May 17, 2016 - Sunday was the Day of Pentecost. Pentecost’s meaning “50” is because it’s 50 days after Easter. For Christians, Pentecost is seen as the birth of the church, but it was also an ancient Jewish religious day. Originally it was an agricultural celebration in which the first fruits of the harvest would be given at the Temple. After many conquests and Jews being taken far from their homeland, Pentecost became a day to celebrate the Torah—which was instrumental in keeping the Jews together, at least in faith. The second chapter of Acts describes the situation that morning as the Jesus followers coming alive with hope and joy. Only a month or so earlier, they were fearful and hopeless after Jesus’ death.
Outside the early Christian writings and letters, the only mention of Jesus is in Josephus’ history of the Jewish people. He wrote one paragraph about Jesus and his followers, ending with: “And up until this very day, the tribe of Christians has not died out.” That was written in the first century of the Common Era, and two thousand years later is still true.
Fannie was back this morning after a quick trip to Austin to see family. She had a good Sunday School lesson, stressing the importance of humility. Most of us, I am sure, consider ourselves humble but I imagine we all have our moments—maybe being proud of our humbleness! We need to remember that humility is one of those human traits pleasing to God.
We had our usual crowd (not very crowded) Sunday morning for worship. Joy and Gene Hutto have an anniversary this week, so we sang to them in honor of this special day. Joe and Hilda organized our music this morning, and Liz helps us sound pretty good! Evie is a big one-year-old now, busy clapping at everything and so alert. Everyone sure enjoys making a fuss over her! During the month of May we are collecting cans of fruit for Community Christian Services. On Tuesday this week at 2:00 we will head off to Holiday Nursing Center for our monthly ministry.
“Whoever you are, in whatever faith you were born, whatever creed you profess; if you come to this house to find God you are welcome here.” Paxton United Methodist Church is an inviting church that takes to heart the idea of “Open Doors, Open Hearts, Open Minds.” Sunday School starts at 9:15 and Worship begins at 10:00. Our email address is paxtonumc@yahoo.com. If you would like the weekly email newsletter about Paxton Methodist you can send me your email address to the Paxton email address and I will add you to the list. God’s Speed!
