|
|
From the Pastor's DeskActs 8:26-40
26An angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) 27So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” 30So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. 32Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
so he does not open his mouth.
33In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”
34The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. 36As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” 38He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
----------
The monks of Dark Ages Ireland preserved much of Western learning by laboriously copying thousands of ancient scrolls onto sheets of vellum, or dried sheepskin. One man could spend the better part of a lifetime producing just one copy of those elegant books (that’s one copy, not one edition).
Today, Google has digitized the contents of several vast university libraries. What seemed unimaginable to the ancients — that the sum total of human knowledge could be available always and everywhere, caught up in ‘the cloud’ — is now nearly within our grasp. These are indeed times of remarkable change!
Martin Luther and John Calvin thought they were living in remarkable times, too. Johannes Gutenberg had recently come out with movable type, which allowed printing presses to produce dozens of books a day. For the first time in human history, it was possible for ordinary Christians to hold in their hands an entire Bible — and, not only that, to own their own copy! No longer would the written Word of God be restricted to a wealthy, educated elite.
In many of our churches, we hand out Bibles to Sunday school kids: yes, old-fashioned, printed Bibles, not a download for an iPad or Kindle. Although the kids — digital natives, all — may think this a little old-fashioned, those ancient Irish monks would have considered our Sunday school Bibles an unimaginable luxury.
Both Philip and his Ethiopian friend would have thought so as well!
----------
We do live in remarkable times, and this pandemic has shown that. We can meet as a community, together but apart, by virtue of FACEBOOK and ZOOM. We can keep in contact with each other by text message or a posting on social media. The question for today: Do we understand how amazing this is?
Something to ponder today.
Peace and blessings this day.
Pastor V.
|
|
IN-PERSON WORSHIP
All services and Sunday School will resume with a limited capacity (50 people), social distancing, and mandatory masks.
Saturday Spoken Word- 5pm- In-Person Sunday School for the whole family- 9 am- In-Person Click here for Family Sunday School Meeting ID: 822 3468 0605 The Sunday Assembly - 10:30 am -In-Person and Livestream Broadcast on our Facebook Page and on our website! Mid-Week Worship - Wednesday 7pm - In-Person and Livestream When we worship inside, the service is broadcast on our Facebook Page and on our website! When we worship outside in the parking lot, there is no broadcast. Weekly Bible Study- Thursdays at 6pm - Zoom Last day for Bible Study is May 27th Join Zoom Bible Study Meeting:
|
