Scripture Reading for August 31, 2025

Luke 14:1, 7-14

14 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.

7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host, 9 and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place.

10 But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, they may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. 11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

12 He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich

neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Jeremiah 2:4-13

4 Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. 5 Thus says the LORD:

What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me and went after worthless things and became worthless themselves?

6 They did not say, “Where is the LORD, who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits,

in a land of drought and deep darkness,

in a land that no one passes through, where no one lives?”

7 I brought you into a plentiful land

to eat its fruits and its good things.

But when you entered you defiled my land

and made my heritage an abomination.

8 The priests did not say, “Where is the LORD?”

Those who handle the law did not know me; the rulers transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal

and went after things that do not profit.

9 Therefore once more I accuse you, says the LORD,

and I accuse your children’s children.

10 Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look;

send to Kedar and examine with care;

see if there has ever been such a thing.

11 Has a nation changed its gods,

even though they are no gods?

But my people have changed their glory

for something that does not profit.

12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked; be utterly desolate, says the LORD,

13 for my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water,

and dug out cisterns for themselves; cracked cisterns

that can hold no water.