Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 10:17-33 (January 12, 2026)

January 12, 2026:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 10:17-33

Blessings and Peace be with you on this beautiful sunny morning. What a gift the weather has been this winter in the desert! Along with you, I love the warmer trend of our desert winters, but I also know how important it is for us to remember that environmental change means that there is something wrong in the world that has caused that change. We have seen it in raging floods in the Carolinas, severe weather in the deep south of our nation, drought with which we live and struggle here, too cold and snowy in the upper mid-west and around the Great Lakes. The one saving grace this past year is that no hurricanes hit the lower 48 states, but the increasing warmth in the Gulf means that it is only a matter of time, and the storms may be larger than we have ever seen before. I am hopeful that God's creation will work to rectify itself in the years ahead if we are careful in our stewardship of this planet on which we all live. If you are from outside of our congregation or not at worship yesterday, I want to let you know that Kandice Kartchner, our member in Hawaii has died following a long battle with cancer. Please keep her wife Lisa, friend Alexis, her parents who live on the big island, her sister and her brother who live stateside all in your prayers for comfort and peace in their loss, that the certain hope of the Resurrection will sustain them all, and us too. 

I believe that our reading from Acts for today is helpful for us as our congregation, and whole Church of Jesus Christ on earth struggles with member numbers and resources. In the early life of the Lutherans, we were divided by cultural and ethnic heritage into communities of remarkably similar people. Over the second half of the 1900s the LCA, and ALC, the main Lutheran bodies aside from the Missouri Lutherans, came together in unity in the mid-1980s, became one church, and set about the task of inclusiveness for all people who would enter our congregations.  Both groups had already begun the ordination of women, and after many years of struggle and acknowledgement in the ELCA were able to finally recognize the many gifts for ministry in the LGBTQ+ part of our faith communities and ultimately moved to provide for ordination and marriage too.  Our reading from Acts about Peter, his vision, his eyes and heart for people of the Jewish community where the Apostles had their primary mission, and learning about all those who he had previously seen as unclean and undesirable for inclusion in Christ's new Church.  First, we need to note that Cornelius was known for his kindness and generosity towards the people who had been conquered by Rome. That was extraordinary! Normally soldiers would conquer and then begin the brutality of the victor during the occupation of the people, but not Cornelius. He had been intrigued by the Jewish faith in only One God, and that God being beyond any manipulation by the actions of those who worshiped YHWH. However, according to the reading, when Peter arrives, Cornelius has already arranged for his family and friends to be present to hear what Cornelius' vision had revealed to him, that Peter, who had been summoned by Cornelius would have the Word of God to share with all those who had been called together.  All of this was a lesson from God for Peter about the new openness to those previously thought as outside of faith by no fault of their own other than being born outside of Judaism. Through Paul, Peter would truly come to understand that the greatest successes of the New Christian mission would be outside of the traditional Jewish communities to which Peter felt called. Those outsiders would take a generous collection across their lands and nations for the support of the continuing, but nearly failing, mission to the Jews. The sense of what was clean and unclean was carried by all the original Apostles. It was their ingrained heritage, but Peter welcomed the envoys from Cornelius into the hospitality of Simon's home and traveled with them to the hospitality of the Roman gentile home, where he was received with a sense of awe by those who met him, and had come to hear him speak.  Without that roof top vision, Peter would have been unable to move forward with such boldness and confidence in taking on the new! I am hopeful that this experience for Peter will help us all think of how we can become more open to those who are new, who we often deem as too different, who are searching in faith for the love of Christ for their lives, and the lives of people around them.  Peter found the new with bravery and love. How will you and I respond to the vision that changed Peter's world?

God's Word in Christ is a gift for all of creation.

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 42 (January 8, 2026)

January 8, 2026:  Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 42

Good evening/morning, depending on when you choose to look at your emails and the Psalm study which normally comes to you late on Thursday morning. I pray for the LORD'S richest blessings to sustain you and to keep you fully faithful even in what may be difficult times. I know that the cold rain today is important to the health of our desert and its environment in which we live. But I must tell you as I sit in our 68-degree house, that I yearn for the high seventies and nights much nearer to 50. I do know that if our environment is to have any chance in its long-term recovery from a severe drought, days like today, and I do remember many like this in other winter seasons in the 35 years we have lived here, must be a part of our winter season.  I do know that many of you wish that we would keep the worship area a bit warmer on Sunday mornings, but it is truly expensive to heat that very large space to a temperature warmer than 70. When I practice piano during the week, I do not turn on the heat, instead I wear warmer clothes and bear with the very cold temperature of the piano keys. Have hope though, by a week from now we will be back in the 70s with lows at night much warmer, and plenty of sun once again.

I wanted to speak for a moment about how we approach our membership and participation in church. I think that we often find that congregation and building where we grew up as somehow more holy than subsequent churches we may have attended or joined later in our lives. I have come to love our beautiful church, mature and holding some of the best glass in Tucson, God's altar at American holds many wonderful memories of weddings, and on the nave floor, Baptisms and oh so many Holy Communions, filled with music, joy, and the courage of our faith in God even when times can get pretty tough, like the pandemic closures, and the necessary absence of those who feared being around others, and for darn good reasons.  But, at my insistence, we didn't close our doors, we worshiped with courage and some pretty cold Sunday mornings when our furnace and our fresh air cooler were running at the same time. I know that the Church throughout the world has suffered because her members sometimes failed to return to worship, fellowship, and unity with our Savior in Holy Communion. We have sometimes felt down, and yet, we have weathered through all of it with the strength of our faith that God will never dessert us, or leave us destitute of knowing that, in Christ, we will be lifted up once again.  The prayer chain at American, your participation in three Bible Studies each week, your support of my sometimes mediocre piano and organ performances on Sundays or festival days, and our feeling that American is unlike any other church we have been in, is real, and potent in our call to serve Christ's Gospel Truth in the world, often broken with unnecessary violence by governments toward their citizens, wars against neighbors, and biases that broadly show our sin.  You may feel down about how each of us can move forward, and yet, our life experience tells us that God is not far from us. In fact, it is we who find ourselves far from God even when His faithfulness toward us has never failed.

Now my good friends in Christ, why did I start out with all of this about our relationships with congregations and buildings where we have been, or may be right now? This is exactly what Psalm 42 is about. The Psalmist is walking with two feelings in his/her heart about God's faithfulness and acknowledging their own personal failure to trust the God who has proven Himself time and again in the history of His people, and by the birth, ministry, suffering, and death of His Son, Jesus Christ.  The Psalmist is definitely worried about God's faithfulness personally, but also to Jerusalem, its people, its safety, and its current situation which is alive with threats from outside the nation of Israel. In the north of Israel are the mountains about which the Psalmist writes. Just as we have seen in the last week in California, those wonderful mountains of rocky strength can be flooded and flooding against those who are near to them, but it is God, in spite of that flooding and damage, who always remains in control, there, and in all of life!  I can see myself in this Psalm, sometimes the resolve of my faith and confidence in God and Christ is unshakable, and sometimes, I find myself praying for greater faith, and for the courage and commitment of Christ as my ministry moves forward in my later life.

However, like the Psalmist, we also know that our God's love for us is immutable and unshakeable. In the weeks ahead we may need to revisit this Psalm. It is a powerful telling of our loving God, and our shaky faith, and of our loss of courage at the hands of others who might make us fail to turn to the God in whom we have always trusted.

Please enjoy the rain, carry the birth of Christ in your hearts, and know, that in everything that we face, celebration, triumph, failure, or weakness to face the driving forces around us, Our God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is in charge!

With the Love of Christ for all people, those I know, and those who are yet to be known by me, I humbly offer you this psalm of mine for today. Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 10:9-16 (January 6, 2026)

January 6, 2026:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 10:9-16

Good morning, and happy Epiphany, the season of the church year when we celebrate God's revelation of Himself through His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the day we lift up the entry of the Wise Men into the life of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, providing them with the means to escape the coming life trials of Herod's action to destroy all the young children in, and around, Bethlehem.  It is only through the gifts of the Magi that the Holy Family is able to take that journey to Egypt. Please keep Kandice and Lisa, and Alexis in your prayers as Kandice's cancer now has her bed bound, with lowering BP and O2 levels. May our LORD surround them with the comfort and peace of His presence as Kandice grows ever closer to joining our Savior in His Eternal Kingdom. This Saturday we will gather at church at 10AM to take down the Christmas tree, and other decorations, and to place banners more correctly for the Season after Epiphany. Hope to see you there. Thanks for the help.

This morning, we move forward in this important and broadening story about Peter's encounter with the Roman Centurion, Cornelius. Yesterday I talked about the tension and fear which Peter must have felt as he responded to the Centurion's call for Peter's presence in his home at the seaport where everything was controlled by Rome. In our passage for today, we have Peter on the roof of the home of Simon, the tanner of leather. It is there that Peter is drawn to prayer in the face of the coming uncertainty of his visit to Cornelius. Obviously, Peter is looking for an answer, or perhaps guidance from God in the face of his own fear. He gets an answer to his prayers, but it is not what he expected or wanted at this time. Instead, it is a vision which God gives Peter three times while he is on the roof praying for the answer that he thinks he needs. It is the vision which is God's answer for Peter. The vision of the creatures of God's creation, and the Lord's command that Peter kill and eat from their midst. This is something new, after all there are plenty of Jewish food restrictions in the body of Jewish Law, and Peter initially claims obedience to them all. The vision is repeated in order that Peter might realize that this is not just about food, but it is even more about what is new in Christ's kingdom on earth. The Old has been set aside by the new! In the newness of Christ there are no limits to be placed on the creations of God, not on any animal or person. The Good News is for everyone. What is ironic is that Peter has been hosted as a guest in the home of a tanner of animal hides. Simon will never be "clean" by the standards of Jewish Law, and yet Peter has stayed with him in his home. A true Jewish person would also never enter the home of a Gentile, Roman or otherwise. The Jewish person would become unclean upon entering the home. It is through this vision that Peter comes to understand and know in his heart, that anything that God deems to be clean, should never be shunned by a person who is now in this new intimate relationship with God's Savior, Jesus Christ.  This is a new understanding for Peter, and it opens him up to a much broader ministry for the Savior. Sometimes I feel like we need that vision to come before us. So often we struggle with the full inclusion of all people in the Body of Christ because we are confident that we must already know how Jesus must feel about them. When we see others in that way, we need to come and reread about this vision for Peter. It changed his life, and his ministry and it will change ours. Inclusivity is the Lord's path for His Church.

God Bless you Today, and Always. With the Love of our Savior, Pastor Kim