Pastor's Ponderings: Monday & Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 22:11-30 (August 24 & 25, 2026)

August 24, 2026:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 22:11-21

Blessing and Peace be with you today, and always, my good friends in Christ who study the Word of the LORD during more than Sunday Morning Worship.

I announced during my sermon on Sunday that through the generosity of increased gifts, the church council has employed a 20-year-old pianist who is studying at the U of A. I interviewed this young man several weeks ago, and I can tell you that his gifts on the keyboard are wonderful. I can hardly wait for you all to come to worship to hear him. His schedule to start was a little unsure because he is also a drummer on the line of the U of A pep band. He may be with us on Gospel Music Sunday, but if not on that Sunday, it will be the second Sunday in September. His name is Carson. Please know that Carson approached us first looking for a church in which he might share his gifts from week to week. He may be away for some of the away football games as well this Fall. I will take over the piano once again when he is unable to be with us. I have noticed of late that it is getting more difficult for me, visually, to read the music, and play it on the keyboard. I love to play, but my skills have been on the decline for a while. I encouraged the Church Council to hire Carson. He will bring new life into the music and hymnody in worship. I will let you know next week when he will be beginning and sharing his gifts for music at worship. In your prayers, please pray for Regina who is not having any improvement in her vision after her retinal surgery. It has been a week now. And pray too for Camille who is getting injections in her lower spine to help with the pain she is suffering in the spinal discs of her lower back. A special thanks to God for Sharyn and her constant willingness to help with appointments like this, helping to transport members, and friends too, when that help is necessary.

Today we are getting into the second part of Paul's declaration to the Jews in the Temple who have been determined to punish him for his failure to adhere to Temple Law. (He brought a non-Jew, a man from Ephesus, into an area into which only a Jew was able to go.)  After he had been detained by the Romans to satisfy the anger of the mob, Paul had stood on the steps of the Temple to share his story, his relationship with Jewish Law as a Pharisee, His faithfulness in the persecution of members of the Christian Cult, the Way, and also telling of the way  in which God and Christ had broken into his life, called him to bring the Gospel to the Jews, but then making it clear that if the Jews rejected him, just like they had rejected God's Son, then he should move to take God's Word of light and life and love to the gentiles.   All of this was indeed Paul's story about how all these things had transpired. If you would like further details read Galatians 1 and Acts 9 once again. There are here, in Paul's story, the essence of what it means to be a Christian person.

1. Every Christian should know the Will of God, and then out of thanksgiving to God for bestowing each Christian's life with faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ, and obeying Christ's Words of Life, the gift of faith. That is sometimes very difficult to hold onto every moment of the Christian's life, but it is exactly what we need to be about, carrying the compassion and love of Christ, into a very broken and sin filled world, proclaiming the wonder and power of His passion for all people.

2. To see the Just One in, with, and around the believer every day, and seeking His presence through faith, prayer, and action that bring Christ's justice to all people. The message board at the Unitarian Universalist Church on 22^nd Street this past Sunday said that their goal as good people was to bring fairness and justice into the world in everything that their community did.

3. That every believer seeks to hear Christ's voice. I really believe that happens through the presence of Christ's Spirit, speaking to our hearts and minds constantly, and breaking through when we are unwilling or unable to listen clearly. I have been told that I have a gift for proclaiming the Gospel. I want you to know that a powerful part of that is to take the time, sometimes even during the sermon itself, and to take a few moments to listen for the Spirit's guidance as I share that Sunday's message. A Pastor must never be too busy to hear, to ponder, and then to speak the Holy message of the Gospel. That is true for every one of us in every circumstance too.

You have my prayers for God's richest blessings in your lives.

With the Love of Christ, our Savior and Lord, Pastor Kim

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August 25, 2026:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 22:22-30

Good morning. I am so glad that you are with me today as we continue to delve into Paul's experience in Jerusalem. We are under a heat warning forecast for the rest of this week through this coming Saturday. Please be certain that you are being careful with hydration even if you are just staying at home, and if you are out and about, like our out to lunch Foodies of Faith group this coming Friday, be certain to hydrate well before you are picked up, or are coming on your own to eat at Istanbul on east Speedway Blvd. Our sign up is small, but our group will grow again when the Prasek’s and the Backer’s return from their summers away up north where the weather is supposed to be cooler but also has been stormy. Hold them in your prayers for safety in their homes. This Sunday we will also have our Donut and Coffee hour before Worship. We will get started at 9AM. This is a great opportunity to be together with your sisters and brothers in Christ for conversation, support, and joy! After our vote to sell our church property at the special congregational meeting on the 16th of July, we are now waiting to hear from the congregation who has expressed interest in the purchase of our facilities. They expect to have a congregational vote sometime in mid-September. Yesterday I told you about Carson Lanning. We will know later this week about his exact start day with us. I hope everyone who attended the special meeting will come to meet Carson too. He is a wonderful gift that God has placed in our care for our joy and worship life together.

Today we continue in the saga of Paul's issues with the Jews. In his presenting his Jewish vita, the crowd received his life's story quite well, but when he once again got to his mission to the gentiles, and leaving the Jewish community behind due to their rejection of God's Son, the trouble and riot started once again, because Paul made it clear that the Jews were being left behind at the orders of God and Christ! The Roman commander found this very difficult because the Jews were speaking in Aramaic, which the commander did not understand, and the actions of the Jews, yelling, throwing their arms in the air, and tossing dust and dirt from the ground was troubling to the Roman commander who knew that he could not allow this all to grow into a full riot, with having his position challenged in his own government. So, he decided to bind Paul and use a scourge, a leather strap with bone and metal imbedded in it to get Paul to confess. However, Paul knows that it is not his time yet to lose his life to the Romans, and he also knows what is allowed in the punishment of a Roman citizen who has not been found guilty in the breaking of any Roman laws. And there is one more issue. The Roman commander had purchased his own citizenship, and probably his rank in the army too, and when he found out that Paul was a natural born citizen of Roman heritage, the commander knew that to even bind Paul was something that could not happen, and to scourge Paul would have been to commit a heinous crime, because Paul's natural birth citizenship held far more power and authority in the Roman empire, than one which had been purchased. Paul is released immediately, but then the decision is made to present him to the Temple authorities. That will be our next reading for next Monday. Paul knew that he had much more work to do in proclaiming Christ to the world, and he may well have died under that scourge which the Roman commander was planning. In all this Paul had been preaching the sublime freedom and grace which became the life of those who believed in Christ as their Lord and Savior. That is what enraged the Jews. They would have had no problem if Paul had preached the yoke of Jewish law and circumcision to the gentiles. Of course, we must always remember that Paul had a great education in the Jewish Law, and his years as a Pharisee were his to use as he defended Christ to those who had so summarily rejected Christ as the long-awaited Messiah. At this point in Acts we find Paul understanding that he had much more work for Christ to do before he would allow himself to be brought to his life's end. In some ways I too can identify with Paul. Even though I am 76 years old, the same age as the Body of Christ of which all of us are a part at American Lutheran, I too know that it is not yet time for me to turn away from my own proclamation of Christ's Lordship for all people, for us in our congregation, and for those who are only now just coming to realize the power of Christ's love for their lives. I know that we sometimes have this throw-away ideation in our culture, and in the culture of the church too, yet turning away from the years of constant learning and growing which are a part of a pastor's life, is a great loss. I know that many clergy find themselves worn out by the regular age of retirement. They are ready to hang up their clerics and collars, and rest. Now at 76 I do need more rest, but that is pretty normal for my age, what I have, and desire to continue, is to bring the living Christ into the lives of people, those continuing in their faith journey, and those who are still seeking to find what you and I know about the Savior. We are always immersed in the waters of our Baptisms and constantly blessed with Christ's Grace and Love in every situation, and in every day.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim