Jesus and Me ... and the Cats

Isaiah 7:10-16 Matthew 1:18-25 All right, whose bright idea was it to put Christmas in the middle of the busiest time of the year?   Life with its everyday demands and unexpected "surprises" doesn't take December off, and the power of Murphy's Law seems to increase exponentially with each passing day. What's next?  An invasion by alien elves from space armed with candy cane ray guns?  Or the attack of the Christmas Zombies -- "Aaaaaaargh!  Fresh, tasty Figgie Pudding!!" Wasn't that silly?  Don't you feel better?  I do.  Humor has a way of helping us put things in perspective, to see them in a new light. That's certainly what King Ahaz needed.  It was during the time in Israel 's history when the nation was divided into two separate kingdoms -- Israel and Judah .  Ahaz ruled Judah .  Word had reached the Kingdom of Judah that invasion was imminent.  The king of Israel and the king of Aram had decided to j...

Matthew 3:1-12   Singer/songwriter Greg Brown, in his song, “Waiting,” claims that “Everybody just waitin’ their time away.”   How true for the Season of Advent!   We spend our time waiting in line at the grocery store, our carts brimmed with dried fruit and nuts, Christmas hams and that particular brand of eggnog that Aunt Myra loves.     We’re waiting for a parking space that doesn’t require a two hour hike and a shuttle to get to the entrance of the mall. As we creep ahead slowly in heavy, holiday traffic, we are waiting for our turn at the intersection, waiting for the green light.   We’re up at dawn waiting for the doors of the big-box stores to open so we’re sure to get that must-have, can’t-live-without electronic gadget or that wonder toy that sings, dances, teaches our children to speak four languages and cures the common cold.     We’re waiting with fingers crossed for that package being shipped from Amazon.c...

Ezekiel 33:10-16 Psalm 51:6-17 R & P -- Repentance and Penance As a Protestant, when I hear the word "penance," I get this image of Bart Simpson writing on a blackboard 500 times, "I will not do anything bad ever again."  For all the time Bart has spent at that blackboard over the years, it hasn't changed his behavior one bit.  He still keeps on doing the same things that drive his teacher, Mrs. Krabappel, and Principal Skinner nuts. Of course, Bart is a cartoon character, but we in the real world sometimes try to "get right" with God by doing good works or some other self-imposed action and then turn around and keep doing the same things, over and over again.  In fact, that's the very issue God is talking to the people of Israel about In Ezkiel 33:10-16.  They thought that if they went through the motions of offering sacrifices for their sin, that was enough for God.  It wasn't: "A nd even if I have pronounced a death sente...

    And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the  Lord  of hosts!”     Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.  The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out."    Isaiah 6:5-7 Isaiah was having what I would call a "bathroom mirror" experience.  We all have them.  It's that moment under the glare of the bathroom lights that we look in the mirror and realize we're not the person we thought we were.  In my mind's eye, I'm still twenty-five and forty pounds lighter, but when I look in the mirror, I see all the signs of aging -- the wrinkles, the bags under my eyes, the sagging skin.  It's a reality check reminding me that I'm not the person I thought i wa...

2 Corinthians 9:7-14 Whenever I'm down or stressed out, I like to make soup.  It becomes meditation in motion as I chop vegetables, brown meat and stir the pot.  It is, many times, an experience of the divine, and, in response to grace, it many times becomes an act of generosity. I always make more than I can eat or my freezer can hold, so I give some of it away.  Sometimes, it is an affirmation of my love and friendship.  Other times, its a gift of comfort and assurance, and there are times when it helps a busy person have a hot meal. I am blessed in the making of the soup, and blessed in the giving of it.  Touching people's lives is what gives us a sense of meaning and purpose.  I'm not smart enough to win a Nobel Prize in nuclear physics or write the great American novel.  I'm not rich enough to set up a charitable foundation like Bill Gates, but I do know what I am.  I am blessed beyond measure with more than enough to be the person God ...

I ve heard "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away" used in the context of dealing with times of tragedy, loss and grief.  I've been wondering lately if this was really in the Bible or if it's just one of those quotes people incorrectly attribute as scripture.  After doing a little research, I found that it's a misquote from Job 1:21.  The correct quote from the King James Version is:  "And [Job] said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."                                                                      March 28, 2011, Jesus and Me and the Cats blog post When  I was looking for something to use as a devotion for a mid-week service, I  looked at the above post. ...

Deuteronomy 26:1-11 Luke 12:22-34 Luke 12:31 tells us that our Heavenly Father knows our needs and will provide everything we need for everyday living.  I can honestly say I believe in this, but do I trust in it?  I wish I could say I do, 100%, but there have been times I have to admit I haven't. A lack of trust prevents us from receiving God's extravagant love.  We all have something that we find hard to let go of and let God provide or take care of.  We have to do it ourselves, because we think we have to or that we can do it better than God.  So, we're hanging on to whatever it is so tightly that we approach God with clenched fists instead of open hands ready to receive.  Also, a lack of trust also focuses on our deficiencies and impossible situationsso that we don't see the God possibilities that surround us. I've struggled in the past with control and trust issues concerning money.  I can trust God in the smallest of things like lost keys t...

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 Luke 7:34-43 The latest trend in my part of the world is for grandmothers-to-be to proudly display ultra-sound pictures of their new grandchildren on their smart phones.  I think it's really cool, but since I don't have a smart phone, let alone children, I'm stuck with telling cat stories.  So here's one. Harley, my calico, hates (hissing, growling and screeching) traveling in her pet carrier, especially when the destination is the vet.  For two or more days after her yearly check-up, she prowls around hissing and growling at Blondie and me.  On those occasions when Blondie goes to the vet without Harley, it may take as long as two weeks before Harley stops treating her like the enemy.  Blondie smells wrong.  She doesn't smell like herself -- she smells like (horrors!)  the vet's office! Wednesday, Blondie went to the vet to get her teeth cleaned, and while it was amusing watching her try to walk across the kitche...

Wayward children.  Maybe you have one in your life – a friend, a family member, your own child.  That someone whom you love who keeps making the same mistakes over and over and over again:  making a mess of their lives, hurting themselves, breaking our hearts. Read Jeremiah 31:31-34 and you hear the longing of God’s heart for the wayward people of Israel .  God had kept all of God’s promises to them.  He had delivered them out of captivity in Egypt , lead them into the land God had promised to Abraham, loved them and protected them.  But time after time, they broke their promises, following their own selfish desires and made a mess of things, ending up back in captivity and exile in Babylon . Are we any different?  I don’t think I am.  I’ve done and said things that would have made my parents cringe.  I’ve made the same mistakes, the same selfish choices over and over again, making a mess of things and finding myself captive to my ow...

Luke 5:27-32 I recently ran across a photograph by David LaChapelle called, "The Dinner." (Search on Google Images if you'd like to see it).  LaChapelle's work is shocking.  The images push hard against middle-aged, middle-class, mid-west sensibilities. "The Dinner" depicts the Last Supper.  A traditional representation of Christ sits at the head of the table.  The disciples are  young men -- Latino, African American and white, gang bangers, skin heads, immigrants, and there's even a drag queen.  One man, sitting in the foreground, is heavily tatooed. For many of us living in the very homogenous midwest, the people around the table LaChapelle's photo aren't like us and our fellow church members.  It pushes us across the carefully drawn and maintained lines of our comfort zones, and that's a problem. That was the problem the Pharisees and other religious leaders had with Jesus attending a dinner party at the home of Levi, the tax colle...

Joshua 4:1-7 I Peter 2: 1-5 In one of my favorite hymns, "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" by Robert Robinson, the second verse reads, "Here I raise mine Ebenezer."  As a child, I had no idea what that meant.  Personally, I didn't know anyone named Ebenezer, and if I did, why would I want to lift him up. Actually, it refers to I Samuel 7:12.  The prophet, Samuel, had a stone erected at the site of a victory over the Philistines and called it Ebenezer, "God has helped us so far."  In the Old Testament, there are several instances, including the one cited in Joshua 4:1-7, where the people of Israel used stones to mark places to remember what God had done for them.  They were like those historical markers we see along the road sides.  They served as reminders of the actions of God at some point in their history. They were always made of stone -- inorganic, dead materials. I Peter 2:1-5 talks about something quite different -- living stones fro...

Ephesians 4:7-16 Luke 9:1-2     Scott is a teacher of theology in a high school in Louisville , KY.   A few years ago, Scott signed the papers to buy a house, proposed to his girlfriend, and told his principal that he’d found a job elsewhere and was quitting.  Within six weeks, he backed out of the house deal, broke off the engagement and asked for his old job back.  Something still wasn’t right.  He knew he should be doing something, but he just didn’t know what.  Then, he remembered that there was something in the Bible about serving Christ, so he found himself in a slum built on a city dump in Africa helping in an orphanage.  He was given charge of a six-year old boy nicknamed the Bull, because whenever the Bull was angry or frustrated, he head-butted people.  He never cried or smiled, and he rarely spoke.  The Bull, like many of the children, picked through garbage for extra food and for anything of value they co...

Isaiah 61:1-4 Luke 6:32-36 N ever in my life had I seen that many tattoos and body piercings.  At the time, I was the coordinator for the Adult Literacy Program for Des Moines Area Community College.  As part of my job, I trained and matched volunteers with adults who could not read and people in our adult English as a Second Language Program.  That beautiful fall Saturday, I was conducting a "come and see" training for people interested in becoming tutors.  Bill had call the day before and expressed an interest in becoming a volunteer tutor, so I invited him to attend the training. So, into a room full of very middle class people (including me), with nary a pair of blue jeans among us, walked Bill, neat and clean, wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt, and sporting a lot of tattoos and body piercings. That day, we were all pushed out of our comfort zones and across the street by Bill.  Silence fell over the room, and God seemed to be saying to me, "Well, what...

Matthew 28:18-20 Acts 2:42-47 Have you ever looked in the bathroom mirror in the morning and seen one of your parents?   Or when you look at the children in your family, you see the family resemblance to an older family member?   Does she have her father’s eyes or does he laugh just like Grandma Hattie? As long as I can remember, my father told me how much I reminded him of his mother – Grandma Jenny.  Until my father’s death, the only picture I had seen of Grandma Jenny was her wedding picture.  Sure enough – she looked just like me.  Same round face, same high forehead, same coloring.  There is no doubt that I am related to that young bride. After Dad died, I was going through an old picture album and discovered a picture of what looked like my father wearing a dress.  It was a picture of Grandma Jenny in her sixties or seventies.  Without thinking, I blurted out to my husband, Tom, “Honey, I’m going to look like my dad in drag ...

Micah 6:6-8 Mark 12:28-34 So, what’s in your wallet? If you’re like me, there a number of those reward cards.  I’ve got Alco, Staples, Ace Hardware, Pizza Ranch and half a dozen cards for coffee shops within a 35-mile radius. I know that these are supposed to build customer bases and customer loyalty, but I also understand it appeals to self-gratification.  For the audience God was speaking to in Micah, going to worship was about getting their spiritual rewards cards swiped.  They went to temple, prayed the prayers, offered the required burnt sacrifices, threw some coins in the offering box and left expected God to bless them and ignore their behavior once they left the temple. I don’t like to admit this, but I’ve down the same thing.  I’ve shown up for church on Sunday mainly to enjoy the company of my friends there and have God to make me feel good.  Sure, I did the churchy things – I prayed the prayers, threw a buck or two into the of...

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I got up this morning filled with disappointment.  It is my day off -- the pastor's sabbath -- and I had a list of household chores and piles of boxes to be unpacked and clutter to be organized.  And, I had a sermon to write. Crap.  That's right.  The pastor said crap, and just as a side note, I know how to say it in New Testament Greek.  See, that's one of the benefits of a seminary education. Crap, because for the last month, it's all been about doing.  Packing for the move, changing over the utilities, there and here, putting things in order for the new pastor coming in, and preparing my people for the transition from one pastor to another.  Then it was unpacking around parsonage renovations here (which I appreciate, I really do!), getting my office organized, and trying to figure out what's going on. This morning, I just couldn't "do" any more. So I opened the deck door to enjoy the sound of rain and bird songs and curled up in my favorite ov...