Epiphany
We know the word: a moment of piercing awareness, the sudden jolt of understanding. This is the season of Epiphany, a season celebrating the revelation of the Savior, the light of the world. Throughout the season we focus on the ministry of Jesus: the calling of the disciples, the teachings of Christ, his miracles, and finally his transfiguration. The epiphany of Epiphany is that this is no mere teacher or prophet— this is the Son of God, the Messiah. Epiphany calls us to live God’s mission, announcing the good news of Christ’s arrival to every culture and to those who live across the street. We, the church, are sent out as the manifestation of Jesus to a watching world (from Seeking God’s Face by Philip Reinders).
- Calling -
O Lord, open our lips.
And our mouth shall proclaim Your praise.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen. Alleluia!
The Lord has manifested his glory:
O come, let us adore him.
- Constitution -
Read/Listen, Meditate, Pray, and Contemplate on God’s Word, remembering that God is with you and ready to speak to you because he loves you.
Praying the Psalms
Psalm 71
[1] In you, O LORD, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame!
[2] In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me, and save me!
[3] Be to me a rock of refuge,
to which I may continually come;
you have given the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
[4] Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
[5] For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O LORD, from my youth.
[6] Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
you are he who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is continually of you.
[7] I have been as a portent to many,
but you are my strong refuge.
[8] My mouth is filled with your praise,
and with your glory all the day.
[9] Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
forsake me not when my strength is spent.
[10] For my enemies speak concerning me;
those who watch for my life consult together
[11] and say, “God has forsaken him;
pursue and seize him,
for there is none to deliver him.”
[12] O God, be not far from me;
O my God, make haste to help me!
[13] May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
with scorn and disgrace may they be covered
who seek my hurt.
[14] But I will hope continually
and will praise you yet more and more.
[15] My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
of your deeds of salvation all the day,
for their number is past my knowledge.
[16] With the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD I will come;
I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.
[17] O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
[18] So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
your power to all those to come.
[19] Your righteousness, O God,
reaches the high heavens.
You who have done great things,
O God, who is like you?
[20] You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
you will bring me up again.
[21] You will increase my greatness
and comfort me again.
[22] I will also praise you with the harp
for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praises to you with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
[23] My lips will shout for joy,
when I sing praises to you;
my soul also, which you have redeemed.
[24] And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long,
for they have been put to shame and disappointed
who sought to do me hurt.
Psalm 72
Of Solomon.
[1] Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to the royal son!
[2] May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice!
[3] Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness!
[4] May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the children of the needy,
and crush the oppressor!
[5] May they fear you while the sun endures,
and as long as the moon, throughout all generations!
[6] May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass,
like showers that water the earth!
[7] In his days may the righteous flourish,
and peace abound, till the moon be no more!
[8] May he have dominion from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth!
[9] May desert tribes bow down before him,
and his enemies lick the dust!
[10] May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands
render him tribute;
may the kings of Sheba and Seba
bring gifts!
[11] May all kings fall down before him,
all nations serve him!
[12] For he delivers the needy when he calls,
the poor and him who has no helper.
[13] He has pity on the weak and the needy,
and saves the lives of the needy.
[14] From oppression and violence he redeems their life,
and precious is their blood in his sight.
[15] Long may he live;
may gold of Sheba be given to him!
May prayer be made for him continually,
and blessings invoked for him all the day!
[16] May there be abundance of grain in the land;
on the tops of the mountains may it wave;
may its fruit be like Lebanon;
and may people blossom in the cities
like the grass of the field!
[17] May his name endure forever,
his fame continue as long as the sun!
May people be blessed in him,
all nations call him blessed!
[18] Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous things.
[19] Blessed be his glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory!
Amen and Amen!
[20] The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.
Old Testament Reading
Job 3
[1] After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. [2] And Job said:
[3] “Let the day perish on which I was born,
and the night that said,
‘A man is conceived.’
[4] Let that day be darkness!
May God above not seek it,
nor light shine upon it.
[5] Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.
Let clouds dwell upon it;
let the blackness of the day terrify it.
[6] That night—let thick darkness seize it!
Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
let it not come into the number of the months.
[7] Behold, let that night be barren;
let no joyful cry enter it.
[8] Let those curse it who curse the day,
who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.
[9] Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
let it hope for light, but have none,
nor see the eyelids of the morning,
[10] because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,
nor hide trouble from my eyes.
[11] “Why did I not die at birth,
come out from the womb and expire?
[12] Why did the knees receive me?
Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
[13] For then I would have lain down and been quiet;
I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
[14] with kings and counselors of the earth
who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
[15] or with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver.
[16] Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child,
as infants who never see the light?
[17] There the wicked cease from troubling,
and there the weary are at rest.
[18] There the prisoners are at ease together;
they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
[19] The small and the great are there,
and the slave is free from his master.
[20] “Why is light given to him who is in misery,
and life to the bitter in soul,
[21] who long for death, but it comes not,
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
[22] who rejoice exceedingly
and are glad when they find the grave?
[23] Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
whom God has hedged in?
[24] For my sighing comes instead of my bread,
and my groanings are poured out like water.
[25] For the thing that I fear comes upon me,
and what I dread befalls me.
[26] I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
I have no rest, but trouble comes.”
New Testament Reading
Romans 7
[1] Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? [2] For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. [3] Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
[4] Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. [5] For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. [6] But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
[7] What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” [8] But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. [9] I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. [10] The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. [11] For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. [12] So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
[13] Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. [14] For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. [15] For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. [16] Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. [17] So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. [18] For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. [19] For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. [20] Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
[21] So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. [22] For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, [23] but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. [24] Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? [25] Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
- Communion -
Pray for yourself, others, our church, our neighbors, and the world.
Pray the Lord’s Prayer & the collect of the week:
Our Father who art in heaven...
Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
- Commission -
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:14)
Let us go forth in the name of Christ.