Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 7:31-37 bible study (February 20, 2024)

February 20, 2024:  Tuesday morning Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 7:31-37

Blessings and Peace to you all on this beautiful late February Day.  I am going to keep the study fairly short today, covering only a few verses in chapter 7 of Mark.  I am home suffering with the viral sinus infection that has been moving through our family and through our children's school too.  I am not sleeping well at night, so after about six days of little sleep, I am pretty worn out, and trying to work from home, and to catch a few extended naps.  I would appreciate your prayers for this whole virus thing to get over, so that I can get back to my regular office time, and so that I feel a lot better during worship times as well.

Welcome! My home is your home!

Today I will begin with a question.  Have you ever traveled to a new community, only to find that the people there were especially friendly and hospitable?  We had a trip like that to Houston, TX in 1976.  I really wasn't expecting much from the people in Texas.  Maybe those of us from up North have a bit too high an opinion of ourselves and our own area's hospitality,  but we were amazed at the warmth and caring of nearly everyone we met, from our visit to an historic battle ship moored at a seafood restaurant, to the NASA tour, to the little shop named "Mi Casa es su Casa" (My House is your house) where we purchased our onyx chess set, to Galveston were we loaded our cooler with fresh caught shrimp to take home with us to Michigan.  We had a wonderful time and found the warmth of the people of Texas a wonderful, unexpected gift.  I hope that this, in some small way gets us to thinking about Christ's journey into what had been Phoenicia/Roman territory, and how all of it ended up, which we are going to learn about in our passage for today.

In our passage today, Jesus and the disciples leave Tyre, and pass through Sidon on their way back to the territory of Galilee and Israel. It is an interesting journey because Jesus is ultimately heading south to get to Galilee, but instead turns north and heads to Sidon.  It would seem that His GPS may be a bit out of kilter.  However, there is a good reason for this journey, which now appears to have been about eight months long.  So, while Galilee and Jerusalem are heating up waiting for this upstart of a teacher and healer to come back, Jesus and His disciples have an extended opportunity to spend time in a rather peaceful non-threatening setting.  It was a good time for long talks with those who would be responsible for the new Church with which Christ would gift the world, and for how to deal with all of the challenges which lay ahead for them.  In fact, Peter's first acknowledgement that Jesus is the Christ of God, comes during this period, and doesn't show up in Mark until 8:27-29.  So here we are.  Some really important understandings about Jesus needed to have an opportunity to be revealed in a time and place where upheaval wasn't around every corner of the day.  The calm and peace must have been an amazing break from all of the tensions that were building at home.

When Jesus arrives in the area of Galilee and the Decapolis (scholars do not seem to know what these ten cities were, and cannot name them yet), he is encountered by a group of people who bring to Him the man who is deaf and who has some major kind of speech impediment.  Jesus receives this man with kindness and a sense of consideration for his circumstance.  Jesus takes him aside to receive the gift of healing that is going to be his, doing it in private, out of the sight of the people.  The motions of Christ in this healing seem a bit strange, but remember He is healing a man who may not understand right away what is happening to him.  The saliva that Jesus uses in this healing is a part of what this man would know.  Saliva was considered too often to be a powerful change agent for healing.  Acting demonstrably, Jesus proceeds to heal the man.  Please take special note of how Jesus did not consider this man as just another special case for healing but recognized the man's individuality as the healing process unfolded.  When the healing was completed, Jesus implored the man to not share what had happened.  How does that happen when the healed person is no longer deaf or speech impaired?  Needless to say, the news spread around the area again, and people said that Jesus had done all things well.  This saying is reminiscent of creation itself, and God's seeing that it was all good.  Jesus was making a new creation with the healing of the souls of people, so that they too might once again be exactly as God had created them to be through the merit of the Savior.  In the very same way, you and I are new creations through Jesus Christ too.  Jesus came to restore the order which had been broken by sin in the Garden of Eden.  In each of our lives, we are now the restored order of creation through the Savior.

This week I will be taking Thursday and Friday off for Rodeo Break with my children.  There will be no Thursday Bible study on Ezra this week.  Please remember that we are in the season of Lent, which means that we have noon worship available at Church, and of course, our Sunday worship at 10AM.

In Christ's Love, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 7:24-30 bible study (February 19, 2024)

February 19, 2024:  Monday morning Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 7:24-30

In this season of Lent may your heart be filled with gratitude for the wondrous gift of Christ's forgiveness of our sin and may we all enter into every day with humble hearts filled with thanksgiving for our Savior.

This is an exciting time in our lives.  The temperatures have already modulated, or at least it now feels like desert spring is on the horizon, the gem show is finished, the national rodeo championships will soon play out after our country's largest non-mechanized rodeo parade happens this coming Thursday, and, of course, the season of Lent will bring the world to an early celebration of Easter this year on March 31st, and if you have school age children, there are senior trips, dances, rodeo vacation break, and spring break only a short distance away, with proms on the horizon.  Life is good, and in spite of aging and some health issues in my own life, I have been blessed with a large family of eight children and a host of other people who consider our home their home, from sixteen and seventeen year old friends of our children to adults with whom we have become very close, who may in the near future need a home as well.  Out of the life of Christ, and in today's reading from Mark, we come to know that the hospitality of the heart and home is a Christian's way in the world of brokenness and sorrow, anger, and hopelessness.  We all need to allow the Christ in our lives to guide us in ways which may be new and challenging, and which we may discover are often amazing blessings and opportunities. I know that this may feel like a strange lead-in to today's Gospel reading, which on the surface feels almost like a begrudged and harsh healing, but it is not at all.

Remember from last week's study that Jesus had just set all of the purification "laws" and food "Laws" on their nose.  And, in the process, had created in Israel quite a stir, and plenty of anger on the part of the religious leaders and conservative Jews.  In effect, Jesus had set aside the much-practiced rules that had their basis in the heart of the Torah, and of course, by their place as "laws" for living, which were binding if a person was to have any hope of being right with God.  So, we should not be surprised to find that Jesus has departed from Galilee for a place where he can find some real quiet and peace from the ever-present onslaught of masses of Jews looking to gain healing from Him.  He is off to Phoenicia, the land that separated Israel from the sea, and nearly encircled Galilee.  Though an original part of the promised land of the Hebrews, the tribes of Israel were never quite able to break the Phoenician people's hold on that land.  Their two natural harbors on the sea were well protected from the inclement weather of the Mediterranean, with both harbors becoming the centers for world trade due to their calm waters.  We can only imagine how much the Romans loved these two harbors of Tyre and Sidon. So, Jesus departs for the region of Tyre and Sidon to escape the likely repercussions of the Jews for His teaching on their man-made "laws".  In the area of Phoenician land, Jesus is much less known, protected from Jewish interference and persecution, and will not be in circumstances which endanger His life, and the life of His Disciples. In effect, Jesus moves from the Father's first choice for his redeeming grace and forgiving action, to the Father's second choice for the Son's work, the Gentiles.

The Faith of the Syrophenician Woman

I know that Christ's interaction with the Syrophoenician woman seems hostile, but that in her desperate humility she gains the favor of Christ's healing for her daughter.  Jesus names her the dog!  But here we have an example of why understanding language usage and context for it is so important.  The word that Jesus uses for dog is not the brutish dog who wanders around taking food from children that it doesn't deserve. Instead, Jesus uses the word for dog that indicates the welcome lap dog favorite of a family who is welcome to receive what has been rejected by the family's children, and to receive the blessing that it brings to life itself.  I suspect that Christ's tone of voice was gentle, and perhaps even a bit playful with this woman who had come to Him for assistance and healing.  As a person of some Greek heritage her pattern of talking with Christ, in spite of her desperation for her daughter, would be filled with some degree of good-natured banter, as she sought to gain His favor and blessing.  And Jesus was ready to give it!  Who would Jesus turn away?  In the Gospels we discover that the Savior turns no one away who comes seeking Him through faith.  This, of course, means that the Holy Spirit works Her gift of faith in the lives of people who have only heard of Jesus, and have not yet been touched by His Life and Sacrifice.  It also means that God was always prepared for the eventuality that the Son would not be received by His own people, who were to be a light to the world, including the Gentiles.  When that didn't happen, or even look like it might ever happen, Christ moved on to those who surrounded His family, the Gentiles.  He healed the Gadarene demoniac, moved the heart of the Samaritan woman at the well, and also this Syrophoenician woman's daughter.  He set aside all the purity "laws”, and, moved to offer the good news to all who people who the Jews considered unclean too.  Let's face it, Christ came to undo the injustice and harm of the misled good intentions of the Jews for a good relationship with God and turned to the open hearts of the non-Jews.  That is most of us by the way.  Feels great, doesn't it? This is really the central lesson of this Gospel reading for us today.  The Bread of Heaven, Jesus Christ, is ours too, by the Savior's choice.

God bless you today. In Christ's love and hope, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study on Ezra 8:26-34 (February 15, 2024)

February 15, 2024

Thursday morning Bible Study on the OT book of Ezra 8:26-34

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Welcome to the season of Lent in the Church Year.  For the next six weeks, we will journey with Christ in His ministry to see the conflicts which developed between our Savior and the religious leaders of Christ's time, and to reflect on our own desperate need for Christ's forgiveness and Love.  There will be mid-week services at Noon on Wednesdays, recorded to give you an opportunity to share the service at a later time.  You can link to it on YouTube at the church website, godsplaceforgrace.org.  Note: next Wednesday there will be no recorded service.  That date is February 21.  All others will be available on the day they are recorded.  Don't miss this Saturday's 2PM Free movie. We will meet in the sanctuary to see this free movie.  Snacks provided.  This is an excellent family movie, or if you are a dog lover, this movie is for you.  Please join us for worship on Sunday at 10AM.  Today prayers please for the victims of the shootings in Kansas City, especially for the family and friends of the woman who was killed, and of course for the 20 wounded.   

The Old Testament book of Ezra

Today we continue in the 8th chapter of the book of Ezra.  In it we find a list of the people who were from priestly families who Ezra encouraged to join him on his trip to Jerusalem.  Each of them will be responsible for a large, valuable portion of the money gifts and the Temple furnishings.  They will be carrying them on the journey and are responsible for their safety.  When you look at the amount of silver, gold, and furnishings, they are sizable.  Each talent weighed between 75 and 100 pounds.  Though the amount might seem legendary in it weight, altogether the silver was about 65,000 pounds.  NO wonder that Ezra was more than a little worried about traveling without an army guard.  Now add in 10,000 pounds of gold.   In today's values the gold would be worth $3,190,400!  The silver would be worth $239,400!  Neither of these includes the furnishings of gold, silver, and polished bronze.  The monetary value for which each priest was responsible was huge.

As we look at this passage there are a number of places where we can see God's hand at work in this journey which Ezra was taking on:

1.       God moved Artaxerxes to agree for everything that Ezra requested.

2.     It was God who moved Ezra to speak to Artaxerxes boldly about the fact that this journey would not need armed guards, because God Himself would keep them all safe.

3.     it was God who guided Ezra to send out for priests to accompany them, and God moved priests to consent to go along.

4.     It was God who protected all of the people and the wealth they carried on the journey to Jerusalem.

Ezra knew that all of this was the movement of God / His Spirit that guided this entire endeavor.  I can speak to this all very personally.  I too have felt that imperceptible and invisible presence of the Holy in my own journeys in life, including the call to serve the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of the people of American Lutheran Church in Tucson.  I also know that very same Holy presence of God moved the call committee and the congregation to offer me opportunity to be this congregation's pastoral leader for thirty-three years now.  Another example would be how often people have asked me what Melody and I were thinking of when we adopted four boys late in life.  The only thing that I am able to say, is that we both came to know it came from God, and was right, and good, and just, not only for us, but for our adopted children too.  This is exactly how God's gift of faith works in our lives.  For Ezra it meant taking on this movement of wealth and people to get both back to Jerusalem, and to, once again, get things moving for the rebuilding of the city and the temple.  It also meant that he trusted God in all of it.  This is what our faith life is supposed to be like too.  Take a few moments to ask yourself when you have heard that that quiet small voice that fills you with the courage to do what is right, and good, and just before God. 

As an aside: You might wonder the reason for the purification offerings to God.  All of these people who returned from Persia had never lived in the promised land.  They were therefore considered unclean, with a built-up defilement in them, because of their lives away from the temple and God.  I know that the number of animals destroyed by burning them on the altar, were offered in multiples of twelve to represent the whole of the people of Israel.  We might remember that Jesus had plenty to say about the nature of being clean.  The sacrifice for which God is looking is a contrite and humble heart of love, first for God, and then for one's neighbor.  Perhaps all of this points to what is coming through Christ when we see His ministry unfold before us in the New Testament.

Thanks for letting me share with you today.

With the Love and Hope of Christ, Pastor Kim