05 March 2023
10:00 | 
Posted by
Dr Platts |
The second Sunday in Lent, and also the first Sunday in March, so we had a family Eucharist, but rather an unusual one. Joanna our Director of Music, was ill and so we has a said service, but between the choir and the congregation and some well known hymns we managed to sing! Dr Platts played the tune for us on the electric piano and we continued unaccompanied with some gusto!
Father Chris talked to us about the 4 greek words for love and how they offered different aspects of this all encompassing experience. Agape is the Greek word for the love that we show when we do good things through our will, even if they don't come easily. A useful idea for our Lenten activities!
Confirmation classes were in the rooms, and so we didnt have tea and coffee this week. There is some covid around so we are trying to keep a distance between us.
A reading from the book of Genesis.
Now the Lord said to Abram,
‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you.
I will make of you a great nation,
and I will bless you, and make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and the one who curses you I will curse;
and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him;
and Lot went with him.
Romans 4 1-5, 13-17 (8am only)
A reading from the letter of Paul to the Romans.
What are we to say was gained by Abraham,
ancestor according to the flesh?
For if Abraham was justified by works,
he has something to boast about, but not before God.
For what does the scripture say?
‘Abraham believed God,
and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’
Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift
but as something due.
But to one who without works
trusts him who justifies the ungodly,
such faith is reckoned as righteousness.
For the promise that he would inherit the world
did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law
but through the righteousness of faith.
If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs,
faith is null and the promise is void.
For the law brings wrath;
but where there is no law,
neither is there violation.
For this reason it depends on faith,
in order that the promise may rest on grace
and be guaranteed to all his descendants,
not only to the adherents of the law
but also to those who share the faith of Abraham
(for he is the father of all of us,
as it is written,
‘I have made you the father of many nations’)—
Abraham believed in the presence of the God,
who gives life to the dead
and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
John 3:1-17
Hear the gospel of out Lord Jesus Christ accordng to John.
There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus,
a leader of the Jews.
He came to Jesus by night
and said to him,
‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God;
for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’
Jesus answered him,
‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God
without being born from above.’
Nicodemus said to him,
‘How can anyone be born after having grown old?
Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’
Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you,
no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.
What is born of the flesh is flesh,
and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not be astonished that I said to you,
“You must be born from above.”
The wind blows where it chooses,
and you hear the sound of it,
but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’
Nicodemus said to him,
‘How can these things be?’
Jesus answered him,
‘Are you a teacher of Israel,
and yet you do not understand these things?
‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know
and testify to what we have seen;
yet you do not receive our testimony.
If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe,
how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
No one has ascended into heaven
except the one who descended from heaven,
the Son of Man.
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
‘For God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him may not perish
but may have eternal life.
‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world
to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be saved through him.
