Scripture Readings

The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
For Year C

Scripture readings are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® NIV® ©1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. All rights reserved.

Old Testament
Psalm
Epistle Reading
Gospel Reading

Old Testament

     The word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
     “Ah, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.”
     But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD.
     Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
—Jeremiah 1:4-10, NIV

Go to the top of this page

Psalm

In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge;
     let me never be put to shame.
Rescue me and deliver me in your righteousness;
     turn your ear to me and save me.
Be my rock of refuge,
     to which I can always go;
give the command to save me,
     for you are my rock and my fortress.
Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
     from the grasp of evil and cruel men.
For you have been my hope, O Sovereign LORD,
     my confidence since my youth.
From birth I have relied on you;
     you brought me forth from my mother’s womb.
     I will ever praise you.
—Psalm 71:1-6, NIV

Go to the top of this page

Epistle

     If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
     Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
     Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
     And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
—1 Corinthians 13:1-13, NIV

Go to the top of this page

Gospel

     And he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
     All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.
     Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”
     “I tell you the truth,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
     All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
—Luke 4:21-30, NIV

Go to the top of this page