Rite of Election

Greeting.

Symeon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of equal value to ours through the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus Christ:

may grace and peace be yours in abundance through knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

II. Exhortation to Christian Virtue

The Power of God’s Promise.

His divine power has bestowed on us everything that makes for life and devotion, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and power.

Through these, he has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature, after escaping from the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge,

knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion,

devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.

If these are yours and increase in abundance, they will keep you from being idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Anyone who lacks them is blind and shortsighted, forgetful of the cleansing of his past sins.

Therefore, brothers, be all the more eager to make your call and election firm, for, in doing so, you will never stumble.

For, in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.

Apostolic Witness.

Therefore, I will always remind you of these things, even though you already know them and are established in the truth you have.

I think it right, as long as I am in this “tent,” to stir you up by a reminder,

since I know that I will soon have to put it aside, as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me.

I shall also make every effort to enable you always to remember these things after my departure.

The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,

and no torment shall touch them.

They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead;

and their passing away was thought an affliction

and their going forth from us, utter destruction.

But they are in peace.

For if to others, indeed, they seem punished,

yet is their hope full of immortality;

Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed,

because God tried them

and found them worthy of himself.

As gold in the furnace, he proved them,

and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.

In the time of their judgment they shall shine

and dart about as sparks through stubble;

They shall judge nations and rule over peoples,

and the LORD shall be their King forever.

Those who trust in him shall understand truth,

and the faithful shall abide with him in love:

Because grace and mercy are with his holy ones,

and his care is with the elect.

Paul, a slave of God and apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God’s chosen ones and the recognition of religious truth,

in the hope of eternal life that God, who does not lie, promised before time began,

who indeed at the proper time revealed his word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted by the command of God our savior,

The Coming of the Son of Man.

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days,

the sun will be darkened,

and the moon will not give its light,

and the stars will fall from the sky,

and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

And he will send out his angels with a trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

The Mission of the Seventy-two.

After this the Lord appointed seventy[-two] others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit.

He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.

Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.

Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way.

Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’

If a peaceful person* lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.

Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another.

Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you,

cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you.’

Whatever town you enter and they do not receive you, go out into the streets and say,

‘The dust of your town that clings to our feet, even that we shake off against you.’ Yet know this: the kingdom of God is at hand.

I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom on that day than for that town.

Reproaches to Unrepentant Towns.

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.

And as for you, Capernaum, ‘Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.’

Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

Return of the Seventy-two.

The seventy[-two] returned rejoicing, and said, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.”

Jesus said, “I have observed Satan fall like lightning* from the sky.

Behold, I have given you the power ‘to tread upon serpents’ and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you.

Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.

You have not approached that which could be touched and a blazing fire and gloomy darkness and storm

and a trumpet blast and a voice speaking words such that those who heard begged that no message be further addressed to them,

for they could not bear to hear the command: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.”

Indeed, so fearful was the spectacle that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.”

No, you have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering,

and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and God the judge of all, and the spirits of the just made perfect,

and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.

The Large White Throne.

Next I saw a large white throne and the one who was sitting on it. The earth and the sky fled from his presence and there was no place for them.

I saw the dead, the great and the lowly, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. Then another scroll was opened, the book of life.* The dead were judged according to their deeds, by what was written in the scrolls.

The sea gave up its dead; then Death and Hades* gave up their dead. All the dead were judged according to their deeds.

h Then Death and Hades were thrown into the pool of fire. (This pool of fire is the second death.

Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the pool of fire.

“At that time there shall arise Michael,

the great prince,

guardian of your people;

It shall be a time unsurpassed in distress

since the nation began until that time.

At that time your people shall escape,

everyone who is found written in the book.

Many of those who sleep

in the dust of the earth shall awake;

Some to everlasting life,

others to reproach and everlasting disgrace.

But those with insight shall shine brightly

like the splendor of the firmament,

And those who lead the many to justice

shall be like the stars forever.

For the leader; according to “Lilies.”* Of David.

I

Save me, God,

for the waters* have reached my neck.

I have sunk into the mire of the deep,

where there is no foothold.

I have gone down to the watery depths;

the flood overwhelms me.

I am weary with crying out;

my throat is parched.

My eyes fail,

from looking for my God.

More numerous than the hairs of my head

are those who hate me without cause.

Those who would destroy me are mighty,

my enemies without reason.

Must I now restore

what I did not steal?*

II

God, you know my folly;

my faults are not hidden from you.

Let those who wait in hope for you, LORD of hosts,

not be shamed because of me.

Let those who seek you, God of Israel,

not be disgraced because of me.

For it is on your account I bear insult,

that disgrace covers my face.

I have become an outcast to my kindred,

a stranger to my mother’s children.

Because zeal for your house has consumed me,

I am scorned by those who scorn you.

When I humbled my spirit with fasting,

this led only to scorn.

When I clothed myself in sackcloth;

I became a byword for them.

Those who sit in the gate gossip about me;

drunkards make me the butt of songs.

III

But I will pray to you, LORD,

at a favorable time.

God, in your abundant kindness, answer me

with your sure deliverance.

Rescue me from the mire,

and do not let me sink.

Rescue me from those who hate me

and from the watery depths.

Do not let the flood waters overwhelm me,

nor the deep swallow me,

nor the pit close its mouth over me.

Answer me, LORD, in your generous love;

in your great mercy turn to me.

Do not hide your face from your servant;

hasten to answer me, for I am in distress.

Come and redeem my life;

because of my enemies ransom me.

You know my reproach, my shame, my disgrace;

before you stand all my foes.

Insult has broken my heart, and I despair;

I looked for compassion, but there was none,

for comforters, but found none.

Instead they gave me poison for my food;

and for my thirst they gave me vinegar.

IV

May their own table be a snare for them,

and their communion offerings a trap.

Make their eyes so dim they cannot see;

keep their backs ever feeble.

Pour out your wrath upon them;

let the fury of your anger overtake them.

Make their camp desolate,

with none to dwell in their tents.

For they pursued the one you struck,

added to the pain of the one you wounded.

Heap punishment upon their punishment;

let them gain from you no vindication.

May they be blotted from the book of life;

not registered among the just!

V

But here I am miserable and in pain;

let your saving help protect me, God,

That I may praise God’s name in song

and glorify it with thanksgiving.

That will please the LORD more than oxen,

more than bulls with horns and hooves:

“See, you lowly ones, and be glad;

you who seek God, take heart!

For the LORD hears the poor,

and does not spurn those in bondage.

Let the heaven and the earth praise him,

the seas and whatever moves in them!”

VI

For God will rescue Zion,

and rebuild the cities of Judah.

They will dwell there and possess it;

the descendants of God’s servants will inherit it;

those who love God’s name will dwell in it.

My hand is against the prophets who see false visions and who make lying divinations. They shall not belong to the community of my people. They shall not be written in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel. Thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

Because they led my people astray, saying, “Peace!” when there is no peace, and when a wall is built, they cover it with whitewash,