Pastor's Ponderings: Ephesians 1:15-2:3 Bible Study (week of October 26, 2026)

October 26, 2026: Ephesians 1:15-23

Good morning to all of you who are studying Scripture with me this week.  Today we have a larger passage for our bible study from Ephesians One, however we are going to cover it over several days because its content is significant for how we have come to Lutheran theological understanding over the history of the Lutheran Church.  In other words, there is much to be said about this part of the Ephesian letter.  Please be reminded that this coming Sunday is All Saints, and we will be celebrating the saints who have joined Christ in His perfect Heavenly Kingdom.  This coming Sunday is also a Gospel Music Sunday, and a carry-in luncheon after worship.  Two things: If you are able, and only if you are able, please bring a single red flower to place in the altar vase in memory of those who are not in heaven.  The second thing is the food theme.  Have in mind Thanksgiving when you decide on what you will bring.  Melody and I are preparing a whole turkey for the meal so if you have limits on the kind of food you are able to consume, we are hopeful that turkey will be OK for you.  At this meal, for the first time, people with health concerns with certain foods will be invited to come to select their food first.

This morning in our passage, the very first comment that Paul makes is about the nature of the church.  In studies we usually talk about the "Marks of the Church".  So what exactly is it that Paul believes are the marks of the true church?  They are simply loyalty to Christ, and abundant love for all people.  That means that if we are to be the True Church with which Christ has gifted believers, then we must always work diligently to be loyal to the Savior, and to be lovingly compassionate for all people who are loyal to Christ.  Please remember that it is not our role in the faith community to judge others' dedication and loyalty to the Son of God.  That privilege belongs to only Jesus!  The Mark of the Church that is ours to do, is to be loving believing people with all other members of the church.  That is how you and I show our true love and loyalty for Christ.  If we find ourselves in a situation where we are unwilling to show our love for others, then we are truly risking our relationship with Christ.  In Paul's time this was really crucial, because so many people from so many different places in life had come together to form the new church, that there were bound to some who felt superior to others,  some who believed they knew what needed to be done in governance if the church was to be safe from the disharmony that started in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve's thinking that somehow they knew a better way, and certainly God would not object to His children modeling their lives on His Knowledge and Power.  There is a tale about a church in ruins in England, it was dark and blackened in the day or the night, its altar surrounded by thorns and weeds with rain growing mold every where.  It came to be known as the Chapel of Hate.  A place where there was no light of Christ present in its past, its present, or in its future.  It was the home of "Our Lady of Hate".  Whenever someone felt wronged, unwilling to let others who they felt were trouble be a full part of the Church, or in a divorce filled with anger and hurt, or for people who were perceived to be different, or too old to be treated with kindness, we have reached a place where we can no longer claim our love of Christ, because the second Mark of the Church, loving all people, has been abandoned.  We often speak of journeying in this life as saints and sinners, but we must never allow the darkness of anger and hate to separate us from loving Christ, and again, that is what happens when we easily allow sin to create in us a willing host for hate!  Right now in a time of transition for our congregation, it is really not difficult for us to slip away from Christ when our sinful nature takes over.  It is not easy to always show to our Savior that we are loyal to Him in our lives, but all too often we take that hateful path and let it be our presence.  We see it in our distrust of other denominations, even ones with whom we Lutherans have shared ecumenical dialogues, and when we speak of calling a new pastor, we say that it had better not be from that full communion partner or that other one, or any one of the numerous full communion partners, because we want a Lutheran clergy, or what about a woman clergy, or a gay clergy?  Paul wanted the new Christians, and today our 21st century churches to know that such actions then place our loyalty to Christ in question.  Paul had to address this situation when new Christians began to argue about how being Baptized by one, or another of the missionaries gave them a higher priority in their faith and church life.  NOT SO.  But what it really did was show the lack of loyalty to Christ on the part of those who acted like that.  As Lutherans we can say that because we know that it is God's Word and that Word in the water of Baptism that makes all Baptism equivalent in the kingdom, not who presided at the service.  When our actions and words are filled with a kind of condemning bitterness when we are together, whether for other denominations of Christians, or for those around us in our own faith community, then the charity and love which the Marks of the Church call us to are not present, and neither is our loyalty to our Savior.

Tomorrow we will continue with more of Paul's thinking in this passage.  Thank you for being with me today for this study.

With Love in Christ,   Pastor Kim

Please pray for Cross and Crown, pastor, Joshua Palmer, as he recovers from knee surgery.  This is the congregation who is purchasing our church facility.

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October 27, 2026: Ephesians 1:15-23 (continued)

What a beautiful crisp early morning in the desert this morning.  The glory of God's creation becomes a bit easier to hold on to when the morning temp is not in the 80s or 90s.  From the full moon to desert blooms to the surrounding beauty of the mountains, we are all truly blessed to be living in Tucson and the surrounding area, though some of our readers are in much colder climates, and a few in the south Pacific on Islands.  God's Word spread across the whole globe from this Bible Study that we share each week.  Paul's concerns for the new church are special for us today, because the nature of people has not changed,  and our wonderful, and sometimes really awful impacts on the church still remain, and require us to be aware and seeking to always move forward in our loyalty to Christ, which according to our first study on these verses in chapter one of Ephesians is evidenced only by our love and compassion for ALL people, those around us in the congregation, and those who we may never meet throughout our city, state, nation, and world.

Today we move on in this passage to Paul's prayer for the church. 

Paul prays for wisdom in the church.  The word in the Greek is Sophia, a common name in many countries, but not so common from Germany and northern Scandinavian countries.  This wisdom of which Paul speaks is the deeper wisdom of the things of God.  In order for that process to unfold in our lives, we must be a thinking people.  This is an interesting area today, because all too often today, Christians are too busy, or too consumed by the easy answers of the internet, letting someone else, or some AI to tell us what to think.  It is why daily Bible reading and our Spirit gift of discernment is so important. This links us to the next part of Paul's concern, that the church have a teaching ministry.  We can all see that families rarely bring their children to church, and when Christian education is offered for their children, they do not participate.  At American we used to have children's education every Sunday, with delightful Christmas programs, but in so many homes, such commitment to the teachings of the Word has fallen away to be replaced by other "more exciting" activities which the world often presents on Sunday mornings.  What part of the Sophia of God enters into our lives beyond Sunday worship, or even brief weekly devotions and Bible study.  This is where my training is intended to assist and aid the Church, as the world always tends to step away from regular daily thinking about the presence of Christ, and the Spirit's wisdom in our personal journeys of faith.  For me every day, every experience, is influenced by my faith and trust in His promises, and Christ is on my minds in all things. 

Paul also prays for greater revelation and understanding for the church.  Every one of our faith journeys must be based in regular growth and Grace.  This holds our connection to yesterday's study.  The Church and her people must be loyal to Christ, and at the same time, that loyalty can only be shown by coming to a deeper understanding of what it means to set our selves aside in all things, to learn how to love every other person, every one of whom is God's created treasure.  We do great sometimes, and at other times we are members of the chapel of hate.  Again, that is our being simultaneously saints and sinners.  We all need Christ all of the time, growing in our lives to understand that there is just that one way to show our loyalty to Him, and it is through our interactions of love with other people.

Paul also prays for a growing realization of the power of God.  In the time of Roman worldly superiority, it seems that there was no greater power in people's lives.  The new Christians battled that reality every day.  Through Paul's witness, they came to know the power of God to overcome death itself.  God always chooses abundance and grace, even though there are certainly times when it is difficult to acknowledge that reality.  The really Good News is that God is never short of the power to accomplish that in the lives of His Children.     Evil has always felt it was, and is, the victor in all things, and sometimes in our lives we act like that is true.  The real unbeatable power of God in Christ is always with us, and we need to grow everyday in our realization of the fullness of God's power to overcome all of the things which try to pull us away from our loyalty to Christ, and our love of all people.

Finally, like the new Christians communities, we need to know that there is no creature in heaven, or on earth who is superior to Christ.  There can be no debate!!  He is the one who always desires to be our friend.  "What a  friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear."  This is a hymn we feel is too simple, but it says everything which we need to know and believe.

Tomorrow we will continue in this passage from chapter 1 of Ephesians. 

Thank you for letting me share with you this morning.

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October 28, 2026: Ephesians 1:15-23 (last 2 verses)

Good morning Bible Study folks.  Today we will continue with the last two verses of Chapter one. (our passage for today) from 15-23.  Just a reminder, if you have not yet voted, it is too late to put your ballot in the mail.  I placed mine in a downtown drop box, but you can also bring your ballot to any voting site on November 3. Now, let's get started with these last two verses this morning.

In these verse Paul names the Church, the Body of Christ.  I have used this term to describe each of us too.  We are the Church, and therefore we are the Body of Christ.

There must have been a really good reason for Jesus to name Peter as the Rock on which the church would be built, but it is even more than that.  Paul is part of that too, and frankly, Paul, was a deep thinker who helped all of us to comprehend the nature of Christ as the Savior, The Power of God in creation, and the absolute need for our loyalty to Christ as His Church in order for the message which our Savior brought to be shared with all people.  It was Paul's theory that Christ came to restore the harmony which was present between all things at the creation.  It doesn't take you and me long to realize that neither the Church nor her people have been in harmony and unity for as long as the history of the church and people has been recorded revealing the lack of unity.  So who is supposed to do all the work of spreading the teachings of Christ?  We get a taste of that responsibility as Paul addresses the nature of our relationship with our Savior.  This takes us right back to how it is that we can reveal our loyalty to the Christ of God.  It can only happen as we live with love, the kind of love that Christ displayed.  Without you and me as the people who carry Christ's message, it will not go forward to grow the harmony which has been lost through sin.  It was never the intent of the Holy One to force the harmony which had been at creation on the entirety of the people.  The relationship with God was personal.  In the pre history of Genesis,  the Garden of Eden, and Adam and Eve, God spoke to them intimately, not to everyone.  We know that there were others, because Cain married someone from the land of Og.   Our reading from Jeremiah 31:31-34 tells us that the teaching of the law was a pretty miserable failure due to the  teachers' short falls.  ( Paul was a teacher, willing to kill and imprison the Christian heretics prior to his own very personal conversion )  The reading from Jeremiah tells us that when the Spirit opens the hearts and minds of people to the Love of Christ and the Grace of God, then they will be filled with knowledge of that very same love and grace, no longer teaching others, but helping in the task of moving others' lives to be open to the power of God's grace and passion for them, because it has first been experienced as the Spirit creates in each person that willingness for that relationship with God.  We are the Church, the Body of Christ, and the task is for us to show the love of Christ through our own lives.  Yet, even within the Church, the congregations of the Body of Christ, we constantly struggle to do this work, loving each other, and helping one another to grow in the Spirit's gift of faith.  That is work which must be done.  Division in a congregation between members is deadly to the work that we are all called to do.  If we, the Body of Christ, cannot live it or show it to our sisters and brothers, then how will anyone who is outside of the church come to know Christ's love?  And then of course there is the issues with how we, the Body of Christ, feels about all of the other denominations.  It is easy to judge, but that is really not our privilege.  We need to give thanks, no matter our differences , for the gift of faith that is present in others who see their understanding and work differently than we may see it.  It we really believe that there is no greater power than Christ, we must leave those who stray to the work of the Spirit, and the judgement of God.  What Paul helps us to know is that Christ is the HEAD of the Church, not us, though we certainly act like we may know better than He does from time to time.  We are the variously gifted members of the Body, which the HEAD guides and shepherds as the work of the Body gets accomplished, or perhaps it would be better to say that we are the ones who can, and should, be doing the work of carrying Christ's love through the ways in which we share it.  Everyone of us, has differing gifts, some stronger than others in our lives, and we are each blessed in that difference because our work can then speak to a person others may be unable to reach.  Some of us are mouths, some are ears to listen, some  are hands to work and feet to get us to where we need to be, some are eyes  to see, what a wonderful mix we are when we are together and we are loving the Savior, and one another to get the work done.  Without the Body its HEAD is good only to hold information that the body needs to share others, and Christ, our HEAD, is depending on His Body to be present with His Love at all times, and in all  places!

Thanks for letting me share with you today.  Wherever you go, be Christ's Love with everyone you meet.    With Love in Christ,  Pastor Kim

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October 29, 2026: Ephesians 2:1-3

Good morning as the AM clouds seem to be building this morning.  Our Foodies of Faith will be headed out tomorrow morning for their 11:30AM lunch at Casa Molina del Norte on north Campbell.  This is a great restaurant for authentic food, and for great fellowship.  If you have not signed up, and would still like to come, please call me on my cell phone number.  Right now we have only two who have requested rides, so we are planning on coming in just one car instead of the van and the car.  I spoke with Pastor Ron and Becky last week, and they wanted me to be sure to greet you on their behalf.  Their house is still in the process of major repair after their summer broken ceiling water pipe.  They are still trying to figure out where they will stay if they get down before the house is habitable.  Please hold them in  your prayers. 

Today we move on into chapter two of Ephesians, but it is important for us to remember the influence of the first chapter on what follows.  The marks of the Church are loyalty to Christ, and Christians loving others.  That action of Christians is the way in which we are able to show loyalty to our Savior.  Christ is the head of the Church, and you and I are His Body in the world, doing the work to which the head guides us.

I want to say, that at least in these first verses of chapter two it is kind of a downer as Paul speaks about sin.  We need to remember that for people in Paul's time who worshiped idols, that they believed in their own ability to manipulate their gods.  However, for Paul, of course, that is not possible in the relationship with Christ.  It is in this second chapter, the first three verses, that Paul centers on the sinfulness of all people.  As he writes, and reflects, we need to know that when Paul uses the word you, he is speaking of the non-Jew gentiles.  When he uses the word us, he is referring to the Jews.  There is another important Greek word here.  It is the word hamartia.  It is usually used to indicate that a hunter has not been a very good marksman.  In other words,  the hunter has missed the mark, or his intent.  This is exactly how Paul speaks about the nature of people and sin.  Compared to what we should be doing, every one of us, both gentile and Jew, are constantly missing the mark for who we have been created to be.  This is really important, because we often think of ourselves as being righteously superior to others whose sin seem so much greater than our own.  We are not criminals by civil code, though somehow we see our breaking of traffic laws as less significant than the reckless driver, or the driver who is DUI.  Before God, we are all the same.  People who are missing the mark of His created harmony, with creation, and maybe most especially with our brothers and sisters from around the globe.  As I said before this certainly starts in our families, but it is often carried over into our congregational relationships with the Christians to whom we are physically close, and then of course it expands from there out to the broader context of the world.   Let me say it another way, sin is the failure of all people to be what they ought to be, and what they could be.  It is missing the mark, losing the harmony which should be in all of our lives.  It doesn't get any better if we think we are doing a pretty good job in our lives, a good husband or wife, both happy, and feeling fulfilled in their lives together, yet missing the mark too, or the most saintly person in the church, maybe we think that pastor who we see as pretty elevated in some ways from the rest of us, and he or she is also missing the mark and is sinning.  We all do it.  Sometimes I wonder why Christ loved us all so much that He was willing to pay the price for our missing the mark!  You and I, and all people miss the mark of who God created us to be.

What we really need to think about in all of this is have we lost our way because we always see others as much poorer marksmen than we are when it comes to being close to living our lives in the goodness of God ?  Sin is universal.  Staying on the journey of growing faith, and working diligently to be all that God has created us to be, are crucial in our own acknowledgement of the sin that is always a part of who we are.  God came into His plan for creation with an answer for sin,  of course, that answer is Jesus' abounding forgiving love for every person. My goodness.  How are we doing with our ability to forgive.  Christ's model is before us.  How are  we missing the mark?

Thank for being with me today.  Stay safe in the rain that is predicted for this coming weekend, maybe even for tomorrow.  God Bless you all.  

With Christ's love,  Pastor Kim