November 22, 2014

Reading

The Book of Revelation    11: 4-12

11:4	These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands, standing in the sight of the lord of the earth.
11:5	And if anyone will want to harm them, fire shall go forth from their mouths, and it shall devour their enemies. And if anyone will want to wound them, so must he be slain.
11:6	These have the power to close up the heavens, so that it may not rain during the days of their prophesying. And they have power over the waters, to convert them into blood, and to strike the earth with every kind of affliction as often as they will.
11:7	And when they will have finished their testimony, the beast that ascended from the abyss will make war against them, and will overcome them, and will kill them.
11:8	And their bodies shall lie in the streets of the Great City, which is figuratively called ‘Sodom’ and ‘Egypt,’ the place where their Lord also was crucified.
11:9	And those from the tribes and peoples and languages and nations shall be watching their bodies for three and one half days. And they shall not permit their bodies to be placed in tombs.
11:10	And the inhabitants of the earth will rejoice over them, and they will celebrate, and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tortured those who were living upon the earth.
11:11	And after three and one half days, the spirit of life from God entered into them. And they stood upright on their feet. And a great fear fell over those who saw them.
11:12	And they heard a great voice from heaven, saying to them, “Ascend to here!” And they ascended into heaven on a cloud. And their enemies saw them.

Gospel

The Gospel According to Luke    20: 27-40

20:27	Now some of the Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection, approached him. And they questioned him,
20:28	saying: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us: If any man’s brother will have died, having a wife, and if he does not have any children, then his brother should take her as his wife, and he should raise up offspring for his brother.
20:29	And so there were seven brothers. And the first took a wife, and he died without sons.
20:30	And the next one married her, and he also died without a son.
20:31	And the third married her, and similarly all seven, and none of them left behind any offspring, and they each died.
20:32	Last of all, the woman also died.
20:33	In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be? For certainly all seven had her as a wife.”
20:34	And so, Jesus said to them: “The children of this age marry and are given in marriage.
20:35	Yet truly, those who shall be held worthy of that age, and of the resurrection from the dead, will neither be married, nor take wives.
20:36	For they can no longer die. For they are equal to the Angels, and they are children of God, since they are children of the resurrection.
20:37	For in truth, the dead do rise again, as Moses also showed beside the bush, when he called the Lord: ‘The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’
20:38	And so he is not the God of the dead, but of the living. For all are alive to him.”
20:39	Then some of the scribes, in response, said to him, “Teacher, you have spoken well.”
20:40	And they no longer dared to question him about anything.