[Propertalk] READINGS for the FOURTH SUNDAY after the EPIPHANY

[Charles Wohlers]

The following are the readings for the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, Jan. 31, according to the Revised Common (RCL), Episcopal (ECUSA), Roman Catholic, Canadian BAS, and the Church of England (Common Worship) lectionaries. All readings are taken from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible. Unless noted otherwise, the ECUSA and  Canadian lectionaries are identical to the RCL for this day. For the C of E, this is the Second Sunday before Lent.



OLD TESTAMENT: Jeremiah 1: 4 - 10 (RCL) 
                                   Jeremiah 1: 4 - 5, 17 - 19 (Roman Catholic) 

Jere 1:4 (NRSV) Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, 
5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, 
and before you were born I consecrated you; 
I appointed you a prophet to the nations." 
6 Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." 7 But the LORD said to me, 
"Do not say, "I am only a boy'; 
for you shall go to all to whom I send you, 
and you shall speak whatever I command you, 
8 Do not be afraid of them, 
for I am with you to deliver you, 
says the LORD." 
9 Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me, 
"Now I have put my words in your mouth. 
10 See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, 
to pluck up and to pull down, 
to destroy and to overthrow, 
to build and to plant." 

17 But you, gird up your loins; stand up and tell them everything that I command you. Do not break down before them, or I will break you before them. 18 And I for my part have made you today a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall, against the whole land--against the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land. 19 They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you. 


Genesis 2.4b-9,15-25 (C of E) 

Gen. 2:4  (NRSV) In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; 6 but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’
18 Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’ 19 So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,
‘This at last is bone of my bones
   and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman,
   for out of Man this one was taken.’
24 Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed. 


PSALM 71: 1 - 6   (RCL) 
Psalm 71: 1 - 6, 15, 17   (Roman Catholic) 

Psal 71:1 (NRSV) In you, O LORD, 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, 
a strong fortress, 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. 
5 For you, O Lord, are my hope, 
my trust, O LORD, from my youth. 
6 Upon you I have leaned from my birth; 
it was you who took me from my mother's womb. 
My praise is continually of you. 

15 My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, 
of your deeds of salvation all day long, 
though their number is past my knowledge. 

17 O God, from my youth you have taught me, 
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. 


Psalm 65 (C of E) 

Psalm 65:1  (NRSV) Praise is due to you,
   O God, in Zion;
and to you shall vows be performed,
2   O you who answer prayer!
To you all flesh shall come.
3 When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us,
   you forgive our transgressions.
4 Happy are those whom you choose and bring near
   to live in your courts.
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
   your holy temple.
5 By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance,
   O God of our salvation;
you are the hope of all the ends of the earth
   and of the farthest seas.
6 By your* strength you established the mountains;
   you are girded with might.
7 You silence the roaring of the seas,
   the roaring of their waves,
   the tumult of the peoples.
8 Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by your signs;
you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.
9 You visit the earth and water it,
   you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
   you provide the people with grain,
   for so you have prepared it.
10 You water its furrows abundantly,
   settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
   and blessing its growth.
11 You crown the year with your bounty;
   your wagon tracks overflow with richness.
12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
   the hills gird themselves with joy,
13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
   the valleys deck themselves with grain,
   they shout and sing together for joy. 


NEW TESTAMENT: 1 Corinthians 13: 1 - 13 (RCL) 
                                    1 Corinthians 12: 31 - 13: 4 (5 - 13) (Roman Catholic) 

1Cor 12:31 (NRSV) But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. 
13:1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 
8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. 


Revelation 4  (C of E)

Rev. 4:1  (NRSV) After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’ 2 At once I was in the spirit,* and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! 3 And the one seated there looks like jasper and cornelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald. 4Around the throne are twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones are twenty-four elders, dressed in white robes, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 Coming from the throne are flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and in front of the throne burn seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God; 6 and in front of the throne there is something like a sea of glass, like crystal.
Around the throne, and on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with a face like a human face, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and inside. Day and night without ceasing they sing,
‘Holy, holy, holy,
the Lord God the Almighty,
   who was and is and is to come.’
9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to the one who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall before the one who is seated on the throne and worship the one who lives for ever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing,
11 ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God,
   to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
   and by your will they existed and were created.’ 


GOSPEL: Luke 4: 21 - 30 (RCL, Roman Catholic) 

Luke 4:21 (NRSV) Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" 23 He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, "Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, "Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Caper'naum.'" 24 And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Eli'jah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26 yet Eli'jah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zar'ephath in Si'don. 27 There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Eli'sha, and none of them was cleansed except Na'aman the Syrian." 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.


Luke 8.22-25  (C of E) 

Luke 8:22  (NRSV) One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side of the lake.’ So they put out, 23 and while they were sailing he fell asleep. A gale swept down on the lake, and the boat was filling with water, and they were in danger. 24 They went to him and woke him up, shouting, ‘Master, Master, we are perishing!’ And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’ They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?’ 


Chad Wohlers
Woodbury, VT USA
chadwohl at satucket.com
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