“Time spent with cats is never wasted.” Sigmund Freud

^“Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, “Why this waste? For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” Matthew 26:6-13

Cats show love in specific ways. They might “knead” some part of your body, or the blanket next to you. They might groom your face or hand. Or your cat might snuggle right next to you for a nap. When Hank Hill, of the cartoon “King of the Hill” fame went to anger therapy classes, he was taught to pretend to pet a cat if he felt his anger beginning to well up inside him.  What do you do to show your love to your family, friends and partner? How do you express that love? The woman who anoints Jesus’ head with the costly oil does it out of love for him. We don’t know the relationship between Jesus and the woman. Perhaps she had received a healing from Jesus – or perhaps she heard him speak somewhere and his words had a profound impact on her. No matter, to pour costly ointment on the head of someone was to show them great respect. What would you do for, or give to Jesus if he walked into your house today? What might you do, or say to him to show your greatest respect? Would you ask for a “selfie” with him? Perhaps you would ask for his autograph and then try to sell it on “Ebay”.  Or perhaps we might do what they did on his triumphal entrance into Jerusalem – line the streets as his limo approaches the White House for an audience with the President – or Vatican Square as he comes to see the Pope.

Sigmund Freud may have said that time with cats is never wasted. I would say the same thing about Jesus.

Pastor Dave

“Anyone who believes what a cat tells him deserves all he gets.” Neil Gaiman

“But a man named Ananias—his wife, Sapphira, conniving in this with him—sold a piece of land, secretly kept part of the price for himself, and then brought the rest to the apostles and made an offering of it. Peter said, “Ananias, how did Satan get you to lie to the Holy Spirit and secretly keep back part of the price of the field? Before you sold it, it was all yours, and after you sold it, the money was yours to do with as you wished. So what got into you to pull a trick like this? You didn’t lie to men but to God.” Ananias, when he heard those words, fell down dead. That put the fear of God into everyone who heard of it. Not more than three hours later, his wife, knowing nothing of what had happened, came in. Peter said, “Tell me, were you given this price for your field?” “Yes,” she said, “that price.” Peter responded, “What’s going on here that you connived to conspire against the Spirit of the Master? The men who buried your husband are at the door, and you’re next.” No sooner were the words out of his mouth than she also fell down, dead. When the young men returned they found her body. They carried her out and buried her beside her husband. By this time the whole church and, in fact, everyone who heard of these things had a healthy respect for God. They knew God was not to be trifled with.” Acts 5:1-11

The eighth commandment given to us by G-d is thus: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

In his Small Catechism, Martin Luther asks a question for each commandment: What does this mean? He then goes on to give an explanation: We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.

One of the running jokes about our cats is that they never tell the truth when it comes to eating. If I am up early and feed the cats, they will do their best to try to convince my wife that I did not feed them. They will complain with their usual vocalizations – they will give that forlorn look as if they are wasting away. If we always believed our cats when it comes to being fed, they would all be 10 pounds over weight. Bearing false witness against your neighbor is serious business, according to G-d, and Martin Luther. As is always the case, Martin thought that all aspects of our lives, whether it is loving our neighbor, or working hard not to covet what we do not have, all aspects of our lives should begin from the stance where we “fear and love G-d”. That may sound like a paradox – how can we do both at the same time? Well, by fear I believe Martin is talking about having such respect for G-d that we hold G-d in great awe and respect. The theologian Rob Bell tells it like this: “…it is like sitting on a surfboard just offshore and finding a huge whale surfacing beneath you. The immensity of the event causes awe and respect and, yes, a certain fear as you are lifted. Whales are gentle but still wild, and in the vastness of the sea, encountering such a giant can’t but leave you breathless. And you love it.” That’s fearing and loving God. But that is just the first part. The second part is doing our best to always lift up our neighbor, neither slandering them nor hurting their reputation – but speaking well of them and doing all we can to make their lives better. Now it might seem easier to convince my cats that they do not need more food – but G-d never said keeping the commandments would be easy.

Pastor Dave