Sunday 29 January 2023 – The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany

Collect
God our creator,
who in the beginning
commanded the light to shine out of darkness:
we pray that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
may dispel the darkness of ignorance and unbelief,
shine into the hearts of all your people,
and reveal the knowledge of your glory
in the face of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen

1 Kings 17. 8-16
Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying,
“Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there;
for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.”
So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town,
a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said,
“Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.”
As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”
But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar,
and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks,
so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”
Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said;
but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me,
and afterwards make something for yourself and your son.
For thus says the Lord the God of Israel:
The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord
sends rain on the earth.”
She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days.
The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail,
according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

1 Corinthians 1. 18 – 31
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.
For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom,
God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.
For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified,
a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards,
not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise;
God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are,
so that no one might boast in the presence of God.
He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God,
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

John 2. 1-11
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”
And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification,
each holding twenty or thirty gallons.
Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.
He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it.
When the steward tasted the water that had become wine,
and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew),
the steward called the bridegroom
and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.