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 101
A Psalm of David.
[1] I will sing of steadfast love and justice;
to you, O LORD, I will make music.
[2] I will ponder the way that is blameless.
Oh when will you come to me?
I will walk with integrity of heart
within my house;
[3] I will not set before my eyes
anything that is worthless.
I hate the work of those who fall away;
it shall not cling to me.
[4] A perverse heart shall be far from me;
I will know nothing of evil.
[5] Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly
I will destroy.
Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart
I will not endure.
[6] I will look with favor on the faithful in the land,
that they may dwell with me;
he who walks in the way that is blameless
shall minister to me.
[7] No one who practices deceit
shall dwell in my house;
no one who utters lies
shall continue before my eyes.
[8] Morning by morning I will destroy
all the wicked in the land,
cutting off all the evildoers
from the city of the LORD.
Psalm 102
A Prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the LORD.
[1] Hear my prayer, O LORD;
let my cry come to you!
[2] Do not hide your face from me
in the day of my distress!
Incline your ear to me;
answer me speedily in the day when I call!
[3] For my days pass away like smoke,
and my bones burn like a furnace.
[4] My heart is struck down like grass and has withered;
I forget to eat my bread.
[5] Because of my loud groaning
my bones cling to my flesh.
[6] I am like a desert owl of the wilderness,
like an owl of the waste places;
[7] I lie awake;
I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.
[8] All the day my enemies taunt me;
those who deride me use my name for a curse.
[9] For I eat ashes like bread
and mingle tears with my drink,
[10] because of your indignation and anger;
for you have taken me up and thrown me down.
[11] My days are like an evening shadow;
I wither away like grass.
[12] But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever;
you are remembered throughout all generations.
[13] You will arise and have pity on Zion;
it is the time to favor her;
the appointed time has come.
[14] For your servants hold her stones dear
and have pity on her dust.
[15] Nations will fear the name of the LORD,
and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory.
[16] For the LORD builds up Zion;
he appears in his glory;
[17] he regards the prayer of the destitute
and does not despise their prayer.
[18] Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD:
[19] that he looked down from his holy height;
from heaven the LORD looked at the earth,
[20] to hear the groans of the prisoners,
to set free those who were doomed to die,
[21] that they may declare in Zion the name of the LORD,
and in Jerusalem his praise,
[22] when peoples gather together,
and kingdoms, to worship the LORD.
[23] He has broken my strength in midcourse;
he has shortened my days.
[24] “O my God,” I say, “take me not away
in the midst of my days—
you whose years endure
throughout all generations!”
[25] Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
[26] They will perish, but you will remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
[27] but you are the same, and your years have no end.
[28] The children of your servants shall dwell secure;
their offspring shall be established before you.
Old Testament Reading
Job 16
[1] Then Job answered and said:
[2] “I have heard many such things;
miserable comforters are you all.
[3] Shall windy words have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
[4] I also could speak as you do,
if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
and shake my head at you.
[5] I could strengthen you with my mouth,
and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.
[6] “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
[7] Surely now God has worn me out;
he has made desolate all my company.
[8] And he has shriveled me up,
which is a witness against me,
and my leanness has risen up against me;
it testifies to my face.
[9] He has torn me in his wrath and hated me;
he has gnashed his teeth at me;
my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
[10] Men have gaped at me with their mouth;
they have struck me insolently on the cheek;
they mass themselves together against me.
[11] God gives me up to the ungodly
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
[12] I was at ease, and he broke me apart;
he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his target;
[13] his archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare;
he pours out my gall on the ground.
[14] He breaks me with breach upon breach;
he runs upon me like a warrior.
[15] I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin
and have laid my strength in the dust.
[16] My face is red with weeping,
and on my eyelids is deep darkness,
[17] although there is no violence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.
[18] “O earth, cover not my blood,
and let my cry find no resting place.
[19] Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,
and he who testifies for me is on high.
[20] My friends scorn me;
my eye pours out tears to God,
[21] that he would argue the case of a man with God,
as a son of man does with his neighbor.
[22] For when a few years have come
I shall go the way from which I shall not return.
Job 17
[1] “My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;
the graveyard is ready for me.
[2] Surely there are mockers about me,
and my eye dwells on their provocation.
[3] “Lay down a pledge for me with you;
who is there who will put up security for me?
[4] Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
therefore you will not let them triumph.
[5] He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
the eyes of his children will fail.
[6] “He has made me a byword of the peoples,
and I am one before whom men spit.
[7] My eye has grown dim from vexation,
and all my members are like a shadow.
[8] The upright are appalled at this,
and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
[9] Yet the righteous holds to his way,
and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
[10] But you, come on again, all of you,
and I shall not find a wise man among you.
[11] My days are past; my plans are broken off,
the desires of my heart.
[12] They make night into day:
‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’
[13] If I hope for Sheol as my house,
if I make my bed in darkness,
[14] if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
[15] where then is my hope?
Who will see my hope?
[16] Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
Shall we descend together into the dust?”
New Testament Reading
1 Corinthians 4
[1] This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. [2] Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. [3] But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. [4] For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. [5] Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
[6] I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. [7] For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
[8] Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! [9] For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. [10] We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. [11] To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, [12] and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; [13] when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
[14] I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. [15] For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. [16] I urge you, then, be imitators of me. [17] That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. [18] Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. [19] But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. [20] For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. [21] What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?
- 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...
O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your grace, that in keeping your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; 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.