Jesus and Me ... and the Cats

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 by not getting upset when we dug up the yard.

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).  With a blow of

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