Readings for 28 Feb
Epistle
Romans 4.13-end
A reading from St Pauls letter to the Romans
For the promise that he would inherit the
world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through
the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the
heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but
where there is no law, neither is there violation.
For this
reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be
guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but
also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of
us, as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’)—in the
presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls
into existence the things that do not exist. Hoping against hope, he believed
that he would become ‘the father of many nations’, according to what was said,
‘So numerous shall your descendants be.’ He did not weaken in faith when he
considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a
hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No
distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in
his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to
do what he had promised. Therefore his faith ‘was reckoned to him as
righteousness.’ Now the words, ‘it was reckoned to him’, were written not for
his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him
who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our
trespasses and was raised for our justification.
This is the word of the Lord.
Gospel
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
according to Mark.
Glory to you, O Lord.
Mark 8.31-end
Then he
began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be
rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and
after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him
aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he
rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind
not on divine things but on human things.’
He called
the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my
followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For
those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life
for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it
profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can
they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words
in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be
ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.
Thanks be to God.
Readings for 7th March -3rd Sunday of Lent
1 Corinthians 1.18-25
A reading from Pauls first letter to the Corinthians
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.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Gospel Reading (John 2.13-22)
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
according to John.
Glory to you, O Lord.
The
Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he
found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at
their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple,
both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the
money-changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the
doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a
market-place!’ His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your
house will consume me.’ The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us
for doing this?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I
will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction
for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was
speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his
disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and
the word that Jesus had spoken.
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.