Jesus and Me ... and the Cats

Part II of "Why the Church?  Because God So Loved the World" Matthew 13:45-46 Luke 15:8-10 Is a penny on the ground worth stopping to pick up?  Well, it depends on the value we put on it.  If we're going through lean times, every penny counts.  If we collect coins, it may be worth our time to check it out.  Some people will pick it up because they believe it's a heavenly reminder of whom we can put our faith in.  It's all a matter of perspective and what we value. I t seems to me like a lot of fuss and bother for sixteen cents - sweeping out every corner, moving around furniture, sifting through flour and the ashes of the cooking fire; emptying out the water pots for one drachma. From the perspective of the woman who lost the coin, it was much more valuable.  A silver drachma, at that time, represented the wages for ten days of labor and one tenth of her life savings.  Beyond it's monetary value, that coin would also have special ...

This is the first in a series called, "Why the Church?  Because God so Loved the World." John 3:16-17 Luke 15:1-7 Whenever Jesus told the Parable of the Lost Sheep, there were two different audiences in the crowd that day.  One was the Pharisees, who felt that their piety and power and position in Jewish society were proof of God's special blessing.   The other audience consisted of those whom the Pharisees considered not worth God's time or grace -- sinners and tax collectors.  Today, there is a third audience -- us who are to interpret these teachings within our own context.  In particular, I'd like to explore with you, what this parable means to we who are the Body of Christ, the church. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16, NRSV). For God so loved the world that He did not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance, (see...

Psalm 130:1-8 John 6:35, 41-51 Several years ago, the Eurythmics had a hit song called, “Sweet Dreams:” Sweet dreams are made of this ...  Everybody's looking for something. Everybody's looking for something. It's part of the human condition, a craving of the soul, and there's only one answer for it. What do you crave? Just talking about cravings makes me think about dark chocolate. A lot of my food cravings aren't neccesarily the healthiest choices I can make, and they're not really what I want and need. They're full of empty calories that give me a sugar high and leave me only wanting more. They may take the edge off my hunger, but they really don't satisfy it. People crave a lot of things, not just food. Addicts crave the source of their addiction even after they have recovered. We crave attention, affection and acceptance. Others crave material wealth, power and achievement. For human beings, it seems tha...

Mark 2:1-12 James 5:13-16 Mark 2:1-12 and Mark 3:1-6 are both "controversy" stories where the religious powers that be question the authority of Christ.  In the Mark 2 passage, it is Jesus' authority to forgive; in Mark 3, it is his authority to heal on the sabbath.  In the story of the paralytic from Mark 2, it is demonstrated what the faith in the authority of Jesus to forgive and to heal can impact others in need of forgiveness and healing. After a few days, Jesus went back to Capernaum, and people heard that he was at home.   So many gathered that there was no longer space, not even near the door. Jesus was speaking the word to them.     Some people arrived, and four of them were bringing to him a man who was paralyzed.     They couldn’t carry him through the crowd, so they tore off part of the roof above where Jesus was. When they had made an opening, they lowered the mat on which the paralyzed man was lying.     When Jesus saw t...

Sorry I have been gone for such a long time.  I had surgery in June, and I'm just getting back to work including blogging. During that time, Blondie, our oldest cat, died.  Blondie was the first cat we had that I did not treat like a surrogate human child.  She was a creature that God sent to share my life with and was under my care.  I allowed her to be a cat, to do cat things and didn't feed her human food.  I respected what she was and adapted where needed.  It resulted in the best pet experience my husband and I have ever had. St. Ignatius and John Wesley both wrote about how God expresses His love and grace toward us through all aspects of creation.  Pets are part of that blessing. So, we gave thanks to God for the gift of the years of companionship we had with her, acknowledging that before she was ours she was God's creature.  We committed her body back to the earth and her life-energy into God's creation.

Romans 8:12-17   2 Corinthians 4:5-12 Person, as in "the three persons of the Trinity," does not identify one as an individual but rather one as a being in relationship with others.  In the description of who we are in relationship with God through Christ, a word that defines us as a person is "adopted."   Back in Roman times, in a culture where abortion and exposure of infants was common, where a less than perfect child could be disowned and abandoned, adoption could save the a child's life.  It could even elevate a slave to the status of a family member of a rich and powerful family with all it's benefits and responsibilities.  So, what does it mean to be "adopted" by God? There's many ways to define who we are as people -- Our age and stage of life. Our social and economic status. What we do:  our jobs, our hobbies. Because we were created in the Image of God to love and be loved, who we are in relationship with o...

Ezekiel 37:1-14 Acts 2:1-21 How interesting that our Common Lectionary has paired this passage from Ezekiel with the story of Pentecost and the birth of the Church.  I wonder, was God rattling dry bones that day in Jerusalem?  Were Ezekiel's vision and the events of Pentecost stand as isolated incidents or are they still happening today as part of God's ongoing mission of redemption and salvation?  And will we choose to participate in the mighty work of God's grace through Jesus Christ? Cacophany:  A loud din or racket filled with disonance and discord like the sound of a great crowd of people talking all at once or the barrage of noise, messages and voices that bombard us in our culture. Amid the cacophony of the Pentecost crowd gathered in Jerusalem, came the Breath.  It came from the four winds and gathered in a roar in a room.  It had been prophesied and promised to them, these followers of Jesus.  And they waited for its coming i...