Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 14:43-52 bible study (October 15, 2024)

October 15, 2024:  Tuesday Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 14: 43-52

Good morning in the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Today please keep Jenna's dog who is having gall bladder surgery today. It’s a tough surgery.  Pray healing for Dobby, and for guidance for the surgery team who will be doing his surgery. For all of us who have pets, we have come to know how difficult it can be when our best friend is ill and requires intense medical care. Please continue to pray for Kandice, Lisa, and Alexis, as they work out all of the necessary life circumstances for battling Kandice's cancer, and for how their lives will be adjusted to take care of the needs of their lives.  Pray for Jeff H. too. He is also battling cancer, which is hard to treat, with his doctors working to give him the best quality of life that is possible. Give thanks for Robert's continuing improvement. Pray for God's speed for all who are traveling over the next several months. Pastor Ron and Becky will be back with us in November. Please continue to pray for the victims of the recent hurricanes in the south. No one could have ever thought that there would be so much rain and devastation in the Carolinas and Georgia, in addition to all of the damage in Florida. Continue to pray for peace in the war between Israel and the Moslem nations who are at their borders and others who are near neighbors in the Middle East. Pray too for our nation. In this time of election, we are a divided country. Please pray for the division between us to heal, and for God's peace to reign, just like we pray every Sunday in the Lord's Prayer.

Today we move into the next section of Mark 14. As we grow closer to the end of Mark it is good for us to be reminded that both the Gospel of Matthew, and the Gospel of Luke, appear to have used Mark as their source for this time of the betrayal of Christ by Judas. But at the end of today's reading, we will discover two verses which are unique to Mark. We will take a brief time to address those verses also.

In verses 43-50 this morning we find the scene of Christ's capture by the religious leaders and their military in the garden. Let's take some time to look at the characters who are present.

1. Standing out in all of the chaos of this encounter is Judas. After all he is the one who has betrayed Jesus, and here he is the person who identifies Jesus for those who have come to arrest him.  This is very interesting, because Jesus has been in the temple teaching and preaching many times. It is interesting that His captors do not know who he is. In its original text this section says that Judas kissed Jesus like a lover would kiss their partner. This makes the whole betrayal by Judas even more terrible. It was not offered out of respect for Jesus' office, or as Savior, or even as a friend! The stark reality of this kiss is that it says, "Now you’re getting what you deserve!" 

2. The next characters in this garden scene are the mob who comes to arrest Jesus. Jesus was never known to be guiding a group of revolutionaries who were armed to the teeth again their foes. But they came ready for a major battle. I have to wonder if they came so heavily armed because the priest knew that to take Jesus would be an act against God. It is always amazing what actions a person will use to get what they want, and the religious leaders here were no exception.

3. There is this unnamed man who drew his sword to strike out at the mob. In other Gospels this man is named as Peter. Mark may not have named him out of fear that writing so close to the time of Christ's death, it may not have been safe to used Peter's name, and certainly Peter would seem to have the emotional drive to act out of his desire to keep Jesus safe. And, then we come to the other disciples.

4. They had been there through the night staying until sunrise. The guess about them is that they were frozen in fear at the prospect of the armed guards from the Temple coming to get them all, and, as they had heard too often, meet the end of their lives at the hands of Christ's enemies. The disciples were not fighting men. They worked, a tax collector, fishermen, a bookkeeper (Judas), and more. But they were not soldiers or trained like the Temple's guards.

5. No, I have not forgotten that the most important person is there. And isn't it funny that He seems to be only one who is calm and collected through all of this.  Christ's faith is like concrete that has been poured and hardened for the task that lays ahead for him when he comes to the home of Pilate. Jesus stops the violence that might have so easily gotten out of hand. He directs this entire scene so that no one will get hurt. For Him this is the Next Step on His way to the cross. It is at this point that his disciples and the unknown man in the next two verses choose to flee the scene into the city where there is already a million non-Jerusalem Jews who are present for the Passover, a mix of people with whom they could disappear. But there is yet another person present, Mark. Though his name is not mentioned here, and his brief encounter is not even recorded in any of the other Gospels, he is apparently a Jesus groupie. We must know that Mark was very young, and tagging along with Jesus and His disciples, hearing God's truth every day, using it all to author a precise story of the life of the Savior, the bringer of salvation. Even in these moments of Jesus' arrest, Mark has hurriedly wrapped himself in a sheet, with nothing under it. He was naked. So, when they reach for the wrapped-up sheet from around his body, Mark has no choice but to flee.

With Christ's Love, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 14:22-26 bible study (October 14, 2024)

October 14, 2024:  Monday Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 14:32-42

Good Monday morning to you. I pray that you are surrounded by love in your life, and that you find hope in the Love of Christ as He lives in, with, and around you every day.

Today's reminder, if you are registered to vote, please do vote. This time in our election cycle is a time for prayer and consideration, and to make choices which please you as a citizen of our nation. Melody and I will both be voting by mail this year, as we have in the past. Your vote is important for how the lives of all citizens of our nation will be served by those who we elect as our leaders. Nike has had a long-standing advertising slogan, "Do It". The very same thing is true for each of us. Don't stay away because you think your vote doesn't count.  This is your opportunity to have your voice heard on a local, state, and national level. May God bless you and all voters in our nation as we approach this election day on November 5th.

Please pray for peace in the Middle East. It seems that there is a strong drive on all sides to fight out their historic hostilities with each other.  Our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, calls on us all to work for peace and harmony between peoples. The starting place for all of this is in our homes and lives. Pray diligently for God's help in this seemingly insurmountable intensity and hatred, that it might give way to peace.

At this point in the study of Mark, our Savior is faced with the fierce hostility of the religious leaders of His time. They have been looking for months to find a way to entrap Jesus. His constant movement throughout Israel and Samaria have not made it easy for His enemies to corner him. But now, Jesus is in their territory, attending Passover, and this makes Him an easy target. Jesus knows that his time will not be long to continue to have input with His disciples, He leaves the upper room to head out to Gethsemane to a private garden in the olive grove. There were no gardens like it inside of Jerusalem. The whole city was considered holy ground by the Jews, so there were no garden areas because to fertilize them, Cow dung would have been used, and it was considered unclean. It seems a little strange that they could butcher 250,000 lambs for Passover, yet a little manure was considered too big a problem in the care of community gardens. Jesus moves out to Gethsemane where he probably knew an owner of a private garden there.  I suppose it might also belong to Lazarus. This movement may well have prevented Judas and the temple guards from finding Him too quickly. Obviously, Judas would have returned to that upper room to find Jesus and betray Him. It is likely that Judas was also familiar with the garden in Gethsemane, so it would have been his second stop in his search to turn Jesus over to the temple police.

What we find in Christ's visit to Gethsemane is a group of disciples who are too tired to really be companions to join Christ in prayer, and to offer Him their undying support. Jesus went into the garden a little further to pray, asking His disciples to await his return. I am certain that He was looking for encouragement and support when he came back from praying. However, the disciples were unable to stay awake. Perhaps if they had stayed awake to offer encouragement to Jesus, it would not have been necessary for Jesus to return to His private prayers two more times. I think that they must have been just like you and me, after all, we too know what Christ hopes for us to do in our lives, and when we understand that call through the Spirit we say yes, but like the disciples we are weak, impacted by our energy, our hunger, our tiredness, and much more, all of which may stifle our energy to get the work done.  It is obvious here that Jesus wanted to find comfort from both God and His disciples.

Christ's prayers show to us that he was certainly deeply troubled by what He knew was coming, even to the point of asking if it would be possible for him to forego this suffering and death. But Jesus humbled himself to God's will for His life, taking it all in prayer for courage and strength for what lay ahead. In Christ's death on the cross, and His later resurrection, it is God's Love for His Son that makes it possible for Jesus to move forward with confidence that no matter what comes, He will be OK. It is really important for us to see Jesus in the light of these prayers He is offering in the garden. When we read this passage, it certainly ought to humble us to know the strength of faith, the perfection of faith, the courage that comes from knowing a loving Father, all of these carried Christ, and carry you and me in the same way no matter what life brings.  Jesus trusted God in everything that was coming, even His Father's need for Him to be sacrificed. I hope and pray that all of us are able to be guided by our Loving Father in all of the wonderful and difficult times we will all face, knowing that at the end we will be in Christ's eternal care.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study - Esther 5:1-14 (October 10, 2024)

October 10, 2024:  Thursday Old Testament Bible Study - Esther 5:1-14

Dear friends in Christ,

I am so thankful to live in the heat of the Sonoran Desert, even when it has prevented us from enjoying my favorite time of the year, autumn in Tucson. We are free to pray for the needs of others whose homes, businesses, and family are deeply affected by hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and more. Thank you, LORD, for the beauty of the desert, and even more for the stability of its weather. Today please pray for the victims of hurricanes Helene and Milton. The needs will be great. We can help out by going to ELCA.org and giving gifts through the disaster relief fund. This is the place where the largest percentage of your gift will actually get to its intended recipient.

Please keep Nancy in your prayers. She suffered a fall breaking the bone around her eye. Pray for healing and strengthening of her body. Please continue your prayers for Kandice and Lisa in Hawaii, along with Alexis who is working so hard to take the pressure off their family group by working three jobs. Pray for Jeff who is also battling very hard to treat cancer. Give thanks that Robert is beginning to sense that he is recovering from an infection. Continue praying for healing for him too.

Today we finally see Esther wielding the power of a beautiful new queen in the king's court. She may not have much administrative pull, but, as you will see, she knows how to get her way, though not without some danger and risk. This has always been true for those whose lives are an unlucky entrapment because of the power of those people who are around them in their lives.  Haman was one of the people who was ready to have all of the Jews destroyed. He even devised a plan to do so. He may have been the first person to lead an attempt to kill God's elect. However, Esther is going to be a real thorn in Haman's side.  Esther, though named a queen, is in every respect a slave of the king, the nation, and its lack of morals. But she is shrewd, and willing to use the means with which she has been blessed. Even though in the community Haman thinks that he has every good reason to believe that He will come out of this plan to destroy Mordecai’s and Esther's people, the Judahites. Even when he seems to have a wonderful day that is packed with the possibilities of success and the favor of the king, he can never seem to get past Mordecai's failure to show Haman deference and respect.

In fact, it seems to just really grind at Haman's entire life. It may be the first time of such destructive thinking about the Jews, but as we know from history that there will be a number of attempts to eradicate the Jews from the face of the earth, the one in WWII, and yet another on the part of Iraq, Hamas, and Hezbollah in Lebanon are current events in our lives.  As we know, Israel has acted quickly to stomp out any organization that has proposed its destruction, and along with it, tens of thousands of civilian victims, all in the name of self-defense. I would like to suggest that there really is no Esther in our modern warfare in the Middle East. There is a great deal of revenge, hatred, and value loss of human life for those who engage in the current war. No one seems to be innocent of this vendetta God's people carry against one another. It is about the perceived "ownership" of the promised land, and who should be its rightful landowners. It is this very reality with which Esther is faced. With what little power she has, she must now use to manipulate the situation. The players in her plan are Xerxes, Haman, Mordecai, and Esther, and by the blessing of her beauty, Esther will wield the revenge that is on her heart. (Please continue to understand that God is never mentioned in this little O.T. book, but there was never any doubt that He is present, and working through Esther's difficulties, in her cunning, and completion of her plan.) Note that Esther is following the mores and practices of an important invitation to a king to come to her dinner, but she is using it as a premise for introducing her plan in gradual steps. Eat first, ask your request of the king last. And Esther should never use the king's rash promise of half of His kingdom. This statement is a sign that the king is becoming much more pliant. Perhaps it is the intrigue of not knowing what exactly Esther will ask for.  And for Esther it is a question of what is too big to ask for, and what is so small and easy for this man king. Esther is appealing to the king's vanity and curiosity with this invitation for just the king and Haman to attend. After repeated month long feasts and drunken orgies in the palace, this is something very new and different for the king, and even more for Haman. On the surface it would seem to be a real compliment and honor for Esther to do this for the king, especially after the earlier queen's refusal to be present at his command for her to do so. Next time, we get to see how this all turns out, will the king punish Esther because her request is too bold, will Haman get what he wants most in his life at this time which is to get even with Mordecai for all of the snubs Haman received at the gate to the palace, or will Esther succeed?

Next Thursday, good people. With the love of Christ, the living Word of God, Pastor Kim