Hello Class!
Here are some notes from the last two weeks, November 22 and 29.
We have spent the last couple of sessions in Acts, Chapter 8. On the 22nd Llew and Shirley led the class in discussion of the main characters in the story, and also shared stories of baptisms. Thank you for taking charge of the class in our absence! On the 29th we continued this conversation, including some further insights about baptism as a ritual practice and some observations about the practice of laying on of hands. Finally we made note of the significance of the gospel message breaking out of Jerusalem into Samaria and, through the Ethiopian eunuch converted on the desert road, to nations south.
As a connection, the Sunday sermon text and message referred to the northern and southern kingdoms of ancient times. Samaria in the time of the early church had become the land of a people whose cultures mixed when the northern kingdom (Israel) was overcome by the Assyrians in the early 700's B.C. This is the place, in Jesus' time, Jews avoided because the people there practiced a Jewish faith that was viewed as impure; and in fact the people themselves held in prejudice because their line was mixed with Gentile conquerors from generations past. Tradition/legend holds that the Eunuch took the message of Christ to Ethiopia, from which seed grew a thriving and unique Coptic Christian community.
For the coming week's class, we will focus on our four application questions: What does the Scripture tell me about God; myself; my relationship with God; and, what will I do?
Have a wonderful week & we hope to see you this Sunday.
Dan and Laura
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