Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 2:23-28 bible study (September 19, 2023)

Good morning to you all and may the Blessings of the Holy One of God surround today and always.

I had my record number of 100+ days wrong yesterday. The record was set in 2020 with 109 100+ days. At 79 days this year we are off that pace quite a bit. Today please keep families in your prayers. We all know the stress of living with inflation, and then getting hit with increases in insurances, taxes, mortgages, GAS, and groceries. This all creates quite a load of stress on our families. Teens getting close to becoming independent adults are faced with rents and costs that most full-time minimum pay jobs cannot support. Emotionally overwhelming circumstances in the lives of families and their members mean that family energies are used up faster than they might ever have expected, and the resulting stress can quickly be the cause of disharmony for Moms, Dads, and children. It's tough right now, so let’s continue our prayers for all the families of our churches, communities, and country. Please know that you can request a prayer by our prayer chain. You can call 520-623-3661, the church office, and leave a message if no one is able to get to the phone, or you may text Prayer Request to 520-237-6442.

Today we have one of the most significant passages about Jesus in our bible study of Mark, His Word for God's children, and the right place of the religious community. Of course, Jesus is in hot water with the rules and laws of the Scribes with regards to the Sabbath and what may or may not be done according to the religious authorities. Jesus and His Disciples strip corn from the stalks to eat when they are hungry, but this is the Sabbath for the Jews, and accusations are ready to be offered to this upstart Galilean itinerant preacher, teacher, and healer. Instead of being in awe of Christ and all that he is doing in the midst of the people, the "religiously righteous" are, instead, prepared to condemn Jesus for allowing this kind of behavior to take place. We must remember that there were literally 1000s of petty rules established, and in particular there were four forbidden activities.

1. a person was not to reap.

2. there was to be no winnowing.

3. no threshing of grain.

4. no preparation of food.

All were considered labor and were strictly forbidden by Jewish Sabbath Law. At this point, the leaders would be able to label Jesus and His Disciples as law breakers. Such a label could mean devastating consequences for a person in business, or for a community leader. However, Jesus replies citing the story of David in I Samuel 21:1-6 when he and his men ate the bread from in front of the Holy of Holies on the Sabbath. That bread belonged to the priests. It is in this interaction that Jesus sets a new precedent which overcomes the rules of the Temple, or Priests, or even divine law, when human need is present, it overrides any other rule established for "Good Order". Human need will always take priority! Like any person, I love to have time after a relaxed dinner to crash, yet my family has chosen to serve human need, along with another parish family. We take a very generous supply of bread from Beyond Bread on Campbell Ave, at closing time, to the food pantry and meal program at one of our full communion partners, Grace St. Paul Episcopal Church, where they distribute the bread in food boxes, and also use it for their lunch program for the hungry of our community. We also have a family that brings Pow Wow food to the congregation on Sunday mornings during the Autumn and Winter. Since we have a number of lower income families, it provides for them and anyone else who is in need. We have been collecting peanut butter for a month now to send on over to the pantry with the bread on one Thursday evening. For Jesus, it is the place of the heart in how we seek to live the truth of this passage that is so important in our faith journeys.

The truths of this passage are as follows:

• a. Religion does not consist of rules and regulations. Rather, with a heart for the Savior, we must not only seek fulfillment in our own relationship with Christ, but we must in religion be ready to love, forgive, and serve others. This is the truth of who we are as God's children in Jesus Christ.

• b. The priority claim of any person is to meet the needs of others. Without this priority we must question whether or not we truly understand Christ's call on our lives and His gift of Faith in our life journeys. Is our religious belief genuine if we are not living in this way? All we need to do to understand is to model our faith journey on the life of our Lord.

• c. In the Church the priority must be for all sacred things to be used for the benefit of those who are in need. We need to take note in this passage that Jesus never dismisses us from this kind of living for any reason. That should not surprise us when we consider Christ's devotion to the people of His nation and beyond. In fact, we should not be shocked by this claim of Christ, after all, his whole being was given for you and for me.

There is a legend of a fourth wise man who was late for the journey to bring his gifts to the newborn King, Jesus. He plans to give some of the most valuable gifts of jewels and a pearl of the greatest value. However, in his hurry to catch up to the other wise men he encounters a traveler who is ill, and for this man he comes across he takes the time from his journey to bring this man back to health and pays the bill for his care with a world-class sapphire, with just enough left to pay for his own camels and guide across the desert. He finally arrives too late, for Mary and Joseph and the new King had already departed Bethlehem for Egypt when they were given a vision of the danger that Jesus was in from Herod. Artaban arrived in time to see the soldiers murdering the children and chose to pay another of his treasures to keep a child safe from the soldier's swords. This time it was his gift of a great ruby sacrificed for a stranger's child. After this, Artaban wondered for thirty years looking for the King to give Him his final gift, a priceless pearl. But as he was preparing to set out to go to the crucifixion where he had been told the King would be, a young girl ran to him telling Artaban that because of her father's debt she was to be captured and sold as a slave. This time it was the great priceless pearl which would buy the girl her freedom. Artaban grieved the loss of his last great treasure, and in the earthquake of the Crucifixion of Jesus, Artaban is fatally struck by a roof tile, the girl he helped to set free holds him. As he neared his death, he heard a quiet voice speaking to him, "Truly I say to you, as you have done this for the least of mine, you have done it to me." How much we should have the same heart of compassion and giving when we are faced with the human victims of this broken world. I want the Lord to know the loving kindness for others which has been a really important part of my life, not because I am so good, but because the Lord who loves me has given me everything that I could ever hope to know, the gifts of Life with God, God's forgiveness, and best of all, Salvation!

Finally, we must know in our heart of hearts that the Love of Christ, and our own sacrifices of thanksgiving for all that Christ has done for us is what will always be the priority.

In Christ's love, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 2:18-22 bible study (September 18, 2023)

Grace and Peace to you on this beautiful morning in the Sonoran Desert.  May the abundant riches of God's blessing for our lives surround you today and always.

Obviously we all need to be praying for the people of Morocco and the people of Libya.  These two nations have suffered heavy losses in natural disasters over the past several weeks.  Pray too for the people and businesses of the North East Coast, as well as, the Canadian Maritimes.  The near miss of  a hurricane has left some of these areas reeling from the heavy surf, flooding, and wind damage.  It would appear that a planet-wide change in all of our living conditions is on the near horizon.  This year you and I survived some of the hottest weather recorded in the desert, and we set a record 79 days at 100 degrees or above.  That may be 80 days as of this afternoon.  So we have exceeded the record for 100 or greater degree days by at least 10 days.  We must remember those whose homes, homelessness, or financial viability may not make it possible for them to access the cooling that they might otherwise have.  There is never any lack of prayers to be offered each day.  Please be a prayer blessing for our world and her people.

Please pray too for Linda whose husband Keith died this past Tuesday. Services were at the Lutheran congregation where they have attended worship.  Keith suffered with a debilitating brain disease over a period of several years, and required greater and greater at home care over these years.

Is it any wonder that we always need to live with the joy of Christ in our lives.  Only the Christ can bring us the hope that we need as we face the ups and downs of this life.

Today we move on to another section of chapter two of Mark's Gospel bible study, 2:18-22.

In verses 18-20, we are met with a conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees over the issue of fasting as an important part of faith discipline.  Or, in the case of the Pharisees, it was for many of them as way, with faces painted white, and looking dismal, that others could see their purity and devotion.  In other words, it was a way to show something of them which was not true.  Theirs was not for faith growth and devotion.  It was simply for the world of men to see how much the Pharisees deserved their place as  leaders of the faith.  You and I know that we have encountered pastors too, who for their own aggrandizement put on a really good "show" of being devoted to Christ.  They might even be pretty good preachers, but what tells us the truth about these leaders is how they live their lives.  How are they living in the community?  What really consumes their lives?  I'm not suggesting that clergy do not face the very same crises in their lives that everyone does, but how is it that God's grace fills them for the work of the Gospel while they use that very same grace to cope with all of those human problems.  Does that clergy ever seek the support of the congregation, or do they never seek that support?  For Jesus, always moving toward the fulfillment of His journey to the Cross, meant that fasting was something that could wait for his disciples and himself.  Knowing joy in the Son of God, meant that fasting, which was supposed to take the faster closer to God, or create discipline for living, was being fulfilled within their sight and touch in the person of Jesus.  Would you choose to fast to improve your own faith if the Christ of God was standing before you and spending time with you moment to moment in your life?  Generally, we Lutherans choose to forego something of importance for us during the season of Lent as part of our own Lenten discipline and Lenten faith journey, but from Sunday to Sunday we always continue to celebrate the Resurrection of our Savior.  If the Pharisees saw Christ's lack of fasting as an insult to God, they were ultimately probably never going to realize that God cannot insult himself!  As we will see in the next verses too, Christ is a really good viewer of what was a familiar cultural or practical function to tell the reality of who he was. (is)  When speaking about himself as the bride groom, Christ knows full well that there is a Rabbinic saying that fasting is suspended during the wedding feast and celebration, even if it was a religiously significant reason for that fasting to take place.  We must imagine the outrage of the Pharisees when Christ names himself the bridegroom.  Yes, Jesus always has an answer to address those issues of the religious leaders of His time, and absent true faith, the majority of Pharisees will never see why he said this, but on Jesus' response we also come to know that even at this early time in His ministry, His heart is set on saving all of God's children through his innocence and perfection as he dies for our sin on the Cross.

These next verses are about practical situations being spoken of by Jesus to teach what those who come to belief must not do.  In Jesus day, everyone knew about not trying to patch an old garment with a brand new piece of material, in its strength the new material will destroy and tear the old material.  And wine skins were so common in every household from shepherds, to fishermen, to landed business people, that everyone knew that you did not place newly fermented wine in a hardened and brittle wine skin.  

Jesus uses such direct, easy, and simple examples from everyone's life, and gets directly to the point of what He is really working to say.  He is kind of like the google master of his day.  Have you ever used a Google Map assistant when you are in an unfamiliar community or on vacation?  About ten years ago, driving into Chicago at night from the south, we encountered a heavy rain storm in the dark and heavy traffic coming home from work.  With our Google maps assist on, we were quickly diverted from the freeway to an overpass and re-entry onto the freeway on the other side.  There had been an accident blocking the traffic under the overpass.  Yes, what could have been a complicated mess, instead it was direct, easy, and simple.  In this part of the passage from Mark two, Jesus is making it clear that in coming to faith in Him, there will be much that is new and that faith will continue to strengthen and grow in very different ways from the old practices and all of the legalities of Jewish guides for living under what to this time had been deemed the oppressive Law of God.  Those who come to faith in Jesus will be the new material of the faith community, and they will also be the new wine that can no longer be contained by the old wine skin.  Today we see many changes in life, and also in the church.  We are not always, as the long timers, ready to accept the change that seems to surround us.  How do you feel about social media, or the presence of those who sexual identity is different from our own as members of the faith community, or of the necessity for Bible Studies to come to us via email and the internet, or the lives of so many who are bound to their technical devices for any meaning?  I still see a phone primarily for phone calls, and for other kinds of messaging like texts, but my children literally live on their phones.  I don't get it.  Are not person to person, face to face, physically present relationships better and more fulfilling?  According to them, not necessarily.  And I worry for their isolation in the future lives they will live.  However, as we continue as the Church to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we need to be ready to adjust and compensate for such differences in the life of the Church too.  The new fabric and the new wine are in our midst!

God bless you.   In Christ,  Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 2:15-17 bible study (September 12, 2023)

May God's Love bring you hope today and always.

As I write today, the crisis in Morocco appears to be growing as mountain villages near the epicenter of the earth quake have been totally destroyed, and few, and in some cases no one, survived in those isolated places. Contributions can be made through the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA.Org) disaster relief placing a direction for the money that is sent to be used. Please remember that nearly $.90 of every dollar gets used for the purpose for which is was given. There are few, if any other organizations, that can accomplish that percentage. Please keep me in your prayers too. I have controlled high blood pressure, most of the time. Last night I had a spike that took over three hours to bring down with my rescue medication, so today I am very tired, and still kind of battling the after effects of the spike. It usually takes me a few days to fully recover from one of these ups in pressure. I really think that I also got dehydrated through Sunday's heat, and not drinking enough water on Monday either. I am working hard today to really keep the water going throughout the day. Sometimes I get really busy and forget, probably like you all do, to take the precautions that keep me safe for being hydrated.

Today we continue in chapter two of the Gospel of Mark bible study, verses 15-17. This section of Mark's Gospel is also found in Matthew 9:9-13, and in Luke 5:27-32. Once again, John has no comparable parallel. Of course this is one of the things that keeps us all intrigued when we check out John to get the flavor of a very different content, and yet, in its own way, John's Gospel is also authoritative and certainly authentic.

After Jesus calls Matthew the tax collector, Matthew brings Jesus to his home, and calls together those who he knows. According to the Orthodox of the time, these far less than Orthodox people are called the people of the land. They are the ones who do not make any attempt to keep the law of orthodoxy in the Jewish faith, and they are shunned by all of the Jews who do try to keep the law. So here is Jesus, surrounded by tax collectors and sinners. Obviously Matthew has seen something in Jesus that has drawn him to make the commitment to follow the Savior, he wants others to know what he has come to know and experience. I also suspect that if Matthew's tax office is lucrative, then he has an offer to make to someone about taking his place. We do not know if Matthew, who we assume is well resourced, brings his accumulated wealth with him to support Christ's ministry. We are also not given any idea about the content of the conversations that must have been going on. If Christ spoke to this group it was with the same kind of purity, truth, compassion, and love for them that He always used when offering the living presence of God's Grace for those around Him. This group, like Matthew, may have been experiencing Christ's amazing presence. The big elephant in the room is not those who were there to dine with Matthew and to find out about Matthew's life-changing decision to follow this itinerant preacher. It was, in fact, the presence around Matthew's home of the religiously orthodox.

Another factor in this meal is the conversation which Jesus had with those who evidently were also tracking Christ's activities, just like the people who were desperate for God's True Word, and for the healing that Jesus so abundantly offered to those who came to Him. However, their reasoning was completely different. Those who followed the orthodoxy of Jewish Law were there to try to figure out how this new teacher and healer fit into their world of contempt and fear for the "others" of their communities. In some ways, what Jesus says about those who need a doctor and those who don't could lead us to believe that Christ has no place or desire to be with those who are good. That is, as you and I know, not the case at all. The Orthodox of Christ's people believed that they had everything right already. There would have been no willingness on their part to receive the Truth and Healing that Christ offered. There is a great chasm between the humility of right-faith and living, done with thanksgiving, and believing that others are inferior for their failure to meet the perfection of the self centered righteousness of those who sought to dismiss the Christ of God. People who do not carry the Love of Christ in their hearts can never be fishers of people for the Kingdom. Only those who have come to know the power of the compassion and desire of Christ for every single person, no matter their circumstance, can truly be the vehicle of convincing others of the power of God's Love, bringing them into the Kingdom.

God bless you today. I hope that you have the rain that the weather forecasters have said we should get. Remember, The Love of Christ is yours too.

In Christ, Pastor Kim