Pastor's Ponderings: Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 3:23-29 (February 4, 2025)

February 4, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 3:23-29

Good morning, dear friends in Christ. May the Love of Christ sustain and keep us all in the days ahead, both the good ones, and the difficult ones.

Yesterday I reminded you about all of the activities around the congregation's 75th anniversary. This Sunday we continue our journey through the Sundays after Epiphany. The nativity scene remains on our altar, and now the wise men and their camels have arrived to bring their gifts in celebration of the new king. We also have kept the variety of angels which came from members of the congregation to adorn the chancel with their variety, and reminder that the hosts of heaven also celebrated Christ's birth, and our Moravian Star continues to shine over the altar until we reach the season of Lent in March.  The Moravian Star in our living room has been a light for our home 24/7 for the last four years.

In our passage for today Paul continues to speak to the reader of his letter about the nature of the law in the face of faith and grace, the very Spirit-led belief of Abraham, and our LORD'S desire to have His children trust in His promises. However, the law of Moses, presented to him on Sinai for the people as they journeyed in the wilderness remains a real factor for the new Jewish Christians in the Galatian church, and some interloper(s) who wanted the law to be the canon (measure) by which gentile converts must join, including circumcision.  Paul names the Law a babysitter for the Jewish people during the time between Abraham and the coming of God's Son, Jesus Christ. However, once again, Paul does not believe that the Law's measure, kept by any person, because of the nature of sin, is adequate for becoming righteous before God. There are two covenants between God and His children. 1. I will be your God, and you will be my people, if you are obedient to the law. This is the Old Testament covenant (agreement). 2.  The New Covenant (New Testament) is, I will be your God, and you will be my people if you are obedient to my law. They are the same except for the addition of the coming of the Messiah who fulfills the law for all who believe in Him. Now, Faith alone, Scripture alone, and Grace alone through Jesus Christ fulfills our part of the agreement between God and His children. We work to live lives of thanksgiving, which show compassion and love for all people, being the conveyors of peace and understanding, while forgiving others as we have been forgiven through Christ. Look at the Lord's Prayer for any further info that you need. Now why do the people of Israel need a babysitter? It is because between Abraham and the Messiah, the Hebrews (Jews) are really infants in the faith who need the guidance of the law and prophets in order to maintain their relationship with God. They become mature in their relationship with God when they come to accept in faith the Messiah of the LORD, and they are Baptized in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is where the transition to maturity is completed, once again, all by God's action on their behalf. Now, in the face of the unity, which is accomplished, the promise of Abraham's one family is fulfilled through faith in Jesus Christ.

Thanks for welcoming me into your life today, or whenever you happen to read this part of our study. Today I am praying especially for Richard and Gary who are living on the streets of our city. Please hold them in your heart.

In Christ's love, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 3:15-22 (February 3, 2025)

February 3, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 3:15-22

Monday morning greetings to all of you who are on this email to do this morning's Bible Study.

On Sunday at American, we had our congregational meeting. We approved the program budget with a small decrease in the overall budget for 2025. We also elected our new Congregational Council. Our first council meeting will be after church on Sunday, in my office. We will also install the new council that morning at worship. I hope that you will be able to be with us at the worship service that morning. I thank God for the Gospel Music Group and their wonderful talents. Jeff, our drummer, and vocalists Annette, Melody, Debbie, Holly, Jeremiah, and Joanna. The Bell Choir begins their work on their new Easter music in the next several weeks. Our members' commitment to ring their bells is amazing. I am the director, but without the talents of Holly, Annette, Tricia, Gail, Jared, Fyn, and Melody we could not have the bells ringing at our worship. We have welcomed 2 new members in the last two months too.  Welcome to Cathy and Gerri. Life continues at American, and we all need to be thankful to God for our small congregation's vitality, and for His call on all of our lives to witness to the Gospel, and offer our support of our time, talents, and resources for the work of Christ's church at American.

Today we move to Galatians 3:15-22. A quick read of this passage reveals exactly how complicated, Paul, a former Pharisee could be as he unwound the complications between the law of Moses, and the Grace we all know through Jesus Christ.

In more modern terms, and you may have experienced this in the life of your family at the very difficult time of arranging for celebrations of life (funerals) for them. If everything is not stated clearly in legal documents, directing the family to arrange for the deceased's wishes in their celebration of life, the family is likely to not see eye to eye on what they each think their family member would have wanted for the service. In today's reading it is a similar situation with regards to law and grace. Paul tells the reader of this letter, that God did spell out want He wanted in black and white. And now, the agitators who are present with the Galatian community are really trying to insert their own agendas in this congregation's life. Instead of the freedom in Christ which Paul had previously indicated, these people wanted instead to create strong ethnic ties, which included circumcision as the way in which the community of believers must be filled. Gentiles getting circumcised was how these Gentiles must become members of the Galatian Church. It is here that you and I must remember that God's original covenant with Abraham was based on Abraham's faith, not the law. Paul says that placing such a measure as keeping the law as how outsiders might join the Galatians' Church is taking the law, which Paul now understands is only an interim move by God to maintain His children until the fullness of God's grace is revealed in Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is belief that is required by God as the means of becoming part of His Christian Children. Is it any wonder that the Jews who wanted the Law to be in a position of primacy, help us to know that in some ways today, we can get caught doing the same thing in our modern-day faith communities, failing to be open to all people who believe.  In recent decades in the ELCA Lutheran Church we have been through these conversations and through representative national assemblies, have come much closer to inclusivity for all people who believe in Christ as their Lord and Savior. If we still look to the Old Testament for our guide in being community, we, like the interlopers who wanted the primacy of the law above all else, will discover, time and again, that as Paul tells us, we are set free from the burden of earning our way before God, and instead can only come to righteousness through our faith in Jesus Christ.  No person could ever be the mediator of the one family that was to be created through Abraham, not even Moses. One family, which Abraham was promised, must depend on something more than obedience to the Law. God saw righteous for Abraham and all who would follow through belief, not through the Law of Moses which followed. The completion of God's intent to save His created children, was only through the Messiah, Jesus Christ. He alone is the means by which all of us will be received in God's Heaven, through faith alone, revealed to us in God's Word, and held in our lives by the Love of the Spirit.

May God bless your life today and always.

In Christ's love, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 5 (January 30, 2025)

January 30, 2024:  Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 5

My dear friends in Christ,

I hope that you have been praying for the victims of that terrible plane and helicopter crash in Washington D.C. last night.  There are 67 deaths, which includes the jet crew and the military men flying that Black Hawk Helicopter.  May the LORD of Light hold all of these victims' families in His care, bringing to them the comfort of the Resurrection along with the hope the Spirit places in our very lives every day.  Quick reminder.  Friday Foodies of Faith tomorrow at Cheddars at 11:30 AM, and Sunday's Congregational Meeting starts at 8:30 AM with carry-in food at 8:00 AM in the narthex.  I hope that I will see all of you who are members there.

If the 5th Psalm does anything, it helps us to see the need for reaching out to the authority of our Father in Heaven, in order to place the cares of our hearts, and to call for justice for those who stand against the children of the Covenant.  The appeal here could be from the King (David) when things are not going well and there are all kinds of intrigue around him as people work to displace others, either by failing to tell the truth, or by taking some other kind of action which threatens the person is who appealing to that highest authority to help, calling for the justice and recompense for brokenness and sinfulness to be caught up in God's judgement.  Obviously, David, the likely writer of this 5th Psalm, had grave concerns over how things for his kingship, and for the king's people, including himself, were going. We do however need to be aware that there is a kind of genuine faithfulness on the part of the Psalmist, who is hoping that God will respond to this appeal.  The writer must be aware that getting even is not how this all works.  This Psalm is the turning over of all of those concerns the Psalmist, or King, or victim might feel for getting even. )revenge(  In the case of this Psalmist, the desire for God's Justice is that God is the God of Truth, Light, and Love, the constant defender, and therefore, is always willing to make the enemies of the faithful pay the price for their actions, bringing His justice to play to create the world for which the Psalmist (David) is asking.  This Psalm is an indication of what faith is about, trusting that the LORD will always do what is right for those who are faithful.  Of course, the ways which God chooses to use, may not always fit with the requests of the Psalmist, or perhaps it would be better to say, that they may not fit by time, action, and the immediacy of punishment for which every victim is looking  Will it be a natural outcome of the perpetrator's choices, or will it appear as if they are really doing great and benefiting from their choice throughout their lives, with the faithful requests for justice being fulfilled after the death of the enemy of God's faithful community?  At its end, this Psalm calls upon God to be faithful as He has always been, causing the faithful to rejoice and sing their praises of the LORD, knowing that God is always the shield and protector of His faithful ones.

There are some really good things for us to remember here in this Psalm.  First, we should never use God's justice as the means of fulfilling our personal means of getting even.  Second, we should always know that God is going to protect us in His way, His time, with the very best consequence that could have resulted from that enemies' faulted actions which brought harm to the lives of God's faithful ones.  Third, we must always offer our praise and thanksgiving to God, restating the tenets of our faith with voices and choices made to help us be the LORD'S servants in all things, and at all times.

Next week we head into Psalm 6.   Thanks for being with me this morning.

In Christ's love, Pastor Kim