Jesus and Me ... and the Cats

Mark 9:38-41,50 Listen to this performance of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah.  Did you notice that not everyone is singing or playing the same notes?  In some parts, all the members of the choir are not singing all the same words.  Yet with this diversity of instrumental and vocal voices united by Handel's composition create a powerful harmony.  You know, I think there's a lesson in that for us and for the church. Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah Previously in Mark 9, Jesus chastised the disciples for arguing among themselves about which of them was the greatest of all the disciples.  It what seems like in an attempt to redeem himself and his fellow disciples, John spoke up, saying, "But we did a good thing the other day.  We came across some guy who was casting out evil spirits in your name, and we tried to stop him because he wasn't following us!"  He wasn't following them.  He wasn't one of them.  He wasn't ...

Ephesians 4:1-6 “Variety is the very spice of life, That give it all its flavor.”      William Cowper’s poem, “The Task (1785) What I’ve learned in cooking is that a variety of spices will blend together and bring out and enhance the flavor of the basic ingredients of the dish.   Without them, food would be bland, and if we depend on only one of them, that particular seasoning may overpower the taste of the dish.   So too can the life and "flavor" of a local church become if its members are all the same. Diversity in a community of faith is a wonderful spice in the life of a healthy church -- diversity in ages, economic groups, educational levels, ethnicity, life styles, and opinions.   This is why: 1.        Our ideas and beliefs are informed, strengthened and enriched by being in conversations with people who are different than ourselves. 2.        In the chur...

Mark 9:30-37 Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them,  “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”    Mark 9:36-37 (NRSV) It's been said that Jesus came to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."  He often does this by replacing our commonly held world view with a Kingdom of God view which redefines our concepts of things like leadership, power and even hospitality. He certainly does that in today's passage by using an argument among the disciples about who is the greatest among them to show them a new way of looking at greatness, servant hood and the "least among them." How would you define greatness?  Would you use words like "powerful" and "influential?" When the disciples argued among themselves as to which of them was the greatest, perhaps who would be Jesus' s...

He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20 (NRSV) I look at the mustard seed-sized grain in the cup of my hand. So small and so easily lost. Most people think that a pastor should have faith so great that he or she needs a wheel barrow to carry it around, and like all of us, I do when times are easy and the road is newly paved, level and clear. But when the times are hard and the path steep and rocky, when worry stirs the quiet waters of our minds and our hearts are broken hearted, faith is tested and eroded by overwhelming mountains of trouble and sorrow. In Matthew 10:1, Jesus gives authority to his disciples over, “ unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.” So, while Jesus, Peter, James and John are up on the mountain exp...

Genesis 12:1-3 Matthew 25:31-46 I've been thinking the meanings and implications of the words "blessed" and fortunate. I feel fortunate that, through the randomness of the universe, I was born white, fairly intelligent and fully able, into a middle class family, and grew up not only in a time where new and varied opportunities and options were opening up for women but also when grants and scholarships were far more abundant than they are now.  Comparing the circumstances of my life with the majority of people on this planet, I am very fortunate, indeed.  Using the analogy of a race, I started far, far closer to the finish line than they did. And here's the thing, I had no more control over when, where, and to whom I was born than anyone else in the world.   Nearly   1/2   of the world's population — more than   3 billion people   — live on less than $2.50 a day. More than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty — less than $1.25 a day. 1 billio...

Psalm 22:22-31 The United Methodist Service of Death and Resurrection closes with a prayer of thanksgiving that begins with: “God of love, we thank you for all with which you have blessed us even to this day: ...” ( United Methodist Hymnal, p. 875) Giving thanks is easy on the days when life is going well, when all the bills are paid and everyone we know and love, including ourselves, are happy and healthy. But what about the times of loss and grief, of unemployment and chronic, life-threatening illnesses? What reason do we have to give thanks then? Maybe our source of praise has nothing to do with our circumstances but everything to do with the love of God at work in our lives at all times. One of the ways I’m dealing with the grief of my husband’s death is to journal. The entries are letters to God in which I pour all my heart out to him – all the pain, all the sorrow, all the worries and fears, much the way David did in his psalms of lament. ...

Matthew  18 : 15-22 In Ephesians 4, Paul is focused on the problems that divide and weaken the church. He wrote: “ We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.    But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” (Ephesians 14-15, 31-32) If anything can sicken, weaken and tear apart a church, it’s the toxin of unresolved conflicts and unforgiveness. Paul urges us to “speak the truth in love,” i...