Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles Acts 13:1-3 (February 17, 2026)

February 17, 2026:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 13:1-3

Good morning on this rainy blessing for our desert. This winter really reminds me of winters when we first arrived in Tucson, and the call to serve Gospel of Jesus Christ at American Lutheran. Winter mornings were usually quite a bit colder than this winter has been, but it was the winter rain that was always so wonderful. We had great generous showers on the southeast side of town today. I want to remind you this morning of the opportunity to begin Lent tomorrow on Ash Wednesday. We have services at noon and 7pm with imposition of ashes and the Eucharist (communion). This ashen cross on our foreheads reminds us of the frailty every one of us faces as we age or become more infirm. It also is an acknowledgement of God's creative power which is filled with His love in this life, and in the next with our Savior. And it is certainly a physical way to remember the One to whom we belong. Besides that, it is a good way to begin our Lenten journey for this year. I hope that you will try to come to worship tomorrow. On Sundays in Lent, we will use setting 3 of the 10 settings in our ELW hymnal, and we will have two Gospel Music Sundays, one on the first of March and one on the twenty-ninth of March (Palm Sunday). Easter this year is on the first Sunday of April, the fifth of the month. Another guide for us is that we should all be praying constantly with confession, appeals to God for His help, for the health of our church, and Christ's Church, for our own needs, and for the needs of others, and in all things, offer praise to God with thanksgiving for His Grace in our lives.

This morning, we have a small passage from the 13th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. But as we have learned before, a small passage does not mean an insignificant passage in the Word. Today our passage takes us to the process in the early Church of how leaders, prophets, teachers, and preachers were selected. If your text has Saul named in it, please just substitute the name Paul in its place. When we name him, it doesn't take us long to think about the prolific writings of Paul in our New Testament, and that should be a clue for us that others with other significant gifts of the Spirit will respond to the call of the Spirit to use their gifts too. Those names are Barnabas who we have already met earlier in the book of Acts, Simeon who is also named Niger (like the river), Lucius from Cyrene, Manaen, and Paul. At a time in worship these men were moved the Holy Spirit to become the people who would bear their Spirit given gifts into what would be a very unfriendly and dangerous journey for the sake of Jesus Christ, His life, His suffering, His death, and His Resurrection. This is the beginning of the first journey for the sake of the Gospel, and for the sake of all people. A truth that we must recognize is that compelling force of the Holy Spirit which called them to this service of sharing the Good News throughout Asia Minor and beyond. And just who were these men? Barnabas was a Jew from Cyprus. Lucius came from Cyrene in North Africa, Simeon was also a Jew, but his other name was given, Niger, and had connections to the Romans, Manaen was a man of wealth whose status was aristocratic giving him access to many who would only listen to a man of wealth and status.  Here we see the diversity of the people in the early Church, consisting of men from a variety of places, coming together, unified by their faith in the Savior they were able to work through their differences of birthplace, and their life's identity. Of course, we cannot forget Paul, a former Rabbi, steeped in Jewish Law, and a first-class debater in any circumstance. This group of men is no different than any congregation going through a call process to find a new pastor. Each person submitted to the congregation is different from the others, but it is their common unity in Christ which makes it possible for the selected Pastor to come and serve the Gospel's Truth in the Name of Christ. And in any process like this in the Church, it is a matter of the people who are calling a new person to serve the Gospel, being led by the Spirit as their choice is made for that call. It is the Spirit's way to guide congregations and pastors who must come together for the sake of the Mission of the Gospel, and both have need for the unity they share with one another, supporting and nurturing each other in the work to which they have been called. There is some thinking that Simeon of Cyrene, may be the same person as Simon of Cyrene who was called to carry Christ's cross as He was approaching Golgotha and His crucifixion. Out of that difficult order to help carry Christ's cross, Simon/Simeon, came to believe in the Savior, and would later be appointed by the early Church to carry the Gospel.

On Thursday we will venture into the Psalms again.

With Love in Christ our Lord, Pastor Kim