THIRD SUNDAY BEFORE LENT 16th FEBRUARY 2025

FIRST READING Jeremiah 17.5–10

A reading from the book of the prophet Jeremiah.

Thus says the LORD:

Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals

and make mere flesh their strength,

whose hearts turn away from the LORD.

They shall be like a shrub in the desert,

and shall not see when relief comes.

They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,

in an uninhabited salt land.

Blessed are those who trust in the LORD,

whose trust is the LORD.

They shall be like a tree planted by water,

sending out its roots by the stream.

It shall not fear when heat comes,

and its leaves shall stay green;

in the year of drought it is not anxious,

and it does not cease to bear fruit.

The heart is devious above all else;

it is perverse – who can understand it?

I the LORD test the mind and search the heart,

to give to all according to their ways,

according to the fruit of their doings.

PSALM Psalm 1

R Happy are they who walk in the law of the Lord.

1 Happy are they who have not walked

in the counsel of the wicked,

nor lingered in the way of sinners,

nor sat in the seats of the scornful!

2 Their delight is in the law of the Lord,

and they meditate on his law day and night. R

3 They are like trees planted by streams of water,

bearing fruit in due season,

with leaves that do not wither;

everything they do shall prosper.

4 It is not so with the wicked:

they are like chaff which the wind blows away; R

5 Therefore the wicked shall not stand upright

when judgement comes,

nor the sinner in the council of the righteous.

6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked is doomed. R

SECOND READING 1 Corinthians 15.12–20

A reading from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians.

If Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead,

how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

If there is no resurrection of the dead,

then Christ has not been raised;

and if Christ has not been raised,

then our proclamation has been in vain

and your faith has been in vain.

We are even found to be misrepresenting God,

because we testified of God that he raised Christ –

whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.

For if the dead are not raised,

then Christ has not been raised.

If Christ has not been raised,

your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

Then those also who have died in Christ have perished.

If for this life only we have hoped in Christ,

we are of all people most to be pitied.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead,

the first fruits of those who have died.

GOSPEL Luke 6.17–26

Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke.

He came down with them and stood on a level place,

with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people

from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon.

They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases;

and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.

And all in the crowd were trying to touch him,

for power came out from him and healed all of them.

Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

‘Blessed are you who are poor,

for yours is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are you who are hungry now,

for you will be filled.

Blessed are you who weep now,

for you will laugh.

Blessed are you when people hate you,

and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you

on account of the Son of Man.

Rejoice on that day and leap for joy,

for surely your reward is great in heaven;

for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

But woe to you who are rich,

for you have received your consolation.

Woe to you who are full now,

for you will be hungry.

Woe to you who are laughing now,

for you will mourn and weep.

Woe to you when all speak well of you,

for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.’

23 FEBRUARY  SECOND SUNDAY BEFORE LENT

FIRST READING Genesis 2.4b–9, 15–25

A reading from the book of Genesis.

In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

when no plant of the field was yet in the earth

and no herb of the field had yet sprung up –

for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth,

and there was no one to till the ground;

but a stream would rise from the earth,

and water the whole face of the ground –

then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground,

and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;

and the man became a living being.

And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east;

and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree

that is pleasant to the sight and good for food,

the tree of life also in the midst of the garden,

and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The LORD God took the man

and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.

And the LORD God commanded the man,

‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;

but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,

for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’

Then the LORD God said,

‘It is not good that the man should be alone;

I will make him a helper as his partner.’

So out of the ground the LORD God formed every animal of the field

and every bird of the air,

and brought them to the man to see what he would call them;

and whatever the man called every living creature,

that was its name.

 

The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air,

and to every animal of the field;

but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.

So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man,

and he slept;

then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.

And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man

he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

Then the man said,

‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;

this one shall be called Woman,

for out of Man this one was taken.’

Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.

And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.

PSALM Psalm 65

R You visit the earth and water it,

[you make it very plenteous].

1 You are to be praised, O God, in Zion;

to you shall vows be performed in Jerusalem.

2 To you that hear prayer shall all flesh come,

because of their transgressions.

3 Our sins are stronger than we are,

but you will blot them out. R

4 Happy are they whom you choose

and draw to your courts to dwell there!

they will be satisfied by the beauty of your house,

by the holiness of your temple.

5 Awesome things will you show us in your righteousness,

O God of our salvation,

O Hope of all the ends of the earth

and of the seas that are far away. R

6 You make fast the mountains by your power;

they are girded about with might.

7 You still the roaring of the seas,

the roaring of their waves,

and the clamour of the peoples.

8 Those who dwell at the ends of the earth

will tremble at your marvellous signs;

you make the dawn and the dusk to sing for joy. R

9 You visit the earth and water it abundantly;

you make it very plenteous;

the river of God is full of water.

10 You prepare the grain,

for so you provide for the earth.

11 You drench the furrows and smooth out the ridges;

with heavy rain you soften the ground

and bless its increase. R

12 You crown the year with your goodness,

and your paths overflow with plenty.

13 May the fields of the wilderness be rich for grazing,

and the hills be clothed with joy.

14 May the meadows cover themselves with flocks

and the valleys cloak themselves with grain;

let them shout for joy and sing. R

SECOND READING Revelation 4

A reading from the book of Revelation.

After this I looked,

and there in heaven a door stood open!

And the first voice,

which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said,

‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’

At once I was in the spirit,

and there in heaven stood a throne,

with one seated on the throne!

And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian,

and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald.

Around the throne are twenty-four thrones,

and seated on the thrones are twenty-four elders,

dressed in white robes, with golden crowns on their heads.

Coming from the throne are flashes of lightning,

and rumblings and peals of thunder,

and in front of the throne burn seven flaming torches,

which are the seven spirits of God;

and in front of the throne there is something like a sea of glass, like crystal.

Around the throne, and on each side of the throne,

are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind:

the first living creature like a lion,

the second living creature like an ox,

the third living creature with a face like a human face,

and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle.

And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings,

are full of eyes all around and inside.

Day and night without ceasing they sing,

‘Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty,

who was and is and is to come.’

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honour and thanks

to the one who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever,

the twenty-four elders fall before the one who is seated on the throne

and worship the one who lives for ever and ever;

they cast their crowns before the throne, singing,

‘You are worthy, our Lord and God,

to receive glory and honour and power,

for you created all things,

and by your will they existed and were created.’

GOSPEL Luke 8.22–25

Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke.

One day Jesus got into a boat with his disciples,

and he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side of the lake.’

So they put out, and while they were sailing he fell asleep.

A gale swept down on the lake,

and the boat was filling with water, and they were in danger.

They went to him and woke him up, shouting,

‘Master, Master, we are perishing!’

And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves;

they ceased, and there was a calm.

He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’

They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another,

‘Who then is this,

that he commands even the winds and the water,

and they obey him?’