Rev. David Jamison
“Bound by Love!”
Service begins at 11:00am
In the Sanctuary AND Online
First Lesson: Acts 9:1-6, Saul’s Conversion
Epistle Lesson: Revelation 5:11-14, The Scroll and the Lamb
Gospel Lesson: John 21:1-19, The Miraculous Catch of Fish
5 CELEBRATIONS IN MAY!
Holy Communion, May 1st; Nat’l Day of Prayer, May 5th; Mother’s Day, May 8th, Ascension of the Lord Day, May 26th; Memorial Day, May 30th!
Add to that: Graduations and birthdays and anniversaries! It is going to be a busy month. God is with us!
See you in Church!
–David
The theme of this year’s National Day of Prayer is “Exalt the Lord who has Established Us.” The theme verses (Colossians 2:6-7) are about Spiritual Fullness in Christ.
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
It’s that time of year again! We are participating in the Baby Bottle Boomerang fundraiser for the Wiregrass Emergency Pregnancy Services. Each year the bottles go out for Mother’s Day and are returned for Father’s Day. Bottles can be picked up in the Fellowship Hall. Please collect your loose change over the next month and return the bottles to the church office by Father’s Day, June 19.
Thank you to those who contributed to the One Great Hour of Sharing last month. Our congregation’s total contribution of $445 has been forwarded on to Presbytery. Your generous gifts to this Special Offering help provide relief those affected by natural disasters, provide food to the hungry, and assist in helping to empower the poor and oppressed
Forty days after the Resurrection of the Lord (Easter Sunday), we remember and celebrate the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ into heaven. On this day, the church gives thanks for Christ’s sovereign rule over all the earth, as well as his priestly intercession for us at the throne of mercy (Hebrews 4:14-16). This year the Ascension of the Lord is on May 26, with Ascension of the Lord Sunday falling on May 29. Pentecost falls on the first Sunday in June, the 5th.
Congratulations to Kendall D., Enterprise High School Class of 2022! Kendall will graduate from EHS at the end of May and she will begin taking classes at Enterprise State Community College in June. Kendall is the recipient of an ESCC Fine Arts Scholarship for Concert Choir.
Congratulations to Denise A. on her completion of CWU 103. This course, which is offered by Living Waters for the World, teaches students how to operate a fully functioning clean water system, how to maintain it, how to troubleshoot problems, and how to pass these skills on to others. Living Waters for the World empowers everyday people to change lives through clean water.
Rev. David Jamison
“The Rest of the Story!”
Service begins at 11:00am
In the Sanctuary AND Online
First Lesson: Acts 5:27-32, The Apostles Persecuted
Epistle Lesson: Revelation 1:4-8, Greetings and Doxology
Gospel Lesson: John 20:19-31, Jesus Appears to His Disciples
Easter isn’t just a Sunday — it’s a season. One day out of 365 is hardly sufficient to celebrate the great mystery of our faith — that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. Accordingly, the season of Easter lasts seven weeks (a “week of weeks”), spanning the 50 days from the Sunday of the Resurrection to Pentecost Sunday and encompassing the festival of the Ascension of the Lord. The season of Easter is intended to be a joyful time for celebrating the presence of the risen Christ in the church.
Of course, Easter really isn’t just a season either. In the fullest sense, Easter is a new way of life — in which we are “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11), called to “walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). Every year, for fifty days, the church celebrates and rehearses this new way of life in the Season of Easter — as we await its completion in the fullness of Christ’s reign.
The festival of the Resurrection of the Lord (or Easter Sunday) is the center of the Christian year. On this occasion the church joyfully proclaims the good news that is at the very heart of the gospel: that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
It is sometimes said that every Sunday is a little Easter; liturgical theologian Laurence Stookey suggests that it might be more appropriate to say that every Easter is a great Sunday (Calendar: Christ’s Time for the Church, Abingdon Press, 1996, 158-161). Easter Sunday is the Lord’s Day writ large: a great annual celebration of Christ’s resurrection on the first day of the week. As such, the service should be centered around the typical and fundamental elements of Christian worship on the Lord’s Day: the proclamation of the Word and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Easter Sunday is also an especially appropriate time for the sacrament of Baptism, if not celebrated during the Easter Vigil of the previous night.
Easter Sunday is something like the keystone of an arch — the top and center stone upon which all the other stones lean and depend — both in terms of its theological significance and its relation to other events in the Christian year. Theologically speaking, the faith we claim and the life we live depend on the affirmation, celebration and proclamation of Christ’s resurrection. In a chronological sense — since Easter is a “moveable feast,” taking place on a different date each year — all the other events of the Christian year (from the Transfiguration of the Lord and Ash Wednesday through Pentecost and Trinity Sunday) pivot around the date of Easter Sunday, shifting accordingly.
For Western Christians (Catholics and Protestants) the date of Easter is the first Sunday that comes after the first full moon that occurs on or after March 21 (the Spring Equinox) — occasionally shifted to the following Sunday, when the original date happens to coincide with the Jewish Passover. This computation means that Easter always occurs sometime between March 22 and April 25, inclusive. The Eastern Churches (Greek and Russian Orthodox, e.g.) use a different set of astronomical tables based on the Julian Calendar (instead of the Gregorian), which means that Orthodox Easter generally follows the Western date by one, four, or five weeks (sometimes occurring in early May).
Green Hill Presbyterian Church 