Pastor's Ponderings: Monday & Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 21:37-22:10 (August 17 & 18, 2026)

August 17, 2026:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 21:37-40

Good morning on this heat warning day in Tucson.

I hope that you had a good weekend. Just in case you were unable to be with us on Sunday for our special congregational meeting, this morning I want to share the results. At our specially called meeting, the congregation decided to sell the church building and parish hall, if possible, to a congregation that has already expressed a very serious interest in our facility. Of course, they too can only move to buy by the action of their congregation. That will probably take place in the next three or four weeks. If we are able to sell to this congregation, we will have up to two years to locate a new site for the congregation, with the help of the Grand Canyon Synod. Of course, we will keep you appraised in how all of this takes place. There are many things to consider as we are seeking a new location. It has been my hope that we might be able to end up on the Sunshine Mile or somewhere not too far from Broadway. As always please continue to keep our church council and officers in your prayers as we set about an opportunity for new direction in our ministry.

Today we get to see the results of Paul's circumstances around introducing an Ephesus non-Jew in the courts of the temple. It would seem that the whole decision to ask Paul to oversee these four men for "initiation" into the Jewish faith was just an attempt to entrap him in some way, and it worked! Now that Paul had committed this seemingly innocent act, we see the anger and hostility of the Jews for any outsider, even one who had lived in their midst as a pharisee. As we discovered last week, there was such an uproar about this that the Roman soldiers were called to stamp it out. Based on information the Romans could discover, there were no cohesive issues that the Jews could present to warrant such crowd actions.

However, in our reading for today, we discover that Paul had to literally be carried by the soldiers to escape the angry crowd. Since Paul asked to speak with the Roman commander, and the commander asks if Paul can speak Greek, I think that the lack of Luke's text here is meant to have us read between the lines, thinking of the heritage of Paul, and his special gifts for speaking with people from Jews, to gentiles (Greeks), If we remember Paul's journeys, it must be obvious that his language skills, and debating skills were very strong. Paul indicates his birth city home, and of course it becomes obvious that Paul is not only a Jew, but also a Roman citizen, which grants him rights and privileges that a person whose heritage was only Jewish would not be granted. When Paul is given the opportunity to speak, an amazing miraculous thing happens. It was obvious to the Roman soldier that Paul was not the Egyptian revolutionary that the Romans had struggled to contain, the one who had 4000 men to strike against the Roman authorities. So, he was allowed to speak. We should all wonder how it was that Paul was able to silence the crowd who had wanted to kill him. Every once in a while, in our life experience we encounter a person who immediately strikes us in a way that makes us certain of the Spirit's presence in that individual. That was Paul! When Paul places his hand in the air, it was the power of God that flowed through him creating an overwhelming sense of awe in the crowd who had gathered there to cause him harm. In our reading for tomorrow we will hear Paul's defense. The power to allow the Spirit to flow from you to others is indeed a wondrous miracle of God.

God bless you, and hold you in His care throughout this day, and always.

Pastor Kim

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August 18, 2026:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 22:1-10

Good morning, dear friends in Christ. I hope your home was fortunate to receive some of last evening's rain. At our house we had a bunch of large rain drops, but only about 3 minutes of actual rain. Not enough to wet the road. I wanted to thank the members who were able to be at the specially called congregational meeting this past Sunday. We all know how warm it can be at church in the month of August. Remember, if you have any questions about how everything is proceeding, you can ask any council member. If they don't know the answer to your question, they can get it and get back to you.

Today our passage is from the 22nd chapter of Acts, verses 1-10. What we discover in the content which Luke shares with us, is that Paul is an extraordinarily strong person, filled with faith in Jesus, and allowing himself to face the harshest conditions in Jerusalem at the hands of the Jews. But in the face of that he chooses to address the crowds who have gathered to do him bodily harm. Speaking in Hebrew, Paul unfolds his life story for the crowd. The crowd had quieted down, and then Paul began to speak. The mob had thought Paul to be an outsider, but Paul's speaking assured them that he, like them, had lived most of his life the same city as them, that he was from a well-respected city, Tarsus, home to a major seaport for trade, and home of a great university, and center of learning. He also shares that he has studied under the guidance of Gamaliel, a great scholar of the history and law of the Jewish people. Please note that there is no one to argue with Paul in these minutes of sharing his life story. After all, there are many things about which a person could argue, but a personal story and experience is not one of them. Luke tells us that the quietness of the crowd becomes even more deep as Paul reveals who he is.

The very first thing that Paul does is to show the people of the mob that he is one of them, having grown up alongside them in Jerusalem. However, at the same time, in Paul's speech, he tells them that he has been set aside by Jesus Himself, while on the road to Damascus to persecute the Christians in that city, and to bring them to justice back to Jerusalem. The language he uses for this is to indicate that though he very much like the people of the Jewish faith, he has at the same time been made separate (holy) in the call of Jesus on his life on that stormy night just a short distance from his goal of persecution. You and I are made holy too, In Baptism, set aside to fully participate in the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives for the sake of the world.

We are called to be the ones who share the Gospel with others. I can tell you that you and I are just the same in many respects, immigrant history, or indigenous heritage, growing up in very similar places, learning the same lessons in school, sharing in the same Baptism in Jesus Christ. But there is something different too. I received an additional call to serve Christ's mission in the world, studying for four years in theological education beyond my undergraduate degree, getting approved by my graduate school in theology, by my synod's bishop, and examined by a group of scholars and pastors to verify that my call, learning, and commitment was exactly what I had felt in my life from my very early years, and then, being interviewed and called to serve the Gospel in your midst by the action of the congregation. That does not mean that we are separated by value or rank in Christ's Church, instead every one of us is needed for this work of the Kingdom to be continued from generation to generation. You and I are Holy, that is separated from being of the world and called to be in the world doing Christ's work. From my youngest years, I have always felt very comfortable in the Church, inspired to understand, and then to hear, the call of Christ in my life and work. "In Christ, loving equally, and serving joyfully” This was and is always the mission to which the Spirit calls us!

May God's richest blessing of faith and hope reside in you every day.

In the Love of Christ, Pastor Kim