Scriptually Speaking – January 2017

JANUARY, SCRIPTURALLY SPEAKING

The Lectionary Readings Appointed for Sundays in January The Christian Year, with its seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and    Pentecost/Kingdomtide, forms not so much a pie of sections denoting the seasons, but a circle of links, like a chain; for the seasons seem to overlap or conjoin with each other.  For instance…

As the twelve-day season of Christmas concludes by linking with the season of Epiphany at the Sunday of Jesus’ baptism (January 8), we find ourselves on the road with Jesus, for the first time again—this time as the evangelist Matthew presents the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  In this link of the Christian Year, at one point Jesus “makes his home in Capernaum”; then he’s up and going first to call his first disciples, and then to wander Galilee ‘teaching, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every sickness and disease’.  We begin to get the feeling that Jesus’ home is wherever he is and goes, which is to say, where his heart is and goes.  And this is just the start.

JANUARY 1, 2017………THE LORD’S EPIPHANY….…………..EIGHTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

  Psalm 72                   Isaiah 60.1-6               Ephesians 3.1-12                    Matthew 2.1-15

Wise men come from foreign lands seeking the King.
The holy family flees to a foreign land for the child’s safety.

First-Sunday Service of the Eucharist.

JANUARY 8, 2017………THE LORD’S BAPTISM…….….FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

  Psalm 29                   Isaiah 42.1-9               Acts 10.34-43                          Matthew 3.13-17

Jesus comes from Galilee to be baptized by John at the Jordan River.

Service of Baptismal Re-affirmation for the New Year

JANUARY 15, 2017………………………………….……SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

  Psalm 40                   Isaiah 49.1-7               1 Corinthians 1.1-9                  John 1.29-42

Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Human Relations Day

Begin the Week of Prayer and Christian Unity, January 18-25

JANUARY 22, 2017………………….………….…………..THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

  Psalm 27                   Isaiah 9.1-4                 1 Corinthians 1.10-18              Matthew 4.12-23

Jesus settles in Capernaum and begins to call disciples.

Ecumenical Sunday

JANUARY 29, 2017……………………………….FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

  Psalm 15                 Micah 6.1-8               1 Corinthians 1.18-31         Matthew 5.1-12

Matthew introduces Jesus’ teachings in the ‘sermon on the mount’.