1 Thessalonians 2.20-3.8
(Epistle)
20For you are our glory and our joy.
1Therefore when we couldn’t stand it any longer, we thought it good to be left behind at Athens alone,
2and sent Timothy, our brother and God’s servant in the Good News of Christ, to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith,
3that no one would be moved by these afflictions. For you know that we are appointed to this task.
4For most certainly, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we are to suffer affliction, even as it happened, and you know.
5For this cause I also, when I couldn’t stand it any longer, sent that I might know your faith, for fear that by any means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor would have been in vain.
6But Timothy has just now come to us from you, and brought us glad news of your faith and love, and that you have good memories of us always, longing to see us, even as we also long to see you.
7For this cause, brothers, we were comforted over you in all our distress and affliction through your faith.
8For now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord.
Romans 16.1-16
(Epistle, Apostles Stachys, Amplias, et al)
1I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the assembly that is at Cenchreae,
2that you receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and that you assist her in whatever matter she may need from you, for she herself also has been a helper of many, and of my own self.
3Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,
4who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the assemblies of the Gentiles.
5Greet the assembly that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first fruits of Achaia to Christ.
6Greet Mary, who labored much for us.
7Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and my fellow prisoners, who are notable among the apostles, who were also in Christ before me.
8Greet Amplias, my beloved in the Lord.
9Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved.
10Greet Apelles, the approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus.
11Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet them of the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord.
12Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Greet Persis, the beloved, who labored much in the Lord.
13Greet Rufus, the chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.
14Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them.
15Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.
16Greet one another with a holy kiss. The assemblies of Christ greet you.
Luke 11.29-33
(Gospel)
29When the multitudes were gathering together to him, he began to say, “This is an evil generation. It seeks after a sign. No sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.
30For even as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so the Son of Man will also be to this generation.
31The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and will condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, one greater than Solomon is here.
32The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, one greater than Jonah is here.
33“No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, that those who come in may see the light.