Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 3:22-27 bible study (October 16, 2023)

Dear friends in Christ,  May the joy of God's Grace fill your life today and always.

It's good to be back from vacation.  We had a wonderful time at a Hilton Golf Resort in Scottsdale.  It's the first time that we have been to that resort, and while there we shared an evening meal out with dueling piano entertainment with about 50 other people who were going to spend time in presentations by Hilton the next day to become Hilton Grand Vacation members.  We sat with folks from Savannah, GA, and Charleston, SC.  Great folks to spend an evening with.  In our absence, there were continuing prayer requests for Kandice whose cancer has appeared in a new location while the other tumors are shrinking,  A disappointing time for Kandice and her family.  She will hopefully be starting a new trial which Drs. are hopeful will succeed in doing a better job of reducing her cancer.  Prayers for Nancy who fell in her home and is now recovering at home.  Also pray for Della who may have contracted covid.  Her 90th birthday is coming in the next several weeks.   Pray, too, for our son James, who cut his foot shooting baskets in the back yard after dark on Friday.  He had a Dr. visit Sunday during church, and is moving a bit better as of this morning.   Pray also for Holly who is home caring for a sore throat.

Today, we are in the third chapter of the Gospel of Mark, verses 22-27 for our bible study.   This passage helps us understand the way in which the religious leaders sought to discredit Jesus.  It is interesting because they have been witnesses to the wonderful acts of healing that Jesus has been doing with the people, and in their hearts they must know that the preaching and teaching of Christ is the Truth of God for His children.  Yet, they are prepared to move in the direction of the superstition, fear, and understanding of the day about the presence of evil and the satan.  I know that Jesus speaks in terms using the word to describe the adversary of all of humankind.  It is the evil that is present in God's creation which threatens to pull us away from Jesus, our Savior, and our Father in heaven.  In Jesus time, all illness was thought to be the work of one's sin, and the evil one.  No where in the Bible is there a reference to the incarnation of the "Devil".  One might argue that by using the word satan for the adversary of all people, it could be interpolated to mean that the evil one has physical form.  I usually give that way of seeing this little thought.  It is obvious if God created good, (see the first chapter of Genesis) then He also is responsible for the balance of His creation, and moved to create evil as well, all so that His children would have the opportunity to have choice and freedom of the will to  Choose the Light of Christ, or choose to turn to the evil that is always so present and tempting, ignoring God's offer of His amazing grace!  Everyone, and I mean Everyone, is simultaneously a saint in Christ and sometimes chooses evil and sin instead.  We are justified by Christ's acts of sacrifice for us all, and by Christ's gift of faith, we are able to accept His gift of life.

I suspect that in their blindness the officials were unable to experience the Light which Christ delivered to all of God's Creation.  Few, including the Jews were able to understand the fullness and power of God's Love for them which Christ brought.  Our Sunday's Gospel from Matthew was a parable that followed the history of God's relationship with His elect people.  The parable of the marriage feast revealed just how far removed the original guests were.  So much so that they ignored the call of the King to come to the Feast for the Bridegroom.  The original guests were in such a bad place that others were invited to come from the varied places in which they lived.  Today, we know the Church as the ones who responded to the charge to come and celebrate the King's Son, Jesus Christ.  I don't mean to say that there are no problems in the Church today.  After all, we are both saintly and sinful, but we are the ones who have answered the call to the Feast of Christ.  God sent His Son to die for our sins because that sacrifice of Love was the only answer that could allow us to be in a right relationship with God.  It is possible only because of the merit of the Son of God.  In this passage from Matthew we come to know that the defeat of evil begins through Jesus Christ, and He is victorious in its defeat for the good of all of us.

In addition, we come to know that Jesus accepts the picture of human life as a struggle.  This struggle is the sign that our Father in Heaven has come to be involved in the battle with evil which causes us all so much anguish in our lives.  Today, that is really good for us to know!  Christ was victorious.  We are the ones who act like He wasn't.  And so, by the power of Christ's Holy Spirit, the battle continues to be met every day on our behalf so that we might have life and live it in all of the abundance which God has always desired us to know.  Jesus came in a time when disease ravaged people.  He knew that, in a great part, the battle with evil was to be fought by bringing healing to thousands.  If you are a believer today, like me, then we are together healed in the battle between the Good Grace of God and the evil which attempts to act like it still has a chance to find the victory.  Today, doctors, clergy, and we ourselves continue to share in the battle of healing others.  To lose that battle means death, but for we who come through Jesus to know the power of God's Grace, death becomes the gate to the new life which Christ has given us, instead of an end in eternal darkness and separation from God's presence and Grace.

Tomorrow we will continue in chapter three with verses 28-30, which contains the "unforgiveable sin".   Is there one?  We will talk more tomorrow.

In Christ's love for all that is right and good and just,

Pastor Kim Taylor.

Pastor's Ponderings: Bible Study Introduction on Old Testament book of Ezra (October 5, 2023)

Good morning in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. May the blessings of the Light of Christ guard and guide you every day of your life.

Today I am going to give you background of the First Testament (Old Testament) as the author and theologian John Goldingay likes to call the Hebrew Scriptures. What is really important for us to acknowledge is that these are the texts that Jesus was accustomed to using. In His time they were hardly "old", they were then, and continue to be today, God's Truth for all people, though Jesus often enlightens them in ways that the religious leaders could not. They were steeped in the many generations who had used those books to guide God's elect. The problem is that they missed the point of God's call on this people to be a light to the world. So lets do a kind of quick calendar of dates and event which might help us all to put Ezra into the place where he fits.

• 1200's: BCE (Before the Common Era / the new title for BC) Moses, the exodus, Joshua

• 1100's: The time of the Judges

• 1000's: Saul , the first King of the Hebrews, followed by Saul's son briefly, and then David becomes the king

• 900's: Solomon; the nations splits into two - Israel on the north and Judah and Jerusalem on the south.

• 800's: Elijah, Elisha

• 700's: Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah; Assyria is the super power of the time and defeats and exiles the people and their leaders in the northern kingdom, Israel

• 600's: Jeremiah, King Josiah (the last great faithful Jewish King); Babylon is the super power

• 500's: Ezekiel; the fall of Judah ; Persia is the super power; under King Cyrus Judahites are free to return home

• 400's: Ezra, Nehemiah

• 300's: Greece is the super power

• 200's: Syria and Egypt are both regional super powers pulling Judah one way or the other

• 100's: Judah's rebellion against Syrian power and gain of independence

• 000's: Rome is the super power, and as we know, they overrun Judah and Jerusalem

Please know that there are historically more specific dates for many of these happenings, but for the purpose of our study, these are close enough.

In Hebrew manuscripts, Ezra and Nehemiah form one book of scripture. Together they tell an unfolding story after the return of the Jews to Judah after their exile. Against the opposition of neighboring nations, the Jews return to rebuild the Temple. In Nehemiah we find Ezra and Nehemiah present at the same time during the temple restoration and rebuilding. The real heroes of the return of the Jews from Persia to Judah were Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel (both leaders who we might choose to call "governors", the priestly leader Jeshua (Joshua, not the person from 700 years earlier), the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. Their time of presence was after 539BCE when Babylon was over powered by the Persians. This is the time in the book of Ezra in chapters 1-6 that we are told about how the Persians encouraged the Jews to return home. As we consider the return we must remember that nearly everyone who had been taken into exile had died, and there was no large number of Jews who knew about, or wanted anything to do with heading back to Judah. Many Jews had already assimilated into the Persian culture, where their families, businesses, and homes had already been for quite a while.

The next section of Ezra, 7-10, Perhaps Ezra's grandfather was born at the beginning of this time 458BCE, so Ezra was not even around when the return from exile took place. Ezra returns to Judah some 80 years after the first return. Upon his return Ezra finds a community of Jews who do not live in accordance with the Pentateuch, the first five books which the Jews name the books of Law, and with him, Ezra has a copy of the Torah (the Law). He also finds that there has been, as we would expect, a lot of inter marriage between the Jews and the local non-Jewish tribes. The people of the other tribes neither worshiped the Jewish God, nor did they believe in Him. So Ezra sets about the process of getting the people to repent.

All of this is the story in a compressed form, so in two weeks we will begin to dig into the text of Ezra in this bible study. With this background we will have a better idea of what has already happened, and what Ezra accomplishes through his presence in Judah and at the Temple. Please remember that the dating which I have shared with you is not always exact, but is based on the scholarship of our time about these events.

I will be back with you in two weeks on October 19th. Thanks for sharing with me today.

In Christ Love for us all, Pastor Kim Taylor

Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 3:20-21 bible study (October 3, 2023)

Praise to our Lord Jesus Christ on this cool desert morning filled with the light of creation, and filled with the Light of Christ for all who allow the Spirit to move them to faith.

Please remember that 2/3 of our nation is caught in a heat wave today, and it will certainly last into tomorrow. Please pray for those who do not have, or cannot afford to run, their cooling for their homes. We have also reached the peak time for many in our nation for the glorious colors of autumn. I have gone peeping with Melody even in high school. Northern Michigan is beautiful beyond measure as the trees move to full fall color. Please offer a prayer of thanksgiving that our member, Kandice, is OK after experiencing a fall. She is home after a trip to emergency. Thanks to God, too, for the nine year old who was kidnapped while on a bike ride in the campground where her family was. She was found safe, and the perpetrator was arrested. Our lives are filled with unforeseen happenings. Some are wonderful, but others are troubling and frightening for everyone involved in them. It is so good to know that in both the good and the bad, our God, through His Son Jesus Christ, has gifted our living with the Holy Spirit who strengthens our faith, gives us comfort, or lifts our courage to face the unknown, while celebrating with the hosts of Heaven when are lives are filled with joy.

Today in our bible study, we move to Mark 3:20-21. It is an extremely small, but important passage about how Jesus approached His ministry as He moved ever closer to the conflict that would bring Him to the cross, and the Salvation that is ours through His sacrifice. What is really interesting about the passage, 22-27 which follows, is that in the other Gospels there is so much that is not in the Gospel of Mark. In Matthew, we have the Sermon on the Mount and much more, and the same thing is true of the Gospel of Luke, but in Luke it is the Sermon on the Plain. It isn't until we get to Mark 3:22-27 that we begin to see some parallel material being shared again between these three Gospels. We must remember that John carries many passages not shared in any of the other Gospels. I will give the verses in the other Gospels that are similar when we get to that part of chapter 3.

In this passage, we discover what the world of people, and even Jesus' own family think about what he is doing. "He has taken leave of His senses!"

First of all: Jesus had left a business in Nazareth that supported His family. He picked up and left for Galilee. According to this text, His family moved with Him. Since he was the oldest child, He was responsible to keep the family pulled together and cared for, though that certainly does not seem to be His primary concern at this time. At a time of Roman intervention and religious legalistic fervor, Jesus left the stability of His trade, and left His home behind. We hear Him say that a prophet is never welcomed in His own home. Perhaps He meant his immediate family, but after his later experience in Nazareth, it may well be a comment about the community in which He lived and worked. There was no way that they would support the radical approach which Jesus was taking. He was to become an itinerant preacher and healer of the people, depending on the generosity of others for the money to survive.

Secondly: Jesus was definitely on a collision course with the orthodoxy of the Jewish faith leaders who were rule-laden at every turn. That problem for them could have been a matter of generational experience with the Law of God, or it may have been for the convenience of maintaining wealth and power. Either of these could be true, or maybe both were true. No sensible man would move to a head-on confrontation with the people who had the authority to literally destroy Him. As His family who loved Him was able to understand, Jesus would not fare well in that kind of conflict.

Third: Jesus was surrounding Himself with a quite strange little troupe of men, and called them His friends, having only just come to know them. Of course, you and I have some more of this story. Jesus was able to know the hearts of those He called to share this ministry with Him, just as He knows our hearts! That may be a little frightening when we consider that the fullness of our lives is an open book to the Savior.

Most of us have a sense for what it takes to keep our lives as secure as possible. The direction which Jesus was headed was anything but the world norm for Him.

1. He had thrown away His security for a life filled with what we would all think of as uncertain and troubled.

2. He had thrown away His safety when most people would do whatever it would take to be safe.

3. Jesus had shown Himself to be totally indifferent to the verdicts of society of His day.

Let me take a few personal minutes with you at this time. Jesus was confident in the truth and power which He brought to the world. When clergy are called to serve in a new community, like Me, Melody, and the first family of four children, we left a much more financially secure call in Michigan, knowing that I was hearing a call to change to a new location. We had to face a much lower income, the loss of a car which my previous parish provided, more vacation, and higher payments to my pension plan. Somehow, though, for us, none of that was the most important part of making a risky move cross-country to Tucson, and American Lutheran. And, like Christ's family, my family, especially my brothers, were extremely angry with us for taking such a distant call, so far away from the rest of the family. Though we have been home a number of times to visit my oldest brother, and Melody's only brother, none of them have visited us in our home in Tucson, nor did they ever visit our home at the call in Ann Arbor. To this day, I am pretty certain that they never understood the urgent call of the Holy Spirit for me to make this move. We came not knowing if the call would be long lasting, or fulfilling for our ministry as a family. The safety net of all those better benefits had to be set aside. There was, and continues to be today, a call on my life to serve the Gospel of Jesus Christ here in Tucson.

Jesus knew the very same thing. The security, the safety, the shock of family and friends, all had to be left behind. The Gospel call is the priority for clergy life. When we arrived there were plenty of "alligators" here, but the faithful with hearts for service and loving kindness held us in Christ's Love through the good and the tough times. When I see Christian service, it is not about holding oneself up on a pedestal, rather, it is the lovingkindness and hope that fills a person's life, making it possible to be and do more than most people think is a possibility for their own lives. The self-giving of Jesus Christ is the model for all of us today, tomorrow, and always!

I guess that these two verses for today were enough on their own. We will move on to 22-27 tomorrow morning. On Thursday, we begin the new study of Ezra in the Old Testament. Be sure to give Christ's Spirit a home in your heart.

In Christ, Pastor Kim Taylor