Fifth Sunday After the Epiphany
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Collect:
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you. In the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Isaiah 40:21-31
21 Did you not know, had you not heard? Was it not told you from the beginning? Have you not understood how the earth was set on its foundations?
22 He who sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, the inhabitants of which are like grasshoppers, stretches out the heavens like a cloth, spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23 He reduces princes to nothing, the rulers of the world to mere emptiness.
24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the soil, than he blows on them and they wither and the storm carries them away like chaff.
25 'To whom can you compare me, or who is my equal?' says the Holy One.
26 Lift your eyes and look: he who created these things leads out their army in order, summoning each of them by name. So mighty is his power, so great his strength, that not one fails to answer.
27 How can you say, Jacob, how can you repeat,
28 Did you not know? Had you not heard? Yahweh is the everlasting God, he created the remotest parts of the earth. He does not grow tired or weary, his understanding is beyond fathoming.
29 He gives strength to the weary, he strengthens the powerless.
30 Youths grow tired and weary, the young stumble and fall,
31 but those who hope in Yahweh will regain their strength, they will sprout wings like eagles, though they run they will not grow weary, though they walk they will never tire
Psalm 147: 1-12, 21c
Laudate Dominum
1 Alleluia! Praise Yahweh -- it is good to sing psalms to our God -- how pleasant to praise him.
2 Yahweh, Builder of
3 healing the broken-hearted and binding up their wounds;
4 he counts out the number of the stars, and gives each one of them a name.
5 Our Lord is great, all-powerful, his wisdom beyond all telling.
6 Yahweh sustains the poor, and humbles the wicked to the ground.
7 Sing to Yahweh in thanksgiving, play the harp for our God.
8 He veils the sky with clouds, and provides the earth with rain, makes grass grow on the hills and plants for people to use,
9 gives fodder to cattle and to young ravens when they cry.
10 He takes no delight in the power of horses, no pleasure in human sturdiness;
11 his pleasure is in those who fear him, in those who hope in his faithful love.
12 Praise Yahweh,
1 Corinthians 9: 16-23
16 In fact, preaching the gospel gives me nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion and I should be in trouble if I failed to do it.
17 If I did it on my own initiative I would deserve a reward; but if I do it under compulsion I am simply accepting a task entrusted to me.
18 What reward do I have, then? That in my preaching I offer the gospel free of charge to avoid using the rights which the gospel allows me.
19 So though I was not a slave to any human being, I put myself in slavery to all people, to win as many as I could.
20 To the Jews I made myself as a Jew, to win the Jews; to those under the Law as one under the Law (though I am not), in order to win those under the Law;
21 to those outside the Law as one outside the Law, though I am not outside the Law but under Christ's law, to win those outside the Law.
22 To the weak, I made myself weak, to win the weak. I accommodated myself to people in all kinds of different situations, so that by all possible means I might bring some to salvation.
23 All this I do for the sake of the gospel, that I may share its benefits with others.
Mark 1: 29-39
29 And at once on leaving the synagogue, he went with James and John straight to the house of Simon and Andrew.
30 Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed and feverish, and at once they told him about her.
31 He went in to her, took her by the hand and helped her up. And the fever left her and she began to serve them.
32 That evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were possessed by devils.
33 The whole town came crowding round the door,
34 and he cured many who were sick with diseases of one kind or another; he also drove out many devils, but he would not allow them to speak, because they knew who he was.
35 In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house and went off to a lonely place and prayed there.
36 Simon and his companions set out in search of him,
37 and when they found him they said, 'Everybody is looking for you.'
38 He answered, 'Let us go elsewhere, to the neighboring country towns, so that I can proclaim the message there too, because that is why I came.'
39 And he went all through
