Jesus and Me ... and the Cats

Jeremiah 8:18-21 Matthew 9:35-38 With tears of compassion and sorrow, a woman weeps as she apologizes for the pain caused by her son's brutal acts of violence.  She has accepted that justice has been served and her son must be held accountable for his actions. For years, she has tried to reach to him, but time and again, he rejected her love.  Yet for him, she cries out in agony.  His violent crime cannot negate a mother's love for her child. And if a mother's heart grieves, will not our Father's heart grieve as well? "Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness."  (Matthew 9:35, NRSV )   As he looked out at the people crowding around him, he had compassion for them.  He felt the heart of God that is saddened by the human condition, and he grieved for them for "they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd...

" Do this in remembrance of me." I Samuel 7:7-12 I Corinthians 11:23-26 There's a lot of different ways we use to help us remember things.  Some people use mnemonic devises, like this one to remember the order of the planets -- " M y V ery E ducated M other S erved U s N achos," There's the old trick of tying a string around a finger, or maybe like me, you make lists.  Sometimes, an object, a stone, a cup of wine or grape juice or a loaf of bread, helps us to remember something important. As we receive the bread and the cup of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper,"  we'll be reminded of Jesus' word, "Do this in remembrance of me."   I think we all get the meaning of that, but what does it mean to "Do remembrance?" Just outside of a little town in Michigan, Riverdale, near the banks of the Pine River, is a little cemetery.  In it are buried at least four generations of my family along ...