Readings for 3 December 2027
20 November 2027 on the Old calendar
Liturgical colour: dark (strict fast)
Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 5:9-13, 24-28
Translation: World English Bible
9For God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. 11Therefore exhort one another, and build each other up, even as you also do. 12But we beg you, brothers, to know those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13and to respect and honor them in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves. 24He who calls you is faithful, who will also do it. 25Brothers, pray for us. 26Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. 27I solemnly command you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the holy brothers. 28The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
Gospel: Luke 16:15-18, 17:1-4
Translation: World English Bible
15He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. 16“The law and the prophets were until John. From that time the Good News of God’s Kingdom is preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. 17But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tiny stroke of a pen in the law to fall. 18“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. He who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery. 17:1He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no occasions of stumbling should come, but woe to him through whom they come! 2It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, rather than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble. 3Be careful. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. 4If he sins against you seven times in the day, and seven times returns, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 11:1-6
Translation: World English Bible
1I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you do bear with me. 2For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you in marriage to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we didn’t preach, or if you receive a different spirit which you didn’t receive, or a different “good news” which you didn’t accept, you put up with that well enough. 5For I reckon that I am not at all behind the very best apostles. 6But though I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not unskilled in knowledge. No, in every way we have been revealed to you in all things.
Gospel: Luke 9:57-62
Translation: World English Bible
57As they went on the way, a certain man said to him, “I want to follow you wherever you go, Lord.” 58Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” 59He said to another, “Follow me!” But he said, “Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.” 60But Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead, but you go and announce God’s Kingdom.” 61Another also said, “I want to follow you, Lord, but first allow me to say good-bye to those who are at my house.” 62But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for God’s Kingdom.”
Epistle: Hebrews 7:26-8:2
Translation: World English Bible
26For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 27who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself. 28For the law appoints men as high priests who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son forever who has been perfected. 8:1Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this: we have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2a servant of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man.
Gospel: John 10:9-16
Translation: World English Bible
9I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out and will find pasture. 10The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. 11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them. 13The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own; 15even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.