November 15 and 16, 2025

First Reading - Job 19:23-27a

Job suffers the loss of children, wealth, and health. Accused by his companions of wrongdoing, he knows himself to be innocent. Here, in the midst of his suffering, Job clings to the radical hope that his vindicator, his redeemer, lives; and that one day he himself will see God.
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23 “O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book! 24 O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock forever! 25 For I know that my vindicator lives and that in the end he will stand upon the earth; 26 and after my skin has been destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, 27a whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.”

Responsive Reading of the Psalm - Psalm 17:1-9

Keep me as the apple of your
eye; hide me under the shadow of your wings. (Ps. 17:8)

1Hear a just cause, O Lord; give heed to my cry; listen to my
prayer, which does not come from lying lips.
2Let my vindication come forth from your presence; let your eyes be fixed on justice.
3Examine my heart, visit me by night, melt me down; you will find no impurity in me.
4I have not regarded what others do; at the word of your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent. 
5My footsteps hold fast to your well-worn path; and my feet do not slip.
6I call upon you, O God, for you will answer me; incline your ear to me and hear my words.
7Show me your marvelous lovingkindness, O Savior of those who take refuge at your right hand from those who rise against them.
8Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me under the shadow of your wings,
9from the wicked who assault me, from my deadly enemies who surround me. 
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Second Reading - 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4, 13-17

 This portion of the letter provides encouragement for the church at Thessalonica during a time of confusion and opposition, as some allowed their concern over Jesus’ imminent return to divert them from the central teachings of the gospel.

1 As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction. 4 He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that I told you these things when I was still with you?

13 But we must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 For this purpose he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast
to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter.

16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, 17 comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.

Holy Gospel - Luke 209:27-38

Some Sadducees, who do not believe in the resurrection of the dead, try to trap Jesus. They formulate the convoluted case of a serial widow who marries a succession of seven brothers. Jesus responds by teaching about God to whom all are alive and in whom all relationships are fulfilled.
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 27 Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to [Jesus] 28 and asked him a question: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman and died childless; 30 then the second 31 and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. 32 Finally the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”

34 Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36 Indeed, they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37 And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is God not of the dead but of the living, for to him all of them are alive.”