Jesus and Me ... and the Cats

Isaiah 61:1-3 I John 3:1, 16-18 The Magi brought frankincense, myrrh and gold to honor the Christ child.  As we make the spiritual journey through Advent to Christmas, the celebration of Christ's birth, what do we bring to Him?  What is on Jesus' birthday wish list? Have you ever tried shopping for Jesus?  What do you get for the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords?  What does the one called the Lamb of God, Almighty God, Counselor, Prince of Peace and Emmanuel, God Among Us want for His birthday?  I don't think He wants a Christmas sweater, a tie or golf balls.  What is something He would use?!? Well, we know God sent Jesus to save us from sin and death, but if that was Jesus' only purpose, the Gospels would have been a lot shorter. At the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus announced what his earthly ministry would include by quoting Isaiah 61:1-3: The  Lord  God’s spirit is upon me,      because the  Lord ...

Isaiah 40:1-11 Luke 1:39-55 The theme for the second week in advent is faith.  Our faith is based on our trust in God's faithfulness.  It's the expectation that God will show up even in the imperfection and messiness of life.  Sometimes that means we have to give up on perfect. In the movie, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," Clark Griswold has a problem. All right, he has a lot  of problems, but they all stem from the same source.  Clark has unrealistic expectations about people, the world and life in general.  He denies the imperfections of others and the messiness of life.  He sets standards that nothing can ever meet. Clark has a plan for the perfect Christmas, and things don't work out the way he expects: The "perfect tree" is too large for the house. The "perfect Christmas display" refuses to light up when Clark's in-laws arrive. The check Clark wrote for the "perfect Christmas gift" may bounce bec...

Luke 1:26-33 "I'm making a list and checking it twice, Gonna make sure I'm getting something nice. Jesus Christ is coming to town." That doesn't sound right, does it.  Maybe this year is the year we focus less about what we expect to find under the Christmas tree and more on expecting a miracle. Christmas is the celebration of the miracle of Christ's birth.  It's Jesus' birthday, but why do we spend money like it's ours? Driven by materialism and consumerism, we've managed to push Christ out of Christmas and replace it ourselves.  And we're paying the price for it. Debt, becuase of culture values self-gratification, holds many people, including Christians , captive today.  Becuase of Christmas spending, many of us begin the year with a whopping  credit card bill.  In 2005, for the first time in U.S. history, Americans reached a negative savings rate.  Americans were spending $1.22 for every $1 earned.  As of July, 2014,...

Matthew 25:1-13 I Thessalonians 4:13-18 Whenever people get together, there's going to be stories.  Stories are important.  They define who we are as human beings, they bring family history alive and they pass along important life lessons.  It is no different with the parables, the teaching stories of Jesus.  For the next three weeks, we're going to be looking at the parables in of Matthew 25 which define the Kingdom of Heaven and teach us the important lessons of what is expected of us as citizens of the Kingdom.  They are not easy stories to listen to or to think about, but remember that even hard words from God are gifts of His love to us. Listen, and I will tell you the story of ten bridesmaids.  They were chosen for the honor of welcoming the bridegroom and attending the wedding feast.  They were to wait outside the house and greet the bridegroom with lighted lamps upon his arrival.  Five were wise.  They came prepared with both ...

Revelation 7:9-17 I John 3:1-3 I begin each funeral with these words:        "Jesus said, 'I am the resurrection and I am life.  Those who believe in me shall never die.  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.  I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I hold the keys of hell and death.  Because I live, you shall live also.'"* The greeting that follows begins with, "Friends, we have gathered here to praise God and to witness to our faith ..."*  To witness to the mystery of our faith which we proclaim each time we gather at the Lord's Table --  Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.  This faith we celebrate until the time that Christ returns and we join together with the communion of saints at the heavenly banquet. So, on all Saints' Day, we gather to praise God and to witness to our faith as we celebrate the gift of God's grace through Jesus Christ. *   The U...

PART FOUR:  IT'S A BIG BAD WORLD Matthew 12:22-28 Romans 14:1-12 It's doubtful that neither Little Red Riding Hood nor Grandmother could have taken on the Big Bad Wolf all on their own.  Any beast that could swallow an elderly woman whole, clothes and all, had to be quite a monster.  No, they needed help to overcome this evil beast. On June 16, 1858, in a campaign speech for the Illinois race for U.S. senator, Abraham Lincoln quoted Christ in Matthew 12:25, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."  It is as true now as it was when Jesus was defending himself against accusations that he was in league with the devil.  Division was an issue in the early Church. During Paul's time, there was a faction of the Jewish Christians that believed that Gentiles had to first become Jews before they became Christians and were required to follow the Jewish law.  That sparked arguments as to whether it was proper to eat meat from sacrificed anima...

Well, dear readers, beloved friends in Christ (for that is how I think of you all), I'm going to take a break in the current series to talk about something I haven't had the time to touch on, and frankly, I don't have the time to do it in a Sunday sermon (although this will probably make the next newsletter). And that is:  the discipline of intentionality. In Wesleyan theology, we're taught that we're expected to participate with God's grace.  It's not, like "ZAAAPPP!" and your life is producing goodness and love.  No, grace is given to transform us, but we have to accept it and apply it in our daily life.  It's a lot like 4-H:  learning by doing, or in this case, learning and changing by doing. Just a friendly reminder, we can't do it all on our own.  We have to apply this discipline with the help of Christ and with the help of others.  Remember, even the Lone Ranger had Tonto (more on this next week). #1.  Taking Account.  From...

PART III:  IT'S A BIG BAD WORLD Matthew 5:43-48 Romans 13:8-14 When Little Red Riding Hood set out that day, do you think she expected to meet up with a hungry wolf?  I don't think so.  In the story, there's no mention of a can of pepper spray or a cell phone with animal control on speed dial being in her basket.   More than likely, her basket might have held  a   fresh baked loaf of bread, perhaps a jar of  homemade jam and some cookies...nothing that she could use to defend herself against the big, bad wolf. No, Red was not prepared for her encounter with the darkness of evil.  We can never be sure of what awaits us around the bend on the path of life.  Which makes me wonder -- are we prepared?  What's in our baskets? When we went to visit my grandmother, we took worms because Grandma enjoyed fishing at the gravel pit at the end of her road.  It was how we showed we loved her.  And my dad showed he loved us...

PART II OF "IT'S A BIG BAD WORLD" Matthew 5:38-48 Romans 12:9-21 Evil.  Such a little word -- but such a complex concept and problem in the world.  There's the personification of evil, the devil.  There are evil conditions that exist that run counter to God's intent for human beings and creation, like war, injustice, oppression, exploitation, hunger, pollution, abuse in all its manifestations, and on and on.  There's also the ordinary acts of evil that when we decide to willfully go against God's law of love.  So, if we are to overcome evil (Romans 12:21), where do we begin?   Enter the Wood Cutter. Like some of us, I grew up reading fairy tales or watching the Disney version of them.  Little Red Riding Hood is a classic story of the triumph of good over evil.   The wood cutter, the hero, rescues the Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother from the the clutches of the fanged and furry villain (our representative of evil).  W...

PART I OF "IT'S A BIG BAD WORLD" Romans 6:12-23 Matthew 4:1-10 There's no doubt that we're living in a big bad world, a broken world filled with sin and evil.  Just listen to the news sometimes.  But before we can do anything about what is happening out there in the world, we have to address what is happening within ourselves.   It's an old, old story, born in the roots of time.  It's told thousands of different ways.  There are stock characters representing an innocent victim, a hero and a personification of evil, the villain.  In the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, the cast is Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother as the victims, the woodcutter, our hero, and the big bad wolf is the villain. So who do we relate to in the story?  Red and Grandma?  The hero?  I bet we'd all like to be the hero, but if we take a good hard look at ourselves, and we'll find there's a bit of the wolf in all of us. Oh, I don't mean that...

Exodus 35:1-19 Shortly after God gave the delivered people of Israel the Ten Commandments, God told Moses to begin the construction of the Tabernacle, a kind of portable temple where the people could gather to worship and offer the sacrifices God had commanded.  It was a very big undertaking -- definitely not a weekend handyman project.  It was a God-sized job. The outer wall surrounding the courtyard of the Tabernacle was a rectangle measuring seventy-five feet by one hundred fifty feet.  It was constructed of seven and a half foot high fine white linen panels suspended between acacia wood poles plus the gates.  Just for the walls, it would take over 3,000 square feet of linen. The Tabernacle tent was forty-five feet by fifteen feet and stood fifteen feet high.  It would require 1,350 square feet of fabric per each of the four layers to cover the structure. And there were the precious gems and metals.  The project would need 2,204.85 ...

I Kings 19:1-8 Matthew 6:25-34 Whenever someone asks me what brought my husband and I to Iowa in 1984, I joke that it was a big, yellow Ryder truck. If I was completely honest, I'd have to say that desperation and despair drove us to Iowa.  Barely married, we both lost our jobs due to the recession.  Experiencing chronic unemployment, we had already moved twice following jobs, and each move left me feeling more anxious, lonely and isolated. The memory of that move symbolizes that time in our life.  Coming into Des Moines, we missed the exit that would take us to our east-side apartment.  We ended up on a two-lane highway outside of Walnut Woods State Park, which is outside of West Des Moines.  I was following Tom in the truck in our car, becoming more stressed by the minute because I knew the truck and the car were both running on fumes with no gas station in sight.  Finally, I couldn't take it any longer and signaled Tom to pull over.  On the ...

O God, from my youth you have taught me,   and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. 18  So even to old age and gray hairs,  O God, do not forsake me,  until I proclaim your might to all the generations to come.    Psalms 71:17-18 (NRSV) Wisdom is with aged men.  With long life is understanding.   Job 12:12 (NASB) Luke 2:25-38               All across the United States, Senior Citizens are making amazing contirbutions at every level of public and private life.   According the the Corporation for National and Community Service, seniors account for one third of the volunteer force, with over 20 million volunteers.  They are volunteering nearly 3 billion hours with a value of $67 billion.  So, it should be of little wonder that our seniors play an important part in the future of the church. As attested by the evidence of the many volunteer hours older adults contribute, they still...

Y ou then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus;  and what you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well.                                                 2 Timothy 2:1-2 (NRSV) Middle-age, now that's and age and stage that's pretty close to my heart right now.  It's a time when I'm not too old and not too young.  I've gained knowledge and life experience, but there's still plenty for me to learn and room  to grow as a human being. The Bible has some things to say about middle-age.  Job said it was the prime of life, and Isaiah stated that it is the noon time of our years.  With our middle years, we have a lot to offer from our work, volunteer and life experiences, the knowledge and skills we've acquired, as well as common sense (the wisd...

SOME SCRIPTURE FOR THOUGHT You shall not be violent toward an alien.*  You shall not oppress him, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. Exodus 22:21  (see also, Exodus 23:9) And when an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress him.  As the native among you so shall be the alien who resides with you.  And for you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.    Leviticus 33-34    ... you who then were not a people, but now are the people of God; the one not pitied** then but now pitied.                               I Peter 2:10 *  Immigrants are referred to as aliens, sojourners and strangers in the scripture. ** Pity is interchangeable with mercy. The roots of the United States of America are embedded in immigration.  From those who crossed the land bridge from Siberia to Alaska during the ice age to the e...