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TODAY’S READINGS
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-16
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Luke 4:21-30

FIRST READING: Jeremiah 1:4-10
⁴ Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, ⁵‘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.’ ⁶Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.’ ⁷But 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. ⁸ Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.’ ⁹Then 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.

¹⁰See, 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.’

RESPONSIVE READING: Psalm 71:1-16
¹ In you, O Lord, I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
² In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me and save me.
³ Be to me a rock of refuge,
a strong fortress, to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
⁴ Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.
⁵ For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
⁶ Upon you I have leaned from my birth;
it was you who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is continually of you.
⁷ I have been like a portent to many,
but you are my strong refuge.
⁸ My mouth is filled with your praise,
and with your glory all day long.
⁹ Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
do not forsake me when my strength is spent.
¹⁰ For my enemies speak concerning me,
and those who watch for my life consult together.
¹¹ They say, ‘Pursue and seize that person
whom God has forsaken,
for there is no one to deliver.’
¹² O God, do not be far from me;
O my God, make haste to help me!
¹³ Let my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
let those who seek to hurt me
be covered with scorn and disgrace.
¹⁴ But I will hope continually,
and will praise you yet more and more.
¹⁵ My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
of your deeds of salvation all day long,
though their number is past my knowledge.
¹⁶ I will come praising the mighty deeds of the Lord God,
I will praise your righteousness, yours alone.

SECOND READING: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
¹If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ²And 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. ³If 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.

⁴Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸Love 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. ⁹For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; ¹⁰but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. ¹¹When 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. ¹²For 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. ¹³And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

GOSPEL: Luke 4:21-30
²¹Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ ²²All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’²³He said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself!” And you will say, “Do here also in your home town the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.” ’ ²⁴And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town. ²⁵But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; ²⁶yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. ²⁷There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’ ²⁸When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. ²⁹They 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. ³⁰But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.  Used by permission.