FIRST LESSON Jeremiah 31:27-34

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house

of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. And just as I have watched over

them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over

them to build and to plant, says the Lord. In those days they shall no longer say:

‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on

edge.

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of

Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made

with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a

covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant

that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law

within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my

people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they

shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their

iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

GOSPEL LESSON John 12:20-33

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to

Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip

went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them,

‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of

wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much

fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it

for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be

also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is

for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came

from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ The crowd standing there heard it

and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ Jesus answered, ‘This

voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler

of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all

people to myself.’ He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.