30 January 202631 January 2026

Epiphany 4 Sunday, 01/02/2026

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SENTENCE FROM SCRIPTURE:
Those who do what is right will dwell in the presence of the Lord. (Psalm 15)

HYMN-

GREETING

Grace and peace to you from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

COLLECT FOR PURITY

Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

SUMMARY OF THE LAW

Our Lord Jesus Christ said: The first commandment is this:

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.”

The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these. Amen. Lord, have mercy.

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CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION

God is love and we are God’s children. There is no room for fear in love. We love because God loved us first.

Let us confess our sins in penitence and faith.

SILENCE

God our Father,
we confess to you
and to our fellow members in the Body of Christ
that we have sinned in thought, word and deed,
and in what we have failed to do.
We are truly sorry.
Forgive us our sins,
and deliver us from the power of evil,
for the sake of your Son who died for us, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

ABSOLUTION

God, who is both power and love,
forgive you and free you from your sins,
heal and strengthen you by the Holy Spirit,
and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord. Amen.

GLORIA
sung by Sue Turner

COLLECT

O God,
through our human frailty, we cannot stand firm:
give us strength and protection,
that, with your help,
we may overcome all difficulties;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, world without end. Amen

PROCLAIMING & RECEIVING GOD’S WORD

FIRST READING
Micah 6.1–8,
read by Gill Swales

¹ Hear what the LORD says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.

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² Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the LORD, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the LORD has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel. ³ ‘O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me! ⁴ For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. ⁵ O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the LORD.’ ⁶ ‘With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old? ⁷ Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’

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⁸ He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

SECOND READING
1 Corinthians 1.18–31,
read by Andrew Ratnam

¹⁸The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it iswritten, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ ²⁰Where 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? ²¹For 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. ²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom,

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²³but we proclaim Christ crucified,a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For God’s foolishness iswiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. ²⁶Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, notmany were of noble birth. ²⁷But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, ²⁹so that no one might boast in the presence of God.

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³⁰ He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹ in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’

GRADUAL HYMN

GOSPEL
Matthew 5.1–12,
read by the Rev Dr Steven Ballard

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew, Chapter 5, beginning at verse 1

Glory to Christ our Saviour

¹ When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. ² Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: ³ ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. ⁵ Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

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⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. ⁷ Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. ⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. ⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. ¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ¹¹ Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

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¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’

Give thanks to the Lord for his glorious Gospel
Praise to Christ our Lord.

SERMON

Reflections on today’s Readings

Micah 6. 1-8.

Micah, who lived between 740 to 670 BC, is one of the Twelve Minor Prophets, to whom various books in the Old Testament are dedicated.

One of the great insistences we find on the part of the Old Testament prophets generally is that ritual, which has a part in every religion, has no place at all if it is not accompanied by justice and right living. “Will the Lord accept thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of oil?” This, of course, is a rhetorical question which expects the answer, “No!”

Micah sums up what faithful living looks like by putting it simply in question form, “What is it that the Lord asks of you? Only to act justly, to love loyalty, to walk wisely before your God.”

At St John’s we have regular rituals – the celebration of the eucharist being the main one. We no longer worship in a way which requires animal sacrifice, thank goodness! but surely Micah’s words still have relevance to us. In the rituals in which we participate where does our heart lie in all this? Do our lives match the words of ritual? Are we walking wisely with God?

I Corinthians 1. 18-31.

This is a passage of scripture which takes us to the heart of St Paul’s theology and his experience of the power of Christ in his life. In the Book of Deuteronomy verse 21:23 says, “Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree”. As a Pharisee and as a persecutor of Christians before his conversion, Paul would have known that verse well and used it, no doubt (because Jesus died on the Cross), to argue that Jesus could not have been God’s Messiah. Paul came to see, however, that the curse that Jesus bore on the Cross was not for his own wrongdoing – it was the curse of sin he was bearing for us all. This leads Paul to glory in the Cross of Christ because it is the power of God for salvation. It was evidence to him that God uses the weak and foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

Tomorrow is the Feast of Candlemass, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple when the aged prophet, Simeon, told Mary that “a sword would piece her own soul too”. Indeed, it did when she stood at the foot of the Cross. When sadness and grief enter our own lives, do we take them to the foot of the Cross?

Matthew 5 1-12.

The Beatitudes, “the Blessed sayings” of Jesus recorded in St Matthew’s Gospel today, begin a section of teaching which the Evangelist has collected in a section of the Gospel we know as The Sermon on the Mount.

We often read the Beatitudes and assume that they refer to different types of people who demonstrate godly types of behaviour because the language itself suggests different categories like those of a gentle spirit, peace makers etc. It has been pointed out, however, that taken as a whole, they comprise individual characteristics which together make up the life of a Christian.

Why not read through this Gospel passage slowly and meditatively today? If we are to be anything like this role model we will need the grace of God in its abundance. Martin Luther likened himself to an empty vessel that needed to be filled, and perhaps this is the spirit with which we should approach a passage like the Beatitudes, which reminds us at the outset of our need for God.

THE CREED

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one substance with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father.
With the Father and the Son,
he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Prayer Requests – Baildon Methodist Church

PRAYERS

The theme of our prayers today is about resources and how God’s Holy Spirit refreshes and renews us.

Blessed are you, Lord our God. You give us life and you continually renew and refresh us with your presence and your love. You are the strength of the weak and the light to all who walk in darkness. Blessed are you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The bidding to these prayers is