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 80
To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Testimony. Of Asaph, a Psalm.
[1] Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock.
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.
[2] Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh,
stir up your might
and come to save us!
[3] Restore us, O God;
let your face shine, that we may be saved!
[4] O LORD God of hosts,
how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
[5] You have fed them with the bread of tears
and given them tears to drink in full measure.
[6] You make us an object of contention for our neighbors,
and our enemies laugh among themselves.
[7] Restore us, O God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved!
[8] You brought a vine out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
[9] You cleared the ground for it;
it took deep root and filled the land.
[10] The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches.
[11] It sent out its branches to the sea
and its shoots to the River.
[12] Why then have you broken down its walls,
so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
[13] The boar from the forest ravages it,
and all that move in the field feed on it.
[14] Turn again, O God of hosts!
Look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
[15] the stock that your right hand planted,
and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.
[16] They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down;
may they perish at the rebuke of your face!
[17] But let your hand be on the man of your right hand,
the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!
[18] Then we shall not turn back from you;
give us life, and we will call upon your name!
[19] Restore us, O LORD God of hosts!
Let your face shine, that we may be saved!
Psalm 81
To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph.
[1] Sing aloud to God our strength;
shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
[2] Raise a song; sound the tambourine,
the sweet lyre with the harp.
[3] Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
at the full moon, on our feast day.
[4] For it is a statute for Israel,
a rule of the God of Jacob.
[5] He made it a decree in Joseph
when he went out over the land of Egypt.
I hear a language I had not known:
[6] “I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
your hands were freed from the basket.
[7] In distress you called, and I delivered you;
I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
[8] Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
[9] There shall be no strange god among you;
you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
[10] I am the LORD your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
[11] “But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel would not submit to me.
[12] So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.
[13] Oh, that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
[14] I would soon subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes.
[15] Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him,
and their fate would last forever.
[16] But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
Old Testament Reading
Job 7
[1] “Has not man a hard service on earth,
and are not his days like the days of a hired hand?
[2] Like a slave who longs for the shadow,
and like a hired hand who looks for his wages,
[3] so I am allotted months of emptiness,
and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
[4] When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’
But the night is long,
and I am full of tossing till the dawn.
[5] My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;
my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh.
[6] My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle
and come to their end without hope.
[7] “Remember that my life is a breath;
my eye will never again see good.
[8] The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more;
while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone.
[9] As the cloud fades and vanishes,
so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up;
[10] he returns no more to his house,
nor does his place know him anymore.
[11] “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
[12] Am I the sea, or a sea monster,
that you set a guard over me?
[13] When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me,
my couch will ease my complaint,’
[14] then you scare me with dreams
and terrify me with visions,
[15] so that I would choose strangling
and death rather than my bones.
[16] I loathe my life; I would not live forever.
Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.
[17] What is man, that you make so much of him,
and that you set your heart on him,
[18] visit him every morning
and test him every moment?
[19] How long will you not look away from me,
nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?
[20] If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind?
Why have you made me your mark?
Why have I become a burden to you?
[21] Why do you not pardon my transgression
and take away my iniquity?
For now I shall lie in the earth;
you will seek me, but I shall not be.”
New Testament Reading
Romans 11
[1] I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. [2] God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? [3] “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” [4] But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” [5] So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. [6] But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
[7] What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, [8] as it is written,
“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that would not see
and ears that would not hear,
down to this very day.”
[9] And David says,
“Let their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them;
[10] let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
and bend their backs forever.”
[11] So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. [12] Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!
[13] Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry [14] in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. [15] For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? [16] If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
[17] But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, [18] do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. [19] Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” [20] That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. [21] For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. [22] Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. [23] And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. [24] For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.
[25] Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. [26] And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,
“The Deliverer will come from Zion,
he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
[27] “and this will be my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.”
[28] As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. [29] For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. [30] For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, [31] so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. [32] For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
[33] Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
[34] “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
[35] “Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
[36] For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
- 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.