Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 9:43-48 bible study (May 13, 2024)

May 13, 2024:  Monday Morning Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 9:43-48

Dear Ones in Christ, 

Thank you so much for being patient today. I got into my cardiologist appointment, and now am headed tomorrow mid-day for a wound clinic 2-hour appointment, blood work next week, and an echo cardiogram in a couple of weeks. I will be adding a new BP med tomorrow, and the ultimate goal is to ween me off of the clonidine which has to be done very slowly. We'll see.

I will get right to the text for today which continues some of the language of condemnation by Christ, including warnings for Jews who do not seek to keep God's law. The place of destruction is just outside of the Jerusalem wall. It is a canyon where King Ahaz had instituted the sacrifice of children by burning. This was one of the requirements of that particular heathen worship, and certainly reflects for us one of the worst times of Israel falling away from God's guides for living. So, by the time of King Josiah, he designated the area, known earlier as the valley of Hinnom, as an unclean place where no man could ever make his son or daughter pass through it. Because of all of this the name Gehenna was commonly used and came to be a symbol of hell. So, in this passage we have an example of the failure of people to keep the law, and the subsequent place which they would inherit in the future. (The Torah names the location as Gehenna) The inference here is that one could go to their death with all of their body's members, and still end up burning for eternity in Gehenna. But then there was the fundamental truth that was of such value that it would be better to lose parts of one's body in order to attain this great truth whose value was so great that any sacrifice would be worth it. Attaining such a truth, The Kingdom of God, was worth whatever it would take in the physical life, and in the spiritual life as a Sacrifice. We hear these great truths in the Lord's Prayer. The two petitions are<"Thy Kingdom Come” Thy Will be done". It was a normal way for the Jewish community to lay parallels alongside one another, and begin with one thought, which is then emphasized by the second. The Kingdom of God is the place where God's Truth is carried out both on earth, and in Heaven. This part of the passage certainly overshadows the other part where Gehenna is the punishment for eternity. It may indeed require us to sacrifice things that are important to us if we are hoping to attain the Kingdom. With Christ and the Spirit's everyday guidance, we find the courage and the strength to make changes, to turn our failures to accept God's way for our lives.

That may mean sacrificial giving to church, or the wider church. We recently received a letter from the ELCA asking for contributions while there is matching money. Though it is not easy for our family right now, we will give a gift for this wider church program. Or, how about driving with a sense of peace and calm while those crazies around us endanger every driver, or choosing to drive in accordance with the speed laws and not running red light like so many people do, and it means that you may well be late for where you are going, or speaking with God's loving kindness, grace, and love even when it feels like a different responses would feel better!  We must remember that Christ changes our relationship with God unlike the Jews of Mark's day. We have been saved by Christ's sacrifice on our behalf. But sacrificing is still a way, perhaps the best way to say thank you to God for his love and forgiveness.

Tomorrow, at least right now, you should be getting your Mark study first thing in the morning.

God bless you all, With Christ's Love, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study on Nehemiah 2:11 - 3:14 (May 9, 2024)

May 9, 2024:  Thursday Bible Study on the Old Testament book of Nehemiah 2:11 - 3:14

May the hope of the Resurrection fill you with joy today and every day of your life. Good morning.

I know that recently we have had some difficult times for our members, with the death of Pastor David, illness, and changes in the potential loss of some independence, and in my own health issues with a too low heart rate, and a too high blood pressure, as well as some other newly developed changes in caring for my current health concerns.  Like so many of you, I am thankful to our Lord for everyday that I get to live in my life, and for all of your prayers.

This Sunday I am beginning my Sunday School class on the new archeology in Israel, and what it means for all of us when some of what we have heard our entire lives, appears to be different, yet not disconnected from the history of Israel. Join me, won't you? Get ready to be challenged! The class will meet at 9AM and go 45 minutes. Please pray for Melody and Me, we both have cardiology appointments coming up soon. Pray for Kandice, Jeff for God's touch to heal them from their cancers and pray for Pastor David's family and friends. Pastor David died this week, succumbing to his battle with cancer. Pray for our students who will be graduating really soon and be with our students who have senioritis. I too have senioritis, but it is a whole different thing!

Nehemiah with the bible

Today we are in chapter two and three in the book of Nehemiah. It is very interesting in several different ways. First is the kind of secretive way in which Nehemiah ends up taking a survey of the Jerusalem wall. Second, we have the naming of so many family groups who are called to come get this work done.  Let’s start with the first of these.  Ever since it entered the minds of Ezra and Nehemiah, called by God to find ways to restore the city of Jerusalem, there have been problems with certain communities of people who really want to knock this project off the rails. Wealthy local tribal groups, individuals, and government representatives to Persia and Artaxerxes. We always need to remember that, while the King may be supportive of Nehemiah's actions, there has been no communication by his word to help Nehemiah moving forward. Instead, local authorities work to derail this major project. So, Nehemiah sets out quietly at night to do a survey of the repair work that needs to be done. Just his horse and a few companions are with him, and he takes note of what is still to be done to keep the city of Jerusalem secure. For Nehemiah, this work will be moving forward simply by his faith and conviction that the work must be done! Based on the number of groups who were named in Nehemiah's writing, there were still a number of groups of Judahites who were ready and able to take on an assigned, or perhaps a volunteered portion of the necessary work.  This list of names certainly outdoes the Pentecost reading that we will do from the Acts of the Apostles on Pentecost. We get a few hints about how things may have been assigned/volunteered for. For instance, the priests take the East Gate which is the side of the walled community where the temple will be built. They have a special interest in getting this gate and wall section rebuilt so the temple can be completed and secure. In this section we discover that people are not assigned by the gifts that they bring, but instead by the desire they have for the wall and gates to be secure. After all, the priests were not builders.  They were intended to be the spiritual guides for the community. I suspect that the other groups had similar interests in their areas, but that they to0, were not artisan builders, rather they were people with a heart for the restoration of their city and temple. There is yet one more thing to address. There were indeed interlopers who wanted to have their finger in the pie of this rebuilding project. It could be lucrative for someone who controlled materials, or for foreign businesspeople to keep gates and walls open to them. Nehemiah saw through all of it. He made it clear that this Judahite city would be for Judahites only. There would be no place for those who wished to manipulate and keep their current power in the area.

I know that in the church we talk about having people serve in particular areas of need because they have a particular gift for that area of work, but what is really most important is the energy, excitement, and faith which  a person brings in God's call to service in His Church.   May He bless us all as we move into the world with the Good News!

In Christ's love, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 9:41-42 bible study (May 7, 2024)

May 7, 2024: Tuesday Morning Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 9:41-42

May the peace and love of our Savior fill your day today.

I will start with an invitation to join our family and the Burt's as we celebrate the graduation of three of the young men of our congregation on May 19 after the worship service. We will be serving a light lunch with sandwiches, chips, punch, and dessert. Please join us to say congratulations on the completion of this part of their life's journey. Worship is at 10AM, and lunch will start about 11:20AM in the parish hall. A quick reminder that Church Council will meet right after lunch at about 11:45AM. Please continue with the prayers that I mentioned to you in yesterday's Bible Study opening. I have a cardiology appointment on Monday next week.

Start your day with God's Word

Today we will take a look at two verses in chapter 9 of the Gospel of Mark which guide us in the acts of grace in Christ's name that reveal His love and treasuring of all people. These grace filled acts are a natural outcome of the grace we ourselves have first received from our Savior. Jesus tells us that any act of grace offered by one of us to Christ's people will not lose its reward, meaning that we are always called to serve other people with acts of generosity and love. I know that in some denominations there is a belief that Christian people are only responsible to take care of others who accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. However, in the order of God's Love, and in the power of His creation, all people are God's, and His love is meant to enfold and care for them through us, because we believe that Christ's sacrifice was for the whole of God's creation which certainly includes all people. There is a broadness in God's Love that has come to us through Christ, and to all of creation, and in that we are the cherished gold of all of it when we come to God's Love through the Savior. There is a story about an African Christian mission where children are taught the lesson about that cup of water in the Gospel of Mark. In that particular village there arrives a large group of bearers of goods who stop there to take a break, looking very tired and thirsty, but under tribal custom, the people of the village object to giving another tribal group any sort of aid. However, the young children see the very possibility of fulfilling the words of Christ about that cup of water, so they come quietly out of the mission bearing pitchers of water to share with the very thirsty men. When everyone has received a drink, the children tell the men that even as children they are fulfilling Christ's command to treat others with kindness and love, and then they quietly walk back into the mission school. I hope that we see that this passage in Mark is not in any way restrictive of Christ's Grace, and that we can through our acts of grace lead others to know our Lord.

On the other hand, there is the next verse which clearly brings the wrath of God into play. If we think that we are only responsible for our own people in Christ, then we are probably failed in acting with grace for the people who God places in the paths of our lives, those we know and those we do not know. There are so many opportunities to present the Christ of Grace to others every day. When we fail, we certainly are called to confess the failures we know, and ones that we don't know. But to push others away from Christ's Grace because we can't take minutes to provide for the simple needs of others, or we find ourselves judging those who are different in their economy, their culture, or their religion, then we too are placing our relationship with Christ in jeopardy. Every one of us is guilty of relationship failures. Sometimes we don't stop to think about the impact of our thoughtlessness. Jared and I have had an interesting everyday meeting, usually in the evening after dinner. I sit in my recliner and Jared, and I have some minutes of testing strength, or wrestling in place, or tickling, the last several nights he has come to me to get things started by grabbing my generous double chin and moving it around. Needless to say, I have been kind of stern with him about not getting things started, telling him that my high blood pressure doesn't need to get any higher from our nightly encounter, so I have sent him away. After reading this passage this morning, I know that I will change my approach to Jared. Tonight, when he wants to start, I will offer him a time of quiet cuddling. It is different but I know that he will not feel rejected by his pastor dad. It will not be the one who has lost their way to Christ who will be judged negatively, It will be the ones who put them in that place in their lives when the Grace of God failed to find its way into their lives because a person of Christ, thoughtless and unkind with Christ's Grace did not light their path to the Savior. Is it any wonder that we all need to approach our Savior with confession and apology for all of the times that we lost His light ourselves.

In Christ's Loving Grace for your life. Pastor Kim