December 9, 2024: Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 1:18-24
Good morning in this third week of Advent. In the growing darkness of each day, the season of Advent is our opportunity to celebrate the growing Light of God's Grace in our lives, especially as we get closer and closer to celebrating the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. As the weather chills, please be mindful of the homeless in our community. Keep them in your regular prayers for safety from the cold, prayers for safety from violence, and prayers for adequate food provision for them each day. Today I ask for your prayers for my brother, Rick. He is in "recuperative" care, his heart is barely keeping him alive even with its newly placed pace maker. Last night his wife was called to the care center at 1AM because there was fear that he would not make it. Pray for their daughter Shannon who is traveling today by car to get to her parent's home and her father's care center. Please also pray for our congregation's oldest member, Della. Della will be headed into a memory care facility when a room opens up for her. May God's richest blessings and peace be hers in the time ahead.
Today in Galatians we have a brief passage about Paul's first visit to meet with Peter, and also with James, the brother of Jesus. James did not follow Jesus in his life and ministry, but after Christ's resurrection, James became a follower of the new Christian cult. Ultimately James will become the leader of church in Jerusalem, and the whole of the new churches that have been formed by the apostles after Christ's death and Resurrection. In this passage we are told that Paul has already been journeying for Christ for three years and helping in the formation of new Christian communities. Now he has headed to meet Peter and James. He has not gone to Jerusalem to be tutored by Peter. Nor has he come to ask for their blessings on the work that he has been doing. In many ways, Paul is working independently. It is most likely that he has gone to see Peter, so that both he and Peter are comfortable with one another and each's teaching. Paul treasures the work of the Apostles in Jerusalem, the whole of the new church, and his own work for the Truth of the Savior's sacrifice and Resurrection for all people. It is Paul who will teach about the blending of people from many different heritages and statuses, that in Christ there is no separation of any kind based on any worldly thinking. No race, no sexual identity, no wealthy, no poor, no Jew, no Greek, nor any other separations which people have created in their minds are to divide the people who receive Christ as LORD and Savior. It is very different for the Apostles who continue their work almost exclusively with people of Jewish faith and heritage. Though Paul and Peter come to know that their messages are the same about Jesus, there is a kind of independence for Paul and his own ministry. In terms of the unity as Paul preaches and teaches, he does so without any approval from the Apostles. Paul certainly received the truth of Christ when he experienced Christ on the road to Damascus and was converted to see Christ's Truth for all time. Today ELCA Lutherans and their predecessor bodies have worked diligently to build unity and understanding between differing denominations. We call these dialogs critical to the re-unifying of the whole Church. We know that often there seem to be insurmountable differences, and yet we continue because we know that it has always been Christ's hope that the Church will once again be one, just as He created it to be. Paul faces criticism from some who have come into Galatia claiming that Paul is weak, and a simple puppet of the disciples in Jerusalem. Nothing could be less true. Paul is at one and same time independent and "orthodox" in the Truth he has shared in every church start. The Truth he preaches and teaches is in line with that taught in Jerusalem. Nothing could be more wrong than to see Paul as being inauthentic. We know how the early church saw Paul. His writings were considered to be canon as the New Testament took shape under the council which met some three hundred years later. Today Paul is our theological guide to knowing Christ. We treasure his teaching on Justification by Grace through Faith as a free gift from God for every one of our lives. We are loved and cherished as God's treasures of creation.
Today as I pray for my brother, knowing that his life may end in the next few days, I am also filled with gratitude and joy in the coming celebration of Christ's birth, and the sure and certain hope that comes to us all in the Resurrection of Christ!
As I listen to Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring on our classical Christmas channel on Dish TV, I send to you too, the great good love of God, His Son, and the Holy Spirit. Pastor Kim
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