Hebrew Scripture

Genesis 1: 26-28

Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."

Song of Solomon 1:15 - 2:4

Behold, you are beautiful, my love; 
behold, you are beautiful; 
your eyes are doves. 
Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly lovely. 
Our couch is green; 
the beams of our house are cedar, 
our rafters are pine 
I am a rose of Sharon, 
a lily of the valleys. 
As a lily among brambles, 
so is my love among maidens. 
As an apple tree 
among the trees of the wood 
so is my beloved among young men. 
With great delight I sat in his shadow, 
and his fruit was sweet to my taste. 
He brought me 
to the banqueting house, 
and his banner over me was love.

My beloved speaks and says to me: 
"Arise, my love, my fair one, 
and come away; 
for lo, the winter is past 
the rain is over and gone. 
The flowers appear on the earth, 
the time of singing has come, 
and the voice of the turtledove 
is heard in our land 
The fig tree puts forth its figs, 
and the vines are in blossom; 
they give forth fragrance. 
Arise, my love, my fair one, 
and come away.

Set me as a seal upon your heart, 
as a seal upon your arm; 
for love is strong as death, 
jealousy is cruel as the grave
Its flashes are flashes of fire, 
a most vehement flame. 
Many waters cannot quench love, 
neither can floods drown it. 
If a person offered for love 
all the wealth of her house 
it would be utterly scorned.

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, 
my soul shall exult in my God 
for the Lord has clothed me 
with the garments of salvation 
and has covered me 
with the robe of righteousness, 
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland 
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 
For as the earth brings forth its shoots, 
and as a garden causes 
what is sown in it to spring up, 
so the Lord GOD
will cause righteousness and praise 
to spring forth before all the nations. 
You shall be a crown of beauty 
in the hand of the LORD, 
and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. 
You shall no more be named Forsaken, 
and your land 
shall no more be named Desolate; 
by you shall be called "My delight is in her" 
and your land "Married" 
For the Lord delights in you 
and just as the bridegroom and the bride 
rejoice over each other 
so shall your God rejoice over you.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbour and each woman her sister, saying "Know the LORD," for they shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more

Epistle

If God is for us, who is against us? For since God did not even spare the Son, but gave him up for us all, will God not also give us all things with him? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: For thy sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered 
   No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through the one who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If I have all the eloquence of humanity or of angels, but speak without love, I am simply 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 have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all that I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing 
     Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 
   Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. 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 gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 
   Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of humanity. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God.

Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and those who love are born of God and know God. Those who do not love do not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that God loved us and sent the Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and God's love is perfected in us.

Gospel

And one of them, a lawyer, asked Jesus a question, to test him. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" 
     And he said to him, "`You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it: `You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of humanity. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
      The true light that enlightens every person was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. 
      He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.
     And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, and from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace.

On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Now six stone jars were standing there, 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 steward of the feast." So they took it. When the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward of the feast called to the bridegroom and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first; and then when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine; but you have kept the good wine until now." This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."