Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 9:26-31 (December 15, 2025)

December 15, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 9:26-31

Blessings and peace, be with you on this third week of Advent. Though this study may reach you before tomorrow morning, I am working in the evening on Sunday. Not only is the red of our new tablecloth on the dining room table with poinsettia and an ornament and surrounded by goats. Yes, that is right, goats. In my family heritage from Sweden goats have always been a decoration for Christmas. They are generally constructed out of straw, or wheat stalks. We have three 8-inch ones, and one that is nearly two feet tall as well. They are either wrapped in red ribbon or are dyed red after they are put together. I also have a Swedish wooden 7 candle (now electrified) in the dining room window, and a Moravian star like the one at church that burns 24/7 in our home, and one that is seasonal in our dining room. In our home, the joy of Christmas is filled with color, ornaments, and special treats and customs, like my sour cream coffee cake made for Christmas breakfast, or for whenever you can get to it all the rest of Christmas day. Next Sunday after church we will complete the decorations in our worship space (nave), the Altar, and the Narthex. We have to yet unpack our Nativity, or to get the wreaths and garland for the balcony, or the luminaria for the patio for Christmas Eve. Worship and hang the festive banners of the Christmas season. There is still plenty to get done next week, but it is work filled with joy, just like unwrapping 54 years of collecting ornaments for the tree at home. Every one of those is a special memory and gift, and our tree topper is 53 years old, an Italian glass angel, who over sees our home during all the time of this most joyful season. At church we will light the Moravian night star above the Altar on Christmas, and it will remain lit throughout Epiphany shining the light of Christ for our very lives, a light which fills our hearts with thanksgiving for His birth, His ministry, and His Sacrifice, and the wonder of His Resurrection.

As we begin our study for this morning, I want to offer you a statement that I have heard many times, and I have had to fall back to it to understand why some proposed calls over the last 35 years were not God's call, but the call of people who are looking for comfortable familiarity.  That statement, "You can never go back in your ministry to take a call in a familiar place."  There have been several opportunities to interview over the years. What is not realized is that in the years of ministry, a familiar pastor may very well no longer be a familiar person after the intervening years. Imagine Paul trying to go home to Jerusalem carrying in his heart and soul the burning need to proclaim the Messiah sent by God to save His Elect People, but who was summarily rejected and murdered. As a former Pharisee, he was most accustomed to arguing the Law with others, and now in his new life in Christ, he brings that gift to his Gospel preaching, where he used to be a vicious enemy of the new Christians, and now he returns as a converted leader who can out debate anyone, not just because of his former position as Pharisee, but because he is filled with joy and energy for Christ's call on his life.  To begin with Paul is not trusted by the new Christians or the disciples who are leading them. Remember? You can't go home as the same person after years of experience. Paul was new in every way! So were Peter and the other disciples! Paul had to convince them just like he had to convince Ananias in Damascus that he was no longer an enemy of Christ. It was inevitable that Paul would be threatened with death, and it reached the point where he had to be moved by the leaders of the new church to Caesarea where it was much less likely for him to have problems in that mostly Roman city.  Ultimately Paul would be shipped out from there to sail to Tarsus to the north. In his absence from Jerusalem, Galilee, or Samaria, the new Christian church found peace, and through their proclamations and miraculous healings, the church grew and grew. The change that becomes a part of all our lives is a change bringing joy and confidence, because the last enemy of people has been defeated by the Savior. It is only a few more days until we are together to celebrate Christ's birthday once again. Won't you come, lift your voices to sing with joy for this incredible gift of God for all people. Please always be mindful that our relationship with God is a two-way agreement, a contract, a testament of our own faithfulness in response to the faithfulness of God for each of us. Come celebrate, receive the living presence of Christ again and again, for our God has broken into our world of sin, and brought the healing which only He can give. We will hear more about Paul, but on Tuesday we will begin to read about Peter, who was also most active, and considered the leader of the disciples. In a different way Peter carries the Gospel in the Jerusalem community, and beyond, but with less success than Paul was having.

As we come to this week of study we need to know that we have received an outpouring, a veritable flood of God's Grace and Love, meant to help us know that God is always holding us in His care, in the good times, and the bad.

May the Love of Christ transform your whole life! Pastor Kim