Readings for 30 December 2028
17 December 2028 on the Old calendar
- Saturday before the Nativity of Christ
Liturgical colour: gold
Epistle: Galatians 3:8-12
Translation: World English Bible
8The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you all the nations will be blessed.” 9So then, those who are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham. 10For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.” 11Now that no man is justified by the law before God is evident, for, “The righteous will live by faith.” 12The law is not of faith, but, “The man who does them will live by them.”
Gospel: Luke 13:18-29
Translation: World English Bible
18He said, “What is God’s Kingdom like? To what shall I compare it? 19It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and put in his own garden. It grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the sky live in its branches.” 20Again he said, “To what shall I compare God’s Kingdom? 21It is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.” 22He went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and traveling on to Jerusalem. 23One said to him, “Lord, are they few who are saved?” He said to them, 24“Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in and will not be able. 25When once the master of the house has risen up and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ 26Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27He will say, ‘I tell you, I don’t know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’ 28There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s Kingdom, and yourselves being thrown outside. 29They will come from the east, west, north, and south, and will sit down in God’s Kingdom.
Epistle: Hebrews 11:33-40
Translation: World English Bible
33who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked out righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, grew mighty in war, and caused foreign armies to flee. 35Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 36Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment. 37They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated— 38of whom the world was not worthy—wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth. 39These all, having been commended for their faith, didn’t receive the promise, 40God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
Gospel: Luke 11:47-12:1
Translation: World English Bible
47Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. 48So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49Therefore also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute, 50that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation, 51from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.’ Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. 52Woe to you lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You didn’t enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered.” 53As he said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be terribly angry, and to draw many things out of him, 54lying in wait for him, and seeking to catch him in something he might say, that they might accuse him. 12:1Meanwhile, when a multitude of many thousands had gathered together, so much so that they trampled on each other, he began to tell his disciples first of all, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.