First Reading
1 Kings 19:1-8
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had
killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to
Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your
life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” Then he was
afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba,
which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there. But he himself went a
day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom
tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no
better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell
asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” He
looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of
water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him,
and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” He
got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days
and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.
Second Reading
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of
view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him
no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation:
everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this
is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the
ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the
world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting
the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since
God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be
reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so
that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Third Reading
Acts 2:1-24
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in
one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a
violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided
tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All
of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages,
as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living
in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered,
because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed
and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And
how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians,
Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and
Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to
Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and
Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All
were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But
others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and
addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known
to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you
suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was
spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God
declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old
men shall dream dreams .Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days
I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show
portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and
smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who
calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ “You that are Israelites,
listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God
with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as
you yourselves know— this man, handed over to you according to the definite
plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those
outside the law. But God raised him up, having freed him from death,
because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.