Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study on Ezra 9:5-15 (March 7, 2024)

March 7, 2024:  Thursday morning Bible Study of the OT Book of Ezra 9:5-15

Studying Scripture helps each of us to shine more brightly with the Light of our Lord, the Anointed One of God.  In this season of Lent, we all need to be reminded that we too share, through our sin, in bringing about the necessity for God to send His Son to save us.  May Christ know our hearts to be filled with Joy and Faith every day.  Thank you for your prayers yesterday.  I am in the office long enough to get my Bible Study done today, then I will head home to rest before we move bread from Beyond Bread on North Campbell to the food pantry at Grace St. Paul Episcopal Church tonight.  Please continue praying for peace between Israel and the people of the Gaza strip who are being killed by the tens of thousands at the hands of the wrath of the Jews for their Palestinian cousins.  Be certain that you really understand the history of these two peoples before being ready to condemn one side or the other in the conflict.

Bible Study: exploring scripture together

Today we are in chapter 9 of Ezra, verses 5-15.  Today's reading is a bit different.  Here we have a prayer by Ezra himself, speaking to the issues of the inter marriage which has caused the immigrants who have returned to their own country from Persia, to act against the rule of God which warns heavily against the blending of any idol worship and practice which might be mixed with the worship of the One True God.  Over the 100 or so years before Ezra arrives in Jerusalem, the first people to come were faced with the struggles of blended residential and social communities.  It was inevitable that they would begin to assume some of the religious practice of those communities.  Ezra's prayer is an appeal to God to forgive the sin which has been committed through this intermarriage.  We must remember that the actions of a few over this hundred-year period affect the entire community of the faithful who have returned to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple.  This prayer addresses all the people who have ever been a part of this faith community who have fallen short in their faith since the time of Abraham.  Sometimes, as Christians, we act like we do a better job than either the Jews or the Moslems, that our relationship with God through Christ is so much better than theirs.  Ezra knew better, and so should we.  This is why we talk about being simultaneously saints and sinners.  No community of faith has ever been sin free.  There has been only one, and He is the One True Son of the Living LORD.  It is obvious that Ezra is filled with remorse for all of this, as we should also be.  But Ezra sees a reason for joy and hope in the people's lives.  It is good for us to remember that it was the Canaanites who were so devoid of ethics and morality in their lands that they lost them to the Judahites originally, and here we are now, with Ezra having to admit that his own people, still vassals of Persia, but all the same, blessed by the kings of Persia, are now involved as a whole community with complicity and acceptance of marriage practices which cause idolatry to find its way into this community who is to refrain from such practices that are so offensive to God.  This prayer is an acknowledgement to God that Ezra is all too well aware that this problem exists, but like many prayers that we offer, there is no direct answer, but instead it is the conversation with God that brings a much needed way to unload the burdens of this failure, and to help to see in the conversation some small light of hope that God's inbreaking Grace will help and heal and forgive.  I am willing to say that this must have been an extremely challenging time for Ezra who had come with altar ware, loads of money, and more, and dreams of an easy community of faithful people who would quickly move forward in settling in once again.    That is every new pastor's hope for a new call and that call's community of faithful people, but it is also almost never the reality into which a new pastor arrives.  The call to serve the Gospel in a new setting means that the pastor will be faced with choosing between staying comfortable with the issues that already exist in that new faith community or addressing them with compassion and love so that the new call parish can move forward toward greater spiritual health, and a much stronger relationship with the Christ of God. 

Next week there will be no Thursday Bible Study, I will be taking some time during my boy's Spring Break to be with them.  Two of the boys will be graduating from High School this year.  I will also not have Bible Study for Mark of Monday or Tuesday next week.  I WILL BE AT THE CHURCH ON WEDNESDAY FOR MIDWEEK LENTEN SERVICES.

Thank you for letting me share with you today.

In Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 8:27-30 bible study (March 5, 2024)

March 5, 2024:  Tuesday morning Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 8:27-30

A prayer to the God of my life. Psalm 42:8

Please say this brief prayer with me today.  Most Holy and Loving God, create in me an open mind and a caring heart, as I undertake the study of these passages in the Gospel of Mark.  Your Word is the Light of my life, and it lights my path every day.  Help me to always live and act with Holy generosity, Holy compassion, Holy forgiveness, and the Holy Love of Jesus Christ!  I love you, LORD.  Be in, with, and around me today and always.  In Christ's Holy Name, AMEN

In this morning's reading we find that Jesus and His disciples are once again headed out of the area which is controlled by Herod.  Headed to Caesarea Philippi, Christ is now traveling to an ancient city.  In ancient history the name for this city was Balinas which is a name to indicate that this city was at the heart of the worship of Baal.  Today it is known by the name Banias, and for a period of time it was called Panias because legend had it that in a hill side cave, the Greek god Pan had been born.  All in all this city's history was one of honoring, and venerating, many man-created deities.  In this same area, a stream flowed out of the hills, and was thought to be the source of the Jordan River.  It was in this hilly area that Philip had built a massive white marble columned monument to the godhead of Caesar, the Roman Emperor, who was also venerated as a god.  It was in this area dedicated to the gods of man's making that Peter comes to discover that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the True God.  It is also in this setting, as we look at the structure of the Gospel of Mark, that Jesus is faced with a turning point in His ministry.  From here on Jesus knows that He is not far from the end of His life as a sacrifice and expiation for the sins of all of creation, and for you and me most especially, for all of God's children.  We might note that this is chapter 8 and this is half way through Mark's Gospel.  At this point, all of this movement from area to area is intended to keep Christ's enemies in Jerusalem from getting to Him before the time that it is meant to happen.  And now He really needed to know if the 12 who had been with Him had figured out who He was, and to consider whether or not they might be anywhere close to being ready to carry on the ministry of the Gospel for the sake of the world.  Remember that in Mark the disciples really seem slow to pick up on Christ's identity, or to gain the kind of understanding which would make them prepared for what lay ahead for them, but it is in the answer of Peter that Jesus knows that now He has done successfully the preparation with them that was necessary for the message to reach the world. The disciples needed to be ready to follow the one who was the Messiah to the end.  Did they hold the traditional Jewish views of a coming Messiah, or were they now understanding the true power of God's Messiah as Jesus had guided them to understand it?

In Jewish religion and culture there was always a looking back to the Golden Days of King David, and his successes in building the strength of the nation, and for his intimacy with God.  This was the nation's expectation for the coming Messiah, the restoration of the Davidic glory days.  The enemies of the nation of Israel would be destroyed by the hand and authority of the Messiah, never able to again conquer the nation militarily.  The Messiah would be preceded by a prophet, Elijah, who would prepare the way for the Messiah, healing the nation's chaos, and bringing an end to the people's disputes over money and land.  When the community saw these things happening it meant that the Messiah was coming very soon.  The Messiah would be a great, divine superhuman figure, crashing into history to remake the world so that God's people could be vindicated.  In the face of the coming Messiah, the nations of the world would ally against him.  However, the Messiah would smash these enemies into utter extinction.  Again, after this great conflagration of the Jew's enemies, Jerusalem would be renovated, while others thought that the new, purified, Jerusalem would come down from heaven. (These ideas are found in both Biblical texts, intertestamental texts, and from other sources outside of Scripture.)  It would then be the time for the Jews of the diaspora to return to Israel, and the time for all the area of Palestine to be subdued.  This is particularly interesting considering that Palestinians also have a promise from the God of Abraham for His provision for their people, and for blessing.  Another part of this thinking is that the dead of Israel will be raised up to share in the new world order.  Finally, this will not be a temporary age of peace, but it will last forever.  In this view of the coming Messiah we see the nationalistic fever of the Jews.  In this fever, the Jews would be violent, unforgiving, destructive, vengeful, a blood bath of getting even with their every enemy.  I know you may think that I mistakenly wrote fever instead of fervor, but this was not fervor, it was a nationalistic illness filled with hatred.  It is really obvious that Jesus did not fit into this thinking at all.  No wonder he had to re-educate His followers, and there was certainly no place for the sublime Love of Christ, nor for the cross of sacrifice for our sin.  I am afraid that we have seen too much of this fever by those who have found God's present Love in Jesus Christ of compassion and kindness inadequate.  They are the Christian Nationalist movement.  Thinking that God has now called them to get even with anyone with whom they disagree is at the heart of this failure to truly understand the nature of our God's Hope for His Children who are to proclaim His Truth and Love in the midst of a broken and angry, self-serving people who, like the Jews in Jesus time, and today, are called in Scripture to be a Light to the world, who are ready to strike out in the name of the Savior in an unholy rage that has little to do with the Love of our God.  Our world needs Jesus more than ever today, not in the way of a misled people, but in the way of His Truth and Love for everyone. This study certainly offers us some food for thought.  When some Christians get this all wrong, we must know that it turns people away who really need to know Christ authentic Love for their lives. 

In Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 8:22-26 bible study (March 4, 2024)

March 4, 2024:  Monday morning Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 8:22-26

Good morning, dear friends in Christ.  Today in your prayers please remember Pastor Dave in Minnesota whose cancer has metastasized into many areas of his body, and of course add Kandice and Jeff to these prayers as well.  Both are dealing with inoperable cancer, which is difficult to treat.  Offer a prayer of thanksgiving that Kandice has been able to regain some minimal mobility.  She has only recently been able to walk up to 12 feet.  This is a wonderful gift for her wife Lisa who is her primary caregiver.  Remember American Lutheran in your prayers too.  We are thankful for every member, and for their faithfulness.  And today remember to tell Jesus that you love Him.

Bible Study - Exploring God's Word

Just in case you have wondered, there are no parallels in the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John to the story of the man who was blind in Bethsaida.  Of course, the Gospel of John has the story of the man born blind which pretty much covers a complete chapter, but Biblical scholars do not consider that story to be a parallel to Mark 8:22-26.  Blindness was a very common health issue and was often based on the lack of cleanliness in the time of Christ.  This seems to be an ironic reality based on the purity and cleanliness laws of the Law.

In our passage for this morning, we see once again the wonderful consideration with which Jesus heals the sick.  This man may also have been born blind, but we can't say that for certain, but in his community this man is an outcaste who is dependent on the mercy of the people in Bethsaida.  He must beg for enough just to live on for food.  He also probably has to approach the same people time and time again.  Jesus knows that a healing for this blind man would not be good in the city, so He takes the blind man out of the city to heal him, allowing him the privacy that he probably does not have due to his survival needs, and the constant interaction with the begging that he must do.  And, born blind, this man has limited understanding of what the city around him really even looks like.  To avoid all of this Jesus moves this man into the country, where inputs would be less hectic and filled with the harsh sights of a busy world.  You might say that Christ's action was a bit presumptuous, but we must always remember that Jesus knew this man's deepest desires and feelings.  Jesus literally knew this man's mind and heart, just as He knows ours too!  Jesus always knows what we need before we are able to appeal to Him, or to offer our heartfelt thanksgiving and love to Him.  Jesus treated this blind man with every consideration, and offered His healing because He knew the man's mind and heart. 

Jesus also used methods that the man could understand.  In this time in history, people felt that using the moisture of one's mouth, and applying it to a wound would bring about healing.  After all, what do you and I do if we get a bruise on one of our fingers that is painful, or a cut?  The first thing that many of us do is to put that finger right into our mouth!  I know, in all likelihood it is not clean, but that doesn't usually stop us from doing it, though we have all gotten a lot better about hand washing since the pandemic.  In His Wisdom, Christ uses a long-trusted method for healing, and surrounds it with the power, which is His to offer to cure people, no matter who they are.  We can only imagine the responses of people if Christ had come into the midst of the city, spoken words of healing, and the man had immediately been able to see everything.  As the Pharisees had done so many times, people may well have looked upon Christ, and the man, with fear and trepidation.  Christ knew how to do things simply, understandable ways, as well as harder to understand parables.  This miracle of Christ in Mark is unique.  It is the only one in which the healing is not immediately complete.  He undertakes the healing twice.  The man's first response to Christ Word for his life may be incomplete, and so he only receives a partial healing.  After the second healing by Christ, his sight is fully restored, preparing the blind man for the amazing sight that will fill his range of vision.  This healing symbolizes for all of us the way that God's Truth fills our lives, restores our faith, and challenges us to life-long growth in how we see the power of His Love for each of us, and in the commitment to which each of us is called throughout our lives in the Kingdom.  Regrettably, all too often, when someone initially comes to belief in Christ, we think that the conversion of the heart and mind is complete.  The person for whom this gift is given must learn throughout their life how to continue to grow into the life of faith and commitment.  The change of the heart, metanoia, that comes from Christ's love for each of us calls us to daily confession of sin, and the daily renewal of our hearts for our Savior who loves us.

I will be with you tomorrow as we move on to Mark 8:27-30.

Love in Christ, Pastor Kim