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

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalms 1 (December 5, 2024)

December 5, 2024:  Thursday Bible Study on Psalms 1

Grace and Peace stand with you every day of your life.

We will soon enter into the 2nd week of Advent.  What does that mean for us? It means that as the darkness of the year piles up, God's Light through Jesus Christ will provide for seeing through that darkness, and will make it possible, even in the face of the worst possible events, for all who accept Christ as their Lord and Savior to be surrounded  by His Light and Life, with a heart of love for you and me, and for the promise of the Resurrection which lives in us through Christ Himself.  It is His Light that will shine brighter than any darkness. At Christmas we will see the Light of Christ overcome all darkness, and shine more brightly for all to see.

On to Psalms now: Psalms are a part of the First Testament (the Old Testament). Unlike other scriptures in the OT, the Psalms are personal reflections of thanksgivings, appeals, and, in addition, infrequent Words of God spoken to the faithful. There are only 15 Psalms which hold those most holy Words of our LORD for those who pray and seek God's help, as well as those who are giving thanks for God's blessings and interventions. Psalms contain four kinds of conversations:

1. We say to God, and to others, you are Great! Psalm 8 is an example of this kind of Psalm.

2. We say to God, and to others, "Help". Psalm 3 is a good example of this kind of Psalm.

3. We say to God, and to others, "I trust you."  This might be the words spoken when the situation is less dire and offering that we trust God is a way of asking for the help He will offer to work out for our good. Psalm 23 is our example here.

4. We say "Thank you" to God and to others when our prayers have been responded to, and the possibility of a positive outcome is obvious. Psalm 30 is an example of this type of Psalm.

We are always searching for the answer about an author when we encounter these Psalms. We don't know who wrote them, but we do have some guesses.  There are some that are attributed specifically to David, others to Israel's kings, and others yet as the songs which the pilgrims sang as they entered the Temple while on their journeys. These are called Psalms of Ascent as the pilgrims would ascend the hill on which Jerusalem and the temple stood.

You and I live in a culture and nations where we cherish our privilege to make choices for our lives, for our families, even for our nation as we just did in the election. However, that is not true in all places around this globe. Psalm 1 believes in the importance of choice, and our choices, like theirs, are immensely important to how our lives move. In the case of Psalm one, we find that choice is pretty straight forward for people of faith in God, and for us in Jesus Christ as well. In Matthew 7 Jesus talks about the broad and the narrow way. This helps to define who we are, and whether or not we will be living lives that are pleasing to God. Poet Robert Frost helps us to see this in his poem "The Road Not Taken". In the journey of our lives there are choices to make, easy ones that may take us away from our Savior, and more difficult ones that build the love we have for our Lord and Savior. This Frost poem tells us that the one less taken, the more difficult one, makes all of the difference in our lives. On that road we learn about the kinds of things that the Psalms bring us to learn, like how important our relationship with God really is.

If we want to have the blessings of this relationship with God, Christ, and the Spirit, our choices will make all the difference. This means taking delight in the ways in which our God has guided His children throughout all time. We are meant to find the greatest joy in God's presence and rule for our lives. His rule is filled with Grace and Peace. There are plenty of opportunities to be led astray in this journey of faith upon which we have all started. What looks like a path with great wideness and no rules, lots of friends, and an easy life, is not the path upon which our Father in Heaven would have us tread. Christ has set the example for us. Out of His love for His Father in Heaven, and for us too, Christ chose the tough path with confidence in the care of His Father, and even in the face of such a horrible end, Christ knew that God really had everything which would carry Him through this difficult path.  How confident are you when it comes to the really tough stuff in life, to trust that God is really in charge? He will love and cherish you through it all. The judgement about which this Psalm speaks is not the final judgement, but rather the natural consequences of journeying on the road most taken. There we find it easy to be separated from the power of God's love to be our immeasurable support no matter what happens to us. We all know that both those who make poor choices, and those who make the very best choices, that both will have difficult times in their lives, but where will the support to make it come from for the people who have wandered away down that other very busy path?  This Psalm also makes it clear that daily life has never been meant to be separated from our experience of the Holy. They go together. So, in life we don't deny the mess we may be in, but we also do not separate it from God's loving rule in our lives.  Lutherans address this kind of choosing and consequences when we say that everyone is simultaneously Saint and Sinner.  God bless you as we undertake a task of many months to allowing the Psalms to feed our faith with the power of God's love, especially in the face of all of the difficulties of life.

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 1:10-17 (December 3, 2024)

December 3, 2024:  Tuesday Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 1:10-17

May this season's Advent and Christmas Music fill your hearts with joy and hope,

It appears that the war in the Middle East is spreading with the renewing of rebel attacks in Syria, and a host of words coming out of Israel about how they may proceed after a cease fire agreement is reached.  Few of them provide for the re-homing of the Palestinian people displaced by this war. We must continue our prayers for peace in both of these violent situations where so many are suffering. Today is the third day of Advent. I hope that you are allowing the coming Good News of Christmas to become a part of your busy lives. In our home we light our Advent Wreath nightly, and then we sing a verse of "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”. It is really just a few moments, and I know what a struggle it can be to pull your household together long enough for just those few moments. It means turning off the intrusiveness of the world for moments of peace and reflection. I hope that you will try it.

This morning, we are in chapter one, verses 10-17 of the Letter from Paul to the Galatian Church. It is in this portion of the first chapter that Paul continues to defend himself from the accusations being made by others who have come to the new churches of Galatia claiming that Paul has modified the Truth that he has claimed to bring to these new Christians so that what he is saying will seem more pleasing and less threatening to them.  The apparent issue here is that those others who claim to be preaching the truth want anyone who is not a Jew to be circumcised, and that is a requirement for unity in the new church. As Paul's response unfolds, we hear him telling the people who are to receive this letter that, of all people, he is the one who had been just like them and was a severe persecutor of the Christian cult that was finding its way into the Jewish faith, and also the worship of the pagans who were hearing its message.  Because of the behavior of Paul before his conversion, Saul (Paul’s old name), of all people, would have been one to agree as a specialist in Jewish law. But at the time of his conversion and vision of Christ, he is now new in Christ, as everyone can be when they also come to know the Christ of God as their Redeemer and Savior. In verse 10 Paul responds with an understanding of the only one who he really needs to please. It is not that he is trying to create a story of his own making. No, Paul is telling the truth that has changed his life, which has stopped him from proclaiming that kind of truth. Now Paul is a slave to Christ, not to anything that might please others. His hope is not in this world, but in the promise of the Risen Savior. Paul was done with being a Pharisee, a persecutor of all things in the world that had to do with Jesus the Messiah. In his former life, Paul murdered those who refused obedience to the Jewish law, knowing full well that no person could live solely by its guide in their life. Formerly he was like Elijah who called down fire on those who would not come to know his God, but not anymore. Elijah had headed off to Mt Sinai when he was depressed and uncertain about his role for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Here Paul tells the reader that he headed off to Arabia for a time of contemplation and renewal after his conversion. Arabia is in all likelihood a referral to going to Mt Sinai to think and prepare for this new direction in his life. Paul's new work was to proclaim to a pagan world that God loved them just as much as He loved the Jews, His elect.

All of us need to know that from time to time it is good for us to reflect on our relationship with our God, that we might be renewed and restored in faith and in life for the work of proclaiming Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior. Our stories, like Paul's self-description as a Pharisee, are meant to be the very best conveyance of God's truth and love for all people. Others need to know that they are just like us, forgiven and saved! "We are who we were when". All of us have a history with Christ in it, but there must come a time, when we know the power of God's Grace and transforming love!

God bless you today and always.

In Christ's love, Pastor Kim