2 Corinthians 2.14-3.3
(Epistle)
14Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place.
15For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God in those who are being saved and in those who perish:
16to the one a stench from death to death, to the other a sweet aroma from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?
17For we are not as so many, peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.
1Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as do some, letters of commendation to you or from you?
2You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men,
3being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh.
1 Corinthians 9.2-12
(Epistle, Mary Magdalene)
2If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
3My defense to those who examine me is this:
4Have we no right to eat and to drink?
5Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?
6Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not work?
7What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn’t eat of its fruit? Or who feeds a flock, and doesn’t drink from the flock’s milk?
8Do I speak these things according to the ways of men? Or doesn’t the law also say the same thing?
9For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it for the oxen that God cares,
10or does he say it assuredly for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should partake of his hope.
11If we sowed to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things?
12If others partake of this right over you, don’t we yet more? Nevertheless we didn’t use this right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ.
Matthew 23.23-28
(Gospel)
23“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.
24You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!
25“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness.
26You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also.
27“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness.
28Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Luke 8.1-3
(Gospel, Mary Magdalene)
1Soon afterwards, he went about through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of God’s Kingdom. With him were the twelve,
2and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out;
3and Joanna, the wife of Chuzas, Herod’s steward; Susanna; and many others who served them from their possessions.