Pastor’s Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 5:21-24 bible study (December 18, 2023)

Monday Bible Study on the Gospel Mark 5:21-24

Blessings and Love through Jesus Christ be with you, in you, and around you in these last days of Advent as we come to the celebration of the birth of Christ! 

I am sorry for the late bible study today.  My computer was not only slow getting started this morning, but then I got hit by a fake Microsoft action that said I had opened my computer to being taken over by someone else, and that I would not even be able to turn it off without damage.  Guess What?  Not True, but it did take a long time for my computer to start up again after the fake message.  I do have my own McAfee security, and it never showed up to indicate that my computer was threatened.  If you ever get into that kind of message, hit and hold your power button until your computer shuts down.  The good news is that I did not lose anything on the computer.  So.... I was unable to get to the study this morning, and instead set about taking care of other business like working on the preludes, hymns, 15 or so, for Christmas Services, getting the final services for Christmas finished with changes, and more.  So here we are in the afternoon again.

Today we are on chapter 5 of Mark verse 21-24.  The Gospel tells us a story about a leader of the synagogue who comes to Jesus in what we must believe to be desperation over the illness of his 12-year-old daughter.  We need to realize that age 12 was the age of transition into adulthood for young Jewish women.  She would likely be a good "catch" for some young man, having such a father of authority and position in the synagogue.  In all likelihood this man was the head of everything at the place of worship for the Jews in this community.  Though unnamed in Mark, it is the circumstances around this leader of the synagogue that make this such an important revelation about Christ Himself.   Prior to his daughter getting critically ill, this man was probably a doubter with regard to Jesus, to His Power, His kindness, and His compassion for all people.  Imagine being this Ruler of the synagogue, and having to let go of how you have felt about Jesus because He is the only One who is able to do what you desperately need to have done.  But when a child is this ill, it is really any port in the storm.  If you have a critically ill child, it no longer matters which hospital you prefer to get help, it is the closest possible, no matter what your other experiences may have been.  So this man forgot his prejudices.  Only one thing was important any more!  

Now this man was a person who was in all likelihood kind of full of himself.  That is so often true of leaders in the church who continually rise to positions of more and more authority.  I suspect this man was no different than the ones who have I witnessed personally become too full of themselves and their power of oversight.  So dignity be darned.  Out of love for his daughter and his need to save her life, this sacrifice of ego and self would be made too.  He had to humble himself before Jesus to let the Lord know that he was sincere in his pleading for help.  Now he was in the same position as those who came to him with their needs and concerns.  How often people of faith, and people with little faith, must submit to Christ in humility and prayer for His help in this life.  Our own compassion grows out of the many times that we have humbled ourselves before Christ seeking His Forgiveness, though if we forget that Christ always keeps His promises to us, then we may well reassert ourselves over others.  

We have a saying, "Pride goes before a fall"  I wouldn't exactly say that this Ruler of the Synagogue was taking a fall, but his pride after coming in public to Jesus for help was going to be greatly diminished, and after all of this he might become the kind of ruler that God had created him to be, humble and compassionate. 

And in all of these "losses" for the psyche of this man, Jesus reveals Himself to be humble and Serving the One True God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with a willingness to enter into the life of every person, bringing the hope and healing that can only come for knowing the Father in Heaven, and living each day in His service.  This is exactly who Jesus was, and is today in all of our lives.  

Christmas Eve Services will be on Sunday at 7PM .  There is a morning 4th Sunday in Advent service too, and it will use primarily Christmas Carols for music.  Please remember that New Year's Eve is also a Sunday of Christmas.  With service at 10AM.  I hope I get the chance to be with you in worship over this Christmas season.

With Love and Hope in the Babe of Bethlehem, God's only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ,

Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study on Ezra 4:24 - 5:5 (December 14, 2023)

Thursday Bible Study on the OT book of Ezra 4:24 - 5:5

Holy Bible book of Ezra

Blessings and Peace be with you in this very busy time of the year.

The study is a little late getting out to you today. I am working from home, so this morning I started out with practice time on the piano music I am using Sunday and also on Christmas Eve at the morning worship. My home Yamaha piano was just tuned by the same tuner as the man who does our Kawai at church. At both places he did a wonderful job, making these pianos real joys to play. However, I kind of get lost when I am playing, and the time gets by without my realizing how much has gone by. So, here I am, after lunch, getting to you. Please continue praying for peace in the Middle East, and also for families who find themselves in difficult times right now. Whatever the reason, Christmas can be really stressful, so pray for healing and the hope of the infant born in Bethlehem to bring them all the comfort they need for healing and good in their homes.

Today we are in the book of Ezra, and we discover two names with whom we should all be familiar. This is often the case when we are working in the prophets in the Old Testament, and we are uncertain about how they fit into the general history of the people of Israel. The situation in this passage is that the prophets come to the Judahite people who have been in the process of rebuilding the temple and the city of Jerusalem, but prior to this time have been ordered by Artaxerxes to cease their rebuilding due to the intervention of the Samaritans who are angry that they have not been recognized in their own religious practices by the Judahites, and have therefore not been able to join the lately returned Judahites in their worship or their rebuilding processes. They let Artaxerxes know that these people would be a danger to Persia if they ever completed this rebuilding. So, the Judahites have been under a cease-and-desist order from the kind of Persia. However, now comes the twist. Not only one, but two prophets are sent with messages from God. Their prophecy is clear. Begin the building again, and in spite of objections from the Governor of the People beyond the River, and others, Tattanai was the governor, and other was named Shethzar-bozenai. Of course, they sent a letter immediately to inform the king of Persia, Darius. They even went to the people doing the building and asked that the men be identified to them, but the elders of the Judahites ignored them due to the prophets' message. Oh yes, the names of two prophets were Haggai and Zechariah, and it was Zerubbabel who took the prophecy to heart and began to build again.

There is an important lesson for us as the people of God. Though things may from time to time, change direction, we must always know that God will find a way to direct His Work on earth, and sometimes it will mean that there may be delays and stops, but that it is God who is the one who is charge of His Work on earth through His Son Jesus Christ.

I know that sometimes we get disheartened in the work of the Kingdom of God, sharing the Gospel with grace and love for all people. Sometimes our churches slow down, and we think that what we are doing is just treading water and not moving boldly forward. When we are faithful, and trust the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit to be with us even when we doubt that we are making any progress, we are likely to discover that what we have felt was a slowing down, was indeed a time of preparation, of getting ready to renew our strength, and to mount as if we are on the wings of eagles ( a Biblical reference ), and we discover that we have always been nurtured by God's Love and Promise for our lives in Jesus Christ, and then, though we may not expect it, we can once again soar surrounded by the power of the Spirit. We may become disheartened, yet example after example of the God who loves His children, and all of His creation is ours when we take the time to study His Word in Scripture. So, don't stop trying, don't give up. Live every day filled with joy in God's Love for you. (Note: Haggai comes to the people because they are discouraged by lack of money and resources to complete the work to which they have been called. And, instead of getting angry with the Judahites for their lack of trust in God and His resources for them, God sends Zechariah to bring messages of encouragement. Specifics of their messages are for a time when we study these prophets.)

Please remember that next week will still be doing studies of Mark and Ezra, and then I will be off for two weeks after Christmas, returning to our studies beginning on Monday, January 8, 2024. Wow this is the first time I believe that I have written the new year's numbers! The time is short, and the learning never stops.

In Christ's love, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 5:18-20 bible study (December 12, 2023)

Tuesday Morning Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 5:18-20

Online Bible Study

May God's Grace fill you with anticipation for the celebration of the birthday of Jesus Christ.

May of the joys of this time of waiting and getting ready to be prepared for the holiest of nights and the Heaven's loudly singing the glory of God on that first night and the birth of Christ be yours every day. We can only stand in wonder at the greatest ever gift of our God for all people, in fact, for His whole Creation. However, for these next two weeks, we are called to be ready, as so many stories in the Bible relate to us. In our prayers today we need to remember the people of war-torn nations who are depending on our nation to help them get through to a lasting peace. The Ukraine, Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and the people of Myanmar who live under a tyrannical Government. The peace that we celebrate in the Holy Gift of the Christ Child is meant to enter the lives of all people transforming their hearts and minds to be filled with Love, Compassion, Kindness, and the Light of the Christ of God. So, may war and tyranny lose their grip on our world, and loving God and Neighbor replace them in every heart.

The lessons that we have been working on that have to do with the Gerasene Demoniac are all about Christ's love for a man who was not a Jew, and for Christ's willingness to bring healing and hope to those who are were not Jews. Depending on which Gospel you choose to read you will very likely find hints of how the author sees this as Christ brings those "outsiders" into the fold of His sheep.

In our reading for today we find Jesus on the East side of the Jordan River in an area named the Decapolis, that is ten cities. These were primarily Greek cities who maintained at least some autonomy even from the Romans. These cities are related to the period of time when Alexander moved to conquer the promised land, and later were conquered by the Maccabees who converted them to Judaism. Rome freed them from the rule of Israel in about 63 B.C.E. So here is Jesus in an area where Jews may not have been well received based on the historical relationship between Jews and these cities. The cities were named as follows according to some scholars, while others debate if we really know much at all about these cities: Scythopolis which was the only one of the cities on the west side of the Jordan River, Pella, Dion, Gerasa, Philadelphia, Gadara, Rephana, Kanatha, Hippos, Damascus. The two which have a very similar spelling and pronunciation are the cause of the questions about where the man in the cemetery was really from. In different Bibles the translation has him from one or the other of Gerasa and Gadara. This area is really a first opportunity, according to Mark's Gospel, for Jesus to reach out to non-Jews. We see the result; these people wanted Him to leave! But that was certainly not true of the man who had been healed, he wanted to accompany Jesus on His journeys. Instead, Jesus turns him around to become the first source of the Good News of God's in-breaking love for these people too. So he was indeed sent away to become the beginning, the seed, of Christianity's bloom. It is very interesting because in all of these Greek cities was a common attitude about the superiority of the Greek mind, and its solutions to life's problems. But now there is one who knows what the Truth and Light of God's Love are all about, and the superiority of God's way of doing things, and in this let's stay focused on the New Testament revelations of Jesus instead of getting tied up in figuring out what the writers of the Old Testament passed off as God revenge and willingness to destroy those who had not heard the Good News of His love for their lives. The tribal warfare of the Jews against one another, and their historic and current battling with the others who are also the children of Abraham who also have the promise of God for their provision sometimes makes us question if God is really loving, but that is another conversation for us to have about how histories favor the writer' people, making someone else take the blame for their flaws, mistakes, and choices. Jesus makes it clear that believer communities often judge others as unworthy when they are really the people to whom we should be approaching with the Good News and the Great commandment, which leaves no room for us to play judge and jury about how others are not loved by God because of their "sin". If Jesus was willing, why aren't we? This Advent and Christmas we will sing a carol that voices "Joy to the World, the Lord has come". It is not the few who are to receive this miracle of God's love. It is everyone!

I will be back with you this Thursday as we work our way through Ezra in the O.T. After Christmas I will be taking two weeks off to be with my boys on their break from school, so that I can spend time with them. This time is growing more limited as two of them will be 18 in 2024, and I suspect, headed off into their adult life. I will be here however for New Year's Eve Sunday Morning Worship, and available for emergencies in the congregation. We might even get in the van and head up to see their brother Joshua in Colorado. Plans, at this point, are still very fluid. Thank you for your study with me, and please remember that I will still be doing the Bible Study next Week. In the hope and anticipation of Christmas.

In Christ's love, Pastor Kim