Royston Parish Church (Herts)

SUNDAY READING SHEET 1st February 2026 4th Sunday of Epiphany

Collect

God of heaven,

you send the gospel to the ends of the earth

and your messengers to every nation:

send your Holy Spirit to transform us

by the good news of everlasting life

in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

A Reading from Paul’s First letter to the Corinthians

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’

Where 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? For 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. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

For the word of the Lord

All: Thanks be to God

GOSPEL

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John

All: Glory to you, O Lord.

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ Now standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, ‘Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.’ So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

John 2:1-11

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

All: Praise to you, O Christ.

Post Communion Prayer:

Generous Lord,

in word and eucharist we have proclaimed the mystery of your love:

help us so to live out our days

that we may be signs of your wonders in the world;

through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Amen

Royston Parish Church (Herts)

February Parish Magazine "Across Royston" now available to read online!

This Sunday's readings

Royston Parish Church News - Sunday 1st February 2026 (4th Sunday of Epiphany)

Prayer Diary January 2025