Jesus and Me ... and the Cats

John 10:11-18 In John 10:11, Jesus makes this powerful, authoritative  statement declaring who he is:  "I am who I am, the Good Shepherd." I am the Good Shepherd, the one and only, who leads his flock through green valleys and by still waters as well as through the darkest, deepest canyons, keeping them on the the path of righteousness. I am the Good Shepherd, and I know my sheep, and they know my voice because the Father's grace and love has been poured out on all humanity.  All to respond to that grace, I claim as my sheep, and I have come to gather them together as my flock. In the culture of that region, even back into Old Testament times, the shepherd was a metaphor used to describe both religious and political leaders.  The hirelings that Jesus referred to were the religious leaders of Israel -- the Pharisees, the Scribes, the Sadducees and the chief priests of the temple. Jesus' audience would have been familiar with passages like Ezekiel 34 wh...

Luke 24:36-49 Her followers call her "Amma" or Mother.  This Indian holy woman is being compared to Mother Teresa as she works to change the world one hug at a time.  She's embraced over 20 million people across the globe, and even cranky New Yorkers stand in line for hours to receive something they should expect to get at home. Elizabeth Laird greets returning American soldiers not with a crisp salute or a formal greeting but with a hug.  Known as the official Fort Hood Hug Lady, soldiers in camo gear tower over this tiny woman as they lean down, holding their assault rifles and bags to the side so they can receive the fullness of her welcome-home embrace. In some hospitals, neonatal intensive care units use special volunteers who come in to hold long-term care babies whose families may live several hours away and are unable to visit them on a daily basis.  Because human touch is vital to their early development, these volunteers provide the attention such ba...

I Corinthians 13:7   Love Endures All Things Jesus, who was one with God, infinite and all powerful, could have called it quits when he found out he was to be confined to the finite space of a womb and the weakness and frailty of a human body. Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords could have said, "No thanks" when he saw the lowliness of his stable birthplace or the dirt floor of his Nazareth home or the humbleness of his parents -- a simple teenage girl and a carpenter. When, like any ordinary child, he was given a chore to do, or when his fellow students in Hebrew school were dozing off or looking out the window during the reading of his  Torah, Jesus could have said, "I'm out of here!  Come pick me up, Dad!" The Son of God and Son of Man could have said, "This isn't for me," when a neighbor took his  name in vain or a lazy farmer blamed his low yield on God. When they accused him of being possessed by demons, of being in league...

I Corinthians 13:7        It [love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. At some point in our lives, we will all probably experience the "dark night of the soul."  It is a time when it seems like our dreams have all been dashed to pieces, there are no options but suffering, when there's no way out, and when hope has abandoned us. Despite the way the week had started with cheers and palm fronds, the disciples were worried and confused.  Jesus had been talking for weeks now that he was going to be rejected and killed, and what did he mean about tearing down and rebuilding the temple?  Now, as they sat down to what was suppose to be a celebratory feast, Jesus told them that they, they would betray, deny and desert him. Things were looking more and more hopeless.  Yet, love always hopes.  Hope doesn't promise an instant solution, but rather the possibility of an eventual one. I...

I Corinthians 13:4-8 Arthur Bressi looked through the wire fence of a World War II Japanese concentration camp fence into the dull blue eyes of his friend, Skinner.  He had heard through the prison grape vine that Skinner was in a hospital camp and was dying, and somehow managed to get permission for a five minute visit. Since high school, they had been inseparable friends, and Arthur's heart grieved for him.  Skinner, barely able to walk, was suffering from almost every tropical disease imaginable as well as scurvy.  He could no longer eat or drink.  He wasn't going to last long.  He was a lost cause. Arthur fingered the knotted handkerchief around his neck.  In it was his most precious possession -- his high school class ring.  Having smuggled it into the camp, he was holding onto it in case he himself ever needed to barter it for medicine or food.  With time running out, Arthur slipped the ring through the fence into Skinner's frail...

I Corinthians 13:4-8 If you've seen the movie, The Blind Side , you're familiar with this true story. When Stan and Leigh Ann Tuohy, a southern white couple, took Michael Oher into their home and made him part of their family, Michael came with baggage.  The large, gentle and polite black teenager was homeless.  He was raised in the projects by a drug addict mother until he suffered the trauma of being taken away from her at the age of seven and placed in the foster care system.  He had a history of running away and getting into trouble at school.  This uncommunicative, learning-disabled young man had built up emotional walls to protect himself. Michael was a package deal.  The Tuohy family accepted him for who he was and loved them like their own son.  They put up with the criticism of their rich, white friends, struggled through all the red tape necessary just so Michael could get his driver's license, and invested in Michael's future by ...

I Corinthians 13:4-5 Philippians 2:3-5 For many of us, the name Brain "Head" Welch, may not be familiar.  We wouldn't recognize his face, although our eyes might be drawn to a small tattoo of a cross and three tear drops just below the corner of his right eye.  "Head," as his fans knew him, is a former member of the successful heavy metal band, Korn. With fame came everything he could ever want -- the worship of adoring fans, money, cars and drug.  But no matter how much he had, it wasn't enough.  He wanted more and more to the detriment of his marriage, his daughter and even his own physical well-being. His life was the very definition of selfishness:  the preoccupation with self to the exclusion of others.  Selfishness is to people's lives and relationships and to our society what the BP oil rig disaster was to the Gulf Coast fishing industry. The Greek word that we translate as "selfish" shares a root form with the words strife and...