PRAISE

Daily Reading Revised Common Lectionary

Epiphany and Ordinary Time until Lent

Monday, January 7, 2012

These readings are adapted from The Book of Common Prayer, Daily Readings for Year One

www.crivoice.org/epiphany1.html

Psalm 103: Praise for God’s mighty acts of love throughout the ages. The psalmist exhorts his entire being to praise God for forgiveness, healing, redemption, glorification, sustenance and renewal. The unending love of God extends to generations of faithful mortals.

Psalm 114: A Hallel (praise) psalm celebrating the Exodus from Egypt and entry into Canaan

Psalm 115: A call and response Hallel psalm celebrating God’s lordship and blessing on Israel. According to John Wesley, “an idol is a spiritual phenomenon. One gives oneself to a substitute for God – it, him, or her – to find happiness, contentment, rest. But one finds peace and liberation only in adoration of the Father, Son and Spirit…. All is to be loved gratefully as a gift to be offered back to God who in Christ loves us to holy excess.”

Isaiah 52:3-6:  One of four oracles of hope addressed specifically to Zion/Jerusalem. “For thus says the Lord: You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money. Because those who oppress Zion howl my name,… Therefore my people shall know that it is I who speak; here am I.”

Revelation 2:1-7: “The prophetic word of Jesus to the church at Ephesus indicates that those in Ephesus have allowed their love of Jesus to diminish in the midst of their labors, from which they must repent or Jesus himself will come in judgment to remove the Sprit from the Church.”

John 2:1-11:  The first sign. Jesus is the bringer of God’s overflowing grace and end-time salvation, which the prophets depicted as a wedding feast and a time of abundant life are present now; indeed wine symbolizes the very presence of God.

The Wesley Study Bible NRSV, Abingdon Press, 2009.

                 PRAISE

Place me, Lord, in the heart of your blessing,

Raise in me a song of joy and hope.

Awake in me the awareness of your Holy name:

I yearn for your happiness, contentment and rest.

Speak forgiveness, healing, and restoration

Exhort my entire being to praise your name.

Provide peace and liberation;

Redemption and renewal.

Allow me to adore only you.

I need to love you to holy excess,

So I might be redeemed by your overflowing grace

Extended by your unending love as I live faithfully.

Presently living in your over-flowing grace

Resting in your end-time salvation

Adoring  Father, Son and Spirit

I hear your voice, I know you are here

Sustaining, liberating, blessing,

Even as I empty myself to be refilled.