Sunday Homily, Sept 9, 2007, 23rd in Ordinary Time

Readings: Genesis 9, 8-15; Psalm 25; 1 Peter 3, 18-22; Mark 1, 12-15

Genesis:  First book of the Bible, starts with creation, goes through Adam & Eve, Cain & Abel, Noah & the flood, the Tower of Babel, & ends with the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob (Israel).

Author: Not Moses as was thought for centuries before people began to study the work.  At least 3 sources: 

• a Y (or J) source for the group that addressed God as Yahweh;

• an E for the group who addressed God as Elohim (Like two historians calling NYC The Big Apple or New York City, or Denver by its name or Mile High City);

• and a P group that focused on the priestly class, activities, & customs.

Time: compiled and put together from 1000 to 500 BCE.

Today's Selection: the flood has just receded and Noah is receiving a promise (called covenant) from Yahweh that never again will people be wiped out by a flood.  Guess what the sign of the promise is.

40 Days

I want to talk about Genesis.  Picture this.  It is night.  Moon & stars.  Sitting around a little campfire are 3 or 4 families, parents and a half dozen kids.  It is Maybe 1000 years before Christ.  It  is perfectly quiet except for the howl of a few animals out in the complete darkness.

A little girl says to her parents, "Where did that moon come from?  The stars?  Where did we come from?"  The parents tell her about the stories they heard from their elders.

They say: Before people were here the earth was all desolate.  It was dark & cold & waters were raging.  God came along one day and decided to put some order into this mess.  So he got up the next morning and divided up the daylight and the dark.

The next day he got up and created the dome of the sky.  The third day he created the earth and starts plants growing.  The day after that he sets up the sun, the moon, and the stars.  On the fifth day he puts together fish and birds and tell them to multiply.  The sixth day he really has to work hard: animals and especially man & woman.  By now he is tired, so he takes the seventh day off and enjoys his work.  This is the first account of creation in Genesis.

Now at another campfire many miles away a little boy is asking his family the same question.  He is told another story.  One day, say, Elohim is walking on a dirt path (like everyone did.  No pavement).  He leans down grabs a handful, wets it, and molds it into a new form, something with two legs, two arms, and a head.  A man. 

This man is given life and gets put into a marvelous garden with only one command.  Don't eat from that tree.  Time goes on and animals are created which the man names.  However, the man is lonely, so God takes a rib out of his side and molds it into another human  form.  This one, however, is female and becomes man's partner.  The man names her Eve, the mother of all.  This is the second creation story.

At this point in time all is copasetic.  One day, however, while Eve is strolling around the Garden of Eden, a snake begins to talk with her.  Eventually the snake convinces her to try the fruit of the tree.  Uh, oh.  Then she shares it with the Man, now called Adam.  Later, God comes strolling along in the evening and has to call out for Adam & Eve, who are hiding.  He knows what they have done.  They confess and he tells them they will be forever punished with difficult living.  So they get kicked out of Eden.

Adam & Eve have kids.  Cain first, Abel second.  One day both boys make an offering to God.  Unfortunately for some reason, Cain's offering is rejected by God.  He is hurt and gets mad because his brother is accepted.  He kills Abel.  Then he, too, gets punished by God. 

Time passes and apparently many more of Adam & Eve's kids turn out like Cain.  In fact, God becomes so mad, so disappointed in his new creature man, that he regrets what he has done and decides to wipe everyone off the face of the earth–except one guy, Noah.  At this time, Noah is 500 years old.  He builds a boat and it rains 40 days.  Which takes us up to today's reading, where the water has receded and God promises he will never kill everyone with a flood again, signing his name with a rainbow. 

I tell these mythological stories for four reasons.

First, we seldom hear or read these marvels.

Secondly, though it is not in the Genesis reading we have, there is a thread between this part of Genesis 9 and Mark and today: the 40 days.  Forty is a special number in the old times meaning a sufficient number.  It rained 40 days.  Jesus is in the desert 40 days.  And we are spending 40 days of Lent.

Thirdly, when Jesus came out of the desert he really throws himself into his message, which contains 4 points in Mark:

• The Time is now.

• The Kingdom is here.

• Repent.

• Believe the Good News

Fourthly, for centuries up until Vatican 2, the 40 days of Lent focused on fasting and abstinence to imitate Jesus and to do penance for our bad ways.  It was supposed to be a cleansing before Holy Week and Easter and a test of character. 

Fasting usually meant giving up meals.  Abstinence meant giving up a particular item, like Blue Bell or chocolate chip cookies.  I found one amusing note:Thomas Aquinas, one of the great doctors of the Catholic Church who lived ca. 1250, suggested that the faithful abstain from meat, eggs, and dairy.  Why?  Because they were aphrodisiacs and generated lust.  Food, alcohol, tobacco, and sex were all targets of the Church.

Today Mormons fast 1 day per month.  Muslims fast dawn to dusk the month of Ramadan which is August 22-September 20 this year.  This fast often includes liquids. 

Last week I suggested for a positive Lent we might practice sensitivity and service.  This week we might fast, since this has been the hot topic.  Maybe a fast from guilt and stress.

How is Lent going for you?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2009-03-01.mp3

Sources:  Wikipedia on Lent & Fasting; Dominican Website; Creighton U. Spiritual Seminar; St. Raymond Church, Dublin, CA.

Picture 1:  Mass with Reed (3 weeks new)

Picture 2:  Reed with his momma Nikki & granny Jackie

Picture 3: Stacie McKinley, Reed with Jackie & Nikki, Ryan (Nikki's brother & Jackie's son); Rosemary, & Margie Duggan

Picture 4:  Mass with Noah helping

Readings:

Acts  5, 27-32, 40-41,  The Sanhedrin ordered the apostles to stop speaking in the name of Jesus

Psalm 30,  I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

Revelation  5, 11-14, I heard to voices of many angels.

John 21, 19-31,  Simon, do you love me more than these?   

Introduction: In our reading from Luke’s Acts we are told that the apostles are teaching, through the power of the Spirit, about the Lamb of God.  At this time they have in their possession the gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke. In the Book of Revelation, written later, we are told about the four living creatures that glorify the Lamb of God. They are the gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John; in these gospel stories Jesus is alive to us through the power of the Spirit.

The Offertory Procession – Tom, Teresa, Caroline and David

Homily by Mike:

Today’s gospel reading is not in the original John gospel. It was added later with two other parable-like stories.  Since the gospels complement one another, the inspired writers of the Matthew gospel prepare us for this reading with the words, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a net, thrown into the sea, that catches people of every kind,’ and that’s why Jesus had called his disciples to be fishers of men.

In Judaism, there was a net; it was called the Sabbath Synagogue Service.  Later the inspired writers initiated a net in which the Sunday gospel reading fulfilled the expectation of the Law and/or the Prophets for the coming of Christ.  We give thanks that the Holy Spirit moved the Church to re-institute the net during Vatican II, to be used in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. 

Kevin, John, Buddy, and Georgie

In today’s parable-like story, Peter and six others have gone fishing for gentiles, not fish.  We know their intention because seven disciples also began this mission to the gentiles in the Matthew and Mark gospels, and in Luke’s Acts of the Apostles.  We are told on the first day of their mission they caught nothing.  Jesus tells them in this parable story to use the net, and that even if they cast it to the worst possible place, the right side of the boat were the rudder would most likely tangle the net; they would still catch many gentiles. The success that the disciples have ignites John’s heart, and he tells Peter, ‘It is the Lord.’

Now, there are two synonymous fish in this story.   Each has the same Greek definition, ‘to be eaten along with the bread.’  Recall the gospel stories about the loaves and fish that anticipate the Lord’s Supper. After the Lord blesses the loaves and fish, or gives thanks over them, he gives them to his disciples to distribute to the Jews and to the gentiles.  So, what is it that we are to consume today along with the body of Christ, the bread blessed and broken that we are called to become daily in our lives?  It is this Sunday’s Liturgy of the Word where our parable story was first proclaimed and now being explained.

Hi, Genevieve

Many of you have or have seen other Christians whose cars or homes show the symbol of the fish, ichthus, one of these two words for fish in this parable story. Recall its Greek acronym stands for, ‘Jesus, Christ, God’s Son and Savior.’ Believers identify themselves with it. And they should! This Greek word for fish is found throughout Matthew, Mark and Luke; but in John it is only found there in today’s reading along with the other word for fish found only in John.

Shonda, Ray and David

If you study today’s reading carefully in Greek, you will realize that the net used by the seven to catch many gentiles was composed of the 153 parable-like stories written by the inspired writers of Matthew, Mark and Luke.  In our reading today, Jesus joins them with the original gospel stories of John, that were not yet in use but in these disciple’s possession, along with the additions to the John gospel on the grill, to form the one Gospel. The truth presented by this parable-like story is that the net that was formed will not be divided; there is one Gospel, one net, to be used to the ends of the earth.

Today’s parable-like story ends this way:  Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish.  This is how the disciples knew that it was the Lord present to them in both the Liturgy of the Eucharist and the Word.

Leo, the Candle Lighter

Readings:

Genesis  9, 8-15,  The waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings. 

Psalm 25,    Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.

1 Peter 3, 18-22,   Christ suffered for sins once.

 Mark 1, 12-15,   The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert.

Says Harper, "Welcome, Everyone, Come in out of the cold and rain."

Genesis:  observations–

What:  First book of the Bible, starts with creation & ends with the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob (Israel).

Author: Not Moses as was thought for centuries before people began to study the work.  At least 3 sources: 

• a Y (or J) source for the group that addressed God as Yahweh;
• an E for the group who addressed God as Elohim (Like two historians calling NYC The Big Apple or New York City, or Denver by its name or Mile High City);
• and a P group that focused on the priestly class, activities, & customs.

And Emma, too, says, "Hi, Everybody, It's warm in here, come in."

Time: compiled and put together from 950 to 500 BCE.

Today's Selection: the flood has just receded and Noah is receiving a promise (called covenant) from Yahweh that never again will people be wiped out by a flood.  Guess what the sign of the promise is.

And Leo says, "Yippee, I bet my dad gets a Cupcake for his birthday."

A Happy Lent

I want to talk this morning about having a happy Lent.  Why?  Because God created us to be happy. 

I admit again that this is my least favorite season of the year.  I always look for something positive to do and am never really satisfied with what I come up with.

Welcome to a happy Lent.

However, this past week I got something good.  During the week Diane McClurg sent me a facebook note that she had something.   Then she sent me another more insistent facebook saying she was waiting.  So I opened it up.  And am I grateful.

What she had sent was a copy of an article by a woman named Karen Ehman.  Karen Ehman says, ‘For this Lent don’t give something up; take something up.’  She has five ideas that are pretty good.  Here they are.

Cupcake of The Week to Diane for her birthday and for recommending the article on Lent.

1. Take up note writing to people with whom you don’t communicate that often, but who are friends.  She says she buys 40 cards, envelopes, and stamps.  Each morning she sends one out to a friend, just saying that she likes the person.
2. Take up the phone and call someone every day or once a week and tell them you are calling just to tell them thanks for being a good friend.  
3. Take up a simple gift for a friend or family member.  Like bring flowers to someone, bring a Starbucks, offer to wash the dishes, or clean or dust the house, mow the grass (welcome to Tulip Lane).  Invite someone to lunch.  This is a once a week or occasional take up.

23 years for Alison and John.

1. Take up a simple gift for a stranger.  Like the recycle men, the garbage men, the checkers at the grocery.  Compliment the checker on her finger nails, give $10 to each of the garbage men (watch out for their over the top gratitude). 
2. Take up visiting someone in retirement or in a hospital.  (This is my addition, not Karen’s)  We got lots of people you may choose from, starting with Rita. 

Brent and Meredith keeping warm.

As you can see, some of these suggestions are occasional or once a week ideas.  Plus, what we have here are only seeds.  Even while you were listening to the five I put forward, you may be been thinking about other possibilities.

How can you have a happy Lent?

Source: Karen Ehman, on line.

Life for Cowboy Cole and Emma.

Readings:

Isaiah  66, 18-21,  I know their works and their thoughts.  (This is the last chapter of the book of Isaiah.)

Psalm 117,  Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.

Hebrews 12, 5-7, 11-13,    He scourges every son he acknowledges.

Luke 13, 22-30,  Strive to enter through the narrow gate.

 

Leo and Genevieve say, "Welcome in, Everybody."

 

Isaiah 66 observations:

Author: Isaiah III.  The book of Isaiah is one of my favorites.  Some beautiful passages.  Remember, 3 primary authors are responsible for the 66 chapters, and we are reading the very last.  Isaiah 1 covers chapters 1-39.  This book is one of the Big 3 O.T. prophets, along with Jeremiah and Ezekiel.  This is because the works are the longest.  There are 12 minor prophets.

Time: ca. 700, before the Assyrians annihilate the northern Jewish kingdom, called Israel, vs the southern kingdom called Judah, where Jerusalem is.  10 tribes were lost in this destruction, the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel. 

 

 

 

Leo and his buddy, John, also say, "Come on in, Folks." 

 

 

Remember, there were 12 tribes.  Why?  Because of the 12 sons of Jacob, who was one of the 3 great patriarchs or founders of the tribe, Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob, who was also called Israel. 

 Message of Isaiah III: Mostly consolation after the catastrophe.   What is the basic activity of a prophet?  1.  criticism, 2. prediction of dire payment, 3. consolation.

Today’s message: this being the last chapter of the whole work, you might guess.  Yes, consolation and future unity.

 

 

Buddy, our Candle Lighter of The Week, at work.


 

 

Psalm  117:  The best line in the whole bunch of readings.  Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.

Hebrews observation:

 The best thing about today's selection: we have to read Hebrews only one more week.  Awful reading today.

 

 

Genevieve says, "Like my new dance step?" 

 

 

It is all Good News

You will never guess where I was this past Friday morning at 6:00.  Yep, you know me too well.   I was beginning spin class at the Jewish Community Center.  I have a special story about something that happened at that class.

Normally we have 10 to 16 or so people for the classes.  But Friday morning we had only about 7-8.  Plus we had a substitute teacher or directress of the orchestra, a lady named Alesia, whose style I like, a bit more laid back.

 

 

Becky and Tom, good friends. 

 

 

So, just as Alesia was instructing us to get started, I stepped away from my bike and made a sign to her that I would like to talk.  So she gave me the welcome sign. 

I stepped forward, turned a bit to include the class, and said that a very special person was celebrating her birthday that day, Haya.   I went over to her and gave her a gift of a little package of cookies called BelVita. 

 

 

Harper says, "Hi, Everybody." 

 

 

Haya is an older woman, which makes her special to me.  She is about 5‘1”, is a little hunchbacked, has a vertical scar on the back of her right shoulder, is very quiet and shy, speaks English with a foreign accent, and drives a gold Prius (as I say frequently, “Anybody who drives a gold Prius has got to be special). 

We finish the class, sing Happy Birthday, start drying off, stretching, and preparing to leave.  I feel a tap on my back.  Haya.  She thanks me for remembering her.  Then she says, “This is the happiest day of my life.”

 

 

Grace and Richard, more good friends. 

 

 

 I cannot believe what I just heard.  I am so touched.  On the one hand, I am touched that such a small gesture can mean so much to her.  On the other, does this say something about her life?  Could she be a victim of the Holocaust?  I discover that we are the same age, 76.  What has she seen in life that I have never seen? 

Why talk about her this morning?  Two reasons.   Because she is Good News.  The Psalm says, “Go out and tell the Good News.”  People are Good News.   I want to know her story.

 

 

 

The Best Music, Shonda, Bethany (guess who is expecting?), and Ray.

 

 

Secondly, I want also to contextualize the negativity of Hebrews and Luke. 

There was a strong belief in these times that God was definitely a conditional love God.  Why did the Babylonian Captivity take place?  The Israelites were bad.  Jeremiah says it, the Isaiahs say it.   And so it was written.  In fact, God scourges those who are his special people.

 

 

 

Offertory with Mike & Judy, and Mary.

 

Pretty much this opinion of God has been discarded.  But, remember Katrina?  Happened because New Orleans was bad.  So would you believe that God this past spring was punishing Garland, Blue Mound, and other Dallas suburbs when the hail and rain wrecked people’s houses?  Is sickness a penance for a sinful, bad life?

Me?  I believe and propose that people are The Good News, that you are The Good News.

 

 

 

Play station Number 1. 

 

 

And you?   A God who scourges and demands penance or a God who proclaims that people are The Good News?

 

Readings: Acts 10 25-48; Psalm 98, The Lord has revealed to the Nations his Saving Power; 1 John 4, 7-10; John 15, 9-17

Acts:  Another review–

Author: Luke, who wrote both the Gospel and Acts

Date: ca. 40-50 years after the death of Jesus

Our selection: This same selection was read on Easter Sunday.  What is happening is this.  Last Sunday we began the second half of Acts, from chapter 9 to the end.  Last week's reading had to do with Paul returning to the community in Jerusalem after he had his conversion experience on the road to Damascus. 

This week we get into chapter 10 which focuses on two characters: Peter and a Gentile (non-Jew) captain in the Roman army named Cornelius.  Cornelius was supposed to be a good man and he has a voice call him, "Cornelius." "What is it, sir?" he answers.  The voice tells him to go a town called Joppa and talk with a man named Peter.  Cornelius sends two servants.

Meanwhile in Joppa Peter has that vision we talked about Easter Sunday: a sheet coming down from the sky with a multitude of animals.  Many of the animals are considered ritually impure by Jews.  Peter is told by a voice to eat from these animals, but Peter refuses.  While this is going on the two servants arrive and the voice tells Peter to go with them.  Peter arrives at Captain Cornelius' house and that is where we take up the story.

Luke is interested here not so much in history as in convincing his readers that the Gentiles as well as Jews are included in the new religion.

Source: Good News Bible

Psalms:

Dates: Put together at ca. 300 years BCE.

Author(s): The old belief that David composed all 150 Psalms is just myth.  The reality: many people and groups of people composed the psalms over centuries.

Purpose: songs of gratitude, sorrow, pain, and longing to be sung by the Jewish people, especially in the temple and later in the synagogue.  Special songs were composed for feast days like passover and the feast of lights, to name just two.

Source:Bishop (Episcopal) John Shelby Spong, Origins of the Bible XXV, published 5-2-09 in Mirabile Dictu

Requem for a Water Trailer: That Your Joy May be Complete

Friday morning I handed it over, Folks.  You remember the big red water tank I used to fill up at the back door here ever since we started coming here?  Friday I donated it to the Texas Tree Foundation, the group where I used to buy our trees wholesale. 

A number of events were taking place that made me aware it may be time for me to move on to another hobby.  PISD & RISD have both said they don't want any more trees because they get in the way of their big lawn mowers and it busts their budgets.  My truck is smoking badly.  And heading into 70 years I am aware I cannot lift and dig like I used to. 

I admit I experienced a sadness when I went to Jean Atwood's house Thursday night to pick up the trailer, Jean who has been so generous to store the trailer in her driveway for the last 4 years, ever since I departed Jesuit & we planted Plano Senior.  And likewise, Friday morning when I drove it over to the the tree farm.  I have spent hours working with that trailer and have kept alive thousands of little trees through terrific Dallas droughts. 

More than the sadness, though, I sense a joy probably like what is mentioned in John's Gospel, one of my favorite line in Scripture. 

I certainly was consoled when I delivered the trailer to the team at the TX Trees Foundation near TI.  They need the trailer to water trees in a downtown Dallas urban forest park this summer.

I, likewise, am delighted when I ride streets in north Dallas shaded with our trees.  I pass islands, say, on the east side of Love Field, along Lemon Avenue, and I can see in my mind Kovatis and Leals planting the islands or Rose Banzhaf shoveling mulch into containers behind Hillcrest High.  I can see Kim Quirk & her family planting trees in a park at Lovers Lane & Lemon.

I got some amusing memories which give me joy.  Plano Senior, 5:30 A.M., Sean Schleicher watering from the back of the truck in the dark, I'm driving.  I get us stuck in the mud of a shallow irrigation ditch just north of the baseball diamond which had over watered its field and the water had drained into the ditch.

Remember the beautiful day we planted 400 trees in 1 hour at Plano Senior?  We were scheduled to start about 12:00.  Ten minutes before 12:00 I'm in that big south east parking lot getting things ready.  Kovatis comes by and yells, "Where is everybody?  We got a lot of work to do!"   I look up 30 minutes later and people are everywhere.  30 more minutes and people are coming up asking where are more trees to plant.  Everything was planted and the picnic we planned for 3:00 began ca. 1:00. 

Remember the chili picnics prepared by my buddy Lamberty at Jesuit?  Remember way back when we took two Sundays to plant Marsh Lane from LBJ to Northwest Hwy and Frank Hart, my old coach from Christ the King, invited the whole planting party to his restaurant?

These memories give me great joy as do my trips around the streets, parks, and school campuses we have planted.  How many?  Who knows?  Take 20 years and conservatively say we averaged 200 trees a year.  That would be a minimum.  And most of them are all out there.

This is the joy I think John is talking about in his Gospel.  We got it.

What next?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2009-05-17.mp3

Picture 1:  Mass with Kevin & Noah

Picture 2:  Richardson Women's Club Gazebo Wedding of

Picture 3:  Dorothy & Jim butterly

Picture 4:  The red water trailer custom built by Al Tenbusch

Readings:

Isaiah 55, 10-12,   Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down…

 Psalm 65,   The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.

Romans 8,  18-23,  The sufferings of this present time are as nothing…

Matthew 13, 1-23,  The parable of the sower.

Emma and her mom, Beth, say, "Welcome in, Everybody."

Isaiah, The Great One, observations—

Who:  One of the Big 3 prophets, the greatest in my estimation.  Jeremiah and Ezekiel are the other two.  Actually, the book includes the work of 3 prophets.   Our selection is the last chapter written by Isaiah 2.

Time:  Isaiah 2 was living during the Babylonian Captivity, ca. 555.  Isaiah 1 writes before the Captivity, maybe 150 years.  Isaiah 3 writes after the return to Jerusalem. 

Subject today: better times will come.  I am expanding today’s passage by a third line, because it is so good.

Isaiah 2 has some of the most beautiful passages, many of which are seen as foretelling the coming of the Savior.  His readings are used all through the Advent & Christmas readings, as well as in Lent.  Handel uses Isaiah 2 in his marvelous work, The Messiah.

Both the Isaiah reading and Psalm 65 are beautiful.

David and Donna, our hearts and our complete condolences go out to you on the loss of your 1 year old little Yorkie, Dixie Belle.  On a sunny morning this past week in the Canyon Creek neighborhood, David was taking his coffee on the patio of their fenced in back yard and Dixie was playing, when a bobcat climbed over the fence,  grabbed Dixie by the neck, and climbed back over the fence with her.   David, yelling, climbed over the fence in pursuit.  With the help of a neighbor Dixie was rescued.  But it was too late.  She died later that day.  A year ago February the same thing happened to another of their little Yorkies.  So sorry!

And My Seed Landed Where?

This morning I would like to talk about how Jesus is said to describe how the farmer’s seed is scattered on four different types of ground, the path, the rocks, the thorns, and the fertile.  Where did your seed fall?  Where did my seed fall?  I’m sure a lot of volunteers would be happy to let me know where my seed fell.

If you are a sinful gambler poker player you would look at this explanation and notice the bad odds, one out of four.  I would propose, however, that we all landed on fertile soil.  Let me offer some examples.

Hi, Tori.

I’ve shared this example once before, so you might remember it, but probably not.  

When I was a little kid about 5 years old, I was playing in the driveway of our house in University Park.  There were no fences and the drive went from the street, through the space between our house and the neighbor’s, and to the back up against the alley. 

The neighbor was Sam Berger, who owned a hat store in downtown Dallas.  He was Jewish and lived next to us all during the Holocaust.  I was oblivious to it all.  He & his wife had a big black lady who not only worked in the house, but lived in the back in an apartment attached to the garage, the servant quarters.  This black lady was not nice to me. 

Our Candle Lighter of The Week at work.

So this day as I am playing in the driveway, the lady steps out of the kitchen door & stands on the steps.  Without thinking, I say, “You are a big fat elephant.”

To the lady’s credit, she marches right across the drive and tells my mom.  My mom comes out of the house, drags me in, and spanks me.  Thinking back, I am impressed that my mom respected the lady.  The spanking, however, and her treatment of me confirmed my suspicions that my seed had fallen at least on the path or rocks, if not right on the thorns.   I definitely grew up with the belief that I was a bad kid. 

Best buddies, Mary, Judy, and Mike.

Despite the fact that you folks might agree with that assessment, I would propose that I was just a normal little boy doing silly things. 

This habit of doing silly, not bad things, can continue into adult years.  I know a guy who gets on his bike and rides off for an hour leaving the driver’s door of his car wide upon. 

The Best, Shonda and Ben

I know a lady who last week let her Lincoln run out of gas in rush hour traffic.  Her husband, a bit nettled, brought gas, but then could not start the car.  It had to be towed.

I know a dear friend who drove into her garage with a canoe strapped to the top of her car. 

Wake up, Buddy, we are almost through. 
 

You do this stuff and you begin to believe the bad news, ‘I am a loser, I am bad, my seed obviously landed in the ditch.” 

And then there are the malicious acts.  You know where I come in on this.  Kids hurt and abused grow up to hurt and abuse.  They are not bad.  They are damaged. 

So, who landed on fertile soil?  All of us.  God don’t make bad seed.

So, what do you think about all this?

Beware Angela!  Cathy may be treating you all nice, but she's probably trying to sell you that mint condition Edsel that her husband brought home.  I bet she told you Bill, your son in law would love it.