This week’s Readings and Sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Epiphany
The Collect for This Week
God of all mercy, your Son proclaimed good news to the poor, release to the captives, and freedom to the oppressed: anoint us with your Holy Spirit and set all your people free to praise you in Christ our Lord. Amen
The Post Communion Prayer for this week
Almighty Father, whose Son our Saviour Jesus Christ is the light of the world: may your people, illumined by your word and sacraments, shine with the radiance of his glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever. Amen
Psalm 27, verses 1 and 4 to 12
1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid? 4 One thing have I asked of the Lord and that alone I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, 5 To behold the fair beauty of the Lord and to seek his will in his temple. 6 For in the day of trouble he shall hide me in his shelter; in the secret place of his dwelling shall he hide me and set me high upon a rock. 7 And now shall he lift up my head above my enemies round about me; 8 Therefore will I offer in his dwelling an oblation with great gladness; I will sing and make music to the Lord. 9 Hear my voice, O Lord, when I call; have mercy upon me and answer me. 10 My heart tells of your word, ‘Seek my face.’ Your face, Lord, will I seek. 11 Hide not your face from me, nor cast your servant away in displeasure. 12 You have been my helper; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now and shall be forever. Amen
The Old Testament Reading for this Sunday is taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah Chapter 9, verses 1 to 4
1 But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined. 3 You have multiplied the nation,
you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder. 4 For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The New Testament reading for this Sunday is taken from the First Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians, Chapter 1 verses 10 to 18
10 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. 12 What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’ 13 Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. 18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The Gospel reading for this Sunday is taken from the Gospel of St Matthew, Chapter 4, verses 12 to 23
Hear the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ, according to John Glory to You, o Lord
12 Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
15 ‘Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles 16 the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.’
17From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’
18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to You, o Christ
Note :All readings are shared from the Church of England Lectionary App and are subject to copyright . © The Archbishop’s Council
This week’s sermon is delivered by Rev Samuel Hameem
“May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you O Lord my refuge and my redeemer amen.”
Today is the third Sunday Epiphany, but it is not a normal third Sunday of Epiphany because today in the church we are also celebrating the feast the St. Paul’s. Now, St. Paul’s is one of those peoples or disciples who after Jesus has an impact on the New Testament, because most the New Testament books are associated with St. Paul’s, and I was reading it somewhere that the earlier texts of the New Testament are not the four Gospels we have, rather they the letter from St. Paul.
And if we recall our today’s reading from the 1 Corinthians 1, we could see that this text gives us the context or the background of what Paul had go through to develop in his writings, and especially in these two letters which he wrote to the church in Corinth, and his message is very clear and straightforward that all power, strength, support, and wisdom we need in all our days in and days out, in all our circumstances, and in all what we do, think, and say, lies in the cross. Cross is the real source where all our power lies.
Yes, according to Paul it may be not so wise for some people that we Christians get our power and strength from the cross of Christ, but even in this case Paul is not afraid of showing and manifesting his Christian faith, and that is why later in his writing he says that the cross of Christ is the power and wisdom of the God almighty.
If we look at Paul’s life and his teachings, one thing is very clear that in all of his writings he was pointing towards Christ, he does not put himself first, but always seems to keep Jesus at the center and most important, and one of the reasons for this is that he seems to derive all his wisdom, intellect, and knowledge from the cross of Jesus.
The cross of Jesus has a very special significance. I am not talking about the process of Jesus being crucified, but I am talking about the wooden cross on which Jesus was hung, because if we look at it, this cross teaches us a lesson that we do not find in any other religion in the world.
The cross as we know it is formed by two lines, a vertical and a horizontal line, and these two lines tell us something. Vertical line is a straightforward line that goes up and down, this line is so important in the cross because this show God’s connection with the humans. The line coming down from top to bottom shows that God loves man and that is why he came into this world.
And just as the vertical line shows that Jesus came into the world, the horizontal line shows that he came so that one person could have a strong relationship with another and, importantly, live together in love and affection. It's all about understanding, and that's why Paul said that Jesus the cross is the source of all things.
If we study the Bible, we see that all people, including Paul, seem to place Jesus at the center of their teachings and words, and among them was John the Baptizer. That is why all his teaching revolves around Jesus, and if we bring the Gospel account to mind today, we see that as soon as John was arrested, Jesus began his earthly ministry.
I read it today in one of my mobile prayer applications that, ‘There is a quite weight in this moment from the Gospel according to Matthew. John is arrested. Something ends. Something else begins. ‘
Jesus' journey to the cross began, but at the same time, Jesus' earthly ministry also began, in which Jesus told, taught, and demonstrated through his actions that his destination on earth was none other than the cross.
In his earthly ministry, he fully demonstrated his relationship with God in his earthly life, and preached God's message throughout his life, which is why in today's Gospel reading we heard that,
“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the gentiles, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”
Jesus’ message was clear that, kingdom of God is not far away. It is near, it is available now, and we can get access to that through Jesus and his cross. Which means that we need to believe in Jesus as a God in human flesh, and he came on earth to die for us on the cross to reconnect us with God and with our fellow human beings, and this is the true wisdom in which we need to spend our personal, family, church and social life.
We need to ponder on our lives and we need to see that if there is something lacking in our life in this regard, we need to ask God for his wisdom which lies in the cross of Christ, so we can share and proclaim God’s love and wisdom with our other fellow human beings.
May God give us wisdom to do so.