09 June 2024
10:00 | 
Posted by
Dr Platts |
This morning we met at 10 am for a celebration of the Eucharist. Father Chris is away for a short break, so we welcomed Father Peter as our Celebrant. We sang some of his favourite hymns and he joined us for coffee after the service.
We are gearing up for the Fete on the 27th of July, if you can help on the day do sign up on the list in Church!
On the 7th of July we are going to have an afternoon of choral music from The Emsworth Meridian Choir and Friends, this will be followed by tea. Tickets are £10 in aid of the RNLI. All are welcome do come along!
1 Samuel 8:4-11
A reading from the first book of Samuel.
All the elders of Israel gathered together
and came to Samuel at Ramah,
They said to him,
‘You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways;
appoint for us, then,
a king to govern us, like other nations.’
But the thing displeased Samuel when they said,
‘Give us a king to govern us.’
Samuel prayed to the Lord,
and the Lord said to Samuel,
‘Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you;
for they have not rejected you,
but they have rejected me from being king over them.
Just as they have done to me,
from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day,
forsaking me and serving other gods,
so also they are doing to you.
Now then, listen to their voice;
only—you shall solemnly warn them,
and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.’
So Samuel reported all the words of the Lord to the people
who were asking him for a king.
He said,
‘These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you:
he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots
and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots;
2 Corinthians 4:13 - 5:1
A reading from the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians.
Just as we have the same spirit of faith
that is in accordance with scripture—
‘I believed, and so I spoke’—
we also believe, and so we speak,
because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus
will raise us also with Jesus,
and will bring us with you into his presence.
Yes, everything is for your sake,
so that grace, as it extends to more and more people,
may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
So we do not lose heart.
Even though our outer nature is wasting away,
our inner nature is being renewed day by day.
For this slight momentary affliction
is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure,
because we look not at what can be seen
but at what cannot be seen;
for what can be seen is temporary,
but what cannot be seen is eternal.
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed,
we have a building from God,
a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens.
Mark 3:20-35
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark.
The crowd came together again,
so that they could not even eat.
When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him,
for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’
And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said,
‘He has Beelzebul,
and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.’
And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables,
‘How can Satan cast out Satan?
If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
And if a house is divided against itself,
that house will not be able to stand.
And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided,
he cannot stand, but his end has come.
But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property
without first tying up the strong man;
then indeed the house can be plundered.
‘Truly I tell you,
people will be forgiven for their sins
and whatever blasphemies they utter;
but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit
can never have forgiveness,
but is guilty of an eternal sin’—
for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’
Then his mother and his brothers came;
and standing outside, they sent to him and called him.
A crowd was sitting around him;
and they said to him,
‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside,
asking for you.’
And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’
And looking at those who sat around him, he said,
‘Here are my mother and my brothers!
Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’
