WEEKLY READINGS

The First Lesson

Genesis 2:7-25

Reader: A reading from the book of Genesis

The Sovereign God crafted the human from the dust of the humus and breathed into its nostrils the breath of life, and the human became a living soul. And the Sovereign God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there placed the human whom God had formed. Out of the ground the Sovereign God made grow every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food, and the tree of life in the middle of the garden, along with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The Sovereign God took the human and settled it in the garden of Eden to till and tend it. Then the Sovereign God commanded the human, "From every tree of the garden you may eat freely, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat from it you shall surely die."

Then the Sovereign God said, "It is not good that the human should be alone; I will make it someone to rely on as its partner." Then the Sovereign God crafted from the humus every creature of the field and every bird of the skies and brought them to the human to see what it would call them; and whatever the human called every living soul, that was its name. The human gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the human there was not found one to rely on as its partner.

The Sovereign God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the human, and it slept; then took one of its sides and closed up its place with flesh in place of it. And the Sovereign God built the side that had been taken from the human into a woman and brought her to the human. Then the human said,

"This time, this one is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

this one shall be called a woman,

for out of a man this one was taken."

Therefore a man leaves his mother and his father and clings to his woman, and they become one flesh. And they were, the two of them, naked, the man and his woman [or the woman and her man], and were not ashamed.

Reader: The Word of the Lord.

People: Thanks be to God.

The Psalm

Psalm 95:1-7

The Gospel

Mark 16:9-15

Celebrant: The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to Luke.

People: Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Now after he rose early on the first day of the week, Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went out and she told the ones mourning and weeping who had been with him. But when they heard that he lives and was seen by her, they did not believe. After this Jesus was made known in another form to two of [the disciples] as they were walking into the countryside. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. Now later on, while they were sitting at table, Jesus appeared to the eleven themselves and he rebuked their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they did not believe those [the women] who saw Jesus after he had risen. Then Jesus said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to all creation."

Celebrant: The Gospel of the Lord.

People: Praise to you, Lord Christ.

From A Woman's Lectionary for the Whole Church Year W by Wilda C. Gafney