Fast-Free Day
Gospel Reading
John 10:27-38
²⁷ My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.” ³¹ Therefore Jews took up stones again to stone him. ³² Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me?” ³³ The Jews answered him, “We don’t stone you for a good work, but for blasphemy: because you, being a man, make yourself God.” ³⁴ Jesus answered them, “Isn’t it written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods?’ ³⁵ If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture can’t be broken), ³⁶ do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God?’ ³⁷ If I don’t do the works of my Father, don’t believe me. ³⁸ But if I do them, though you don’t believe me, believe the works; that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
Epistle Reading
Acts 15:35-41
³⁵ But Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also. ³⁶ After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s return now and visit our brothers in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, to see how they are doing.” ³⁷ Barnabas planned to take John, who was called Mark, with them also. ³⁸ But Paul didn’t think that it was a good idea to take with them someone who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia, and didn’t go with them to do the work. ³⁹ Then the contention grew so sharp that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him, and sailed away to Cyprus, ⁴⁰ but Paul chose Silas, and went out, being commended by the brothers to the grace of God. ⁴¹ He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the assemblies.