Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost
November 15 & 16, 2025
 
“A Consecrated Life—Part 2”
 

FIRST READING Isaiah 55:1-3, 6-9 (NIV ’84)
1 "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.  2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.  3 Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.  6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.  7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.  8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.  9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
 
 
EPISTLE READING Hebrews 11:24-28 (NIV ’84)
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.  25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.  26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.  27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.  28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
 

HOLY GOSPEL Mark 14:1-9 (NIV ’84) 
1 Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him.  2 "But not during the Feast," they said, "or the people may riot."  3 While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.  4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume?   5 It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor." And they rebuked her harshly.  6 "Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me.  8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.  9 I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."