{"id":6262,"date":"2021-05-01T10:25:59","date_gmt":"2021-05-01T15:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/?p=6262"},"modified":"2021-05-01T10:25:59","modified_gmt":"2021-05-01T15:25:59","slug":"may-2-worship-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/2021\/05\/may-2-worship-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"May 2 Worship notes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Thought for the week<\/strong><\/div>\n
\u201c\u2018People often say that motivation doesn\u2019t last.\u2019<\/div>\n
Well, neither does bathing.\u00a0.. that\u2019s why we recommend it daily!\u201d<\/div>\n
(Zig Ziglar)<\/div>\n
\u200b<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Welcome to the fifth Sunday of the Resurrection Season.<\/div>\n
Wh\u00a0at\u00a0do we mean by the term\u00a0:\u00a0\u201cRESURRECTION?\u201d WHAT IS<\/div>\n
RESURRECTION?\u00a0Jesus appeared to his disciples and convinced them that he was alive\u00a0in the\u00a0flesh!\u00a0Last week, the\u00a0readings\u00a0emphasized\u00a0that the Good Shepherd\u00a0was<\/div>\n
a symbol of\u00a0the\u00a0resurrected Christ: protecting, leading and comforting his\u00a0sheep\/\u00a0disciples. This week the readings move to another\u00a0symbol of the resurrection: the vine and the branches.<\/div>\n
The\u00a0gospel reading points out that the job of the branches in Christ\u00a0is to bear fruit\u00a0for Christ.\u00a0For the branches to bear fruit<\/div>\n
they need to be constantly\u00a0nourished,\u00a0pruned\u00a0and\u00a0reshaped\u00a0.<\/div>\n
Branches that\u00a0are having little or no\u00a0nourishing\u00a0food\u00a0, pruning<\/div>\n
and\u00a0re\u00a0–\u00a0shaping\u00a0soon dry up\u00a0and\u00a0are cut off\u00a0or fall off\u00a0and<\/div>\n
thrown into the fire. Phillip the evangelist (not\u00a0one of the<\/div>\n
twelve\u00a0) is\u00a0given as\u00a0the example of\u00a0a branch\u00a0that bears fruit. He<\/div>\n
converted the Ethiopian Eunuch.\u00a0\u00a0Hear\u00a0the story\u00a0of\u00a0Phillip and<\/div>\n
the\u00a0Ethiopian\u00a0Eunuch!<\/div>\n
The\u00a0Eunuch (a black African from Ethiopia)\u00a0,\u00a0a “court official” of the “queen of the Ethiopians”\u00a0is\u00a0returning from worshiping<\/div>\n
in Jerusalem. Passover was finished and he was on his way home.\u00a0He had picked up\u00a0a scroll\u00a0to read on his long journey<\/div>\n
back\u00a0home. It was\u00a0a part of\u00a0the prophet\u00a0Isaiah. As he was reading from Isaiah chapter 53, Philip, one of Jesus\u00a0followers<\/div>\n
suddenly\u00a0appeared running toward his chariot. Hearing the<\/div>\n
Eunuch reading Isaiah, he asked\u00a0him\u00a0if\u00a0he\u00a0understood what he was reading.\u00a0The response was:\u00a0“How can I, unless someone<\/div>\n
explains it to me?”\u00a0Phillip\u00a0then\u00a0explained it to him\u00a0and\u00a0the event<\/div>\n
concluded with the\u00a0Ethiopian’s baptism.\u00a0This was a branch\u00a0(Philip)\u00a0bearing fruit\u00a0(the Eunuch)\u00a0!\u00a0The\u00a0Eunuch was a God\u00a0–\u00a0fearer\u00a0, but because he was a eunuch he was disqualified from being a\u00a0proselyte (a gentile converted to Judaism\u00a0)\u00a0. The words of the prophet Isaiah regarding the Suffering Servant must have resonated with the Eunuch (Isaiah 53:3). He may have understood\u00a0himself to be a “suffering servant.”<\/div>\n
The Ethiopian Eunuch\u00a0 was\u00a0the first\u00a0Gentile\u00a0to\u00a0be converted<\/div>\n
to\u00a0the gospel\u00a0through\u00a0the witness of\u00a0another Gentile,\u00a0Philip, a<\/div>\n
converted Greek\u00a0or Hellenistic Jewish\u00a0.\u00a0Tradition has it that<\/div>\n
this\u00a0eunuch went back to Ethiopia and organized what is now the\u00a0Ethiopian Orthodox Church, a Christian community that is co\u00a0–\u00a0equal and that has co-\u00a0existed\u00a0outside of the Roman\u00a0 Church all through\u00a0years\u00a0.\u00a0The event is\u00a0symbolic of:\u00a0Root, stem and\u00a0branches bearing fruit.\u00a0May this resurrection season\u00a0 continue to bring you inner\u00a0insights, new\u00a0hope,\u00a0endless\u00a0joy,<\/div>\n
enduring\u00a0strength and faith to live out your devotion to the resurrected Christ\u00a0as you \u201c\u00a0bear\u00a0much fruit\u00a0for him\u00a0!\u00a0\u201d<\/div>\n
Thanks to all for worshiping with us!<\/div>\n
Ernest Belisle (Pastor)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thought for the week \u201c\u2018People often say that motivation doesn\u2019t last.\u2019 Well, neither does bathing.\u00a0.. that\u2019s why we recommend it daily!\u201d (Zig Ziglar) \u200b Welcome to the fifth Sunday of the Resurrection Season. Wh\u00a0at\u00a0do we mean by the term\u00a0:\u00a0\u201cRESURRECTION?\u201d WHAT IS RESURRECTION?\u00a0Jesus appeared to his disciples and convinced them that he was alive\u00a0in the\u00a0flesh!\u00a0Last week, […]<\/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-6262","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\/6262","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=6262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6263,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6262\/revisions\/6263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}