week of February 2nd, 2025

February Bonus Reading

During the month of February, Someday School is including as a “bonus reading” Community of Christ’s draft Statement on Nonviolence, a revised version of which will be presented at the 2025 World Conference. The World Church is asking for feedback on the draft statement by the end of February, and we hope this will help people reflect on the statement and provide feedback. You can read and annotate the draft statement here and learn more about this process (including a link to the survey for providing feedback) on the World Church website.

This Week’s Lectionary Scripture

Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany¹

The season after Epiphany includes the weeks between Epiphany and Transfiguration Sunday.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.

For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.

For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

• How might a healthy critique, looking through the lens of love, help create space where the giftedness of others in the congregation could more fully form the body of Christ?
• When has love improved your ministry?
• Think back on your life. How have you placed your self-interest above that of others and not reached out in love?

This Week’s Text from Sharing in Community of Christ

We Share Enduring Principles²

Worth of All Persons

• God views all people as having inestimable and equal worth.
• God wants all people to experience wholeness of body, mind, spirit, and relationships.
• We seek to uphold and restore the worth of all people individually and in community, challenging unjust systems that diminish human worth.
• We join with Jesus Christ in bringing good news to the poor, sick, captive, and oppressed.

All Are Called

• God graciously gives people gifts and opportunities to do good and to share in God’s purposes.
• Jesus Christ invites people to follow him by becoming disciples who share his life and ministry.
• Some disciples are called and ordained to particular priesthood responsibilities and ministries for the sake of the community, the congregation, and the world.
• We respond faithfully, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to our best understanding of God’s call.

Responsible Choices

• God gives humans the ability to make choices about whom or what they will serve.
• Some people experience conditions that diminish their ability to make choices.
• Human choices contribute to good or evil in our lives and in the world.
• Many aspects of creation need redemption because of irresponsible and sinful human choices.

How have you seen one of these principles expressed in your life, ministry, or congregation?