Scriptually Speaking – Februry 2017

FEBRUARY, SCRIPTURALLY SPEAKING
THE LECTIONARY READINGS FOR SUNDAYS IN FEBRUARY
From the Mount of Teaching to the Mount of Transfiguration
 

            “Frost is gone, Spring not yet come,
Give me frozen pipes and blizzards, but not
                    this nothing time, this waiting room of the world.”  
 
C.S. Lewis

     
    For now, the world sort-of feels like a waiting room, a nothing-time.  The start of the new year is over, and things are moving along—with and without (or in spite of) resolutions; the appearance of W-2’s remind us that April 15 is on the horizon; the inauguration of a new president signals a unique moment in this time.  But the movement of time seems otherwise uneventful and usual, and gray, and bronchial with all the weather changes.  Plodding, maybe.  And each day is one more passage of dull time.  For some, after Monday, January 9’s game, what else is there?  Oh, yes, the Patriots and the Falcons.
 
    Even in the church, the poinsettia are long gone, and the sanctuary is reduced to an empty chancel—and on some Sundays, empty spaces in the pews.  Nothing seems very exciting.  Even Jesus now takes a rest and sits for the next several Sundays, teaching his first extended sermon on the personality and character of the kingdom of heaven.  It is all rather low-key and introspective and meditative.  All of this is lead-up to his transfiguration on the mount with Moses and Elijah, and then he and his disciples hit the Lenten road hard to Jerusalem.  Even the Sunday designations—Fourth Sunday before Lent, Third Sunday before Lent, etc.—suggest a non-season time, when things are in waiting, maybe even in anxious anticipation.  
 
    But as in nature, so in the nature of the gospel, things will soon come out of rest and hibernation, and we will begin to note first-flowerings in our midst.

FEBRUARY 5, 2017……..FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY
  Psalm 112           Isaiah 58.1-12        1 Corinthians 2.1-13          Matthew 5.11-16
“Facing the Face of Persecution”
First-Sunday Service of the Eucharist
Blessing and Sending-Forth of Our Nicaragua Missioners
 
FEBRUARY 12, 2017……..SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY
  Psalm 119.1-8     Deuteronomy 30.15-20    1 Corinthians 3.1-9        Matthew 5.17-26
“Dealing With It”
 
FEBRUARY 19, 2017……..SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY
  Psalm 119.33-40 Leviticus 19.1-2, 9-18    1 Corinthians 3.10-11, 16-23    Matthew 5.38-48
“The Hardest Love of All”
 
FEBRUARY 26, 2017…TRANSFIGURATION…EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER THE
EPIPHANY
  Psalm 99          Exodus 24.12-18    2 Peter 1.16-21        Matthew 17.1-9
“When You Don’t Know What to Do”
Elijah Jars will be available for Lenten Mission Offering
 
MARCH 1, 2017….…LENT BEGINS………….ASH WEDNESDAY
  Psalm 51    Joel 2.1-2,12-17    2 Corinthians 5.20-6.10             Matthew 6.1-6,16-21
“Observing a Holy Lent”
Service of Ashes, 6:30 PM