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8th Sunday between Epiphany and Lent – Year C

2 March 2025 All day

This occasion only occurs in 2022 for churches that do not observe the last Sunday before Lent as Transfiguration Sunday.

Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

When grain is put through a sieve,
you find out how much rubbish was in it.
It’s the same when a person starts talking.
Whatever rubbish they are full of is soon out in the open.

The heat of the kiln tests a potter’s work for hidden faults.
What a person is made of is tested in the heat of conversation.

The quality of the fruit tells you if a tree has been looked after.
The things people have to say
reveal how they have taken care of their minds.

Don’t pump anyone up before you hear how they talk.
That’s the way the truth about people comes out.

©2013 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

This is what the LORD says:

Everything I say has a powerful purpose;
no empty words ever pass my lips.
My words are like drops of rain in the cycle of nature:
wherever they fall they give life;
they replenish, renew and nourish life,
and then the earth gives them back and they start again.
My words always achieve their purpose;
they flourish where I plant them,
they nourish all who feed on them.

My Word will bring peace
and you will come home with great celebration.
The trees will line the road, clapping and singing;
the mountains will rain down ticker tape as you pass.

Where the saltbush struggled,
a redgum will take root and grow;
where noxious weeds ruled,
native orchids and daisies will bloom again.
The wilderness in all its glory will stand like a monument,
like a permanent sign of the LORD’s rich goodness.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

It is a privilege to be able to publicly thank you, LORD,
to sing your praises and put your name up in lights.
It is great to start the day singing about your rock-solid love,
with a full band ringing out the tune,
and to end it thanking you for being so loyal and trustworthy,
accompanying our praise with guitars.

For you, O LORD, have given us so much to be happy about;
what you have done with your own hands
sets us singing and dancing for joy.

People who always do the right thing by others
will thrive like a tropical rainforest
and grow strong like a river redgum.
They have put down their roots in your soil, LORD,
and they will brighten up your temple like flowers.
Even when they grow old they will still be fruitful,
healthy and vibrant and pulsing with life.
They are a credit to you, LORD,
proving for all to see that you are straight and true.
You are our rock,
and there is nothing rotten or crooked in you.

©2009 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Listen up! I will let you in on a mystery! We are not all going to die after all. But we will all be radically changed. When the final siren blows, it will happen in the blink of an eye. Just like that. The siren will sound, and those who were dead and buried will be raised up new, never to decay again, and any of us who hadn’t yet died will be changed just like them. The biggest make-over of all time! Our bodies will be stripped of their old steady decline, and clothed instead in never-ending health. These short-term bodies will lose their use-by dates, and be refitted, completely immortal. When that happens – when our old falling-apart bodies put on never-ending health and immortality – then the old saying from the prophets will have come true:

“Life wins! Death has been eaten alive!”
“You were so sure of yourself, Death,
but you turned out to be toothless.
Your bark was worse than your bite.”

Death depended on sin for its bite, and sin was powered by the law. But they have been blown away by our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. When he enters the fray, we win! Thanks be to God!

That being the case, my beloved friends, hang in there, rock solid, come what may. Whatever role the Lord has asked you to play, give it your absolute best, because you can be sure that when you are on his side, your work will never be in vain.

©2015 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

While teaching the people, Jesus quoted the proverb: “If the blind are leading the blind, both fall into the same hole,” and then he went on to say, “Trainees can’t hold a candle to their teacher, but if they continue their training, they will eventually catch up with the teacher and be able to show others the way.

“Why is it that you are always the first to point out a loose thread or a speck of dust on someone else’s clothing, but you are the last to notice the dirty big vomit stain down your own front. There you are, making a big display of offering to help the other person get their appearance in order, without realising what a disgusting mess you are yourself. You pretentious fraud! Clean up your own act first, and then you might gain enough perspective to be able to help others.

“A healthy tree doesn’t produce sick fruit, and neither does a sick tree produce healthy fruit. The health of each tree is judged by the quality of the fruit it produces. You don’t find mangoes growing on a lemon tree. You can’t pick grapes from a blackberry vine. Good people have hearts and minds full of good things, and it shows in the generous and healthy ways they respond to others. Toxic people spew forth poison from the toxic filth churning inside them. Whatever your heart and mind are full of will colour what comes out when you open your mouth.

“What’s the use of dropping my name all the time and prattling on about what a high view of my authority you hold, when you ignore everything I ask you to do? The people who come to me and listen to what I say and put it into practice are like a builder who puts down solid foundations before building a house. When the flood waters rise and the river breaks its banks, it can’t budge that house because it has been built to last. But those who hear what I say and don’t bother doing anything about it are more like someone who knocks up a house without laying any foundation at all. The first time the river bursts, it is all over in a minute. The whole house comes crashing down and is swept away in little pieces!”

©2013 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.

We do indeed give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for your victory has swallowed up the power of death
and given our living an unshakable foundation.

Your Word went forth to create the earth,
and to give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.
Your Word went forth through the law and prophets
to form a people who hear and act on all you say.

Your Word went forth in your Son, Jesus Christ,
and brought forth the full fruits
that grow from the goodness of your heart.
His words unmasked hypocrisy,
disarmed the powers of death,
and laid the foundation for your Church.
Though he was killed by those
who lead others to destruction,
you raised him to life
and clothed him in immortality.
In his victory, death has lost its sting,
and we can offer you our labour
knowing that all your purposes will be accomplished.

Therefore with .....

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

We give thanks for your Word which went forth to create the earth,
and to form us as a people who hear and act on all you say.
In your Son, Jesus Christ, your Word unmasked hypocrisy,
disarmed the sting of death,
and laid an unshakeable foundation for your Church.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you thanks and praise, O God,
for your victory has swallowed up the power of death
and given our living an unshakable foundation.

Your Word went forth to create the earth,
and to give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.
Your Word went forth through the law and prophets
to form a people who hear and act on all you say.

Your Word went forth in your Son, Jesus Christ,
and brought forth the full fruits
that grow from the goodness of your heart.
His words unmasked hypocrisy,
disarmed the powers of death,
and laid the foundation for your Church.
Though he was killed by those
who lead others to destruction,
you raised him to life
and clothed him in immortality.
In his victory, death has lost its sting,
and we can offer you our labour
knowing that all your purposes will be accomplished.

Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Thought the words of our mouths betray the sin in our hearts,
the words of God’s mouth will accomplish their purpose,
overcoming the sting of death
and giving us victory over sin
through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sisters and Brothers,
  your sins are forgiven;
    be at peace.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Go now and act on the words of Christ which you have heard.
Proclaim that the Lord is just.
Be steadfast and unshakeable.
Give your best to the work of the Lord,
for in Christ, your labour is not in vain.

And may God lead you out in joy and back in peace;
May Christ Jesus give you victory over the powers of death;
And may the Holy Spirit cultivate your heart and mind
to produce in you abundant fruits all your life.

We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
   In the name of Christ. Amen.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

  1. Why you probably don’t need to learn more
    A sermon on Luke 6:39-49 by Nathan Nettleton

Details

Date:
2 March 2025
Series: