Reading 1, Jer 26:1-9

¹ At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh,

² 'Yahweh says this, "Stand in the court of the Temple of Yahweh. To all the people from the towns of Judah who come to worship in the Temple of Yahweh you will say everything I have ordered you to say, not omitting one syllable.

³ Perhaps they will listen and each turn from his evil way: if so, I shall relent and not bring the disaster on them which I intend because of their misdeeds."

⁴ Say to them, "Yahweh says this: If you will not listen to me and follow my Law which I have given you,

⁵ and pay attention to the words of my servants the prophets whom I have never tired of sending to you, although you never have paid attention,

⁶ I shall treat this Temple as I treated Shiloh, and make this city a curse for all the nations of the world." '

⁷ The priests and prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah say these words in the Temple of Yahweh.

⁸ When Jeremiah had finished saying everything that Yahweh had ordered him to say to all the people, the priests and prophets and all the people seized hold of him and said, 'You will die for this!

⁹ Why have you made this prophecy in Yahweh's name, "This Temple will become like Shiloh, and this city become an uninhabited ruin"?' And the people all crowded in on Jeremiah in the Temple of Yahweh.

Gospel, Mt 13:54-58

⁵⁴ and, coming to his home town, he taught the people in their synagogue in such a way that they were astonished and said, 'Where did the man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?

⁵⁵ This is the carpenter's son, surely? Is not his mother the woman called Mary, and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Jude?

⁵⁶ His sisters, too, are they not all here with us? So where did the man get it all?'

⁵⁷ And they would not accept him. But Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is despised only in his own country and in his own house,'

⁵⁸ and he did not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

July 2010

August 2010