. They named him Esau. His brother followed him out of the womb with his hand holding tightly on to Esau’s heel. They named him Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when his sons were born.

As the boys grew up, Esau proved to be the rugged outdoors type; a skilled bushman and hunter. Wild game-meat was Isaac’s favourite food, so Esau’s hunting skills made him the favourite with his father. Jacob, on the other hand, was the quiet type who spent most of his time around the home, and he became his mother’s favourite.

One time when Esau came in from the bush, he was famished, and he found Jacob cooking up a pot of lentil stew. “Give me a plate of that red stuff,” Esau said to Jacob. “I’m starving to death!” (That’s how he got his nickname, “Edom” or “Red”.)

Jacob said, “You are not getting any of this until you sign over to me your privileges and inheritance as the firstborn.”

Esau said, “What good is my inheritance to me when I’m about to starve to death?”

Jacob said, “Sign on the line first.”

So Esau put pen to paper and signed over to Jacob the privileges and inheritance that were his as the firstborn. Then Jacob served him up a meal of bread and lentil stew. Esau ate and drank, and then got up and went about his business as though his birthright had meant absolutely nothing to him.

Genesis 28: 10-19a

This passage is set for the following occasion:
- Proper 11 in Year A
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

Jacob was travelling from Beer-sheba to Haran, and was camping out each night on the way. One night he set up camp in a suitable place, and bedded himself down using a rock that he found there for a headrest. In a dream he saw a ramp spanning the gap between earth and heaven, and God’s messengers were using the ramp to go up and down between the two. As he looked at it, the LORD came and stood beside him and said:

“I am the LORD, the God of your fathers, Abraham and Isaac. I will give to you and your descendants the land on which you are now camped. Your descendants will multiply like a cloud of dust, spreading out in all directions and settling all over the world. Life will be better for all the peoples of the world because of you and your descendants. And you can know for sure that I am with you. I will look after you wherever you go and I will get you safely back to this land. I will stick with you and make good on all my promises to you.”

Jacob woke up suddenly and said, “No bull, the LORD is right here in this place, and I didn’t realise it!” And he was shaking in his boots at the thought of it. “This place makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck,” he said. “This must fair dinkum be the house of God – the front gate of heaven itself!”

So when Jacob got up early the next morning, he took the stone he had used for a headrest and set it up as a monument. He poured oil on top of it to dedicate it to the LORD. He named the place ‘Bethel’, which means ‘House of God’.

Genesis 29: 15-28

This passage is set for the following occasion:
- Proper 12 in Year A
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

To fulfil a promise to his father, Jacob travelled to his grandfather’s homeland to find a wife from among his own tribal group. He boarded there with his uncle, Laban, and when he had been there for a month, Laban said to him, “You shouldn’t have to work for me for nothing, just because you are related to me. Tell me what you think would be a fair wage.”

Now Laban had two grown daughters named Leah and Rachel. Leah was the older of the two and had a nice personality, but Rachel had a gorgeous face and a shapely body, and Jacob fell head-over-heels in love with her. So when Laban asked him about wages, he said, “I want to marry your younger daughter, Rachel, and I will work for you for seven years as the dowry payment.”

Laban replied, “You’ve got a deal. I’d much rather give her to you than have her marry some stranger.”

So Jacob put in seven years’ hard work in order to gain Rachel as his wife, but it seemed a small price to pay for one he loved so much, and the time flew. Then one day, Jacob said to Laban, “I’ve fulfilled my side of the deal. It is time for you to give me my wife in marriage so that I can make love with her.”

So Laban gathered together all the locals for a huge wedding feast, and they ate and drank long into the night. But the veiled woman who Laban gave away and who Jacob took to his bed and made love with, was Leah. When the morning sun came through the window, he discovered he was lying next to the wrong woman! He stormed off to Laban to demand an explanation. “What’s going on here? We made a deal that I was working for you in return for Rachel, so why have you conned me?”

Laban calmly replied, “It is not the done thing in this neck of the woods to marry off a younger daughter while her older sister is still unmarried. Do the right thing by Leah, and take her on her honeymoon, and as soon as you get back, I’ll let you marry Rachel as well. Then you can work for me for another seven years to pay off the second dowry. So Jacob copped it sweet and fulfilled his obligations to Leah. When their honeymoon was over, there was another wedding and Laban gave his daughter Rachel to Jacob to be his wife.

Genesis 32: 22-31

This passage is set for the following occasions:
- Proper 13 in Year A
- Proper 24 in Year C (themed series)
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

As he returned from his self-imposed exile, Jacob set up camp for a night at the place where the road crossed the Jabbok Creek. During the night, he got up and decided that it would be safer to shift everyone across to the other side of the creek. So he sent his two wives, his two maids, his eleven children, and all their belongings across the creek while he stayed on alone at the original campsite. There in the darkness, he suddenly found himself wrestling with a stranger. The fight continued until the first light of dawn. Unable to subdue Jacob, the stranger swung a low blow that caught Jacob off-guard and dislocated his hip. Still Jacob would not give up, and the stranger said, “Call it quits! The sun is coming up and you’ve got a big day ahead of you, so let me go.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not release my grip until you give me a blessing.”

So the stranger said, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he replied.

“Not any more,” the stranger said. “From now on you will be known as Israel, because you have struggled against God and against people and you have held your own.”

Then Jacob said to the stranger, “Please tell me your name.”

“Do you really need to ask who I am?” the stranger replied, and then gave Jacob a blessing.

As the stranger departed, Jacob said to himself, “I have come face to face with God and survived to tell the tale!” So he named that place ‘Peniel’ which means ‘face of God’. The sun was fully risen as he left Peniel, walking with a painful limp because of his dislocated hip.

Genesis 37: 1-4, 12-28

This passage is set for the following occasion:
- Proper 14 in Year A
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

This is the story of the family of Jacob, who made his home in the land of Canaan where his father had settled as a migrant.

Jacob and his four wives had many children, but his favourite was Joseph who had been born to him when he was already an old man. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he was working with four of his brothers herding sheep, and he dobbed them in to their father over some things they did wrong. Joseph was already offside with his brothers because of the favouritism their father showed him. They were especially galled that Jacob had singled out Joseph with a gift of a very classy coat. Things got to the stage where his brothers hated him and couldn’t say a civil word to him.

On one occasion, Joseph had stayed at home while the rest of his brothers went droving towards Shechem in search of good pasture for the sheep. Jacob called Joseph and said, “I’ve got a job for you.”

“No worries. I’m free,” said Joseph.

“Your brothers are droving the sheep out near Shechem,” said Jacob. “Go and track them down and see if all is well with them and the sheep, and then come back and let me know.”

So Joseph headed off from the Hebron Valley and began his search. While he was hunting high and low around Shechem, a man asked him what he was looking for, and he replied, “I am looking for my brothers who are droving sheep out this way. Can you tell me where they might be?”

The man replied, “They were here, but they are gone. They said they were going out Dothan way.”

So Joseph headed off on the trail of his brothers and found them out at Dothan. They saw him coming from a distance, and before he arrived, they put their heads together and plotted murder. They said to one another, “Here he comes; the one who dreams of lording it over us. Let’s knock him off and dump his body down a mine shaft. We can report that a wild animal dragged him off. Let’s see what comes of his dreams then!”

But when Reuben heard what they were up to, he stepped in to spare Joseph, saying, “Let’s not kill him. We don’t want his blood on our conscience. Why don’t we just put him down a mine shaft out here in the desert and leave him there?”

Reuben was actually thinking that he could make a hero of himself by coming back later and taking Joseph home to his father, but the suggestion seemed good to his brothers. So when Joseph pulled up alongside them, they tore off his coat – the classy coat that he like to strut around in – and dropped him down an empty mine shaft. There was no water in the mine shaft, but there was no way out either.

A short time later, as they were sitting down eating lunch, they saw a convoy of Ishmaelite traders coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded up with raw materials bound for processing in Egypt. Seeing them, Judah said to his brothers, “Hey, we could do better for ourselves than killing our brother and having to dispose of his body. We could make a nice profit on him if we sold him to the Ishmaelite traders. Then we wouldn’t have to live with the thought of having killed one of our own flesh and blood.”

The rest of the brothers were all in favour of this idea, so they flagged down the traders and struck a deal with them. They pulled Joseph out of the mine shaft and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. The Ishmaelite traders took Joseph to Egypt where they sold him in the slave markets.

Genesis 45: 1-15

This passage is set for the following occasions:
- Proper 15 in Year A
- 7th Sunday between Epiphany and Lent in Year C (v.3-11, 15)
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

As his brothers spoke, Joseph was getting very emotional, and he didn’t want his servants to see him crying so he ordered them all out of the room. Once he was alone with his brothers, he blurted out the truth about his identity. “I am Joseph, your brother,” he said, and promptly burst into tears. His sobbing was so loud that his Egyptian servants heard it from outside and sent a message about it to the Pharaoh’s palace.

Amidst his tears, Joseph asked his brothers whether his father was still alive, but they were in such a state of shock and panic that they couldn’t even answer him. Joseph called them to gather close around him and, when they did, he said:

“I am your brother, Joseph: the one you sold to the Egyptian slave traders. But don’t panic! Despite what you did, it has worked out for the best. Your actions played into God’s hands, because God was bringing me here so that I could save many lives. The land has been in the grip of drought and famine for two years already, and it’s only going to get worse. It will be another five years before crops can be sown and harvested again. You and your families would have all perished if God hadn’t brought me here ahead of you, but now you will be among the survivors. So, don’t kick yourselves: it was not you, but God, who brought me here. Because of what God has done, even Pharaoh looks up to me now. I run all his business for him, both in the palace and in the whole land of Egypt.”

Joseph then told his brothers that he wanted them to get home as quickly as possible and deliver a message to his father. This is what it said:

“Dear Dad, I am your son, Joseph, and I am alive! God has put me in charge of the whole land of Egypt. Move down here at once. I will set aside land for you in the region of Goshen so that you can live near me. There will be plenty of room for you, and for your children, your grandchildren, all your livestock, and all your possessions. The drought will last for another five years, but I will provide for you and all your family and livestock so that you will be protected from starvation.”

Joseph said to his brothers, “Now all of you, and especially my brother Benjamin, can see from what I’ve said that I really am Joseph. So don’t waste any time. Get back to my father and tell him what a big man I’ve become here in Egypt and bring him down here as soon as possible.”

Then Joseph threw his arms around Benjamin and wept openly. Benjamin, too, was crying as he hugged his brother. With tears flowing freely, Joseph hugged and kissed all his brothers, and they finally loosened up and were able to talk with him.

Genesis 50: 15-21

This passage is set for the following occasion(s):
- Proper 19 in Year A (themed series)
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

After Jacob’s funeral, Joseph’s brothers began to worry that Joseph might still be carrying a grudge against them for selling him into slavery and faking his death all those years before. They were afraid that he might have just been waiting until their father was dead before taking his revenge. So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Shortly before he died, your father put a message in his will for you, saying, ‘To my son, Joseph, I beg you to forgive your brothers for their horrendous crime against you and for all the hurt they caused you.’ So please forgive us for our crime against you. We too are in the service of the God of your father.”

Joseph broke down in tears when he got the message. His brothers came and fell to their knees before him, saying, “We are here at your mercy to do whatever you demand of us.”

But Joseph spoke to them kindly and bent over backwards to reassure them, saying, “Relax! You’ve got nothing to fear from me. I’m not setting myself up as God, so get up off your knees! I know you meant the worst for me then, but God was at work to make the most of what you did. To this day, God is working through what you did to keep the growing multitude of God’s people safe. So don’t worry. I will personally set you up for life, you and your families.”

Exodus

Exodus 1:8 - 2:10

This passage is set for the following occasion:
- Proper 16 in Year A
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

A new king came to power in Egypt, and he knew nothing of Joseph’s place in the history of his nation or why the Israelite people had been welcomed to live there. In his speeches to his people, he appealed to nationalist sentiments and stirred up racial hostility, saying:

“Look at what is going on. There are too many of these Jews in our country and they are getting to powerful. We need to exercise sound management to ensure that the situation does not get out of hand. Otherwise these people will overrun us, and in the event of war they will side with our enemies, fight against us, and escape, leaving our economy in ruins.”

So the Egyptian authorities brought in a policy of oppression, forcing the Israelites into slave labour gangs with harsh taskmasters cracking the whip. These labour gangs were used in the king’s huge infrastructure program, and among other things, they built the massive royal storage facilities in the cities of Pithom and Rameses. However, the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more land they occupied, and that in turn fuelled the fear and hostility towards them. The taskmasters became increasingly ruthless in the way they worked the labour gangs, and life for the workers became a bitter misery as they were worked to the bone on the building sites and in every kind of heavy outdoors work. The productivity targets were outrageous and the treatment of the workers was utterly inhumane.

The policies of oppression became increasingly genocidal. The two Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, were given orders from the king that when they assisted Hebrew women giving birth, they were to kill all the male babies born and allow only the female babies to live. But the midwives cared more about about what God thought than what the king said, so they did not obey the order and continued to let the all the babies live. When he realised that his order had not been carried out, the king called in the midwives and demanded an explanation: “Why have you allowed these baby boys to live?”

The midwives answered, “The Hebrew women seem to have more oomph than the Egyptian women. They pop their babies out so quickly that by the time we arrive, it’s all over.”

And so because the midwives had done the right thing by God, God did the right thing by them and enabled them to have families of their own. The Hebrew people continued to multiply and become a more powerful presence within the country. Eventually the king issued a new order to everyone in his nation: “You are to throw every Hebrew boy that is born into the Nile River. Only the girls are allowed to live.”

A man and a woman from the tribe of Levi got married and fell pregnant. When the child was born, it was a strong and healthy baby boy, and his mother kept him hidden for three months. When he became too boisterous to keep him hidden, she made a little lifeboat for him by plastering a cane basket with tar. She placed him in the little lifeboat and floated it among the reeds near the bank of the river. The baby’s older sister kept watch from a distance to see what would happen to him.

Before long, the daughter of the king came down and took a dip in the river while her bodyguards walked along the bank. She spotted the little lifeboat among the reeds and sent one of her servant girls to get it. When the king’s daughter opened the lid and saw the baby crying inside, she began to feel all clucky. “This must be one of the slave children,” she said.

Then the baby’s sister spoke up and asked the king’s daughter, “Would you like me to go and find a slave woman to nurse the baby for you?”

“Yes,” said the king’s daughter. “Go and get one right away.”

So the girl went off and came back with the baby’s mother. The king’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse it for me. I will pay you to be his nanny.”

So the mother took the baby home and raised him. When he had grown up enough, she delivered him back to the king’s daughter, who adopted him as her own. She named him Moses, because it sounded a bit like the word meaning to pull someone out of the water.

Exodus 3: 1-15

This passage is set for the following occasion(s):
- Proper 17 in Year A
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

Moses married the daughter of a Midianite priest named Jethro, and worked for him droving his sheep. One day he drove the sheep out back of beyond, and he ended up grazing them on the slopes of Mount Sinai, the mountain of God. While he was there, he saw a bush burst into flames and the messenger of the LORD appeared in the fire. As Moses watched the fire, he was amazed to see that although the fire was intense, the bush was not being burned up and reduced to ash, so he decided to go closer to see if he could work out what was going on. Having got Moses’ attention, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

“At your service,” Moses replied.

“Don’t come any closer!” God said. “And take your boots off, because you are standing on a sacred site. I am the God of your ancestors; the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

At that, Moses pulled his coat over his face because he was afraid to stand face to face with God. Then the LORD said:

“I have seen how my people have been chewed up and spat out in Egypt. I have heard their desperate cries for help as the slave-drivers work them into the ground. The truth is, I know what their suffering is like, and I have come down to break them free, and to bring them up out of the land of slavery. I will bring them into good land of wide open spaces, a land rich with milk and honey. It is presently occupied by the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, but I will give it to my people. The cries of the Israelites have gotten through to me, and I have seen how the tyrants are grinding them into the dirt. So come on Moses, up and at it. I will send you to the king of Egypt to bring my people, the Israelites, out of slavery in his country.”

But Moses said to God, “Hang on a minute! Why me? I must be about the least qualified person on the face of the earth for the job of negotiating with the king of Egypt for the release of his Israelite slaves!”

But God replied, “I will be with you! And this is how you will know that I have been with you: when you have got the people out of Egypt, you will worship me right here on this mountain.”

But Moses continued to protest, saying, “If I go to the Israelites and try to tell them that the God of their ancestors has sent me to them, they’ll never believe me. They will say, ‘And what name does this God go by?’ What am I to tell them then?”

God replied, “I AM who I AM. So you go and tell the Israelites that the one named I AM the LORD has sent you to them. And you can further tell them that the LORD, the God of their ancestors; the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent you to them. This is my name forever; this is how I am to be addressed from now on.”

Exodus 12: 1-14

This passage is set for the following occasion(s):
- Thursday of Holy Week (Maundy Thursday)
- Proper 18 in Year A
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

After the King of Egypt had refused to listen to all the warnings, the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron again, saying:

“Rewrite your calendars — from now on, this month is to be the beginning of the new year. Put the word out among all the Israelite people that on the tenth day of the month, each household is to obtain a lamb or a young goat to be eaten. Small households can combine with their neighbours to share one, dividing it up so that there is enough for everyone to have some. The lamb must be a healthy male yearling with no deformities — not a runt. Having obtained the lamb, the household is to keep it at home for four days. Just after sunset on the fourteenth, all the Israelites are to slaughter the lambs ready for cooking. Take some of the blood and paint it on the frame of the front door of the house where you are eating the lamb. Cook and eat it that night. Don’t serve it raw or boiled. Don’t even cut it up or gut it. Spit-roast it whole over the fire and serve it with unleavened flat-breads and bitter herbs. Eat it all that night. If there is any left over in the morning you are to burn it. When you eat it, you are to eat as though you were in a hurry and about to leave on a journey. You should be dressed and packed, with your walking boots on and your stick at hand. In this way you are to keep the feast of Passover in honour of me, the LORD.

That night, I will pass through Egypt, killing the firstborn sons of every family and the firstborn male animals. I am the LORD, and I will carry out the sentence I have passed on the gods of Egypt this night. The lamb’s blood painted on your door frames will be the sign that your households are to be exempted. I will pass over every house that I see marked with the blood, and you will not be touched by the plague that will strike down the Egyptians.

Remember this day and, in every generation to come, celebrate it as an annual festival to honour me, the LORD.”

Exodus 14: 10-31 ; 15: 20-21

This passage is set for the following occasion(s):
-the Great Paschal Vigil
- Proper 19 in Year A (14: 19-31)
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

When the Israelites stopped near the Red Sea, they looked back over their shoulders and saw the King of Egypt and his whole army in hot pursuit. They began to cry out in panic:

“God help us! What are you doing to us, Moses? Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Weren’t there enough graves there, so you had to take us off to be slaughtered in the outback? Didn’t we tell you it would come to this, when we were still safe in Egypt? We said ‘Don’t rock the boat, Moses. Leave us be. We are better off working as slaves in Egypt than ending up dead in the outback.’ Didn’t we tell you?”

But Moses replied in a speech, saying:

“Don’t panic! Hold your nerve, and you will see the LORD take action to rescue you, right here and now. Take a last look at your oppressors while you can, because you will never see them alive again. The LORD will fight this battle for you. That should shut you up!”

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

“Why all this whingeing to me? Tell the Israelites to get travelling. Hold up your walking stick and stretch out your hand towards the sea. Slice it open, so that the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea on a dry track. The Egyptian army are so pig-headed that they will go in after the people, and when they do, I will cover myself in glory by defeating the King of Egypt and all his armoured vehicles and soldiers. Then all Egypt will understand that I AM the LORD.”

The angel of God who had been in front of the Israelites now moved around and took up a new position, covering them from the rear. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front of them and settled in a position behind them, making it impossible for the Egyptians and the Israelites to see each other. The cloud shrouded the Egyptian camp in darkness and lit up the night over the Israelite camp, and the night passed without any contact between the two camps.

Then Moses stretched out his hand towards the sea, and, with a violent wind that blew all night, the LORD forced back the sea, carving out a track of dry ground right through the middle of the water. The Israelites trooped into the sea on the dry track with the angry waters towering over them on either side. The Egyptian soldiers gave chase, charging into the middle of the sea aboard their horses and armoured vehicles. Just before dawn, the LORD looked down on the Egyptian army from the pillar of fire and cloud, and began to wreak havoc among them, bogging their vehicles and leaving them stuck in the middle. In panic, the soldiers began shouting, “Run for your lives! Get away from these Israelites because the LORD is on their side fighting against us!”

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand towards the sea again so that the water will surge back over the Egyptian army and all their soldiers and armoured vehicles.”

So Moses stretched out his hand towards the sea, and as the dawn broke, the sea came crashing back down on top of the fleeing army. The LORD trapped the soldiers in the middle of the sea, and when the waters had closed over and returned to normal, there wasn’t a soldier or a vehicle left. The Israelites had walked through the sea on a dry track with the angry waters towering over them on either side, but the entire army of the King of Egypt had been swallowed up by the sea while pursuing them.

So that day the LORD rescued the people of Israel from their oppressors, and the people saw all the dead soldiers washed up on the shore. When they saw the power of the LORD’s action against their oppressors, the people were in awe of the LORD and put their trust in the LORD and in Moses who was working for the LORD.

Then the prophet Miriam, who was Aaron’s sister, led the women in a dance of celebration, playing tambourines and singing:

“Our song is for you, LORD,
for you have won a glorious victory!
You have tossed the soldiers and warhorses into the sea!”

Exodus 15: 1b-11, 20-21

This passage is set for the following occasion(s):
- Proper 19 in Year A
and other resources based on it can be found by clicking through to there.

The prophet Miriam, who was Aaron’s sister, led the women in a dance of celebration, playing tambourines and singing:

Our song is for you, LORD,
for you have won a glorious victory!
You have tossed the soldiers and warhorses into the sea!

We would be nothing without you, LORD,
but with you, we are strong.
You are our God, and we sing your praises;
the God of our ancestors,
and we applaud you long and loud.

You are the greatest hero, LORD;
LORD by name, LORD by reputation.

You swept the tyrant’s armoured vehicles and soldiers into the sea;
all his top brass disappeared beneath the waves.

The surging waters closed over them,
and they sank like a stone into the murky depths.

With your bare hands, LORD,
you put on an awesome display of power;
you rolled up your sleeves and decimated the enemy.

With the full force of your majestic power,
you defeated your opponents;
they ignited your anger
and were gone like dry grass in a bushfire.

The fearsome blast of your fury cut a swathe through the waters;
the surging depths were heaped up on each side;
the wild ocean set like jelly, all the way down.

The tyrants said, “We’ll give chase, we can catch them.
All that they have will be ours, all we could ever want.
We will turn our weapons on them and wipe them out.”

You sent your wind howling after them and closed the sea over them;
they sank like a stone and were never seen again.

You are in a league of your own, LORD;
Nothing else is worthy of our devotion.
Nothing can compete with you for awesome grandeur;
Nothing else can match your record
for getting the job done against the odds.

Our song is for you, LORD,
for you have won a glorious victory!
You have tossed the soldiers and warhorses into the sea!

Exodus 15: 1b-13, 17-18