Holy Qurbana
Worship Service
Lectionary Theme: Birth of John the Baptist: the child set apart for the divine plan and the family that nurtures him accordingly
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Malachi 3:1-4 First Lesson
1. See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
2. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like washers’ soap;
3. he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.
4. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in the days of old and as in former years.
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Acts 16:1-5 Second Lesson
1. Paul went on also to Derbe and to Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.
2. He was well spoken of by the brothers and sisters in Lystra and Iconium.
3. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and had him circumcised because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.
4. As they went from town to town, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem.
5. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in numbers daily.
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2 Timothy 1:3-10 Epistle
3. I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.
4. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.
5. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.
6. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands;
7. for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.
8. Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God,
9. who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,
10. but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
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Luke 1:57-66 Gospel
57. Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.
58. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.
59. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father.
60. But his mother said, ‘No; he is to be called John.’
61. They said to her, ‘None of your relatives has this name.’
62. Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him.
63. He asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And all of them were amazed.
64. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God.
65. Fear came over all their neighbours, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea.
66. All who heard them pondered them and said, ‘What then will this child become?’ For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him.