The Pastor's Cat
Stories
Object:
A Story to Live By
The Pastor's Cat
I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
Isaiah 43:19
Not too long ago, there was a pastor that had a kitten that climbed up a tree in his backyard, and then was afraid to come down.
The pastor coaxed and offered warm milk, but the kitty would not come down. The tree was not sturdy enough to climb, so the pastor decided that if he tied a rope to his car and drove away so that the tree bent down, he could then reach up and get the kitten.
He did! All the while, checking his progress in the car frequently, he figured if he went just a little bit further, the tree would be bent sufficiently for him to reach the kitten. But as he moved a little further forward, the rope broke.
The tree went "boing!" and the kitten instantly sailed through the air out of sight. The pastor felt terrible.
He walked all over the neighborhood asking people if they'd seen a little kitten. Nobody had seen a stray kitten. So he prayed, "Lord, I just commit this kitten to your keeping," and went on about his business.
A few days later he was at the grocery store, and met one of his church members. He happened to look into her shopping cart and was amazed to see cat food. Now this woman was a cat hater and everyone knew it, so he asked her, "Why are you buying cat food when you hate cats so much?" She replied, "You won't believe this," and told him how her little girl had been begging her for a cat, but she kept refusing. Then a few days before, the child had begged again, so the mom finally told her little girl, "Well, if God gives you a cat, I'll let you keep it."
She told the pastor, "I watched my child go out in the yard, get on her knees, and ask God for a cat. And really, Pastor, you won't believe this, but I saw it with my own eyes. A kitten suddenly came flying out of the blue sky, with its paws outspread, and landed right in front of her."
Never underestimate the Power of God.
(From "Stories For The Soul," http://www.geocities.com/ppotn/soul.html)
Shining Moments
Extravagant Gifts: Eight Pastors Share Personal Stories
Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
John 12:3
The Gift of TLC
Evelyn McLachlan
I had a sister-in-law, Rosemary, who had ovarian cancer. She was in remission for a year or so. Then I received a phone call from her that the cancer was back and a tad more aggressive. I found that out on a Sunday night. I live alone, and I was feeling very sad and distant from Rosemary as she lived about a 5-6 hour drive away.
In the morning, I called a woman on the pastoral charge, Ruth. I asked her if she was busy, and said that I needed some TLC (tender loving care). She invited me over for tea as soon as I was able to get there. I did a couple of errands and knocked on her door; she opened it and opened her arms. I fell into them and wept for a good minute. She led me into the living room, and I just let all my worry, frustration, anger at God, and love for Rosemary tumble out. Then she took my hands and prayed for me and for Rosemary, and for my brother Bill and their two children.
At about 10:30 a.m. I was going to leave, but she would not let me go. I sorted laundry, went to the road and got the mail, and helped get lunch ready for Ruth and her two sons who ran the farm. I was very quiet during lunch (very unlike me!). We did the dishes and then she let me go. The extravagant gift she gave me was complete acceptance and love. I have never had a parishioner pray for me except for Ruth. I have never forgotten that gift.
Evelyn McLachlan is the youngest of six children, and grew up in Timmins in Northern Ontario (Canada). She received her Honours B.A. in Drama and English from the University of Windsor, in Windsor, Ontario; and her Masters of Divinity from Queen's Theological College in Kingston, Ontario. She has served four different pastoral charges in both Nova Scotia and Ontario. She is in shared ministry with Eden United Church in Mississauga. Evelyn enjoys cross-stitch, reading, long cups of (hot) tea over conversation, cooking, traveling, movies, theatre, and walking.
Years of Sacrifice
Richard J. Gould
When my mother retired from her job, she presented to me a Cross pen and pencil set. She had been given this set for 15 years of service to the company. My father also gave me his 15-year pin for the company he worked for.
I did not understand the gifts at the time, however I later came to realize what they were. Those 15-year presentations were my school years. They represent the times my parents were unable to come to my baseball and football games because they were earning the money for ball gloves, bats, spikes, and other necessary items, like additional bus fare and money to eat out, which in the late '50s and early '60s was really rare. Whenever I wear Dad's pin, or use Mom's pencil or pen, I remember a gift of sacrifice.
Richard J. Gould, Sr. pastors a local church in the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, with his wife Shelia. He currently has possession of all the pins and pens and pencils from 5 years of service to 35 for his mom and 30 for his dad. His mother transferred to the church triumphant in 1989; his father joined her in 1993.
A Ticket to Barbados
Stephen Petrie
A few weeks ago, on Valentine's Day, some parishioners said they had taken up a collection so I could visit my ailing mother in Barbados. I was taken aback at their kind offer and said I would get back to them about it. That night she died. Amongst all my jumbled thoughts the next day I figured that the money they raised could go back to the donors, but they insisted that I still go. They arranged the ticket and even paid for coverage for another priest for the Sunday I would miss.
I cannot explain how much of a gift it was for me to be there with my older brother and be a part of her memorial service and the gathering later at the crematorium. I brought her ashes back to Montreal for her final trip home. It was a most extraordinary and meaningful gift that I will never forget.
Stephen Petrie was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada in 1996, following a 15-year career in the printing business. He has served parishes in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and St. Vincent & the Grenadines, and now serves at Trinity Memorial Anglican Church in his native Montreal. Stephen has been married 25 years and he and his wife have two teenage children. His interests include computers, music, and gardening.
Lenten Love
Sally Bull
I met my husband, a widower nearing retirement age, at a Lenten dinner at my home church - First Presbyterian Church in Muncie, Indiana - just months before I planned to move to attend seminary. Each one of us had phoned the same friend to save us a seat at the Lenten dinner on a night we knew they knew we had to work late. She saved us two seats together, introduced us, and turned her back on us, hoping we would get acquainted. We got to know each other over the summer, and he enthusiastically supported my call. We were married at the end of the first year.
During the following two years, Dick drove the 236 miles each Friday after work to spend the weekend with me. While I studied and wrote papers and sermons on Saturday, he cleaned, shopped, and cooked so l would have meals for the week with next to no effort on my part. On Monday mornings, he arose at 3:00 a.m. to drive back to work - taking our laundry, which he brought with him, clean and folded, the following Friday.
At the end of seminary, Dick retired two weeks before graduation so we would not be geographically limited in my "church search." His demonstrated love for me, and his heart of Christian service in our church and wider community continue to amaze and overwhelm me. I know I am extravagantly blessed.
Sally Bull is pastor of Okeechobee Presbyterian Church at 312 N. Parrott Ave., Okeechobee, Florida 34972 (e-mail: sabull@adelphia.net). Her earlier careers were in elementary and college teaching, and data processing for an insurance company and a bank. Sally's husband, Dick Dutton, a California native, was an engineer in the automotive industry. Dick has three grown children who have given them a total of 10 delightful grandchildren.
Christmas Pin
Nancy Nichols
In one of my early parishes there was a family with two little girls. One had dark, straight hair and serious, brown eyes. The other's eyes danced with hidden secrets, and she had kinky, curly, light brown hair. One Christmas they came to church with a tiny package and handed it to me. Inside was a bright red Christmas pin. It looked like a bright wooden Christmas light. I pinned it on my coat and wore it for several years. I grinned every time I saw it, and was filled with joy at both the light and the memory of those two little girls. I lost it one day when it fell off my coat. I have always harbored a hope that someone found the pin and took as much delight in it as I did. Those two girls are now in college! But the joy they gave me that cold winter Sunday when they were five and six continues.
Nancy Nichols is pastor of St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Muncie, Indiana, where she lives with her stately Old English Sheepdog Sir Winston Churchill, a Beagle-Bassett named Scrub, and a Bassett Hound called Clifford.
Trip to the Holy Land
Shelly McNaughton-Lawrence
Extravagant gifts - for my 35th birthday my husband gave me to a trip to the Holy Land, because he knew how much it would enrich my ministry and work. He was right, and I am blessed to have a husband who supports my work so willingly.
Shelly McNaughton-Lawrence is senior pastor at the Wellsville United Methodist Church in Wellsville, Kansas. She was ordained in 1987 and has served churches in Florida, California, Iowa, and Kansas. Shelly has two children, one husband, two dogs, and one cat. Her interests include Walk for a Cure for Juvenile Diabetes and everyday spirituality.
Gift to a Rascal
Larry Winebrenner
(Larry Winebrenner sent what he calls a kind of reverse extravagant gift story.)
When I was in Tallinn, Estonia, with a church group, we gathered on the railroad platform saying our good-byes with friends we had met at the Methodist Church there.
One member of the group, whom I had often conversed with, hugged me and said, "I really like that shirt you are wearing."
It was a sweatshirt I'd donned because the air was a bit nippy. I don't remember the picture and slogan on it, but it was probably something like a picture of Mad magazine's Alfred E. Neuman with the words "What? Me worry?" At any rate, I pulled the shirt off, gave it to him, and stood in the cool air in my bare skin until I boarded the train. I stood at the gate of the car, bare-chested, waving goodbye.
I had images of him writing an effusive thank you letter, saying something like I was the kind of man that would "give someone the shirt off his back."
No such letter ever came. But another did arrive after I got home. It was from someone else in that Estonian church group. He said, "That fellow you gave the shirt to is a rascal. He only wanted it so he could sell it on the black market and get some vodka so he and his friends could party."
Oh well.
Larry Winebrenner is an emeritus professor at Miami-Dade Community College. He served as pastor of churches in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Larry is Chaplain of Epworth Village Retirement Community in Hialeah, Florida. He has authored two college textbooks and served as editor for three newspapers and an academic journal.
Scrap Pile
The Living Passion
by John Sumwalt
In Sunday school class one day the teacher asked the children to draw a picture of something important in their lives. She noticed one little boy who was especially energetic as he carried out the assignment. She leaned over and asked him what he was drawing.
"Oh, I'm drawing a picture of God."
The teacher was a little taken aback. She stood up and with a concerned look on her face and said, "Well, you know Billy, no one has ever seen God. No one knows what God looks like."
"In a minute they will," said Billy.
Mel Gibson, bless his "brave heart," has given us his picture of God and Jesus. On the posters advertising The Passion of the Christ are the words: "Dying was his reason for living." With all due respect to Mel (and I do respect his work as an actor and director, and I am glad to call him a brother in Christ), I disagree with this interpretation of Jesus' life and death. I think he got it turned around. Dying was not Jesus' reason for living. Living was his reason for dying.
In the Last Supper scene in the movie, we hear Jesus saying these words that appear in John's Gospel: "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13).
Jesus gave his life freely out of love, not as part of some preordained plan. He was not a lamb raised for the slaughter; he was and is the lamb who gives himself for others. Jesus says, "...I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord" (John 10:17b-18a). And what's more, he calls all of us to do the same.
Over and over again, Jesus says to his followers: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." Mel left that very important line out of the movie. For him, it would seem, Christianity is all about Jesus' once-and-for-all-time sacrifice.
For Jesus, and for his disciples who would tell his story in the generations that followed the resurrection, it was all about living as Jesus lived. Living for others, loving as Jesus loved, healing as Jesus healed, speaking out against injustice and oppression as Jesus spoke, and if need be, dying as Jesus died. The accent was, and is, on living the "Passion" because Christ is alive.
More disturbing than what he leaves out is what Mel leaves in his Passion. I was dismayed at the one-dimensional depiction of the Jewish authorities. They were vilified at every turn. I understand now why some of our Jewish brothers and sisters have expressed concern about this.
There is a man in our congregation who is Jewish. He has been a Christian for many years, is a Biblical scholar, and is a long-time teacher in the church. He remembers being called a "Christ Killer" as a child. He said it is something one never forgets. All the talk about the movie brought back the memories. He had originally decided not to see the movie, but now plans to see for himself if what commentators like Charles Krauthammer have written is true.
In a piece written for the Washington Post, Krauthammer calls Gibson's movie "...a singular act of inter-religious aggression. He openly rejects Vatican II teachings and, using every possible technique of cinematic exaggeration, gives us the pre-Vatican II story of the villainous Jews." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31980-2004Mar4.html)
I know Mel has said that he did not intend to include anything anti-Semitic in the movie, and I believe him. I also think he is naive if he thinks what he showed does not matter to Jews, who have been called "Christ Killers" for centuries every time a new passion play appears on the scene. It mattered to my friend in our congregation, and it matters to me.
Despite of all this, I am truly grateful for Mel Gibson's witness in this movie. Everybody is talking about Jesus. The theaters have been packed. Jesus could always draw a crowd. I wonder what he thinks about all this excitement and fuss about his story.
A reporter for The Onion wrote this after interviewing Jesus last week: "After watching Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ Monday, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ announced that He will demand creative control over the next film based on His life." (The Onion, March 3, 2004, Volume 40, Issue 09, http://www.theonion.com)
All silliness aside, I believe the resurrected Jesus is with us and does have an opinion about these events. What is he saying to those of us who have ears to hear and eyes to see?
You've seen those little bracelets with the letters WWJD? What would Jesus do? A better question to ask is what is Jesus doing? What is Jesus saying?
I believe he is still living the "Passion," and is with us wherever two or three are gathered in his name.
Many will go to the movie version of The Passion and weep at the thought of what Jesus did for them. And many of those who have wept will go home and feel sad for a while, but make no change in the way they live their lives - will not live and love as Jesus does; will not serve others as Jesus serves; will not meet with him regularly in the places where two or three are gathered together in his name.
All that weeping and all that "blood" will have been for naught. They might as well have gone to a Disney movie. The Lion King made people cry, too.
They will forget that Jesus still weeps for them, still calls them to pick up their crosses and follow him - in this moment; in real time, not movie time; in the here and now time.
The living Jesus invites us to live the "Passion" with him today.
What are you going to do about that?
Excerpts from a sermon preached at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee, March 7, 2004.
**********************************************
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StoryShare, March 28, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
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The Pastor's Cat
I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
Isaiah 43:19
Not too long ago, there was a pastor that had a kitten that climbed up a tree in his backyard, and then was afraid to come down.
The pastor coaxed and offered warm milk, but the kitty would not come down. The tree was not sturdy enough to climb, so the pastor decided that if he tied a rope to his car and drove away so that the tree bent down, he could then reach up and get the kitten.
He did! All the while, checking his progress in the car frequently, he figured if he went just a little bit further, the tree would be bent sufficiently for him to reach the kitten. But as he moved a little further forward, the rope broke.
The tree went "boing!" and the kitten instantly sailed through the air out of sight. The pastor felt terrible.
He walked all over the neighborhood asking people if they'd seen a little kitten. Nobody had seen a stray kitten. So he prayed, "Lord, I just commit this kitten to your keeping," and went on about his business.
A few days later he was at the grocery store, and met one of his church members. He happened to look into her shopping cart and was amazed to see cat food. Now this woman was a cat hater and everyone knew it, so he asked her, "Why are you buying cat food when you hate cats so much?" She replied, "You won't believe this," and told him how her little girl had been begging her for a cat, but she kept refusing. Then a few days before, the child had begged again, so the mom finally told her little girl, "Well, if God gives you a cat, I'll let you keep it."
She told the pastor, "I watched my child go out in the yard, get on her knees, and ask God for a cat. And really, Pastor, you won't believe this, but I saw it with my own eyes. A kitten suddenly came flying out of the blue sky, with its paws outspread, and landed right in front of her."
Never underestimate the Power of God.
(From "Stories For The Soul," http://www.geocities.com/ppotn/soul.html)
Shining Moments
Extravagant Gifts: Eight Pastors Share Personal Stories
Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
John 12:3
The Gift of TLC
Evelyn McLachlan
I had a sister-in-law, Rosemary, who had ovarian cancer. She was in remission for a year or so. Then I received a phone call from her that the cancer was back and a tad more aggressive. I found that out on a Sunday night. I live alone, and I was feeling very sad and distant from Rosemary as she lived about a 5-6 hour drive away.
In the morning, I called a woman on the pastoral charge, Ruth. I asked her if she was busy, and said that I needed some TLC (tender loving care). She invited me over for tea as soon as I was able to get there. I did a couple of errands and knocked on her door; she opened it and opened her arms. I fell into them and wept for a good minute. She led me into the living room, and I just let all my worry, frustration, anger at God, and love for Rosemary tumble out. Then she took my hands and prayed for me and for Rosemary, and for my brother Bill and their two children.
At about 10:30 a.m. I was going to leave, but she would not let me go. I sorted laundry, went to the road and got the mail, and helped get lunch ready for Ruth and her two sons who ran the farm. I was very quiet during lunch (very unlike me!). We did the dishes and then she let me go. The extravagant gift she gave me was complete acceptance and love. I have never had a parishioner pray for me except for Ruth. I have never forgotten that gift.
Evelyn McLachlan is the youngest of six children, and grew up in Timmins in Northern Ontario (Canada). She received her Honours B.A. in Drama and English from the University of Windsor, in Windsor, Ontario; and her Masters of Divinity from Queen's Theological College in Kingston, Ontario. She has served four different pastoral charges in both Nova Scotia and Ontario. She is in shared ministry with Eden United Church in Mississauga. Evelyn enjoys cross-stitch, reading, long cups of (hot) tea over conversation, cooking, traveling, movies, theatre, and walking.
Years of Sacrifice
Richard J. Gould
When my mother retired from her job, she presented to me a Cross pen and pencil set. She had been given this set for 15 years of service to the company. My father also gave me his 15-year pin for the company he worked for.
I did not understand the gifts at the time, however I later came to realize what they were. Those 15-year presentations were my school years. They represent the times my parents were unable to come to my baseball and football games because they were earning the money for ball gloves, bats, spikes, and other necessary items, like additional bus fare and money to eat out, which in the late '50s and early '60s was really rare. Whenever I wear Dad's pin, or use Mom's pencil or pen, I remember a gift of sacrifice.
Richard J. Gould, Sr. pastors a local church in the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, with his wife Shelia. He currently has possession of all the pins and pens and pencils from 5 years of service to 35 for his mom and 30 for his dad. His mother transferred to the church triumphant in 1989; his father joined her in 1993.
A Ticket to Barbados
Stephen Petrie
A few weeks ago, on Valentine's Day, some parishioners said they had taken up a collection so I could visit my ailing mother in Barbados. I was taken aback at their kind offer and said I would get back to them about it. That night she died. Amongst all my jumbled thoughts the next day I figured that the money they raised could go back to the donors, but they insisted that I still go. They arranged the ticket and even paid for coverage for another priest for the Sunday I would miss.
I cannot explain how much of a gift it was for me to be there with my older brother and be a part of her memorial service and the gathering later at the crematorium. I brought her ashes back to Montreal for her final trip home. It was a most extraordinary and meaningful gift that I will never forget.
Stephen Petrie was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada in 1996, following a 15-year career in the printing business. He has served parishes in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and St. Vincent & the Grenadines, and now serves at Trinity Memorial Anglican Church in his native Montreal. Stephen has been married 25 years and he and his wife have two teenage children. His interests include computers, music, and gardening.
Lenten Love
Sally Bull
I met my husband, a widower nearing retirement age, at a Lenten dinner at my home church - First Presbyterian Church in Muncie, Indiana - just months before I planned to move to attend seminary. Each one of us had phoned the same friend to save us a seat at the Lenten dinner on a night we knew they knew we had to work late. She saved us two seats together, introduced us, and turned her back on us, hoping we would get acquainted. We got to know each other over the summer, and he enthusiastically supported my call. We were married at the end of the first year.
During the following two years, Dick drove the 236 miles each Friday after work to spend the weekend with me. While I studied and wrote papers and sermons on Saturday, he cleaned, shopped, and cooked so l would have meals for the week with next to no effort on my part. On Monday mornings, he arose at 3:00 a.m. to drive back to work - taking our laundry, which he brought with him, clean and folded, the following Friday.
At the end of seminary, Dick retired two weeks before graduation so we would not be geographically limited in my "church search." His demonstrated love for me, and his heart of Christian service in our church and wider community continue to amaze and overwhelm me. I know I am extravagantly blessed.
Sally Bull is pastor of Okeechobee Presbyterian Church at 312 N. Parrott Ave., Okeechobee, Florida 34972 (e-mail: sabull@adelphia.net). Her earlier careers were in elementary and college teaching, and data processing for an insurance company and a bank. Sally's husband, Dick Dutton, a California native, was an engineer in the automotive industry. Dick has three grown children who have given them a total of 10 delightful grandchildren.
Christmas Pin
Nancy Nichols
In one of my early parishes there was a family with two little girls. One had dark, straight hair and serious, brown eyes. The other's eyes danced with hidden secrets, and she had kinky, curly, light brown hair. One Christmas they came to church with a tiny package and handed it to me. Inside was a bright red Christmas pin. It looked like a bright wooden Christmas light. I pinned it on my coat and wore it for several years. I grinned every time I saw it, and was filled with joy at both the light and the memory of those two little girls. I lost it one day when it fell off my coat. I have always harbored a hope that someone found the pin and took as much delight in it as I did. Those two girls are now in college! But the joy they gave me that cold winter Sunday when they were five and six continues.
Nancy Nichols is pastor of St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Muncie, Indiana, where she lives with her stately Old English Sheepdog Sir Winston Churchill, a Beagle-Bassett named Scrub, and a Bassett Hound called Clifford.
Trip to the Holy Land
Shelly McNaughton-Lawrence
Extravagant gifts - for my 35th birthday my husband gave me to a trip to the Holy Land, because he knew how much it would enrich my ministry and work. He was right, and I am blessed to have a husband who supports my work so willingly.
Shelly McNaughton-Lawrence is senior pastor at the Wellsville United Methodist Church in Wellsville, Kansas. She was ordained in 1987 and has served churches in Florida, California, Iowa, and Kansas. Shelly has two children, one husband, two dogs, and one cat. Her interests include Walk for a Cure for Juvenile Diabetes and everyday spirituality.
Gift to a Rascal
Larry Winebrenner
(Larry Winebrenner sent what he calls a kind of reverse extravagant gift story.)
When I was in Tallinn, Estonia, with a church group, we gathered on the railroad platform saying our good-byes with friends we had met at the Methodist Church there.
One member of the group, whom I had often conversed with, hugged me and said, "I really like that shirt you are wearing."
It was a sweatshirt I'd donned because the air was a bit nippy. I don't remember the picture and slogan on it, but it was probably something like a picture of Mad magazine's Alfred E. Neuman with the words "What? Me worry?" At any rate, I pulled the shirt off, gave it to him, and stood in the cool air in my bare skin until I boarded the train. I stood at the gate of the car, bare-chested, waving goodbye.
I had images of him writing an effusive thank you letter, saying something like I was the kind of man that would "give someone the shirt off his back."
No such letter ever came. But another did arrive after I got home. It was from someone else in that Estonian church group. He said, "That fellow you gave the shirt to is a rascal. He only wanted it so he could sell it on the black market and get some vodka so he and his friends could party."
Oh well.
Larry Winebrenner is an emeritus professor at Miami-Dade Community College. He served as pastor of churches in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Larry is Chaplain of Epworth Village Retirement Community in Hialeah, Florida. He has authored two college textbooks and served as editor for three newspapers and an academic journal.
Scrap Pile
The Living Passion
by John Sumwalt
In Sunday school class one day the teacher asked the children to draw a picture of something important in their lives. She noticed one little boy who was especially energetic as he carried out the assignment. She leaned over and asked him what he was drawing.
"Oh, I'm drawing a picture of God."
The teacher was a little taken aback. She stood up and with a concerned look on her face and said, "Well, you know Billy, no one has ever seen God. No one knows what God looks like."
"In a minute they will," said Billy.
Mel Gibson, bless his "brave heart," has given us his picture of God and Jesus. On the posters advertising The Passion of the Christ are the words: "Dying was his reason for living." With all due respect to Mel (and I do respect his work as an actor and director, and I am glad to call him a brother in Christ), I disagree with this interpretation of Jesus' life and death. I think he got it turned around. Dying was not Jesus' reason for living. Living was his reason for dying.
In the Last Supper scene in the movie, we hear Jesus saying these words that appear in John's Gospel: "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13).
Jesus gave his life freely out of love, not as part of some preordained plan. He was not a lamb raised for the slaughter; he was and is the lamb who gives himself for others. Jesus says, "...I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord" (John 10:17b-18a). And what's more, he calls all of us to do the same.
Over and over again, Jesus says to his followers: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." Mel left that very important line out of the movie. For him, it would seem, Christianity is all about Jesus' once-and-for-all-time sacrifice.
For Jesus, and for his disciples who would tell his story in the generations that followed the resurrection, it was all about living as Jesus lived. Living for others, loving as Jesus loved, healing as Jesus healed, speaking out against injustice and oppression as Jesus spoke, and if need be, dying as Jesus died. The accent was, and is, on living the "Passion" because Christ is alive.
More disturbing than what he leaves out is what Mel leaves in his Passion. I was dismayed at the one-dimensional depiction of the Jewish authorities. They were vilified at every turn. I understand now why some of our Jewish brothers and sisters have expressed concern about this.
There is a man in our congregation who is Jewish. He has been a Christian for many years, is a Biblical scholar, and is a long-time teacher in the church. He remembers being called a "Christ Killer" as a child. He said it is something one never forgets. All the talk about the movie brought back the memories. He had originally decided not to see the movie, but now plans to see for himself if what commentators like Charles Krauthammer have written is true.
In a piece written for the Washington Post, Krauthammer calls Gibson's movie "...a singular act of inter-religious aggression. He openly rejects Vatican II teachings and, using every possible technique of cinematic exaggeration, gives us the pre-Vatican II story of the villainous Jews." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31980-2004Mar4.html)
I know Mel has said that he did not intend to include anything anti-Semitic in the movie, and I believe him. I also think he is naive if he thinks what he showed does not matter to Jews, who have been called "Christ Killers" for centuries every time a new passion play appears on the scene. It mattered to my friend in our congregation, and it matters to me.
Despite of all this, I am truly grateful for Mel Gibson's witness in this movie. Everybody is talking about Jesus. The theaters have been packed. Jesus could always draw a crowd. I wonder what he thinks about all this excitement and fuss about his story.
A reporter for The Onion wrote this after interviewing Jesus last week: "After watching Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ Monday, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ announced that He will demand creative control over the next film based on His life." (The Onion, March 3, 2004, Volume 40, Issue 09, http://www.theonion.com)
All silliness aside, I believe the resurrected Jesus is with us and does have an opinion about these events. What is he saying to those of us who have ears to hear and eyes to see?
You've seen those little bracelets with the letters WWJD? What would Jesus do? A better question to ask is what is Jesus doing? What is Jesus saying?
I believe he is still living the "Passion," and is with us wherever two or three are gathered in his name.
Many will go to the movie version of The Passion and weep at the thought of what Jesus did for them. And many of those who have wept will go home and feel sad for a while, but make no change in the way they live their lives - will not live and love as Jesus does; will not serve others as Jesus serves; will not meet with him regularly in the places where two or three are gathered together in his name.
All that weeping and all that "blood" will have been for naught. They might as well have gone to a Disney movie. The Lion King made people cry, too.
They will forget that Jesus still weeps for them, still calls them to pick up their crosses and follow him - in this moment; in real time, not movie time; in the here and now time.
The living Jesus invites us to live the "Passion" with him today.
What are you going to do about that?
Excerpts from a sermon preached at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee, March 7, 2004.
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StoryShare, March 28, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
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