Year C - Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

Jeremiah 1:4-10

The word of the LORD came to me saying,

"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."

Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." 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,

Do not be afraid of them,

for I am with you to deliver you,

says the LORD."

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.

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."

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God knows you and has consecrated you. When God consecrated us we were filled with a great potential. NO matter how that looks like in this world of humans, you are still more than you imagine you to be simply because it is God who consecrated you before man recognized you.

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Psalm 71:1-6

In te, Domine, speravi

1

In you, O LORD, have I taken refuge; *
let me never be ashamed.

2

In your righteousness, deliver me and set me free; *
incline your ear to me and save me.

3

Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe; *
you are my crag and my stronghold.

4

Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, *
from the clutches of the evildoer and the oppressor.

5

For you are my hope, O Lord GOD, *
my confidence since I was young.

6

I have been sustained by you ever since I was born;
from my mother's womb you have been my strength; *
my praise shall be always of you.

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It is God who can and will sustain you through tough times in life. Why? Because God turned you on to this world with a purpose that needs to be fulfilled. God will fulfill all that is been set within you.

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1 Corinthians 13:1-13

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. 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. 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.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 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. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 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. 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. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

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Although we may not sound like the angels at times we have the potential for it. But truly that becomes real only when it includes people and their lives. We speak like angels for real only when we live like Angels. Until then it is pretending to be like angels.

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Luke 4:21-30

In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus read from the book of the prophet Isaiah, and began to say, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." 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?" 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 Capernaum.'" And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 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. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

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 Everytime we like the children of God the scriptures will be fulfilled. Scripture is the story of mankind through the eyes of God. When we behave like the children of God, God makes the scripture come alive.

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How to Use These Readings and Reflections

Choose the first reading and its reflections for Monday, the second Reading and Reflections for Tuesday and on for each day of the week. By the end of the week you will be ready for the Celebration of Holy Eucharist and a spiritual experience that you got ready in the course of the week. You can use these readings for centering prayer, personal meditation, early morning reflections or prayer groups etc. Make this a daily practice and you will begin to see God’s ever loving hand each and every moment of your life.

• Sermons on the readings of previous Sunday can be found here
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The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.