Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 14:1-2 bible study (September 17, 2024)

September 17, 2024:  Tuesday Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 14:1-2

May Grace and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ surround you everywhere in which you find yourself today. Please pray for Holly as she undergoes cardiac testing on Wednesday morning, and for her complete recovery afterwards. Pray for our Church Council as they work to get a 75th anniversary celebration for American in January 0f 2025. We will need help from you as members, to make sure that we will be able to reach out in the community and reach previous members to plan on being with us. More to come after our October council meeting on Reformation Sunday. Over the 76 years of our congregation, we have been richly blessed by generous giving, some major gifts, and the commitment of our members to share their time and talents. If you have not been coming on Sundays due to the heat, please remember that we are now past the season of humidity and heat - the coolers should really be able to keep us comfortable on Sunday morning now. Though summer is normally the time for our members to step back a bit from attendance, it also means that offerings are down too. We hope that you will be able to catch up with your offerings if you have been away, and if possible, to increase your giving each Sunday.  It would be really helpful if you would consider this. Our staff has not had any raises over a number of years, out of their commitment to helping our very special church home to continue in proclaiming the Gospel and serving it in our lives. We still work to offer interesting and compelling worship, and to meet the needs of our members' lives in their day-to-day journeys of faith. As your pastor, I also understand that sometimes it is just not possible to commit more of our time, talents, and resources. If that is the circumstance that you have, please know that the Lord rejoices in what you are able to do! Right now, Melody and I are giving an extra $20 each week for CROP. When that special offering is done, we will add that to our giving each week. Thank you for considering what you may be able to do.

Today in our study of Mark we find Jesus heading into Jerusalem for the annual celebration of the Passover. This is a time when the Jewish law requires all men within 15 miles of the city to come to the city for this Feast of Unleavened Bread.  It is also a time of excitement, and heightened emotions. Josephus, the historian tells us that 256,500 lambs were sacrificed, and each lamb required a minimum of 10 men to consume it along with the unleavened bread.  That meant that there were 3 million men present in the city for this celebration.  No wonder that the story of Jesus' triumphant entry into the city in another Gospel holds such an important role in all of this as it unfolds. Both the contingents of Romans soldiers and the Jewish military were present to prevent any uncontrolled uprising. In this hectic time in the city, during which the authorities were hoping to carry off an unnoticed arrest of Jesus. First with the huge number of pilgrims present, and then as they left all of the busyness enabled the plans to unfold to take Jesus as prisoner.

Passover is significant in two ways. First, it has historical importance. The Passover has carried forward from the time of the Hebrews in Egypt, and their being granted freedom after the Angel of Death came to take all of the first born of the nation unless their homes were blocked by the lamb's blood on the lintel of their doors. Secondly it is significant because of its agricultural celebration. Imagine it was a time of having enough wheat to produce unleavened loaves of bread for 3 million men to celebrate on one evening.  So, it was also a time of giving thanks for the produce of their farms. Every loaf had to be made from the new harvest.

Every possible preparation was made for the time of this great influx into the city.  All lodging was free, and that included Bethany and Bethphage! Street repairs and bridge repairs were made, and along the roads coming into the city, the markers of the graves of those buried alongside the roads were whitewashed so that no one would dare to touch them and be considered unclean for the purposes of partaking of the Passover. Alongside the road? The poor and average people could not afford the kind of tomb which Joseph of Arimathea would provide for Christ's burial. It is ironic that this celebration of freedom from slavery was surrounding the true freedom of the heart and soul by the Son of God!

Thanks for being with me today. God is always thankful for all that you do.

In Christ's Love, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 13:26-37 bible study (September 16, 2024)

September 16, 2024:  Monday Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 13:26-37

Good morning and may God's Grace abound in your life today.

I am finally back on the regular schedule for Monday morning. Boys to school early, looking forward to the week and all of the possibilities that it may bring. Please remember to continue your prayers for peace in the Middle East between Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the civilians caught in this war in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. This is a time when all the sides want revenge for something that has been perpetrated at the hands of another group. Pray for the burden of revenge to be lifted from the hearts of everyone involved, and for the hostages to be set free in the very near future. Please also pray for the well-being of all of our candidates who are running for office in this next election. Offer a pray of thanksgiving that Donald Trump was not injured yesterday by the man who intended to assassinate him, and give thanks for the protection of Secret Service, the FBI, the local police, and the sheriff's department. I think that there is little doubt that copycats will follow because they object to those with whom they don't agree even being alive.  May God hold us all in His Loving care every day.

Today we continue on in chapter 13 in the Gospel of Mark. In verses 26-37 Jesus certainly gives His disciples guidance for what is coming in general in the world, making it clear that thought the signs about which He speaks may begin to be seen in the world, even He is not privy to the when of this prophecy. But he stands in the line of prophets who have also, guided by the Father, spoken words that reveal extremely difficult issues between the people and their God. But in all that they have said, there continues to be one thing which remains, prophets do not know the ways, means, and timing of God for what they have prophesized, and the only way to tell if a prophet's message is true is to see it happen at some later time.  That's a little easier for us because we have the benefit of time, and the ability to look back at the message and its outcome, or lack of outcome.  We know that Jesus was telling the truth about things that He is addressing, but we also have to be comfortable trusting Him as the Light and Truth of God, even when it means that we must wait for the fulfillment of what He tells His followers. 

Points of importance in this passage:

1. In this passage Jesus is not speaking of His second coming. In that He does not know that time or place. But his words of discomfort for those who do not accept Him as Messiah come true within about 40 years as Jerusalem and the Temple are literally obliterated by the Romans army, and even those who flee to save their lives are pursued and killed. 

2. We have to be careful here because even Jesus, who has humbled Himself in the face of God's rule, does not know that times and means of His coming again. But what do we see coming from people? Christians are always trying to discern the signs and offering to predict the time of Christ's return. I would say that anyone who thinks that they know due to their study and thought, is a charlatan. It really is that simple. We are all to place our trust in the LORD, knowing that we are loved, and we will be cared for in whatever is going on at the time of Christ's return.

3. In all of this Jesus draws one conclusion. You and I are the servants of the master who know neither the day nor time of the Master's return. What we are called to do is to live in faith, and always be ready for that great fulfillment of Christ's promise.

Though we looked at this 13th chapter of Mark in a kind of misaligned way, moving to later verses first, etc. There are truths that we need to know from our reading and study of chapter 13.

1. Only the person of God can see into the future to discern the coming events which will shape the lives of all people. I have been saying for a long time now that I believe there will yet be another exile of the people of Israel. There is in its leaders a lack of faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. A person must know God through faith in order to be able to guide a nation in peace and prosperity. What a wonderful man of God was Jimmy Carter, or how about any other leader of our nation who has been in a lively relationship with the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of life. Without this, that leader's guidance will lack vision, hope, healing, and love! As we move forward into the Acts of the Apostle's we see exactly what this was all about with Peter and Paul as heads of the different areas of the Church.

2. This chapter tells us two things about the doctrine of the second coming.

   a.     This chapter tells us that in this doctrine of the second coming there is a fact which we disregard at our own peril.

   b.     It also tells us that this conversation with Christ on this topic is offered in the imagery of His time, and that some of that imagery is very difficult for us to make clear because of the history which is a part of it. What we do know, is that history is going somewhere as it is guided by God, and its consummation is inevitable.

3. This chapter also tells us that to forget God and His role in the fulfillment of His plan for His creation is foolish. We must always be ready for the consummation of be fulfilled in God's time, which simply means, ready every day! When we live knowing that God's summons will be our reality, then we must remember it every day, so that when it comes, we will not be filled terror, but instead know that we shall live forever in the LORD'S eternal joy.

Thank you so much for letting me into your study of the Word of God this morning. Give thanks to God with love for all that the LORD does for us every day.

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study - Esther 1:1-22 (September 14, 2024)

September 14, 2024:  Thursday (on Saturday) Old Testament Bible Study - Esther 1:1-22

Good Saturday morning. Yes, I said Saturday. You did not miss our study of the Book of Esther on Thursday. I was in and out all day at home because our solar was being worked on with our company and TEP making the necessary changes so that we can send excess electricity to TEP when our system over produces. It took 9 hours with no power in the house. We stayed around, in and out throughout the day, but by the time the power got turned back on it was nearly 5pm, and the house was cruising towards a 90-degree interior temp.  So, my apologies for not getting this study out on Thursday. I also had to go get my repaired little car after my accident.  It is nice to have it back with its 30 plus miles per gallon around town.

Today we begin our study of the Old Testament book of Esther. This was my mother's first name, and only Dad was allowed to address her using it. She was named after my great aunt. As we get started in this book, we have a big reading that sets the stage for things to come. The time for this text is during the period when the Judahites have come back to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. So sometime between the return of Ezra and advent of Nehemiah. But Xerxes is a king who has a massive area to oversee, and we begin with a massive display of Xerxes' ego and need to show off for all of the people over whom he is king. He throws a six-month long drinking and eating festival, during which he shows off his wealth and tries to show off his queen as the most beautiful woman in all of the lands over which he is king. We don't know how many guests will be with him at this long party, but we do know from the text that at some point every guest drank from a different gold vessel.  Xerxes' wife is Vashti. She is his primary wife from the harem, and perhaps she is fed up with the six-month long party.  At any rate, when he calls her to show her off, Vashti refuses to join the party of men who are gathered from all over the realm. After all, they have all been drunk for months!  This is such a men's party that each guest has the freedom to ask for anything that they want in terms of food and drink. When Vashti refuses to show herself off at the bidding of the king, it throws the leaders of the kingdom into a real tizzy. What happens if the women of Xerxes' kingdom all refuse to be at the call of their husband will? It is a real ego buster if it happens. So, king Xerxes sends out a notice to his whole kingdom demanding that women stay obedient to their husbands.

Xerxes' relationship with his queen is nothing like we expect from our concept of Western marriages. He is her master, and she is to respond to any request or desire that the king has for her. This way of looking at marriage seems strange to our Western sensibilities. For the Jews, the concept of marriage was very different. In marriage the husband and wife were "owned" by one another, and hence, each person in the marriage was responsible for the good of their partner.  Isn't it funny that we can see some elements of both of these ways of being married in the way many people approach marriage. 

Let's not forget that even in this Xerxes and Vashti relationship Vashti is without power.  She is able to outright refuse to respond to the king's demands of her, though to do so could cause the king to be angry and end her life. She is also able to let her king think that he is the one who controls her, giving in just enough to keep the king thinking that he is control of her, but then using the denial of her intimacy to get what she wants from the relationship too. This subversion using the woman's sexual power to tempt and convince the king that he has the power over her is the way in which Esther will present herself in her contact with Xerxes. And of course, this king has an ego the size of a mountain, so he is vulnerable to the sexual power of a woman to whom he is attracted. There is in our world of relationships of intimacy some degrees of all that we see here, but the healthiest of marriages are based on mutual respect, and the willing sharing of intimacy with one another. But in unhealthy relationships egos and the sense of ownership of one’s partner, and manipulation are often used as sexual power of both partners becomes a bargaining chip to hold power in the relationship.

In the weeks ahead we will see how Esther maneuvers her way through the complexities of the king's expectations and demands on her.

May God bless your day, and hopefully water the desert once more this weekend.

With the Love of Christ, Pastor Kim