Epiphany Week 3

Psalm: Psalm 62:5-12 
Old Testament: Jonah 3:1-5, 10 
Gospel: Mark 1:14-20 
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

If you can believe it, we are in the last week full week of January; New Years Eve and all those resolutions people make are probably starting to feel like quite awhile ago. This week, we continue with the theme of Epiphany, or God's self revealing to creation. God is constantly revealing himself to creation in a variety of ways. 

This week, we have one extreme example found in the story of Jonah and Nineveh. Nineveh was a city of great evil that was so far lost God was on the verge of destroying it. This was not the first time God had threatened to destroy a whole city or people group; there was the flood in Noah's time, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Canaanites and other people groups who lived in the land promised to Israel. This episode in Jonah hearkens back to the destroying of Sodom and Gomorrah. In both cases, the wickedness of the cities is so great that their cry had come up before the Lord and God felt like he must act. There was also a chance for each city to be saved. In Sodom and Gomorrah's case, if just 10 righteous people were found and in Nineveh, if they heeded Jonah's call to repent.

Epiphany Week 2

Psalm: Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 3:1-10, 11-20 

Gospel: John 1:43-51 

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

I was thinking today about what to talk about and what themes this week emerge from these four Scriptures and I came around to the fact that we are celebrating tomorrow the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. Two of our texts, 1 Samuel 3 and John 1 are about people being called by the Lord for his work. We are probably familiar with the two accounts.

Epiphany Week 1

Psalm: Psalm 29 

Old Testament: Genesis 1:1-5 

Gospel: Mark 1:4-11 

Epistle: Acts 19:1-7

Well, we are officially in the time of Epiphany in the Church Calendar. Epiphany is the time of the year when we celebrate God revealing himself to us through many ways, but primarily through Jesus. From the beginning of creation, God has been active and engaged in creation, revealing himself to humanity. The day of Epiphany, more specifically, has traditionally celebrated the Wise Men who came to Jesus as a baby to bring him gifts in worship. Thereby, they reveal Jesus’ kingship to the world. So it is interesting that this week our Gospel reading comes from the same passage as the second week of Advent.

Second Sunday After Christmas

Psalm: Psalm 147:12-20
  or Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21 

Old Testament: Jeremiah 31:7-14
  or Sirach 24:1-12 

Gospel: John 1:1-9, 10-18 

Epistle: Ephesians 1:3-14

Happy New Year! If you follow the major dates on the church calendar, this time of year is full of celebration. After the 12 days of Christmas, with New Year’s in the middle of that, Epiphany is always celebrated on January 6^th. That makes today the 11^th day of Christmas and tomorrow the 12^th. You might remember Shakespeare play Twelfth Night, it occurs on the 12^th day of Christmas.

Well, that is just some extra information for you. I think this week we will deal mostly with the reading from Ephesians. We discussed John 1 a couple of weeks during Advent which deals with the Incarnation. Jeremiah 31 and Psalm 147 are both psalms of praise to the Lord. But the beginning of Ephesians is something we haven’t dug into in a while.