Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalms 2 (December 12, 2024)

December 12, 2024:  Thursday Bible Study on Psalms 2

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

May a vision of the Nativity be in your life every day now as we draw more closely to Christ's birthday. Recently I have heard on the Hallmark channel this phrase about forgiveness. "If you are finally able to forgive someone for something that happened, no matter how long ago it took place, you will discover that the only person imprisoned by that lack of forgiveness was you. Not only is Christmas a season of joy, but it is also another especially Holy time when forgiveness should be freely offered. After all that is why Christ came into our midst, that we might both receive, and forgive, the things that we have allowed to imprison us in our lives.

Today we are reading the entirety of Psalm 2, so it may take more than one day to cover the Psalm we are working on.

As we begin today's study, we need to immediately take note that both Psalms intend to set people free. With Psalm one aimed much more at individuals, it speaks words of renewal and freedom. But Psalm 2 addresses the kings and their nations, actually stating that God laughs at them for their petty and broken leadership. However, both Psalms do indeed speak to God's Covenant with them, His promise to be their God, if, of course, the people and the nations keep God's rule for how they live in the midst of God's world, loving God above all else, and loving the neighbor like a person or nation loves itself.  If we would do a brief role play about this situation in Psalm 2, we would find that the U.S. is to take the role of a smaller nation under the dominion of a superpower. However, in this Psalm it is the superpowers who are trying to throw off the "yoke" of God! For nations to act the rogue against God, that nation and her people must be prepared to suffer the consequences, which are the result of what we might choose to see as natural consequences, but on the face of God's created order are indeed the inbreaking of God's anger and frustration in sight of what individual/nation have done to move against God.  This approach tells us that God is still the final judge. For Israel it was consequences brought about by their failure to care for widows and orphans, and resident aliens in their midst. Worship was at its breaking point due to the inadequate and manipulative leadership of corrupt priests and leaders. In the constitution of our nation there is intended to be a separation between church and state. But today there are some churches who believe it is Christ's call on them to become more powerful in a worldly sense, and to accumulate great wealth. Their initial motives were probably noble, but today they have moved against the LORD. Their worship can be much more about politics and power, than about God's Grace offered for all people for Salvation and New Life in Christ. In our part of the Lutheran Church (ELCA), it is our belief that the Church's roll with Government is to act as conscience and guide, not with power to unilaterally bring change that on the surface appears to be really good for the Kingdom, but more often than not, creates a powerful evil presence in the work that they have come to do.  Usually the nation's people, and a newly forming government will appear to create a new balance for the rule of civil law, and the right place of God's guidance to re-establish a strong faith life for the nation's people. In this I am certainly no prophet, but we need to remember that God is already, even more than ready, to renew his covenant law through His Son and through Loving His children abundantly.

Just a note: the week of Christmas through New Year’s there will be no Bible Studies online. I will be out on vacation taking the time to be with my family. May Christ's light shine ever more brightly in all of our lives. Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 2:1-5 (December 10, 2024)

December 10, 2024:  Tuesday Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 2:1-5

This morning was so crisp and clear, with that little nip in the air that suggests that perhaps the next several early mornings will be even more brisk.  May the God of Creation bless you with joy in this creation in which we live and work to be the LORD'S stewards of all that we have been given.

Last night at about 9pm my sister-in-law Connie called. I felt at once that I already knew of the call's content. My brother had just died last night shortly after Connie and their daughter Shannon had driven the 40 plus miles home from visiting with my brother Rick, who was in care for extreme problems with his heart and kidneys.  He talked to Connie to see that she had arrived home safely, and within a few minutes he became a triumphant saint in our LORD'S heavenly kingdom. Needless to say, I had little sleep last night with many prayers being said during those awake times in between each few minutes of sleep. Rick just turned 78 in October of this year.

Today we move on to chapter two of Paul's Galatian Letter. Many years have passed at this time, while Paul has been busy preaching and teaching, and bringing new communities of faithful people together for worship. After 14 years Paul returns to Jerusalem to confer with the Apostles and gathered completed Jews (that is Jews who have come to believe in Christ, but who still want adherence to all of the many rules that have been established which are meant to "help" them to remain righteous before God.  One of the major rules, is that all males must be circumcised no matter their age. I can imagine the extreme resistance to this requirement by those who had yet to be circumcised. Over Paul's years of service to the Gospel, he has been preaching that none of these rules are necessary when a person is moved by the Spirit to believe and be received into the new church.  However, when Paul returns to Jerusalem to speak about this issue, he is faced with the believers who will not discard all of the extra rules that they have been living by. Paul stands his ground in this argument as he continues to teach the unity and coming together of all peoples under the umbrella of the Church and Christ's love. Paul will use large parts of this letter to argue and defend this argument. Even Paul's writing in this part of chapter two seems to be a bit jerky, which may well mean Paul is angry, if not furious with the Jerusalem Jews who continue to demand any requirement beyond accepting Christ as Lord and Savior. Their thinking did not sway Paul, and he will continue to stand strong in his different view of what is required for salvation. So here are the three things that we can learn about Paul in this short passage.

1. He did not go to Jerusalem to learn the Gospel. He already knew it directly from Christ. Paul went to Jerusalem believing that God had called him to do so. We always need to remember that the disciples were a pretty hardheaded group, who seemed to have limited understanding of Christ's teaching.

2. Paul offered to the Jerusalem apostles what he was teaching to the gentiles, not for learning something new, but seeking to affirm the unity with them that had been established years before in his visit with Peter and James.

3. Paul's companion on his journeys was Titus, who was a Gentile and uncircumcised. Paul knew all too well, who Titus was, and also about Titus' faith life without circumcision. He really went after those Jews who said that they believed in Jesus but did not follow the foundational 10 commandments as part of their faith journey.  If Jesus says that he came to complete the Law of God for God's people, then we must know that any failure in keeping the 10 commandments would mean separation from God.  Only through Jesus is it possible to stand before God in righteousness. For Paul it was always about unity in Christ, the Savior, not about man-made rules that often-prevented unity.

Today in the church we are still faced with the issues which drove Paul to anger and frustration.  The things that most often divide denomination from denomination are human choices to fit how people define this relationship with God through the Savior, Jesus Christ. If you think about it, it does not take long see how and why it has been so hard to return to the One True Church of Jesus Christ, but Lutherans are always working to help it happen.

I thank God for your prayers for my family at this difficult time of our loss.

With love, in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 1:18-24 (December 9, 2024)

December 9, 2024:  Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 1:18-24

Good morning in this third week of Advent. In the growing darkness of each day, the season of Advent is our opportunity to celebrate the growing Light of God's Grace in our lives, especially as we get closer and closer to celebrating the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. As the weather chills, please be mindful of the homeless in our community. Keep them in your regular prayers for safety from the cold, prayers for safety from violence, and prayers for adequate food provision for them each day. Today I ask for your prayers for my brother, Rick. He is in "recuperative" care, his heart is barely keeping him alive even with its newly placed pace maker.  Last night his wife was called to the care center at 1AM because there was fear that he would not make it. Pray for their daughter Shannon who is traveling today by car to get to her parent's home and her father's care center. Please also pray for our congregation's oldest member, Della. Della will be headed into a memory care facility when a room opens up for her. May God's richest blessings and peace be hers in the time ahead.

Today in Galatians we have a brief passage about Paul's first visit to meet with Peter, and also with James, the brother of Jesus. James did not follow Jesus in his life and ministry, but after Christ's resurrection, James became a follower of the new Christian cult. Ultimately James will become the leader of church in Jerusalem, and the whole of the new churches that have been formed by the apostles after Christ's death and Resurrection.  In this passage we are told that Paul has already been journeying for Christ for three years and helping in the formation of new Christian communities. Now he has headed to meet Peter and James. He has not gone to Jerusalem to be tutored by Peter. Nor has he come to ask for their blessings on the work that he has been doing. In many ways, Paul is working independently. It is most likely that he has gone to see Peter, so that both he and Peter are comfortable with one another and each's teaching.  Paul treasures the work of the Apostles in Jerusalem, the whole of the new church, and his own work for the Truth of the Savior's sacrifice and Resurrection for all people. It is Paul who will teach about the blending of people from many different heritages and statuses, that in Christ there is no separation of any kind based on any worldly thinking. No race, no sexual identity, no wealthy, no poor, no Jew, no Greek, nor any other separations which people have created in their minds are to divide the people who receive Christ as LORD and Savior. It is very different for the Apostles who continue their work almost exclusively with people of Jewish faith and heritage.  Though Paul and Peter come to know that their messages are the same about Jesus, there is a kind of independence for Paul and his own ministry. In terms of the unity as Paul preaches and teaches, he does so without any approval from the Apostles. Paul certainly received the truth of Christ when he experienced Christ on the road to Damascus and was converted to see Christ's Truth for all time. Today ELCA Lutherans and their predecessor bodies have worked diligently to build unity and understanding between differing denominations. We call these dialogs critical to the re-unifying of the whole Church. We know that often there seem to be insurmountable differences, and yet we continue because we know that it has always been Christ's hope that the Church will once again be one, just as He created it to be. Paul faces criticism from some who have come into Galatia claiming that Paul is weak, and a simple puppet of the disciples in Jerusalem. Nothing could be less true. Paul is at one and same time independent and "orthodox" in the Truth he has shared in every church start. The Truth he preaches and teaches is in line with that taught in Jerusalem. Nothing could be more wrong than to see Paul as being inauthentic. We know how the early church saw Paul. His writings were considered to be canon as the New Testament took shape under the council which met some three hundred years later. Today Paul is our theological guide to knowing Christ. We treasure his teaching on Justification by Grace through Faith as a free gift from God for every one of our lives. We are loved and cherished as God's treasures of creation.

Today as I pray for my brother, knowing that his life may end in the next few days, I am also filled with gratitude and joy in the coming celebration of Christ's birth, and the sure and certain hope that comes to us all in the Resurrection of Christ!

As I listen to Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring on our classical Christmas channel on Dish TV, I send to you too, the great good love of God, His Son, and the Holy Spirit. Pastor Kim