Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 18:18-23 (June 22, 2026)

June 22, 2026:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 18:18-23

Good morning my dear friends in Christ. I must admit that I continue to hope that this will be a summer in which we don't hit that 110-degree temperature, but it certainly seems like this week, for a couple of days, we could get close to it. Please be careful this week as you are out in the community and be sure to have plenty of water with you even if you are planning only a short drive to the grocery store. Over the years it has become clear to me that Father's Day, like Mother's Day, can be a time of painful memories that too many people have experienced in the reality of growing up. In our home, we had six of our eight children with us. Joshua lives in Colorado, and Melissa has never liked all the hub bub of so many people around her, but both she and her brother gave me a warm Father's Day contact. Oh yes, our 8 grandchildren were also with us yesterday. We celebrated with as little work as possible, and had pizza and soft drinks, and French silk pie and cheesecake for dessert. Yesterday was also our grandson Jonah's 22 birthday. We are really blessed that our grandchildren and their uncles get along so well when we are gathered. We also celebrated because Josiah completed his 50 blood draws in his program at Pima Medical this week. Now it is on to further studies and a practicum in an office somewhere in town before he gets his state certificate to practice. Just to let you know, church council will meet this coming Sunday after church for a meeting to continue their work to present viable options for the changes that we know lie ahead of us in the coming months. As members of our congregation, you will have full voice and vote in this process as decisions are made for our congregation's future ministry for the Gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

This Friday we have the Foodies of Faith eating out, Dutch treat, at 11:30AM at the Olive Garden on Broadway, and this coming Sunday is Coffee and Donut fellowship at 9AM. Call to let us know that you will be with us. 520-623-3661

It must be that Paul lived in a time of many decisions too, because in today's brief reading, Acts 18:18-23, we discover that Paul is traveling again, but not to new places mostly to places where he has already been, and now, he is on his way back to Jerusalem and home.  It is interesting that this journey of some 1500 miles is given so little coverage by Luke in the Book of Acts, because this is a journey of major proportions for Paul. It is a time to offer continuing words of encouragement to the new Christians where he has been, and an opportunity to see his work, and that of Timothy and Silas, continue to move forward for our Lord's Gospel. I made a similar journey back to my first call setting in Ann Arbor, Michigan a few years ago, and I took James with me. My hope in being there for the 125th anniversary of Trinity Lutheran Church, was to see the people who I had treasured as co-workers in Christ for the six years that I had served the Gospel there. I think that is exactly what Paul was doing too. Like mine, his revisits were meant to offer continuing encouragement and joy for the life of the church at those sites across Asia minor and Greece. I hope that Paul traveled some of this time by boat, it would have saved many land bound miles of travel. I did the same thing. I could have visited Des Moines, Ia, St John's Lutheran there, and congregations in the Chicago area where I had completed graduate course work in what was called teaching parish, but I focused on my first ordained ministry in Michigan, and I flew over most of the drive cross country.  In every congregation where I have been, life continues in the service of the Gospel, and that means that there are plenty of changes that had moved along during my time out here in the desert. It is the way of our life in the church, and on behalf of Christ's Gospel, and the new life which it bestows on so many of the people who have come and gone over the years, and now, in the current time, those changes continue on, just as they did in Paul's absence and new work in other places.  My home congregation will always be Emanuel Lutheran in Ludington, MI. It too has been through so many changes, including the call of a part time Episcopal pastor to serve Emanuel now. I have such wonderful memories of worship there, youth group, and best of all, my wedding to Melody where I sang before the service, and from the altar during the wedding too. There, like Paul's love for the churches that he had helped to shape and begin, was the presence of the two great loves of my life, my Savior, and my lifelong partner in marriage. Little did I know how important and supporting my marriage would become when I finally realized Christ's call on my life to serve the Gospel. These years have been filled with changes and the powerful love of Christ in my ministry. Paul had some kind of vow which had been fulfilled in the work that he was doing, and it most likely had to do with the success of his two missionary journeys. That shearing of his head was definitely a Jewish thing! For me, the hair has just fallen out on its own! I would like to know so much more about this homeward journey that Paul took, which Luke just seems to gloss over. I understand. When the new begins, it is truly important and faithful for us to participate in it with the joy we have known in Christ in our own lives in the church. We must make the new that is coming be filled with the love and joy we have known as Christ's Body over our years of being moved by Christ's Gospel to be the same truths of His Love wherever His Church takes us.

Change is never easy, but it can be so right and good when we let Christ guide us.

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim