Pastor's Ponderings: Monday & Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 20:7-16 (July 27 & 28, 2026)

July 27, 2026:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 20:7-12

Good morning my dear friends.  Please continue prayers today for 11-year-old Georgia who was hospitalized again this weekend suffering the diseases in her body that are caused by Rett’s syndrome.  Pray for our congregation too.  Pray about the best Spirit guided choice for how we will proceed after the meeting when we have made that decision on Aug 16 after worship.  We will be serving Domino's Pizza provided by Gail's grandson, Christopher, who now manages that Pizza store on 22nd street near Tucson Blvd.  That food will be free for us for this special meeting.  Sign up at church or call the office to let us know you will be with us as we make decisions about how our congregation will maintain its charter integrity for our work of the Gospel to continue.    

Our passage for today is not nearly as long as the last was, but in its own way it gives us an eyewitness view of what it was like for men and women who were just getting finished with their daily duties as servants and slaves.  This group could only meet during nighttime hours.  In Agape or Love Feast their version of a carry-in meal was celebrated so that everyone was not having to miss their evening meal.  Everybody brought a little food, which had the power to feed many more people that was expected, just like our own carry-in meals today at American.  After food and fellowship, the people in the house gathered to hear Paul, including Eutychus, who had probably had a rough day doing the bidding of his master or owner.  In the heat of that crowded room, Eutychus fell from what was probably the third-floor window during Paul's teaching and preaching.  Without the drama of that fall, the very next part of the people being led by Paul in worship would have been to celebrate the Eucharist as this church family continued their worship with Holy Communion.  Note that Paul does not leave the house until he is certain that Eutychus will be OK.  Their initial thinking was that no one could survive such a fall which would have been fatal.  Another thing that I hope you caught in this passage was how the people who were in worship had the sense of family as they awaited the return of Eutychus to them.  I hope that is how you and I have come to feel about the congregants who sit around us.  Each and every one in worship and in the church is meant to be our sister or brother in Christ.  I certainly know, and I hope, that I am contributing to God's Peace and Love for all his children as I lead worship, preach, consecrate the Sacrament of the Altar, and play hymns for singing.  This brings me great joy in the work that I am doing every week to be ready to bring our unity in Christ into reality, and with the Spirit's guidance, it will happen.

Like these people, we too are many parts but one body for the work of our Savior's reign as King of all of creation.  It had its beginnings in the early church and has served as our model for thousands of years.  Thanks for being with me today.

With the Love of Christ, Pastor Kim

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July 81, 2026:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 20:13-16

Good morning on this beautiful, but hot day! 

I know that you have been receiving many notes about the special congregational meeting that will take place after worship on August 16.   Domino’s Pizza, under the management of Gail Tucker's grandson Christopher, will provide us with Pizza free of charge.  Our thanks to Dominos for their generosity.  That means that we need to know if you are coming to have the right amount of food and beverages available for the meeting.  Sometime in the next week you will receive a letter which will tell you, in more detail, what actions the Church Council has placed on the ballot for the meeting. 

Today we have what appears to be a quite short, limited information passage from Acts.  But there are several important pieces of information which you and I should glean from its content.

Up until this time in the Acts of the Apostles, we have mostly had information that seems to come to us in third person content, like a storyteller in an action thriller.  But here we come to realize that the writer of Act's content is accompanying Paul on this journey to get back to Jerusalem.  That writer is Luke himself.  "But we went to the ship and set sail for Assos.” Because of this certainty, we can be confident of the travels both by land, and by sea that Paul will take to get back to Jerusalem.  It really was Paul's plan to be in Jerusalem for Passover, but the upheaval in Ephesus prevented Paul from getting that to happen.  Now in this passage, Paul is pushing to be in Jerusalem for another event, Pentecost, which is seven weeks later.  It does seem a little strange that Paul is doing that traditional thing that is required of all Jewish men.  That is, to get back to Jerusalem for all these festival celebrations of the Jewish faith.  He may be preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but Paul still has a place in his heart to take part in these historic religious events.  And while that is Paul's goal, we must also remember that he, and those who accompany Paul are bearing a major financial offering for the work of the Christian mission of the disciples (led by Peter and Christ's brother James) which has stalled and failed to create the kind of offerings that will sustain its work with the Jews.  Another question we probably have is why did Paul choose to walk part of his journey to Jerusalem if he was in such a rush to get back?  Obviously, Paul needed the space from the men carrying the offering to steel himself for what he felt would be a difficult time with Peter and James.  Of course, the offering will prove his goodwill toward them and their work.  But for Peter and James it will be difficult to hear about all the successes of Paul's work outside of the Jewish mission's reach.  In this walking interlude for Paul, he finds time to be at peace with this opportunity to be with what today we would call the Mother Church in Jerusalem, and its leaders.  Paul's work had primarily been away from his own people, yet he yearned for them to know the peace and love which he had come to know in the Savior.  All this travel sets the tone for what is to come when Paul, and his entourage finally arrive in Jerusalem.

Thanks for being with me today.  Stay cool and hydrated even if you are at home in the air conditioning.  May our Lord bless every one of our lives today, helping us to keep our eye on the treasure that He is for each one of us.  

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim