AME Zion Universal Reading May 22nd 2022
- Artisans Called by God
- May 21, 2022
- 13 min read
First Portion
Leviticus Chapter 25
1And the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying,2Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them: When you come to the land that I am giving you, the land shall rest a Sabbath to the Lord.3You may sow your field for six years, and for six years you may prune your vineyard, and gather in its produce,4But in the seventh year, the land shall have a complete rest a Sabbath to the Lord; you shall not sow your field, nor shall you prune your vineyard.5You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest, and you shall not pick the grapes you had set aside [for yourself], [for] it shall be a year of rest for the land.6And [the produce of] the Sabbath of the land shall be yours to eat for you, for your male and female slaves, and for your hired worker and resident who live with you,7And all of its produce may be eaten [also] by your domestic animals and by the beasts that are in your land.8And you shall count for yourself seven sabbatical years, seven years seven times. And the days of these seven sabbatical years shall amount to forty nine years for you.9You shall proclaim [with] the shofar blasts, in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month; on the Day of Atonement, you shall sound the shofar throughout your land.10And you shall sanctify the fiftieth year, and proclaim freedom [for slaves] throughout the land for all who live on it. It shall be a Jubilee for you, and you shall return, each man to his property, and you shall return, each man to his family.11This fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee for you you shall not sow, nor shall you reap its aftergrowth or pick [its grapes] that you had set aside [for yourself].12For it is Jubilee. It shall be holy for you; you shall eat its produce from the field.13During this Jubilee year, you shall return, each man to his property.
Galatians 5:1–15 (NLT): Freedom in Christ
So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.
2 Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. 4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.
5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. 6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.
7 You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? 8 It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. 9 This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough! 10 I am trusting the Lord to keep you from believing false teachings. God will judge that person, whoever he is, who has been confusing you.
11 Dear brothers and sisters, if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised—as some say I do—why am I still being persecuted? If I were no longer preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would be offended. 12 I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves.
13 For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. 14 For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.
Second Portion
Leviticus Chapter 25
14And when you make a sale to your fellow Jew or make a purchase from the hand of your fellow Jew, you shall not wrong one another.15According to the number of years after the Jubilee, you shall purchase from your fellow Jew; according to the number of years of crops, he shall sell to you.16The more [the remaining] years, you shall increase its purchase [price], and the fewer the [remaining] years, you shall decrease its purchase [price], because he is selling you a number of crops.17And you shall not wrong, one man his fellow Jew, and you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord, your God.18You shall perform My statutes, keep My ordinances and perform them then you will live on the land securely.
Monday
Galatians 4:1–7 (NLT):
Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had. 2 They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set. 3 And that’s the way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles of this world.
4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. 5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. 6 And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” 7 Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.
Third Portion
Leviticus Chapter 25
19And the land will then yield its fruit and you will eat to satiety, and live upon it securely.20And if you should say, "What will we eat in the seventh year? We will not sow, and we will not gather in our produce!"21[Know then, that] I will command My blessing for you in the sixth year, and it will yield produce for three years.22And you will sow in the eighth year, while [still] eating from the old crops until the ninth year; until the arrival of its crop, you will eat the old [crop].23The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land belongs to Me, for you are strangers and [temporary] residents with Me.24Therefore, throughout the land of your possession, you shall give redemption for the land.
Tuesday
Philippians 3:1–9 (NLT): The Priceless Value of Knowing Christ
Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. I never get tired of telling you these things, and I do it to safeguard your faith.
2 Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved. 3 For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, 4 though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more!
5 I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. 6 I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.
7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him.
Fourth Portion
Leviticus Chapter 25
25If your brother becomes destitute and sells some of his inherited property, his redeemer who is related to him shall come forth and redeem his brother's sale.26And if a man does not have a redeemer, but he gains enough means to afford its redemption,27he shall calculate the years for which the land has been sold, and return the remainder to the man to whom he sold it, and [then] he may return to his inheritance.28But if he cannot afford enough to repay him, his sale shall remain in the possession of the one who has purchased it, until the Jubilee year. And then, in the Jubilee year, it shall go out and revert to his inheritance.
Wednesday
Philippians 3:9–11 (NLT):
I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
Fifth Portion
Leviticus Chapter 25
29And when a man sells a residential house in a walled city, its redemption may take place until the completion of the year of its sale. Its [period of] redemption shall be a full year.30But if it is not redeemed by the end of a complete year, then that house which is in the city that has a wall, shall remain permanently [the property] of the one who purchased it throughout his generations. It will not leave [his possession] in the Jubilee.31But houses in open cities, which do not have a wall surrounding them, are to be considered as the field of the land. It may have redemption and shall leave [the purchaser's possession] in the Jubilee.32And, [regarding] the cities of the Levites, the houses of their inherited cities shall forever have a [right of] redemption for the Levites.33And if one purchases from the Levites, whether a house or an inherited city, will leave [the possession of the purchaser] in the Jubilee, because the houses of the cities of the Levites, are their inherited property amidst the children of Israel.34And a field in the open areas of their cities cannot be sold, because it is their eternal inheritance.35If your brother becomes destitute and his hand falters beside you, you shall support him [whether] a convert or a resident, so that he can live with you.36You shall not take from him interest or increase, and you shall fear your God, and let your brother live with you.37You shall not give him your money with interest, nor shall you give your food with increase.38I am the Lord, your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be a God to you.
Thursday
1 John 4:7–13 (NLT): Loving One Another
7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.
Sixth Portion
Leviticus Chapter 25
39And if your brother becomes destitute with you, and is sold to you, do not work him with slave labor.40As an employee or a [hired] resident, he shall be with you; until the Jubilee year he shall work with you.41Then, he shall leave you he, and his children with him, and he shall return to his family and resume the status of his fathers.42For they are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt they shall not be sold as a slave is sold.43You shall not work him with rigor, and you shall fear your God.44Your male slave or female slave whom you may have from the nations that are around you, from them you may acquire a male slave or a female slave.45And also from the children of the residents that live among you, from them you may acquire [slaves] and from their family that is with you whom they begot in your land, and they shall become your inheritance.46You shall hold onto them as an inheritance for your children after you, as acquired property, and may thus have them serve you forever. But as for your brethren, the children of Israel, a man shall not work his brother with rigor.
Friday
Matthew 5:43–48 (NLT): Teaching about Love for Enemies
43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Seventh Portion
Leviticus Chapter 25
47If a resident non Jew gains wealth with you, and your brother becomes destitute with him and is sold to a resident non Jew among you or to an idol of the family of a non Jew.48After he is sold, he shall have redemption; one of his brothers shall redeem him.49Or his uncle or his cousin shall redeem him, or the closest [other] relative from his family shall redeem him; or, if he becomes able to afford it, he can be redeemed [on his own].50He shall calculate with his purchaser [the number of years] from the year of his being sold to him until the Jubilee year; then, the purchase price shall be [divided] by the number of years; as the days of a hired worker, he shall be with him.51If there are still many years, according to them, he shall return his redemption [money] out of the money for which he was purchased.52But if only a few years remain until the Jubilee year, he shall make the [same] calculation; according to his years [that remain until Jubilee], he shall return the redemption [money]._53He shall be with him as an employee hired year by year; he shall not enslave him with rigor in your sight.54And if he is not redeemed through [any of] these [ways], he shall go out in the Jubilee year he and his children with him.55For the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants, whom I took out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God.
Leviticus Chapter 26
1You shall not make idols for yourselves, nor shall you set up a statue or a monument for yourselves. And in your land you shall not place a pavement stone on which to prostrate yourselves, for I am the Lord, your God.2You shall keep My Sabbaths and fear My Sanctuary. I am the Lord.
Saturday
Proverbs 17:13–17 (NLT):
13 If you repay good with evil,
evil will never leave your house.
14 Starting a quarrel is like opening a floodgate,
so stop before a dispute breaks out.
15 Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent—
both are detestable to the Lord.
16 It is senseless to pay to educate a fool,
since he has no heart for learning.
17 A friend is always loyal,
and a brother is born to help in time of need.
Maftir Portion
Leviticus Chapter 25
55For the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants, whom I took out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God.
Leviticus Chapter 26
1You shall not make idols for yourselves, nor shall you set up a statue or a monument for yourselves. And in your land you shall not place a pavement stone on which to prostrate yourselves, for I am the Lord, your God.2You shall keep My Sabbaths and fear My Sanctuary. I am the Lord.
Haftarah
Jeremiah Chapter 32
6And Jeremiah said: The word of the Lord came to me, saying:7Behold, Hanamel, the son of Shallum your uncle, is coming to you, saying: Buy for yourself my field that is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.8Then Hanamel, my uncle's son, came to me in the prison yard, according to the word of the Lord, and said to me; Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, that is in the country of Benjamin, for the right of inheritance is yours, and you have the right of redemption; buy it for yourself." And I knew that this was the word of the Lord.9So I bought the field from Hanamel, my uncle's son, which was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, seven shekels and ten pieces of silver.10And I wrote a bill of sale and signed it and took witnesses, and weighed the silver on a scale.11And I took the deed of the purchase, that which was signed according to the law and the conditions, and that which was open.12And I gave the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah the son of Maaseiah in the presence of Hanamel my uncle and in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, in the presence of all the Jews who sat in the prison yard.13And I charged Baruch in their presence, saying:14So said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel; Take these scrolls, this deed of purchase and the signed one and this open scroll, and put them into an earthen vessel so that they remain many years.15For so says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be purchased again in this land.16And I prayed to the Lord after I had delivered the deed of purchase into the hand of Baruch the son of Neriah, saying,17"Ho! O Lord God, behold, You have made the heaven and the earth by Your great power and Your outstretched arm, and nothing is hidden from You,18Who exercises loving- kindness to thousands and requites the iniquity of the fathers in the bosom of the children who follow them, O Great and Mighty God, the Lord of Hosts is His Name.19Who is great in counsel and mighty in carrying it out, for Your eyes are open to all the ways of mankind, to give everyone in accordance with his ways and in accordance with the fruit of his deeds,20Who performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt until this day, and in Israel and in mankind, and have made a name for Yourself as of this day.21And You brought Your people Israel forth out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders and with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with great fearfulness.22And You gave them this land which You swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey.
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