21 July 2024
10:00 | 
Posted by
Dr Platts |
2 Samuel 7:1-14a
A reading from the second book of Samuel.
When David was settled in his house,
and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him,
the king said to the prophet Nathan,
‘See now, I am living in a house of cedar,
but the ark of God stays in a tent.’
Nathan said to the king,
‘Go, do all that you have in mind;
for the Lord is with you.’
But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan:
Go and tell my servant David:
Thus says the Lord:
Are you the one to build me a house to live in?
I have not lived in a house
since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day,
but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle.
Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel,
did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel,
whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying,
‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’
Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David:
Thus says the Lord of hosts:
I took you from the pasture,
from following the sheep
to be prince over my people Israel;
and I have been with you wherever you went,
and have cut off all your enemies from before you;
and I will make for you a great name,
like the name of the great ones of the earth.
And I will appoint a place for my people Israel
and will plant them,
so that they may live in their own place,
and be disturbed no more;
and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly,
from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel;
and I will give you rest from all your enemies.
Moreover, the Lord declares to you, David,
that the Lord will make you a house.
When your days are fulfilled
and you lie down with your ancestors,
I will raise up your offspring after you,
who shall come forth from your body,
and I will establish his kingdom.
He shall build a house for my name,
and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.
I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.
Ephesians 2:11-22
A reading from the letter of Paul to the Ephesians.
Remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth,
called ‘the uncircumcision’ by those who are called ‘the circumcision’—
a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands—
remember that you were at that time without Christ,
being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
and strangers to the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus
you who once were far off have been brought near
by the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace;
in his flesh he has made both groups into one
and has broken down the dividing wall,
that is, the hostility between us.
He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances
that he might create in himself
one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace,
and might reconcile both groups to God in one body
through the cross,
thus putting to death that hostility through it.
So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off
and peace to those who were near;
for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,
but you are citizens with the saints
and also members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.
In him the whole structure is joined together
and grows into a holy temple in the Lord;
in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling-place for God.
Mark 6:3034, 53-56
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark.
The apostles returned from their mission.
They gathered around Jesus,
and told him all that they had done and taught.
He said to them,
‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’
For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.
And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.
Now many saw them going and recognized them,
and they hurried there on foot from all the towns
and arrived ahead of them.
As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd;
and he had compassion for them,
because they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.
When they had crossed over,
they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat.
When they got out of the boat,
people at once recognized him,
and rushed about that whole region
and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.
And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms,
they laid the sick in the market-places,
and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak;
and all who touched it were healed.
