Jesus and Me ... and the Cats

On this morning on the brink of the new year, I am feeling unusually optimistic.  I am not by nature a very positive person.  Believe me, there are days when I can make the Grinch look like a big, green teddy bear.  Despite the fact that I truly believe I come from people for whom SAD (seasonal affective disorder) is a dominant trait, I am feeling hopeful. Hopeful -- despite the fact that I know that tomorrow will come with all the problems of today. Hopeful -- despite the sure knowledge that a new year will not act like some sort of mystical band-aid that will cover all the ills and troubles of the world. Hopeful because I firmly believe that in a broken creation, life sucks, and there is Jesus -- God-with-us, God's consolation in the midst of the desolation of human lives.  Jesus, who sparks the imagination of God can and will do, and from that spark, comes my hope. After the time of Isaiah and his prophesies of the birth of Christ and the return of the Jews from capti

Luke 2:21-38 The stockings are emptied and packed away for a year.  Recycling bins are full of discarded wrapping paper and discarded boxes.  The fridge is full of left overs from Christmas dinner, and the pans scrubbed and put away.  Now what?  The story of Simeon and Anna found in the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke gives us some answers. Unfortunately, life does not stop just because of Christmas.  The projects I left undone are still undone.  The cat box still needs scooping and bills wait to be paid.  Death, illness and heartbreak haven't disappeared.  The human condition remains the same. Sometimes the emotional high fueled by too many Hallmark Christmas specials lasts until New Year's Eve, but that dissipates quickly on New Year's Day when I ask "Now what?" when I realize all the problems from 2015 haven't magically disappeared at the stroke of midnight on December 31. So has I come down from Christmas and re-enter the reality of m

Monday, December 21, is the shortest night of the year.  On that day, the sun will rise at 7:24 am and set at 4:34 pm.  The sun will rise at 7:26 am on Tuesday, giving us approximately 13 hours of darkness -- the longest night of the year. Long, dark nights are not confined to certain times of the year governed by astronomical cycles.  For us, our longest night may come from the human condition and out of the brokeness of a yet unredeemed creation.  Scripture describes humanity as a people waiting in darkness. In the book of Isaiah, God speaks through the prophet to the people of Israel whose country was conquered by the Assyrians.  Their homes and cities were destroyed, and they were carried off into captivity to Babylon.  Their desolation -- their grief, their angquish, and their anger are expressed in Psalm 137: By the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.  There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors

Luke 2:8-14 When you're happy, do you hum or whistle or sing.  I do.  Follow me around on a good day, and you'll find me humming hymn tunes at work or as I shop or like my mother, singing and dancing around the kitchen as I cook.  Have you ever received such wonderful news that you burst into song?  Okay, so does sound a little corny, like something out of a musical, but that's how Zachariah and Mary responded to the confirmation of Gabriel's good news that the Messiah, the promised one from King David's line, was soon to be born.       So. on the back drop a night out in the hills surrounding Bethlehem, we're going to seek meaning for us today in the story of the Angels  song. Nobody who was anybody would give shepherds, like the ones watching their flocks that night long ago, a second thought. They were of no use to the rich and the powerful, except the taxes the Romans and the temple could squeeze out of them. Those who considered themselv

Luke 1:46-55 Galatians 3:23-29 A baby has a way of turning people's lives upside down.  Life is never the same. Take Elizabeth and Zechariah, a childless middle-aged couple.  What a surprise to find themselves expecting a child, an extraordinary child who would rival the prophets of old, a child who would be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born. And then there's Mary, a young woman, a virgin, engaged to Joseph, a carpenter.  Visited by an angel of the Lord, she is told she above all other women will bear the son of God.   News that potentially could cause Joseph to break their engagement and Mary to be ostracized, or worse. Lives changed, their world turned upside down, all because of a baby who would be called Jesus. But that's what Jesus came to do, to turn things upside down.  Christ was not to be born into a rich and powerful family.  Instead God chose a poor, humble young women to bear His Son, and when the reality of that hit Mary, she sang:

  Then Zachariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;      he came and set his people free. He set the power of salvation in the center of our lives,      and in the very house of David his servant, Just as he promised long ago      through the preaching of his holy prophets: Deliverance from our enemies      and every hateful hand; Mercy to our fathers,      as he remembers to do what he said he’d do, What he swore to our father Abraham—      a clean rescue from the enemy camp, So we can worship him without a care in the world,      made holy before him as long as we live. And you, my child, “Prophet of the Highest,”      will go ahead of the Master to prepare his ways, Present the offer of salvation to his people,      the forgiveness of their sins. Through the heartfelt mercies of our God,      God’s Sunrise will break in upon us, Shining on those in the darkness,      those sitting in the s

Matthew 5:14-16, 43-48 2 Corinthians 4:4-6 Years ago, Tom and I camped at Lake Superior Provincial Park in Ontario.  At the entrance of a trail we were planning to hike, was the sign, "Please be prepared for a very steep climb."  Believe me, it was a very  steep climb, a very challenging trail and far from easy.   We are living in a world when we, as Christians, are confronted with events which challenge us and what we believe.  These are dark times when the easy road is so tempting to take, but is it the road Christ asks us to take? A young man once asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?"  No one asked Jesus who their enemy was.  We can figure that out on our own.  The enemy are those who inspire hate and turn people against one another, who use personal attacks and scare tactics, and in the extreme as we saw in the bombing in Parish and the mass killing in San Bernadino. Our human response to such atrocities is fear, hatred, and retaliation. And Je