Jesus and Me ... and the Cats

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...