FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY
We invite you to worship with us. Lauds 9:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist 10:00 a.m. Our Eucharistic worship at the Philadelphia Cathedral this Sunday, January 31, will be an “Instructed Eucharist”. Please join us.
Many congregations in liturgical churches have expressed a desire for some sort of real-time worship teaching or commentary which would shed light on the various elements of the service. Such a teaching service is often known as an “instructed eucharist.” This Sunday,at 10:00 a.m., Philadelphia Cathedral will celebrate an” instructed eucharist” Click here to view this Sunday’s Service Leaflet.
The liturgy that we participate in each Sunday morning is the most important thing we do together as a parish community. Parts of what we say date from the time of Jesus Christ and parts of our liturgy have survived the revision of the Book of Common Prayer for 500 years. Other portions of our service come to us from many years before Jesus.
The word “liturgy” means, “work of the people.” The work of the liturgy binds us together as a parish. It is the liturgy that guides, nourishes and sustains our fundamental ministry as Christians in the world. There is an old Latin phrase that translates, “the way we pray determines the way we believe.”
As Episcopalians, there is no set of doctrines or confession that must be accepted by members—instead the liturgy we celebrate together reminds us again and again each week that we are as people of God. It teaches us, re-narrating our lives into God’s history, reforming our memory and actions, bringing us into the kingdom.
INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, Year C
January 31, 2010
JEREMIAH 1:4-10
This is a classic example of the call to a prophet for his special mission. The young Jeremiah is summoned by the direct intervention of God in his life. The divine message revealed that God had intended this role for Jeremiah from before his birth. God not only called, but also equipped the prophet for his vocation by reassuring him and by “touching his mouth” to give him effective powers of speech. The prophet would need all of these gifts because his task was to pronounce God’s judgment in a difficult religious and political situation in Israel at the end of the 7th century BC.
PSALM 71:1-6
The psalmist makes several urgent appeals to God for deliverance from unnamed enemies. Throughout his prayer, he prefaces his appeals by confessing his trust in God as his only refuge and hope.
1 CORINTHIANS 13: 1-13
Paul’s hymn to love remains one of the great pieces of poetry in any language. It has universal application – from marriage and family life to all forms of human relationships. Yet there is a firmness about it that denies all sentimentality. It goes straight to the heart of the problems of human communication and issues that drive us apart. For those who doubt that this approach to life can be effective, Paul has a special word of counsel. This is how mature people relate to each other. There is no other way to settle disputes such as those he had encountered among the disciples in Corinth.
LUKE 4:21-30.
By telling the audience in his home town that they are witnessing the inauguration of the new age of God’s rule in all of life, Jesus challenged his hearers to believe in him. They ran him out of town. Wouldn’t we still do so? Don’t we, though perhaps in more subtle ways?
28 Jan, 2010 — Daniel Tomko
