31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year: A)
Date: Sunday, November 05th, 2017, 11:00
Old Testament: Josh. 3:7-17
Psalms: Ps. 107:1-7,33-37
7And the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses.
8Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: 'When you reach the edge of the Jordan's waters, go and stand in the river.'"
9Joshua said to the Israelites, "Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God.
10This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites.
11See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you.
12Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe.
13And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD -the Lord of all the earth-set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap."
14So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them.
15Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge,
16the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea ) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
17The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
Joshua 3:7-17 (NIV)
Epistle: 1 Thess. 2:9-13
1Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
2Let the redeemed of the LORD say this- those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
3those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.
4Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle.
5They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away.
6Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
7He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle.
33He turned rivers into a desert, flowing springs into thirsty ground,
34and fruitful land into a salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who lived there.
35He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs;
36there he brought the hungry to live, and they founded a city where they could settle.
37They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded a fruitful harvest;
Psalms 107:1-7,33-37 (NIV)
Gospel: Matt. 23:1-12
9Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.
10You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed.
11For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children,
12encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.
13And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13 (NIV)
1Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:
2"The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.
3So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.
4They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
5"Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long;
6they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;
7they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi.'
8"But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers.
9And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.
10Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ.
11The greatest among you will be your servant.
12For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Matthew 23:1-12 (NIV)