A Reading from the Book of Genesis

Genesis 17:1-27

¹ When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him,

“I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. ² And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”

³ Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, ⁴ “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.

⁵ No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

⁶ I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you.

⁷ And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.

⁸ And I will give to you, and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

⁹ And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.

¹⁰ This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your descendants after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.

¹¹ You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

¹² He that is eight days old among you shall be circumcised; every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house, or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring,

¹³ both he that is born in your house and he that is bought with your money, shall be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.

¹⁴ Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

¹⁵ And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.

¹⁶ I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her; I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

¹⁷ Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”

¹⁸ And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live in your sight!” ¹⁹ God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac.

I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

²⁰ As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him and make him fruitful and multiply him exceedingly; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.

²¹ But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.” ²² When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.

²³ Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all the slaves born in his house or bought with his money,

every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him.

²⁴ Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

²⁵ And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

²⁶ That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised;

²⁷ and all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

2nd Reading:

A Reading from the Prophet Isaiah

Isaiah 42:18-43:13

¹⁸ Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see! ¹⁹ Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the Lord?

²⁰ He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear.

²¹ The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious.

²² But this is a people robbed and plundered, they are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; they have become a prey with none to rescue, a spoil with none to say, “Restore!”

²³ Who among you will give ear to this, will attend and listen for the time to come?

²⁴ Who gave up Jacob to the spoiler, and Israel to the robbers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey?

²⁵ So he poured upon him the heat of his anger and the might of battle; it set him on fire round about, but he did not understand; it burned him, but he did not take it to heart.

¹ But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel:

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

² When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. ³ For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. ⁴ Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you,

peoples in exchange for your life. ⁵ Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you;

⁶ I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth,

⁷ everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory,     whom I formed and made.”

⁸ Bring forth the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears!

⁹ Let all the nations gather together, and let the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former things?

Let them bring their witnesses to justify them, and let them hear and say, It is true.

¹⁰ “You are my witnesses,” says the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He.

Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. ¹¹ I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior. ¹² I declared and saved and proclaimed,

when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses,” says the LORD.

¹³ “I am God, and also henceforth I am He; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work and who can hinder it?”

Epistle:

A Reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians

Ephesians 5:15-6:9

¹⁵ Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, ¹⁶ making the most of the time, because the days are evil.

¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

¹⁸ And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit,

¹⁹ addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart,

²⁰ always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.

²¹ Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. ²² Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord.

²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

²⁴ As the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶ that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

²⁷ that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

²⁸ Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

²⁹ For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the Church, ³⁰ because we are members of his body.

³¹ “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

³² This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church;

³³ however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

¹ Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ² Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), ³ that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.”

⁴ Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

⁵ Slaves, be obedient to those who are your earthly masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as to Christ;

⁶ not in the way of eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, ⁷ rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to men,

⁸ knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same again from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.

⁹ Masters, do the same to them, and forbear threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.

Gospel:

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. Luke

Luke 1:1-25

¹ Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things which have been accomplished among us,

² just as they were delivered to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word,

³ it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,

⁴ that you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed.

⁵ In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

⁶ And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly.

⁷ But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.

⁸ Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, ⁹ according to the custom of the priesthood, it fell to him by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.

¹⁰ And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense.

¹¹ And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. ¹² And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.

¹³ But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.

¹⁴ And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth; ¹⁵ for he will be great before the Lord,

and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.

¹⁶ And he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, ¹⁷and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah,

to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

¹⁸ And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”

¹⁹ And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel, who stand in the presence of God; and I was sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news.

²⁰ And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things come to pass, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”

²¹ And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they wondered at his delay in the temple.

²² And when he came out, he could not speak to them, and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple; and he made signs to them and remained mute.

²³ And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. ²⁴ After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she hid herself, saying,

²⁵ “Thus the Lord has done to me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.”