Readings for the week of October 19th

• Jeremiah 31:27-34

  Promise of a new covenant

  The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals.

  And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the LORD.

  In those days they shall no longer say: "The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge."

  But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of the one who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge.

  The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

  It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt--a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD.

  But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

  No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.

• Psalm 119:97-104

  Your words sweeter than honey

  Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all day long.

  Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is always with me.

  I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your decrees are my meditation.

  I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.

  I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word.

  I do not turn away from your ordinances, for you have taught me.

  How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

  Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

• Genesis 32:22-31

  Jacob receives God's blessing

  The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

  He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had.

  Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

  When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.

  Then he said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me."

  So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob."

  Then the man said, "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed."

  Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him.

  So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved."

  The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

• Psalm 121

  The Lord watches over you

  I lift up my eyes to the hills-- from where will my help come?

  My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

  He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.

  He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

  The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade at your right hand.

  The sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night.

  The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.

  The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.

• 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

  Christ the judge

  But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it

  and how from childhood you have known sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

  All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

  so that the person of God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

  In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you:

  proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage with the utmost patience in teaching.

  For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound teaching, but, having their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires,

  and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.

  As for you, be sober in everything, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

• Luke 18:1-8

  A widow begs for justice

  Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.

  He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people.

  In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, 'Grant me justice against my accuser.'

  For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, 'Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone,

  yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'"

  And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says.

  And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?

  I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"