Amos 8

8:1 The Sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw a basket of summer fruit. 2He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come for my people Israel! I will no longer overlook their sins.

3The women singing in the temple will wail in that day.”

The Sovereign Lord is speaking.

“There will be many corpses littered everywhere! Be quiet!”

4Listen to this, you who trample the needy

and do away with the destitute in the land.

5You say,

“When will the new moon festival be over, so we can sell grain?

When will the Sabbath end, so we can open up the grain bins?

We’re eager to sell less for a higher price,

and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales!

6We’re eager to trade silver for the poor,

a pair of sandals for the needy.

We want to mix in some chaff with the grain!”

7The Lord confirms this oath by the arrogance of Jacob:

“I swear I will never forget all you have done!

8Because of this the earth will quake,

and all who live in it will mourn.

The whole earth will rise like the Nile River;

it will surge upward and then grow calm, like the Nile in Egypt.

9In that day,” says the Sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun set at noon

and make the earth dark in the middle of the day.

10I will turn your festivals into funerals

and all your songs into funeral dirges.

I will make everyone wear funeral clothes

and cause every head to be shaved bald.

I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son;

when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day.

11Be certain of this, the time is coming,” says the Sovereign Lord,

“when I will send a famine through the land—

not a shortage of food or water

but an end to divine revelation.

12People will stagger from sea to sea,

and from the north around to the east.

They will wander about looking for a message from the Lord,

but they will not find any.

13In that day your beautiful young women and your young men will faint from thirst.

14These are the ones who now take oaths in the name of the sinful idol goddess of Samaria.

They vow, ‘As surely as your god lives, O Dan,’ or, ‘As surely as your beloved one lives, O Beer Sheba!’

But they will fall down and not get up again.”

Ps. 97

97:1 The Lord reigns.

Let the earth be happy.

Let the many coastlands rejoice.

2Dark clouds surround him;

equity and justice are the foundation of his throne.

3Fire goes before him;

on every side it burns up his enemies.

4His lightning bolts light up the world;

the earth sees and trembles.

5The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,

before the Lord of the whole earth.

6The sky declares his justice,

and all the nations see his splendor.

7All who worship idols are ashamed,

those who boast about worthless idols.

All the gods bow down before him.

8Zion hears and rejoices,

the towns of Judah are happy,

because of your judgments, O Lord.

9For you, O Lord, are the Most High over the whole earth;

you are elevated high above all gods.

10You who love the Lord, hate evil!

He protects the lives of his faithful followers;

he delivers them from the power of the wicked.

11The godly bask in the light;

the morally upright experience joy.

12You godly ones, rejoice in the Lord.

Give thanks to his holy name.

Mark 4:26–41

4:26 He also said, “The kingdom of God is like someone who spreads seed on the ground. 27He goes to sleep and gets up, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28By itself the soil produces a crop, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29And when the grain is ripe, he sends in the sickle because the harvest has come.”

30He also asked, “To what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use to present it? 31It is like a mustard seed that when sown in the ground, even though it is the smallest of all the seeds in the ground— 32when it is sown, it grows up, becomes the greatest of all garden plants, and grows large branches so that the wild birds can nest in its shade.”

33So with many parables like these, he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear. 34He did not speak to them without a parable. But privately he explained everything to his own disciples.

35On that day, when evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go across to the other side of the lake.” 36So after leaving the crowd, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat, and other boats were with him. 37Now a great windstorm developed and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was nearly swamped. 38But he was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. They woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to die?” 39So he got up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Be quiet! Calm down!” Then the wind stopped, and it was dead calm. 40And he said to them, “Why are you cowardly? Do you still not have faith?” 41They were overwhelmed by fear and said to one another, “Who then is this? Even the wind and sea obey him!”