Fifth Sunday of Easter

"I am the vine, you are the branches.”

 

1I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

John 15:1-8

 

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Eastern Orthodox icon of Jesus Christ as the True Vine

16th century

Byzantine and Christian Museum

Athens

Greece 

 

A short essay on the artistic and spiritual meaning of this artwork is available from The Visual Commentary on Scripturehttps://thevcs.org/subversive-horticulture/cultivation.

https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/diglib-fulldisplay.pl?SID=20240427651833714&code=ACT&RC=55553&Row=16

 

 

 



 

We are leaves of one branch,

the drops of one sea,

the flowers of one garden.

~ Jean Baptiste Lacordaire

 

 

 

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these. 

~ George Washington Carver

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

Lunch at Beau Jo’s in EvergreenIMG_3744.jpeg

Carolyn, Barb, Colleen, Nancy, Anita, Linda, Jim, Steve, Penny, Anna Marie

 

Our speaker at Rotary

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Sallie Wandling - Founder of Camp Comfort

 

Founded in 1995, Mount Evans Home Health Care & Hospice’s bereavement camp has helped more than 1,800 grieving children ages 6 to 12 find a path through their grief. Camp Comfort will be offering two weekend long camps in the mountains and one day camp for three days in metro Denver this summer.

Several of our Rotarians have helped as counselors over the years.





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More snow today!

Not unusual.  After all, March and April are our snowiest months.

 

 

 

 

If what I say resonates with you,
it's because we are both branches on the same tree.

~ W.B. Yeats

 

 

 

 

April 28, 2024  Fifth Sunday of Easter Year B

Previous OPQs may be found at: 

     http://www.dotjack.com/opq.htm

 

Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

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Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

 

 

 

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LECTIONARY

Acts 8:26–40 

Psalms 22:25–31 

1 John 4:7–21 

John 15:1–8

 

SUMMARY



In the final Sundays of the Easter season, the Gospel readings shift toward Jesus’ words to his disciples at the Last Supper for an important reason: this was the time that Jesus spoke most clearly about how he would remain in his church after his ascension.

https://www.preachingtoday.com/lectionary/

 

THE WORD:

https://connectionsmediaworks.com/sundaygospel.html#april28

 

 

First Reading Acts 8:26-40

26Then an 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. 
33  In 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?” [37And Phillip said,“If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”] 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.

Psalm 22:25-31

25  From you comes my praise in the great congregation; 
          my vows I will pay before those who fear him. 
26  The poor shall eat and be satisfied; 
          those who seek him shall praise the Lord. 
          May your hearts live forever!

27  All the ends of the earth shall remember 
          and turn to the Lord; 
     and all the families of the nations 
          shall worship before him. 
28  For dominion belongs to the Lord, 
          and he rules over the nations.

29  To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; 
          before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, 
          and I shall live for him. 
30  Posterity will serve him; 
          future generations will be told about the Lord, 
31  and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, 
          saying that he has done it.

Second Reading 1 John 4:7-21

7Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

13By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 17Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19We love because he first loved us. 20Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 21The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

Gospel John 15:1-8

1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.