Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 12:37b -40 bible study (August 12, 2024)

August 12, 2024:  Monday Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 12:37b -40

Greetings and Peace be with you on this Monday morning.

On this day it does not take very long to realize that God's world is filled with people's hearts that are overwhelmed by anger, frustration, and evil. It appears that the war in the Ukraine is expanding into Russia.  Please continue to pray for peace and the Spirit's guidance for the leaders of both of these countries. The Israeli war on the Hamas and quite frankly on the Palestinian people who live in the Gaza Strip, and now Hezbollah has begun a much more intense attack on the North of Israel, and there is also the promised revenge of Iran due to an Israeli assassination of a leader there inside of Iran's borders.  And we really need to look no further than our own community where a gun fight took place at 2:45AM on Saturday, and due to the number of shots fired, it must have been automatic weapons which were used. It left 2 people critical, and 2 others stable, all in the hospital.  Not only do we need to pray, but we need to act to change all of the encouragement which happens around the support for any military grade weapons owned by members of our communities. There are plenty of weapons without those AR weapons in our culture and society. I want you to know how all of what I have just talked about with you moves us to Christ's speaking about the issues of the religious leaders of His own time.

The nature of sin is such that it really doesn't make much difference when, where, how, or who is involved, because every one of us falls short of the Glory of God due to our sin, and the brokenness.  Jesus instructed the people about the dangers of temptation for the religious leaders of His time, but it certainly could today be a pastor, or church member, a police officer, or a gang member. We all know the circumstances that surround some of these people. Christ offers His warning for everybody by using the example that everyone who had been to the temple in Jerusalem had seen. In this brief passage we learn three things that are displeasing to our Father in Heaven.

1. A desire for prominence. Boy, we see this one all of the time. We have gang fights in our cities because one group is looking for the name of the most dangerous, or the wealthiest through drug sales, or riding the loudest cars and motorcycles. We have all known or heard of pastors who are climbing the ladder of success by getting on to greater income, and a bigger name in the synod or church as a whole. When I first came to American, we had several families who were trying to wield their prominence in the congregation. They also wielded a lot of money. They were generous with the string attached that they would have a bigger say in the congregation. The Pharisees wanted it all, underserved respect, ill-gotten wealth, and the desire to have the last word about how people must live their lives.

   
   

2. A desire for deference. The lives of those who are seeking deference means that they will work to control everything around them including the people for whom they feel distain. When a person comes to believe in Christ, that change of heart that happens by the Spirit's action the lives of the faithful, then a person's ego and desire for others to see them as superior is to be set aside. However, we all know that this nature to seek being treated as superior is exactly the really bad reason for becoming a minister of Word and Sacrament. Clergy should always serve the power of the Gospel with humility, and perhaps even more, congregations should know better than to place their clergy person on a pedestal.  Such an action may place that clergy person in danger of losing their humility before God. We know our brothers and sisters who have been humble in their faith journey. They were the ones who we all wanted to experience in our own lives of faith.

   
   

3. The attempt to make a traffic of religion. We see this in congregations that set out to make a name for themselves, creating an atmosphere in their practice which becomes big news, in the church, the Church, and in their communities.

At American we have so many things to be thankful for, and sometimes we stand out with an intent to be humble and do that work for Christ with thankfulness and joy. Of course, we all know that we would like our congregation to grow in its membership, but to push-push-push to make a big name for our congregation for the sake of our pride, and to sell who we are as a better parish than any other in the community.  No instead, we know that when we do the invitation, and when people find us, the ones who find Christ in our midst bring us great joy and humble thanks for God having used our community to reach out with Love for their lives.

Tomorrow we will cover the greatest gift in Mark 12:41-44. Yes, it is all about sacrifice out of our love and thanksgiving for God's only Begotten Son.

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study on Nehemiah 9:38 – 10:29 (August 8, 2024)

August 8, 2024:  Thursday Bible Study on the Old Testament book of Nehemiah 9:38 – 10:29

Good morning and Blessings for your entire day.

Please remember that some of our members have been in difficult storm circumstances while others of us have had little rain this monsoon season. This means that our homeless community members may be facing some really difficult times with the weather. So please be aware of those who are seeking your help on street corners and medians as you travel around town. I know that our blessing bag supply is out here at church, so please remember to pick up some of those small shampoos and soap, as well as washcloths, tissues, and other kinds of self-care items. When we have a supply of them, we will get more blessing bags packed. Please pray for Annette who had her MRI for her issues with joints and pain, and for our Joshua and Shannon who came home from visiting family in the Carolinas and found covid on their trip, and also pray for Joshua as he interviews for hire as a children's presenter on environmental issues like recycling and water use for the city of Ft. Collins. Josh is a former high school teacher here in Tucson. Please pray for Nancy who has found summer heat very difficult to manage especially as she deals with Parkinson's. Please continue praying for Kandice as she continues her battle with cancer, for Jeff, who has found some improvement for his quality of life, through the cancer will not be completely eradicated. Pray for peace in the Middle East where the people of God are ready to harm and destroy one another. Pray for God's wisdom to be your guide for how you make your personal decision in the coming election in our nation.

Today in our passage from Nehemiah we find one of those massive lists of people (exclusively men) who have committed to restoring their commitments to the One True God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Remember that included removing any and all family members who had any part of the genetics of outsiders. i.e., They were not Judahites. We can only imagine the chaos that this brought as husbands or wives, extended families including children born to those ethnically mixed marriages, were dismissed and sent away.  Obviously the Judahites, and Nehemiah were looking to establish ethnic purity. If all of this is any clue for those of us who live in the modern world, we should know the kind of hatred this establishes between God's children. We have it today in the Gaza Strip, and on the border of the West Bank, along with Israel's border with Lebanon. It doesn't matter who starts such an action like this, the result will be that there will be mass disregard for the sanctity of life.  And of course, we must always ask ourselves with some degree of guilt for the wars our nation has fought, both those which were of our own making, and those into which our nation was drawn into for its sense of self-defense, but where does it ever come to a halt?  How do we justify the deaths of 35000 people as the price for the killing of 1300? Would we choose to do anything different? Nehemiah made a choice too. What this scripture claims is the only way to restore the purity of faith and life, those who are different must go! In the Old Testament, this seems to be the way that writers, both theologians and people like Nehemiah justify their actions to create community purity.  Is this really what God wants? If we listen to Jesus, it is pretty clear that the policies of obliteration of those who are the other, are completely unacceptable to God. Such approaches of clearing out the widow and orphan, the resident alien, and doing worship in the controlling people's style which was to prove their superiority in all things, are what brought Israel to its knees before God, and it will happen again in the early years of the first century, and it may well be coming again for the Jews as they once again work to expel their own Arab and Moslem brothers and sisters who also have the fullness of God's promise in their own heritage.

I hope your will take a few minutes to look over this list of the people who Nehemiah names as the ones who will reestablish their right relationship with God. If you ever thought that the list of usable Biblical names was pretty much used up, read this list!  I have read this list, and I took the time to challenge myself to pronounce each one. Some are easy, and some I must admit I have to struggle with.

What is happening in this passage is the commitment that shows that each of these named men are stating that they are committed to the Torah to the commandments of God. This will be the inward sign of that outward promise. Of course, the outward sign for these men is circumcision, and the example of their lives. A piece of this which is different for us is this word curse used in the context of the promise to be obedient to the Torah. This is their appeal to God that if they do not keep their pledge and commitment to the Law, then they ask God to take an action of some kind 0f punishment against them. Both the pledge and the curse are a part of their prayer of commitment. IS it really any wonder that God sent His only Begotten Son to come and bear the sin burden of all people, and of the very creation itself, because this promise in Nehemiah cannot, and will not, be kept. One of the great things about having the opportunity to study this time period for the Judahites, is that you and I are able to grow in our understanding of God's Grace and Love for all of us. Please note that what is all around this is what you and I name as faith. It is their faith and ours which falters and always falls short of the Glory of God.

Next week - a list of the things that constitute the promise made.

In the Love of Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 12:35-37b bible study (August 6, 2024)

August 6, 2024:  Tuesday Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 12:35-37b

Good morning. I pray that your day is filled with joy in Jesus Christ, and that your time in the written Word will help you to understand God's living Word who is our Savior.

Once again today, I am asking for your prayers as the Southeast of our nation is nearly being flooded out with extreme amounts of rain.  We can only imagine what would happen here in our city if we received 20" of rain in one day. I can remember a few times when we got close to 10" in 24 hours, and our city was a mess, bridges closed, houses falling into the washes and rivers, landslides on the Mt. Lemmon highway. This uncommon weather seems to be becoming the norm.  So, let's keep all of the folks who live in that part of our country in our prayers for safety and relief.  Of course, we also need to pray for the people in California who are suffering another great wildfire. I am so thankful that the desert has remained a pretty stable environment in which to live.

Today, we have in Mark one of the most confusing passages in the whole of Mark's Gospel. I am going to try to keep my explanation short, and as simple as possible. What exactly was Jesus trying to do? Though the passage is complicated, there is a reason for Christ's words which to us would seem to only complicate this reading.

First the most common words used to describe the hoped for Messiah were the Son of David. This religious centered community looked forward to one in the line of David who would come to defeat Israel's enemies and bring about the most powerful nation in the world. The Messiah was THE deliverer, sending the enemies of Israel away, or destroying them completely. See Isaiah 9:2-7, Jeremiah 23:5ff, and Psalm 89:20ff. (Remember that ff means the verses which follow.)  Jesus also uses this designation in Matthew 9:27 and 12:23 and 15:22 and 23: 9,15 to describe Himself. So, Jesus is not saying that this common use for the Messiah as the Son of David is untrue. Jesus is the Son of David, and much more! His family line, according to Matthew goes to David through Joseph, and in Luke through Mary. (We could have a conversation too about why following Joseph's line matters at all. But here that would complicate things even more. He is also David's LORD! Obviously, this whole concept was hard for the people of Jesus time to understand. It's hard when we read it too.  It seems to be double talk which is always confusing.  For Jesus, using the identity of the Son of David would really have placed Him where He did not want to be. People would have only seen Him as a powerful worldly leader, so, at least in this passage, Jesus tries to set that aside with His logic about also being David's Lord. He makes it clear at the trial before Pilate that if He was a king of this world, God would raise up an army from the stones and rocks around Him.  But Christ really wants people to come to know Him as the living presence of the Love of God for each and every one of them, and Jesus is the living proof, and the Resurrection Truth of the Father's Love for all people. Tomorrow we will talk about what constitutes authentic true faith (religion) according to Christ's words in Mark.

Thank you for wading through this passage today.

With the Love of Christ, Pastor Kim