Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 13:9-13 bible study (September 3, 2024)

September 3, 2024: Tuesday Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 13:9-13

Blessings and peace in this first week of September.

Up north where my brother lives, today's high will be on in the mid-70s, and it won't be more than two weeks and the color tours will begin throughout the state with a focus on Traverse City, Michigan. I know, here in the desert I am still watching the navel orange tree next to the dining room window. The oranges are still green and will need to be watered through October unless we get good rain between now and then. I am certainly looking forward to a break in the daily temperatures when we can see 90 degrees for just an hour or two each day. But, whether we are hot in the desert, or leaf peeping in the upper mid-West, or on the east coast of the country seeing Vermont with wonder at the beauty of the LORD'S creation, we will know that will soon move into another season of the church year, and all that each of the coming seasons will bring musically, or homiletically (that's in my preaching), and the anticipation and honor of celebrating our Lord's birth filled with the awe and wonder of God's love for every one of us. At the end of September, on the last Sunday, I will begin a study of Ruth that is a great opportunity for us to gather during the 9am education hour to explore this powerful little four chapter book, where we will find a beginning that is filled with honor and blessing, and God's call on a very unusual individual, who might otherwise be considered an outsider. That will be at 9AM in the parish hall. We will name that day rally day, and we will have games, and fun, and food. Sign up at church to bring fruit and veggie and sweet treats as we begin our journey with Ruth.

Today we move into another part of chapter 13 of Mark. In these verses Jesus makes it very clear what the disciples should expect when He is no longer in their midst. There is no softening for them because of their faithfulness, no escape using the shrewdness of their sin, and they will truly be faced with the anger and frustration of their fellow Jews who have the power and authority to judge everyone who they feel is heretical and a danger to their power and wealth and work with the Roman Empire. The Sanhedrin in Jerusalem had the authority to bring them to their knees through imprisonment, turning them over to the Roman Government as Zealots and troublemakers. But it wasn't only the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, each community had its own Sanhedrin with the right and authority to do the same thing. After the rising of Christ, the disciples, after another 40 days or so, found a new zeal for the work to which Christ had called them. They were emboldened to share the Good News of God's abundant Love for all of His children. The disciple's reality was that there were always plenty of people, perhaps even within their own families, who were anxious to curry favor with both Jewish and Roman authorities for the benefits that such informant information could bring to them. The world was not going to be an easy place for the followers of Jesus to live and answer His call on their lives. However, the strength of the faith of these men and women was powerful in their lives. They were strong in their teaching, preaching, and praying, AND in their suffering and dying at the hands of their enemies. These betrayals were on of the vivid signs of the end of days according to Jewish history and heritage. I guess that you and I are still living in these times, and though the Church has not been persecuted in recent years, the time of that kind of persecution always is a possibility for those of the True Faith. How will you and I stand up for Christ's Love when others come for us, sometimes in His Name, or in the name of the persecutors who still look for power, upbuilding of egos, and wealth? Will we all be able to stand firm to carry Christ's Love in our lives and for all people, or will we be the ones who give others up to assure that we are safe? I pray that each of us will engage in the battle of faith for the sake of all of creation, and that we come to endure for the sake of our Lord, knowing that if the end comes at the hands of Christ's enemies, it will mean that our lives will begin anew with Christ.

God bless you all.

In the Name, and by the Power of Christ's Love, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study on Nehemiah 11:1-36 (August 29, 2024)

August 29, 2024:  Thursday Bible Study on the Old Testament book of Nehemiah 11:1-36

Good morning my dear friends. I just realized that there will be no Bible Study on Monday the 2nd of September. It is Memorial Day. It is the day on which we Lutherans celebrate the LORD'S gift of the labors of our lives. Celebrate and give thanks to God for His abundant blessings in our daily lives.

Today we have a large reading again from Nehemiah. It has another of those long lists which we have become accustomed to seeing in the Old Testament Book. Once again it tells us that Nehemiah was an administrator of the highest level. It is no wonder that Artaxerxes, the king of Persia, did not want him leaving for an extended temporary time. If Nehemiah kept the king's records in the same way as we see them in this OT book, then it is certainly understandable why Nehemiah was considered such a valuable member of the royal household. Nehemiah tells us that it was the officials who settled in Jerusalem along with a volunteer 10 percent of any other community members who were Judahites who were believed to be of a pure blood line. It makes it really clear that the intent of Nehemiah was to see that there was purity of blood lines for those who settled into the city. You know, we should not be really surprised. I grew up at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Ludington, Michigan. It was founded by Swedish immigrants in the 1870's in Sweden Town. They were my family members on my mom’s side of the family. They even went as far as to go back to Sweden to call their first pastors. The last who had Swedish heritage was The Rev. John Landin. He served in my home congregation for about 44 years. He was the last to be able to offer worship in Swedish. I grew up in my early life with people who looked a lot like me, fair skin, light hair, and blue eyes. The community often looked at others who were not Swedish, those who had difference physical features with what I would call suspicion. Even in high school, when Melody went with me to church, she would feel that she was being looked at to decide her acceptability. It didn't matter to us, we were always finding joy in Christ in the church no matter whether it was Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, or Episcopalian.  We were in youth groups at all of them. So even I am familiar with the issues of correct heritage.

I do have to wonder about having a city that was filled with "executive" types. Decision making must have been a real experience. The other 90% of the population was settled in the cities on property which was believed to be theirs from the time of the settlement of the "Promised Land". The expression "Holy City" comes up three times in this chapter of Nehemiah. It appears 2 times in Isaiah, and in Daniel.  In the thinking of the people, it was because of the supreme holiness of the Temple that the city itself was also Holy. Revelation 11, and Matthew 4 and 11 also speak of Jerusalem as the Holy City. Remember that it was the Judahite's belief that the Temple was the throne of God, and in spite of what some denominations might declare about their city being the holy one, it was, is, and will always be that Jerusalem will be the Holy City. Next week we will finish Nehemiah, and then move on to the Book of Esther.

In Christ's love, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 13:1-2, 14-20 bible study (August 27, 2024)

August 27, 2024:  Tuesday Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 13:1-2, 14-20

Blessings and Peace this morning for you and for all who you love. May this prayer also be ours for all of the people who are homeless, at war, and battling illness. This weekend is a national holiday. We must also give thanks to God for the gifts of work, whether retired or full or part-time, our work is a blessing from the LORD.  I pray that you have been blessed with loving the work which you do. And if you struggle with it every day, begin the day by telling the LORD that you are filled with love for God, and with thanksgiving for his abundant blessings. This might just help you get through every difficult day ahead. We all need to remember that everything and each day is the LORD'S. This is the day that the LORD has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

As you will see in a few minutes, we will begin our look of this chapter out of order. I am hopeful, as I said yesterday, that this approach will help you to connect the strands which we talked about yesterday that are in this 13th chapter of Mark.

The chapter begins with Jesus leaving the area of the Herod built Temple. He was there teaching and healing. This Temple began between 20-19 BCE. (Before the Common Era Calendar) In the time of Christ the calendar from that time forward is called the Common Era, and it certainly has to do with the life of the Savior. As Jesus leaves this Herod Built temple His disciples offer comments about the wonder and glory of its construction. It is a massive temple to the glory of Herod, and not to the Glory of God. Its massive interior dimensions are built onto the top of Mt. Moriah with no land or features of the mount being changed, instead it was built on massive pillars of stone and huge boulders to support it safely in that position. It was even connected to Herod's Castle by a bridge that was fifty feet wide which spanned the Tyropoeon Valley some 354 feet below. It is this time that Jesus offers His prophecy that this would all cease to exist, no stone left one top of any other stone. All to be thrown down! The way that anyone is able to discern what is true or false prophecy is that if the prophecy occurs then is to be known as a true prophecy. 50 years after Christ death and resurrection all of this incredible construction would be obliterated by the Roman Army chasing all the inhabitants of Jerusalem running to escape this army with the power to destroy even what appeared to be an indestructible monument.  Just a note:  the exterior of Herod's temple was clad with heavy plates of gold. Apparently, this gold could be seen from 50 or more miles away on a sunny morning.

Now we move on to verses 14-20. We have the general prophecy in the first two verses of chapter 13, but not in these later verses Christ describes the terror and horror of "That Day". "Flee to the mountains.” These are the prophetic words that Jews in 70 would heed as they fled Judea to Masada, where they, at their end, would be destroyed in the mountains to which they had fled.  This prophecy of Christ has its origins in Daniel 9:27, 11:31, 12:11. In Daniel it is called the Abomination of Desolation. ln Daniel's time, his king set up a major temple to Zeus. In Jesus' time, it had not been very long since the temple had been adorned with the pantheon of Roman gods. These words of Christ were meant to reveal the terrible reality of what was coming because of the ways in which the Temple had been desecrated by the Romans and the Jewish king. In these verses we have not just a broad description of an end coming, but here Christ offers vivid intimate details of the horror of the people, mothers and children, old people, wealthy and poor, no one will escape! The historian Josephus tells us that in this attack from Rome, 97,000 were taken captive, and over 1,000,000 perished.  No One Escaped the Roman's wrath. The stench and illness related to human bodies breaking down in death could not be escaped by anyone. For anyone left there was no help to be found. Starvation was the norm, and even cannibalism was present and happening on the part of the Jews. Christ's prophecy of this nightmare scenario came all too vividly true.

Next Monday we continue with verses 9-13 in chapter 13 of Mark.

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim