Daily Reading for Sunday, June 30th, 2013

Gospel, Luke 9:51-62

⁵¹ Now it happened that as the time drew near for him to be taken up, he resolutely turned his face towards Jerusalem

⁵² and sent messengers ahead of him. These set out, and they went into a Samaritan village to make preparations for him,

⁵³ but the people would not receive him because he was making for Jerusalem.

⁵⁴ Seeing this, the disciples James and John said, 'Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to burn them up?'

⁵⁵ But he turned and rebuked them,

⁵⁶ and they went on to another village.

⁵⁷ As they travelled along they met a man on the road who said to him, 'I will follow you wherever you go.'

⁵⁸ Jesus answered, 'Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.'

⁵⁹ Another to whom he said, 'Follow me,' replied, 'Let me go and bury my father first.'

⁶⁰ But he answered, 'Leave the dead to bury their dead; your duty is to go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.'

⁶¹ Another said, 'I will follow you, sir, but first let me go and say good -- bye to my people at home.'

⁶² Jesus said to him, 'Once the hand is laid on the plough, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.'

Reading 2, Galatians 5:1, 13-18

¹ Christ set us free, so that we should remain free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be fastened again to the yoke of slavery.

¹³ After all, brothers, you were called to be free; do not use your freedom as an opening for self-indulgence, but be servants to one another in love,

¹⁴ since the whole of the Law is summarised in the one commandment: You must love your neighbour as yourself.

¹⁵ If you go snapping at one another and tearing one another to pieces, take care: you will be eaten up by one another.

¹⁶ Instead, I tell you, be guided by the Spirit, and you will no longer yield to self-indulgence.

¹⁷ The desires of self-indulgence are always in opposition to the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are in opposition to self-indulgence: they are opposites, one against the other; that is how you are prevented from doing the things that you want to.

¹⁸ But when you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

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