Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 10:1-8 (January 5, 2026)

January 5, 2026:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 10:1-8

Good morning my dear friends in Christ. I pray that your Christmas and New Years celebrations were times of joy for you and your family and friends. We had 16 for Christmas lunch and desserts, and 11 for homemade potato leek soup and split pea and ham soup on New Year's Day. Now the house is quiet, and our wonderful and beautiful collections of tree decorations, angels, snowmen, Santas, and around our house all the signs of our faith and trust in the child born in Bethlehem who came to save us from our own sin and brokenness, wall crosses, a stained glass lighted church, and our lighted Moravian star that is always on in our living room suspended from the ceiling, our beautiful icons of Mary and her child Jesus that are displayed on our living room and dining room walls, and the batik window hanging of the black Mary and Jesus.  Even when our Christmas decorations are put away again, many of the symbols of our faith will remain present around us throughout the new year. At church the tree and wreaths and some banners will come down this week, yet in our tradition at American we will leave the Creche on the altar surrounded by the wise men and their camels, and the church's Moravian star will remain lit for the season after Epiphany, and banners will hold before us the wisdom of the wise men as they journeyed to the new God sent light that revealed the Christ child, and His place of birth in Bethlehem.  In the Scriptures that are our readings in this season of the church year we find God's revealing of Himself through His only Begotten Son, our Savior and Lord, Jesus. There is such power in the Word for us every day, and our Sunday worship reveals God's Self through hymns, prayers, liturgy, the readings, and the messages that are meant to show us the power of our LORD'S Love for every one of us.  It is that very same power that is revealed for us in our reading from the Acts of the Apostles today!

In our reading and passage this morning we are brought to yet another new and significant way in which the Spirit of God reveals the desire of God for all people, even those deemed to be the enemy of the Jews through the Roman occupation of Israel, to be filled with the Spirit even when they have not been Baptized or taught by the faith of other people about the nature of God's presence with them too.  We can only imagine the fear and back stepping that Simon Peter must have felt when he was approached by servants of a Centurion to come to his home. The equivalent today would be opening your front door to secret service men or women standing there telling you that your presence has been requested by the President in another city where you may have never been! The Romans were never considered good occupiers in the nations that they had conquered, so an invitation by a soldier leader to COME did not feel like a friendly message as Peter received it. The reason for that is about all Peter could know about Cornelius was that he was powerful, leader of a very large contingent of the Roman army, and though Cornelius was a God seeker, he was unlikely to have any kind of complete understanding of the Jewish faith, or most especially, the new Christian faith in Jesus Christ.  I doubt very much that Cornelius' reputation of kindness and generosity would have found its way to Peter in another part of Palestine. Peter would certainly know that he was being called to meet a feared Roman soldier who was accustomed to being obeyed by his troops. What reason could there be for such an invitation (felt like a demand) of Peter's presence?

Later Peter would die at the hands of the Romans, so if we doubt that this must have been a real struggle for Peter, we need to remember how he lost his life in Rome.

Tomorrow we will enter the next section, which will help us to journey with Peter to meet with Centurion Cornelius. What will this gentile want? Will he be a danger to the new Christian community of believers? Will he threaten Peter with the loss of his life? Chapter 10 will help us come to terms with all of this.

God bless you and hold you in his care in the days ahead, and I will be back with you tomorrow morning as we continue with Peter in the uncertainty of this journey.

In Christ's Love, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 41:13 (December 18, 2025)

December 18, 2025:  Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 41:13

For my dear friends in Christ as we approach the end of the season of Advent at the beginning of the Church Year and move quickly on to Christmas and its 12 days of celebration that you know all about God's love for you.   I know that all too often, commercial TV and Radio act as if Christmas ends at midnight on December 25. You will find it hard, even in some churches, to sing carols any longer than Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day worship. I promise that we will be singing carols on the first Sunday after Christmas too. Please remember that I will not be doing Bible Studies during the week of Christmas, nor during the following week when we celebrate the new year. I will be there to lead music and preach on Sundays even though I will be on vacation right after Christmas. I will still be in town. Melody and I are planning some special food and special outings for our sons during that time. The Bell Choir is getting their music put together, the Gospel Group will lead our closing Christmas Eve Carol, and we will have organ for most hymns, and, of course, candlelight and the traditional singing of Silent Night. We will even have a soloist or two singing specials during the service. Please remember to keep our home bound and ill members and friends in your prayers every day, and above all, give thanks to God for the celebration of His Son's birthday. Don't miss this opportunity to take part in the joy of this year's celebrations. Of course, we will be offering the Sacrament of the Altar too. Service is at 7PM.

I know that you are saying that today's reading seems to be short. You are right. After reading of the confidence of the poor, ill, and disadvantaged in chapter 41, we come to its end with this one verse of praise of God in the face of all things that might cause our faith and confidence in God to falter.  But there is another reason for this seeming break which could have been at the end of 40 as well. The Torah, the body of Jewish Law is divided into five sections, and to keep the Psalms in line with that, we have the end of 41 as the end of the first of the five sections in the Psalms. I suppose it might be considered arbitrary, but it is important to the faith traditions of the Jews. Five (5) is a prime number, and that makes it perfect for the dividing of the Law and the Songs in the Hebrew Canon of Scripture which we call the Old Testament. (or the old covenant or contract with God) As we read through this old agreement with God, we come to see God in ways that take us beyond Jewish Law. Indeed, we see God as the God who is constantly acting on behalf of his children, saving them from their stupidity (like in the garden), or setting them free from their imprisonment in Egypt as Moses brings the wrath of God down on the Egyptian people, ultimately forcing them to let the Hebrews go to head off to the promised land.  Even when the wandering Hebrews build an idol to worship when Moses is on Mt Sinai receiving the 10 commandments, God offers a way for them to be saved from the bites of the adders that have come into the midst to harm them for their sin of idol worship.  In the years after the Hebrews are driven out of their land, and imprisoned as slaved in other lands, God ultimately brings his saving grace through the building up of the faith community by the teaching and actions of Cyrus the king to set them free with his blessings.

So here we are now at this division in the Book of Songs (Psalms). After the holidays we will continue into the second section of the Psalms. I want to wish you a very Merry and Holy Christmas for you and your family. May God bless us all in this holiest of times as we celebrate our Lord's birthday in Bethlehem.

I hope that I get to see you at church during the Christmas season, so that we might hold one another dear and precious, sharing our love of Jesus Christ, and rejoicing with the hosts of heaven and singing with the angels of God's Heavenly Kingdom.

With Love in Christ Jesus our Lord, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 9:32-43 (December 16, 2025)

December 16, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 9:32-43

The sounds of Advent songs in church, and the neighborhood yard and house decorations all lend to this very important season of preparation and waiting. Once again, the gathering light of God's Truth and Love for all people is shining more brightly on our home Advent Wreaths, and on the one on the altar at church on Sunday mornings. We are now just a few days away from the fullness and light of the birthday of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. I hope that it shines in your hearts ever more brightly throughout the coming year. Please continue your prayers for changes that happen in every family. Sometimes they are most difficult, like the death of a much-loved family member, or economies that ebb and flow throughout our lives, but often are the cause of distress, or our lives are changed by a diagnosis of a health issue. This time of the year can be particularly stressful with the pressures of gifting and special food treats that all take time to get ready, that's when our relationship of faith in Jesus Christ enters our living, thinking, and acting. Our Savior calls us to live well lighted by His Love for us as we move through all that may be happening for us, some good and wonderful, and others that can be terrible.

In our study we have been busy discovering how it was that Saul became Paul, and how his life change was received with joy, or with anger and hostility. We left Paul on his journey to Tarsus, as he is protected by the disciples and other new Christians, and flees from the desire of his own people to murder him. Today we are starting another important part of the telling of the beginning of the new Christian communities, and how Peter played a role in all of that happening as he guided the disciples and the new church in Jerusalem and the surrounding area. This part of the story of the new church begins with Peter traveling to Lydda, where he finds a man who has had years of being bedridden. Peter commands him to get up and take care of his bedding, and this miracle of healing is witnessed by the people of Lydda. Their belief in this Jesus who Peter is confessing, becomes firm, and they turn to the Lord. Then in Joppa, some new disciples hear of Peter's deed, and appeal to him to come to Joppa to be with them as they prepare to bury Tabitha (Dorcas) who has been a gracious, hospitable, and generous person in their community. Her body has been prepared for burial, but Peter comes at the request of believers, and prays for her, commanding her to rise, and she is raised from the dead at his request and prayers. There are also many who become convicted in their faith and believe in Christ. Unlike Paul who is forced to flee from the places in which he was attempting to preach the Gospel, Peter chooses to remain in Joppa to fill the Christian mission there with new members while he stays with Simon, a tanner.

It is interesting that we see two very different receptions to the work of Paul with the Jews in Damascus and Jerusalem, while Peter reaches out to Gentiles with much greater success. The irony here is that there will be change in all of this. It will be Paul who has great successes throughout Asia Minor, Greece, and even in Rome, while Peter's mission in Jerusalem fails to even be able to support itself. That is when Paul received an offer to support Peter's and the other disciple's work there. We will have good opportunities in Acts to find out about how all of this went, but that is yet to be a part of our reading.

Note please. There will be no Acts study for the next two weeks until after Epiphany, January 6, and no Psalm study for those two weeks either. I must make homebound communion calls, and continue to work with the Gospel Group, the Bell Choir, soloists, and my own music for Christmas Eve worship, and I will be on vacation between Christmas and New Year’s. I will be present for the Sundays in between. I am praying that you choose to join me and our congregation on Christmas Eve. We will truly be celebrating the Good News of the Birthday of our King, Jesus Christ!

With love and hope and Light in Christ, Pastor Kim