Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 11:7-11 bible study (June 25, 2024)

June 25, 2024:  Tuesday Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 11:7-11

May the Peace and Salvation of Jesus Christ, and the Love of God fill your life today.

Good morning, all. It is good to be with you this Tuesday morning. I had my visit with my cardiologist on Monday. He shared with me the result of my echo cardiogram. The news was all good. He says that my heart is in good shape and that he saw no coming problems in the reading of the results. We are still wondering about my blood pressure. Like usual it read high at his office, but at home I have been regularly in the normal to normal-high readings. So, we continue to work on making certain that my readings are the accurate ones, and that the ones at the office are white coat syndrome which I know that I have. Please remember to stay constant in your prayer life. God treasures these conversations which we have with Him. So, take time to have them.

Today we move a little further into chapter 11 of Mark. At this point, the foal (a young, never ridden donkey) has been acquired for Christ's entry into Jerusalem. In order for it to be used for this purpose it must never have been ridden. Christ's entry into the city is a holy action as he brings God's grace, forgiveness, and life to the people. Indeed, He is received as a conqueror, but not the one who the people have been expecting, nor one like the nation experienced earlier in its history when Simon Maccabaeus entered Jerusalem after defeating the enemies of the Jews in battle. This took place 150 years before Christ's entrance. The hope of the people who welcomed Jesus into the city was that this was a repeat of Simon M, but with longer lasting results, especially considering that the Romans were now the interlopers in Israel. There are several things about the chants of the people that we need to know. 1) One chant was one offered to pilgrims as they ascended the Temple mount to enter for festivals and worship. This the chant most commonly reads "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." (Ps 118:26) However, literally it is "Blessed in the name of the Lord is he who comes” 2) “He that comes" is another name for the Messiah.  All of this is extremely important to the people after the historic struggle of the people with the king of Syria, Antiochus. When he conquered the Jews, he established horrific changes to the temple in 167 BCE. Antiochus saw himself as the emissary of Hellenism for Israel. He introduced the Greek style of life and worship in Jerusalem. Under the king of Assyria, it became against the law to circumcise a child, or to have a book of the Law in your possession. He instituted the worship of Zeus in the Temple, and the Temple courts became the site of brothels, and perhaps worst of all, he instituted the sacrifice of pigs in the Holy of Holies.  It was in response to this unholy time that Judas Maccabaeus revolted in 163BCE and drove out the Syrians. Is it any wonder that the people of Jerusalem responded to Jesus in the way that they did? Psalm 118 was written in response to the victories on Judas Maccabaeus.  It is the conqueror's Psalm! The Hosanna of this passage in Mark literally means, "Save Now” It is in this passage that we see the determination of Christs to be seen, and to challenge the powers of the Temple and the government.  This is certainly no hidden or secret entry into the city. Everyone knew that He was there. In verse 11 we see Jesus acting deliberately as he enters the Temple and looks around.  Then Jesus went back to Bethany to the friendship of people He loved, but even more to have time to strengthen His Spirit, as he knowingly faced the coming several days and His end at the hands of those who rejected and hated Him. Now we see that the twelve remained with Him, even when things became so difficult with such an obvious end. I pray that we have such a commitment to Christ that we do not flee our relationship with Him when our lives become more difficult that we had hoped they would never be.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 11:1-6 bible study (June 24, 2024)

June 24, 2024:  Monday Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 11:1-6

Good morning my dear friends in Christ. I pray that this day is filled with God's safety and grace for you.

Once again, this morning I am asking you to continue to pray first thing in the morning, throughout the day, and as the very last thing you do at night before falling asleep. Talk to God about His Love for you and offer Him a truly heartfelt thanks. Remember to tell Jesus how much you love Him throughout your day. Please continue praying for Steve, for Jeff, for Kandice, for me, and all of the people you know who are victims of cancer. Please offer prayers of thanksgiving for the Gospel centered lives of our brother and sister, the Prasek’s, as they spend their summer in Minnesota, which has been battling unusually hot weather so far this summer. Please pray too for Mark and Linda Backer as they summer in Wisconsin. Pray too for Pam and Madison who are new to our parish. Let's rejoice in their presence with us on Sundays.  Also, if you have not been able to be to church, remember our July 7th Gospel Music Sunday, and BBQ burger lunch after service. Cost $2 per person (Please know that if this is too much for you to cover, your cost will be covered.), to cover the cost of the burgers and related condiments. Please bring a picnic style dish to share or a dessert. The July Journeys Newsletter will be out this coming Sunday on June 30th. Be certain to check it for upcoming events for you at Church.

Now, on to our study for today in Mark 11:1-6. It certainly has seemed like it has taken us many days of study to get through Chapter 10 of Mark, and of course it closes with the first part of Jesus setting His sights on Jerusalem. At this point, Jesus and His disciples are journeying toward the City of David with everyone who needs to be there for the celebration of the Passover. He has left Galilee in the North of Israel and has now come south through the highlands past Jericho, and now arrived within the allowed one mile distance from Jerusalem that any faithful Jew is able to walk on the Sabbath. Both Bethany (house of dates), and Bethphage (house of figs) are within that one-mile range. I know that in three of the Gospels it would appear that the only time that Jesus appears in Jerusalem is for this particular celebration of the Passover. However, in the Gospel of John Jesus is often in Jerusalem. This also makes sense, because He and His disciples are hosted many times by Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany. We must understand that the Gospels offer a very short covering of Jesus' ministry. Their writers are determined to keep us laser focused on Jesus' ministry, crucifixion, and Resurrection. So much so that we really learn very little about Christ's other supporters in Jerusalem, Joseph of Arimathea, and those he symbolically refers to when He speaks about the hen gathering his brood together in Matthew 27:37.  In this passage for instance we discover that there is a person nearby who believes that Jesus is the Lord, when he allows the disciples to take the donkey on which Jesus will enter triumphantly in the city, just as a conquering general would do to indicate his peaceful intentions to the people he has defeated.  Donkeys were treasured by the people in Jesus' time. They were important for carrying the burdens of commerce and home. Even today, especially in the Palestinian Gaza strip, donkeys are doing the same work for many of the people there today as they did in Christ's time. Like us they can be loving, cuddly, intelligent, and difficult, all at the same time. Jesus enters into Jerusalem in an effacing manner, and the people hope that He is the King coming to crush, smash, and shatter the enemies of the people, which in Christ's time would have been the Romans. Though Christ looks like this is intent, and in some ways, he does come to conquer evil and its difficult and treacherous outcomes. He has really come in a different kind of humility. He has humbled Himself before God to bring hope, joy, peace, and love to God's children by His willing sacrifice. Christ has the very same power as the Father, but instead of destroying sinful people, He bears the forgiveness of our loving Father in Heaven into the whole world. He is prepared to do all that it takes. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."(John 3:16) May His humble love for you transform your heart every day, filling it with God's Grace.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study on Nehemiah 7:73b-8:8 (June 20, 2024)

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

God's good morning to you all. Let's all pray today that the monsoon rains forecast for the next ten days yields some rain that the desert so desperately needs at this time of the year.  We all should be waking each day to the joy of Christ and His gifts of life, forgiveness, and salvation. And as we end each day at bedtime, we should be offering prayers of thanksgiving for the presence of our Savior and His Spirit that day, and then turning ourselves over to God's protecting presence and love through the night. Oh yes, and of course a person would expect that doors and windows would also be checked for our safety. Yes, God's protection is with us throughout the night, but we need to be proactive as well. I remember going through unending nights when my blood pressure first started spiking about 20 years ago. I took all of the prescribed medications, but I also prayed to God for His intervention and comfort as I sat in a living room chair trying not to panic with every spike.

Over the five years it took to have reasonable blood pressure, God and I worked together for my health safety.

Once again in the book of Nehemiah we discover that he understands himself as God's instrument to provide safety for the Judahites, many of whom have now helped to rebuild the wall. The space inside of the wall was not heavily populated, which is affirmed by archeologists who have studied the area. Zechariah was a prophet at the time that Ezra was bringing the exiles back, and his prophecy was that there was not need at that time for a wall around Jerusalem, that God would provide all of the protection that the exilic Judahites who had come would need. But Nehemiah is in a very different situation. There are now strong enemies of the Judahites who would like nothing better than to watch the rebuilding fail. They are concerned about their own power being weakened and their opportunities for growing wealth being severely limited. They are real enemies of this new community. They have connections to the governments of the people beyond the river, and through them threatened connections to Artaxerxes. I think that we can assume that Nehemiah was a record keeper from the forms of what appears to be a complete listing of people who can from the time of Ezra to Nehemiah's time, though the lists have some differences in them, but remain the same in the total number of people who were on both lists.  We can also assume that he was familiar with the prophecy of Zechariah. Nehemiah believed in handling the defensive wall, and in addition that he was God's instrument in keeping that prophecy of Zechariah alive and fulfilled. After all, God had called Nehemiah to this work in the promised land.  Please note that Nehemiah both prayed to God and then acted to fulfill God's hope for His people. Whatever that earlier disaster was between the time of Ezra and the time of Nehemiah, housing had been built close to the plots of land which were where their farming happened, and where their flocks pastured. So, the area inside of the wall was really no city, but rather a small community of people whose lands were inside of the wall. Nehemiah starts the process of getting people to come back to live inside of the wall in addition to those who had worked to rebuild the section of the wall near their homes. He is working to build the city into the large community we have so traditionally understood Jerusalem to be from the descriptions we have in the Bible. The lists of names in this part of Nehemiah are extremely detailed, with name that are difficult for us to pronounce.

Thanks for being with me.

In Christ's love, Pastor Kim