Sunday October 18th 2020

First Reading
(Nehemiah 8: 1-12)
​
Ezra Reads the Law to the People

By the seventh month the people of Israel were all settled in their towns.
On the first day of that month they all assembled in Jerusalem,
in the square just inside the Water Gate.
They asked Ezra, the priest and scholar of the Law which the LORD had given Israel through Moses,
to get the book of the Law.  So Ezra brought it to the place where the people had gathered—men, women, and the children who were old enough to understand. 
There in the square by the gate he read the Law to them from dawn until noon,
and they all listened attentively.
Ezra was standing on a wooden platform that had been built for the occasion....

As Ezra stood there on the platform high above the people, they all kept their eyes fixed on him.
As soon as he opened the book, they all stood up. 

Ezra said, “Praise the LORD, the great God!”
All the people raised their arms in the air and answered,
“Amen! Amen!”

They knelt in worship, with their faces to the ground.
Then they rose and stood in their places, and the following Levites explained the Law to them...
They gave an oral translation of God's Law and explained it so that the people could understand it.

When the people heard what the Law required, they were so moved that they began to cry.
So Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra, the priest and scholar of the Law,
and the Levites who were explaining the Law told all the people,

“This day is holy to the LORD your God, so you are not to mourn or cry. 
Now go home and have a feast. Share your food and wine with those who don't have enough.
Today is holy to our Lord, so don't be sad.
The joy that the LORD gives you will make you strong.”

The Levites went around calming the people and telling them not to be sad on such a holy day. 
​So all the people went home and ate and drank joyfully and shared what they had with others, because they understood what had been read to them

Second Reading
(Matthew 24:30-35)

Jesus says His words are eternally true 

"Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky;
and all the peoples of earth will weep as they see the Son of Man
coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
 The great trumpet will sound, and he will send out his angels to the four corners of the earth,
and they will gather his chosen people from one end of the world to the other.

Let the fig tree teach you a lesson.
When its branches become green and tender and it starts putting out leaves,
you know that summer is near. 
In the same way, when you see all these things,
you will know that the time is near,ready to begin.
Remember that all these things will happen before the people now living have all died.
 Heaven and earth will pass away,
 but my words will never pass away.