Cats and Christians

I John 4:7-21   Trinity I

    " Sometimes I help my mom tenderize the steak"---this is what the yellow cat Cinnamon , Carmel, CA  said as he was licking it.  Petey, Paducah, KS said as he sat on the couch,"OKay , I prefer sitting on couches rather than shredding them.  That's okay isn't it?"  My favorite is Willy , Richmond , VA " I only chewed through those wires so Mom would spend less time at the computer and more time petting me."  ( all from Cat Confessions by Allia Nolan)  Cats have a really bad reputation in many ways. They are seen as independent, un- affectionate and well kittens do anything they want , do they not?  But some cats I heard are even therapy cats.And who has not been comforted by a cat in residence at some place of work?  I remember the cat we used to pet at the Holy Cross Retreat Center in NM we have gone to twice for Clericus.

          Cats are very hard to love. You have to figure out each cat. They have individual traits.  I know one cat I have, who we rescued from AL, is shy.  She had to have all her teeth out too last year because of gum disease.( now she is fine and made a full recovery but my wallet did not)  But sometimes she is the most cute of all of them.  She rolls over like a dog with her paws up.  And of course the older cat, Ruca, she is older so she is more steady but more finicky.  Then the kitten. Well I never had one before, but it was and is exciting. You never know what they will do!  They can get into trouble because they are so curious. ( " Curiosity killed the cat")

           Are we not like cats too?  Someone said ," Leading is like herding cats"  People like cats are affectionate but in their own way.  They like cats are individuals too.  One cat likes to be petted; well another does not.  You have to know what to say to them.  You have to know that cats are all different and so are people.  They have as do cats a past and that affects how they are. 

             Today as we heard in I John ( we have heard this before), " Beloved, we should love one another"  Now that is sometimes very hard to do to love our fellow Christian .  Some Christians can be just like cats , individual, finicky, annoying and yes affectionate.  They are hard to read.  They like cats are individuals.  It would be easier if we could just approach them all the same way in love and that would be the end of it.  But it is not. 

               In fact that good ole " Serenity prayer" comes in handy a lot with people we must and should interact with,  and not just our own problems and issues:

( we might put the word " people" instead of "things")

" God grant me the Serenity, to accept the people I cannot change,

   Courage to change the people I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference.

Trusting  that he will make all people right, If they surrender to His will,

That they may be reasonably happy in this world, and supremely happy in the next." Reinhold Neihbuhr , Noted German Theologian

Sometimes we have to sacrificially love others ( agape here)John 3:16 uses this verb too, so we know what that means .This is the love of the cross. Here in our lesson we hear that God has sent His Son as a " propitiation for our sins." 4:10

Loving others as we have said is difficult.  Sometimes we have to go to them and try and find out why they are mad with us. We call this "reconciliation".  We may think we know but unless we ask we may be guessing incorrectly.  Anyway, Jesus said to go to your " brother ( if he sin against thee" Matthew 18:15  Unfortunately we do not always do this, and the body is broken because someone is assuming something that has been done to them, when this may not be the real bottom line truth.

The second point about love from this section of scripture is we should love one another because God is love, vs 8-9 . We already know this from our experience of eternal life.  Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, did he not?  John talks about this at length and this is one of his main points in the epistle. " he that loves not , knew not God because God is love" , and we know that God loved us vs. 10-11 . Vs. 11 summarizes this, " Beloved if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another."

Lastly, vs 12 helps us to see why we ought to love one another, whatever it takes...prayer, action, waiting, loving rebuke of some kind( exhortation), etc....----"No one has seen God at any time; if we should love one another, GOD ABIDES IN US, AND HIS LOVE IS PERFECTED IN US."

God must abide in us if we are to enter heaven John is saying.  We cannot control, cajole or cast a net and save someone but we can pray.  We can approach them through the Cross and the Spirit in Christ's love because God has loved us.  We must love one another if we claim to love God.

Then why is it that churches experience division around personal conflicts?  It is because as we introduced, some of us are quite different and need varying applications of the love and the cross of Christ with patience and eventual action.  Otherwise the world will not say, " Behold, how they love one another".  John 13:35---" By this will all know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love among one another."

Amen.