Jesus and Me ... and the Cats

J ohn 20:19-31 One Maundy Thursday night, several years ago, two men were involved in a drunken brawl in an alley down the hill from the church where I was serving as a student pastor.  They were so intent on beating the crap out of each other, that they did not notice the group of men approaching them from the church until they heard one of the men shouted at the two brawlers.  Imagine their surprise when the two of them looked up to see Jesus and his disciples.  Granted, the group was our drama team in costume for the Maundy Thursday drama they were performing in, but that's beside the point.  The last person they expected to see was Jesus.   The same was true for Christ's disciple tradition has dubbed, "Doubting Thomas."  Seeing is believing, but can believing also be seeing? It was either the most tasteless, cruel, and inappropriate joke, ever, or his fellow disciples were suffering from a mass hallucination induced by their grief.  Either way, it couldn&#

After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.”  A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth.    When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.                                                             John 19:28-30 Have you noticed that very few people collect Dixie cups?  You won't find them in antique shops or displayed with pride along side great-grandmother's cut crystal ware.  They are disposable objects that once used, have no significance for us.  Yet, when they become part of a child's night time routine along with bed-time stories and being tucked in, that last drink of water served in a Dixie cup before the lights go out becomes a gesture of parental love and care, and that's when a paper cup becomes an object of value.  Sometimes, it'