{"id":6155,"date":"2020-12-13T12:18:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T17:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/?p=6155"},"modified":"2020-12-13T12:19:20","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T17:19:20","slug":"3rd-sunday-in-advent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/2020\/12\/3rd-sunday-in-advent\/","title":{"rendered":"3rd Sunday in Advent"},"content":{"rendered":"
Welcome<\/div>\n
to Chilmark Community Church of<\/div>\n
Martha\u2019s Vineyard, MA. We are happy to have<\/div>\n
you worshipping with us in this season of Hope<\/div>\n
and Peace when we remember with Joy that Jesus<\/div>\n
Christ is the ETERNAL LIGHT who is coming into<\/div>\n
the world to restore God\u2019s LOVE to the world.<\/div>\n
Today is the third Sunday in Advent, or the second<\/div>\n
Sunday before Christmas Day \u2013 the Day of our<\/div>\n
Lord\u2019s Nativity. Today is Joy Sunday. The psalm for<\/div>\n
the day is psalm 126. It is a psalm that tells of the JOY that comes from\u00a0the harvest. It reads in part:<\/div>\n
\u201c<\/div>\n
1<\/div>\n
When the LORD\u00a0restored the fortunes of Zion,<\/div>\n
we\u00a0were like those who dream.<\/div>\n
2<\/div>\n
Then our mouth was filled\u00a0with laughter,<\/div>\n
and our tongue with shouts of joy;<\/div>\n
5<\/div>\n
May\u00a0those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.<\/div>\n
6<\/div>\n
Those\u00a0who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall<\/div>\n
come home with shouts of joy,\u201d<\/div>\n
A plentiful harvest was a time of celebration and great joy because\u00a0there was\u00a0enough food to keep the family and the nation from starving and\u00a0even dying\u00a0through the long dark winter until the next spring and harvest. The<\/div>\n
celebration was known as, \u201cTHE HARVEST JOY.\u201d<\/div>\n
On the other hand the text from St John 1:19-28 points to spiritual JOY.<\/div>\n
It calls us to remember the origin and purpose of Jesus\u2019 coming with a\u00a0kind of anticipation and devotion that both challenges and encourages\u00a0us to look steadfastly for eternal peace and joy that come from God John the Baptist demonstrates a powerful example of\u00a0what it means to have an inner assurance and peace of soul\u00a0and so witness with JOY to the ETERNAL LIGHT that is coming\u00a0into the world.<\/div>\n
As people of faith, let us remember the event of the WORD BECOMING\u00a0FLESH to dwell among us. Let us remember THE COMING of Christ \u2013\u00a0the GREATEST WITNESS and JOY of God to humanity. Like John, we are\u00a0witnesses to the GREATEST WITNESS (Christ Jesus) of the existence of\u00a0God!<\/div>\n
May we experience the TRUE LIGHT and JOY from on high as we<\/div>\n
worship together on this third Sunday in Advent!<\/div>\n
–<\/div>\n
2<\/div>\n
–<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Chilmark Community Church of Martha\u2019s Vineyard, MA. We are happy to have you worshipping with us in this season of Hope and Peace when we remember with Joy that Jesus Christ is the ETERNAL LIGHT who is coming into the world to restore God\u2019s LOVE to the world. Today is the third Sunday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-worship-and-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6155"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6157,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6155\/revisions\/6157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}