EPIPHANY 8 YEAR B
SECOND SUNDAY BEFORE LENT
The Revised Common Lectionary and the Church of England make different provision for today.
For Church of England provision see further down the page.


REVISED COMMON LECTIONARY

FIRST READING Hosea 2.14-20

A reading from the book of the prophet Hosea.
The LORD says this concerning Israel, his people:
14 I will now persuade her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.
15 From there I will give her her vineyards, and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she shall respond as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
16 On that day, says the LORD, you will call me, 'My husband,' and no longer will you call me, 'My Baal.'
17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more.
18 I will make for you a covenant on that day with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety.
19 And I will take you for my wife for ever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy.
20 I will take you for my wife in faithfulness; and you shall know the LORD.


PSALM Psalm 103.1-13, 22

R R Bless the Lord, O my soul!

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. R R
3 He forgives all your sins and heals all your infirmities;
4 He redeems your life from the grave and crowns you with mercy and loving-kindness;
5 He satisfies you with good things, and your youth is renewed like an eagle's. R R
6 The Lord executes righteousness and judgement for all who are oppressed.
7 He made his ways known to Moses and his works to the children of Israel. R R
8 The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness.
9 He will not always accuse us, nor will he keep his anger for ever.
10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our wickedness. R R
11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so is his mercy great upon those who fear him.
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us. R R
13 As a father cares for his children, so does the Lord care for those who fear him.
22 Bless the Lord, all you works of his, in all places of his dominion; bless the Lord, O my soul. R R


SECOND READING 2 Corinthians 3.1b-6

A reading from the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians.
1 We do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we?
2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all;
3 and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ towards God.
5 Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God,
6 who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.


GOSPEL Mark 2.13-22

Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark.
13 Jesus went out again beside the lake; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them.
14 As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, 'Follow me.' And he got up and followed him.
15 And as he sat at dinner in Levi's house, many tax-collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples - for there were many who followed him.
16 When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax-collectors, they said to his disciples, 'Why does he eat with tax-collectors and sinners?'
17 When Jesus heard this, he said to them, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.'
18 Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, 'Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?'
19 Jesus said to them, 'The wedding-guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.
21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.
22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.'


Or


CHURCH OF ENGLAND

FIRST READING Proverbs 8.1, 22-31

A reading from the book of Proverbs.
1 Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice?
22 The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.
23 Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
24 When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth -
26 when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world's first bits of soil.
27 When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28 when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,
29 when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
30 then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,
31 rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.


PSALM Psalm 104.25-37

R R Send forth your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.

25 O Lord, how manifold are your works! in wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. R R
26 Yonder is the great and wide sea with its living things too many to number, creatures both small and great.
27 There move the ships, and there is that Leviathan, which you have made for the sport of it. R R
28 All of them look to you to give them their food in due season.
29 You give it to them, they gather it; you open your hand and they are filled with good things.
30 You hide your face and they are terrified; you take away their breath and they die and return to their dust. R R
31 You send forth your Spirit and they are created; and so you renew the face of the earth.
32 May the glory of the Lord endure for ever; may the Lord rejoice in all his works.
33 He looks at the earth and it trembles; he touches the mountains and they smoke. R R
34 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will praise my God while I have my being.
35 May these words of mine please him; I will rejoice in the Lord.
36 Let sinners be consumed out the earth, and the wicked be no more.
37 Bless the Lord, O my soul. Alleluia! R R


SECOND READING Colossians 1.15-20

A reading from the letter of Paul to the Colossians.
15 Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;
16 for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers - all things have been created through him and for him.
17 He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.
19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
20 and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.


GOSPEL John 1.1-14

Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life,
4 and the life was the light of all people.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.
8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.
11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.
12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,
13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.