Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 11:15-19 bible study (July 2, 2024)

July 2, 2024:  Tuesday Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 11:15-19

May the Love of God surround you today,

We have some news for you! Vanessa, Alice's daughter, had her baby Sunday night at TMC. Mom and baby are both doing well. Alice's new grandson is named Elan. Keep this new family in your special prayers today, and in the days, weeks, and months ahead for the Lord’s richest blessings to be theirs, and His gift of new life to be celebrated every day. I am sorry that I am late today, but I had a vascular test run at TMC this morning, and it took a bit longer than I had expected. I will get results from this in a few days. But now, we are on to Mark 11:15-19.

A basic understanding of the size and layout of the Temple Mount may be helpful as we start. The Temple Mount covered an area 1000 feet long by 1300 feet wide.  The space was approximately 30 acres.  So, it was a sizable space. Upon entering the first large area we find that it was called the Court of the Gentiles because Gentiles were allowed to be in that part of the Temple grounds. The penalty for moving into any of the other parts of the Temple was death if you were not a Jew. And with the rest of the Temple there were various courts, which became more restrictive the closer a person got to the court of the priests. We can note that the next court to the Gentiles was for the women, and beyond that the Court of the Israelites where any gatherings of the whole of the Jewish People gathered when called to do so. The very inside court was the Court of the Priests which included the Holy of Holies into which only the Chief Priest for that given year could go to offer the sacrifices that were to be burned on the Altar of God. By the time that Jesus came along, the Gentile Court had become a site for money making and cheating those pilgrims who came to offer their sacrifice to God. They were also the official collectors of the Temple Tax. Whoever came into the Temple, and for whatever purpose, whether it was to make money, or to worship, or even to use the Court of the Gentiles as a short cut for getting through the city, they all had to pay a tax to do so. The Temple Tax was 4 denarii every year for all Jewish people, but if you came from outside of Jerusalem, and you carried foreign money, it had to be exchanged, and the going rate for Money exchanges was about 2 denarii more.  Pilgrims often spent more to get ready to pay their annual tax, than the tax itself by the time the Money exchangers got a hold of them. At this time that amount, 4d, was a half a day wages, so additional costs to get money changed, or to buy a different animal to sacrifice because they were told by the money changers that they were the only ones who could provide them with a truly pure animal, so there was more money to spend.  So, often Pilgrims ended up spending much more than a half a day's wages. It was into this Gentile Court that Jesus came, disgust ed and angry about the cheating that was going on which infuriated Him. So, he drove them out! He also commanded His disciples not to carry their packs into the Temple, out of respect for the original purpose of the Court of the Gentles. It was meant to be a place where Gentiles could experience the rich traditions and teachings of the Elect people, the Jews about their God and their life of faith.  Instead, the outer court of the Gentiles was a place of thievery and other kinds of graft. And by using the Court of the Gentiles as a shortened way to get through the city, the people had lost track of what their faith and God was all about. The Mishna itself had itself spoken of using a short cut through the Temple, instead it required bare feet, no wallet, and "NO Using the Temple for a Shortcut. The outer Court of the Gentiles was blocked off from the rest of the Temple by a very tall wall. It seems that it was always intended as a way to make some "good" money.  It was not what Jesus wanted to see. His Father in Heaven would have been more pleased with the commitment of the pilgrims, and their offerings of true sacrifice and value. Next week I will be on vacation, but I will not be missing any Sundays when I get a chance to offer the truly generous Grace of God for His children to all who keep His Law, and'/or believe in Christ as the Lord and Savior of everything. Thanks for waiting for the late edition today.

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 11:12-14 bible study (July 1, 2024)

July 1, 2024:  Monday Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 11:12-14

Blessings and Peace in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ on this Monday morning.

We had a really wonderful worship opportunity yesterday. I know some of you may be concerned about the temperature in the Sanctuary on Sundays, but even with the humidity yesterday, it really wasn't too warm.  The coolers are both running at peak efficiency, and they are really doing a pretty good job. Prayers offered morning and night, and throughout the day, are always important for us too. We have a member whose dog is dying of cancer, I would ask that you pray for Teri and her dog, Butters, as they go through this end of lifetime for her much loved pet.

Today's reading from Mark presents us with a major issue. It seems totally out of character for Jesus to do what he does. A fig tree that is out of season is "cursed" by Christ because He is apparently hungry, and it has yet to produce any fruit.  The next day when He and the disciples walk by that very tree, it is dead to the roots. This so out of character act by Christ is very troubling. It seems so unworthy of the Savior. I suppose we could think that He was having a very bad day, after all, it was not long until the Passover and Christ's sacrifice on the cross.  But there were many times when Jesus was overwhelmed, and He chose to continue to teach and heal the masses who gathered around Him. Jesus was always, according to all four Gospels, sacrificing His time, His energy, and using his power for the good of His people. However, there are other possibilities for what the Savior's intent may have been. Jesus almost always taught in parables, and by examples that were more easily understood by the people, and His disciples.  This may have been one of those times. Here we might talk about the issue of promise without fulfillment. After all, His own people had been the people of God's promise, and for centuries they had failed to act faithfully within the covenant which God had made with them through Moses and the ten commandments.  King after King failed to guide the people to right worship, and to create a will to provide and care for the resident aliens and the widows and orphans in their midst, and instead, ignoring that community of people's needs, or using them to profit themselves in a variety of ways.  That promise was a part of my life, and through it I chose to grow in faith, and commit to the ministry of the Gospel, but if I had spent my life just thinking about the possibility of becoming an ordained clergy, and had never chosen to make the commitment, then the promise of my life, and the Lord’s call for me to serve His Gospel would never had been fulfilled.  How many people spend a lifetime filled with potential but never act on it? So, perhaps Christ's action is a condemnation of unfulfilled promise of His own people.

Perhaps it is the condemnation of profession with practice, or perhaps I should say the condemnation of profession with the failure of practice.  The leafy fig tree professed to be offering something, but in its practice could not fulfill what it was offering. Jesus' own people professed to be the people of God's promise and covenant, the chosen ones, BUT they failed miserably over centuries to actually fulfill their part of the covenant. The world should have been able to look to the ones who were to be the Light to the world, and yet it was mostly darkness that surrounded their actions. There is a whole part of the Church today, the Christian Nationalists, who are in the very same place. They are willing to set aside the call of Christ to Love God above all else, and to Love everyone else in the same way that they love themselves. In setting aside this promise and seeing a worldly one of wealth and power over our nation, the promise that they have made in Christ goes unfulfilled.

In Luke 12:6-9 we have a somewhat similar story of a farmer who wants to pull up an unproductive fruit tree, but instead, is encouraged, but the worker pleads for the fruit tree that it might under special care eventually produce the fruit that it was intended to produce.  This is a story of second chances and opportunity to fulfill God's place for that tree's long life. It is very different from Mark's story about the fig tree. There is in legend a story about a scrawny fruit tree on the way to Jerusalem from Bethany that Christ may have seen and related a teaching to the disciples about the people of Israel who, like that unproductive tree, had never fulfilled the promise that they had been called to, and that, like that tree, they too would become dead in the world in which their promise was to be  shared with everyone.

Every once in a while, we run into a difficult passage like this. We need to know that when something is as out of character as this one is, that there may well be some part of it that we are missing, and therefore we have trouble coming to terms with it.

Thanks for being with me today.

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim.

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study on Nehemiah 7:73b-8:8 (June 27, 2024)

June 20, 2024:  Thursday Bible Study on the Old Testament book of Nehemiah 7:73b - 8:8

Good morning, and God's blessings this beautiful morning.

Please join me in remembering to pray for your brothers and sisters in the church. We have several people who have been regular visitors with us at American on Sundays. Though I will not mention their names here, please pray that the Spirit continues to work in their lives, encouraging them to become more involved with our community. On July 7th we will celebrate Independence Day with hymns that include our thanks to God for the gift of this nation and her blessings in our lives. That day is Gospel Music Sunday, which will be followed with BBQed burgers, beef, turkey, or veggie, your choice. If you have not signed up, the cost for this event is $2 per person, and we are asking you to bring a dish or dessert to share. You can pay the $2 in advance this Sunday or pay it at the meal on the 7th. Tomorrow, we have our Foodies of Faith outing to Opa's Best Greek restaurant on Broadway just west of Swan, south side of the street. If you would like to come, and have not signed up yet, please call the church office at 520-623-3661 today.

Today we continue in the book of Nehemiah, with a time for teaching that is meant to help the Judahites remember their own participation in their relationship with YHWH. (LORD) The name Ezra must have become a memorable one for the naming of people's children. In this reading we have an Ezra who is a priest from the tribe of the Levites, and another Ezra who is considered a scholar in the community with regards to the body of Law that is called the Torah, the first five books of the Jewish canon of Scripture.  It would seem here that it would be the book of Deuteronomy that was the one being read, and it seems that this would have taken quite a while to be done from early morning until sometime around the noon hour each day.  Next to the reading of Ezra stood men of the tribes who would bring authority and honor to this reading, and the request that the whole of the people gather for this purpose. If this was the 7th month, and Passover was the beginning of the counting of months, then this reading may well have been in the month we call October, which also means that this was done at the time of the harvest. I think that it is probably wise for us to understand that those who gathered the crops would not have been available for the reading of the Law.  My guess is that Ezra the scholar was there to offer interpretation for those who might not understand some of the language or content. Though this seems like a huge undertaking, we only need remember that Martin Luther recommended the reading of the Large Catechism by the man of the house often in the home. I have to wonder if our children would know of their Lutheran theological background a lot more completely if we had continued this practice. I can only imagine the revolt of the younger generation while they were waiting to get on their phones, games, and the internet. But it does bear some thought about how we ought to review with our children how we Lutherans treasure the Word of God. I know that we usually find unacceptable a Sunday sermon longer than fifteen minutes, and I always tell you, that once I get started on delivering that message on Sunday morning that I have to hold myself back from just continuing on each week. Imagine day after day for hours trying to absorb the length and breadth of the Torah. But according to Nehemiah's writing, that is exactly what was done. This post exilic community who had worked now to secure the city and budding temple with this new wall, also needed to know that their work had been done with the presence of YHWH in their midst. In the Lutheran Church we follow a well-known, and authority acknowledged cycle of Scripture reading called the Lectionary, which helps us cover the most significant content of the Bible over a period of three years, and then that cycle is repeated. This does not mean, as we learn by doing verse by verse Bible study like we do each week together, that there are no other portions of Scripture from which we can learn much more about the Living Word of God for our lives. That's why it is important for us to do additional study to the portions of the Bible through which the Lectionary takes us over a three-year period.  Hopefully, we can understand why it was crucial for this action of reading God's Law to take place so that the Levites might be reminded of the fullness of their relationship with the One True God. For you and me, it is important that we know the fullness of the Word of God that is meant to give us the Light, and Truth, and Life which the FATHER wants us to know and experience every day of our lives. As I said at the beginning of this study this morning, God bless you today. This is the day that the LORD has made, let us rejoice, and be glad in it.

 In Christ's Love, Pastor Kim