Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Contrite Sinner’s Prayer for Pardon.

For the music director. A Psalm of David, when ^[a]Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

Jonah’s Displeasure Rebuked

4 But it greatly displeased Jonah, and he became ^(A)angry. ² Then he ^(B)prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was this not ^[a]what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore in anticipation of this I ^(C)fled to Tarshish, since I knew that You are a ^(D)gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in mercy, and One who relents of disaster. ³ So now, Lord, please ^(E)take my ^[b]life from me, for death is ^(F)better to me than life.” ⁴ But the Lord said, “Do you have a good reason to be angry?”

⁵ Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of ^[c]it. There he made a shelter for himself and ^(G)sat under it in the shade, until he could see what would happen in the city. ⁶ So the Lord God designated a ^[d]plant, and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head, to ^[e]relieve him of his discomfort. And Jonah ^[f]was overjoyed about the plant. ⁷ But God designated a worm when dawn came the next day, and it attacked the plant and it ^(H)withered. ⁸ And when the sun came up God designated a scorching ^(I)east wind, and the ^(J)sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint, and he begged with all his soul to die, saying, “^(K)Death is better to me than life!”

⁹ But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to the point of death!” ¹⁰ Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant, for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which ^[g]came up overnight and perished ^[h]overnight. ¹¹ Should I not also ^(L)have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 people, who do not ^(M)know the difference between their right hand and their left, as well as many ^(N)animals?”

⁸ First, ^(A)I thank my God through Jesus Christ ^[a]for you all, because ^(B)your faith is being proclaimed throughout the world. ⁹ For ^(C)God, whom I ^(D)serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly ^(E)I make mention of you, ¹⁰ always in my prayers requesting if perhaps now, at last by ^(F)the will of God, I will succeed in coming to you. ¹¹ For ^(G)I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be ^[b]established; ¹² that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. ^13 (H)I do not want you to be unaware, ^(I)brothers and sisters, that often I ^(J)have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some ^(K)fruit among you also just as among the rest of the Gentiles. ^14 (L)I am ^[c]under obligation both to Greeks and to the ^[d](M)uncultured, both to the wise and to the foolish. ¹⁵ So, for my part, I am eager to ^(N)preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

¹⁶ For I am not ^(O)ashamed of the gospel, for ^(P)it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the ^(Q)Jew first and also to ^(R)the Greek. ¹⁷ For in it ^(S)the righteousness of God is revealed ^[e]from faith to faith; as it is written: “^[f](T)But the righteous one will live by faith.”