nativity feasts

lkisaid thoughts, sounds and creative miscellany episode 53

https://oca.org/readings/daily/2018/12/28

James 2:1-13 (Epistle)

1My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.2For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes,3and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,”4have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?5Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?6But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?7Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?8If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well;9but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.10For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.11For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.12So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.13For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Mark 12:1-12 (Gospel)

1Then He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.2Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers.3And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.4Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated.5And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some.6Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’7But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’8So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.9Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others.10Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.11This was the LORD’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”12And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went away.