A Sermon For Cat Lovers

Preached September 2, 2001

There are words that most of us can count on hearing at some time or other in our lives, usually when we're not quite grown up yet.

Maybe it's when we try -- ever so casually -- to wander away from the dinner table, even though we know its our night to wash the dishes.

Maybe it's when we head out the door -- with such bravado -- hoping no one will take a good look at us, or more accurately, no one will take a good look at what we’re wearing.

Maybe it's when we scoop up the car keys -- just like we have every right to take them -- and saunter toward the car….

…that we hear AND JUST WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING??

Sometimes there's a little variation -- JUST WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING DRESSED LIKE THAT?

And it's not just our parents or our grandparents or other adults who live in the house with us who like to ask that question. God seems to like that question, too.

In today's reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, the preacher Ben Sirach -- a man inspired by God -- stares down a king and says -- "Whatever in this world do you have to get all arrogant and uppity about? One of these days -- maybe one of these days not too long from now -- you're going to die, and when that happens, JUST WHERE DO YOU THINK YOUR DUST AND ASHES ARE GOING? That's a humbling thought, in all the best senses of the word. You might want to file it away and take it out again along about Advent time, but I digress.

Moving back into scripture, we see Jesus going to an upscale dinner party where the guests are jockeying for the best seats. As they maneuver their way toward the places of honor, Jesus -- who seems to be a rather rude guest, here, but that's another matter -- Jesus takes one look at them and says, HEY, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU BELONG AT THE HEAD OF THE TABLE? JUST WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?

All in all, it's a question worth spending some prayerful time with. It's a question preachers ask royalty. It's a question Jesus asks people with power and authority. And it's a question I asked a cat.

Actually, it's a question MANY of us here today asked a cat. I'm talking about the little butterscotch and white kitten who showed up a few weeks ago, the Sunday we were baptizing LaQuan Vaughn. The kitten was waiting by the front gate early Sunday morning, just like she'd been waiting by the front gate every day the week before. When John Morris opened the gate, the kitten marched right on through, up the stairs, into the church. And no matter how many times she got shoo-ed away -- we even had someone sitting on the steps during the service to head her off -- back she came. JUST WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING? We asked her. Right on inside, she said, and she kept on saying it until the next Monday morning. That Monday, she showed up at the gate, marched on inside, and got scooped up and hauled off in my very best cat carrier.And just in case anybody's wondering…she's fine. We named her Octavia. Octavia got a clean bill of health from the vet and is now living more or less cheerfully with us. Only thing is, whenever she sees one of the other cats, she starts hissing and spitting and acting likes she's about three times bigger than she is. But sooner or later Octavia will realize that she'll always have enough food in her bowl, and there will always be enough sunny window sills to go around. And when I sit with her on the yellow futon in the attic until you can't quite tell whether she's purring or snoring, I meditate on how much Octavia's journey from Baltimore's sidewalks to a home where she's loved and cherished and cared for can teach us about our own journey in Christ and to Christ and finally through Christ, home with God.

First of all, Octavia knew she'd had enough of wilderness wandering. There was more for her, somewhere, than streets with too many dogs and not enough kitten chow, and she didn't give up until she found it. Octavia knew she didn't belong in some back alley, and we know that we don't belong to this world. And like Octavia, not one of us is about to give up until we find our true home with Christ Jesus.

However… Octavia thought her true home was in Resurrection's chapel, where she would have been perfectly content to stay, resting by the altar and waiting for me to bring her kibble and fresh water on demand. We all have our own ideas about what life in Christ should be like for us, too. Like Octavia, we’re usually wrong. The Holy Spirit scoops us off (Now there's an image -- the Holy Spirit scoops us up and puts us in God's cat carrier??? Meditate on that one for awhile and you won't have to worry about pride and arrogance!)

Anyway, the Holy Spirit scoops us up and takes us places we've never been before, places we couldn't even imagine when we first ended our exile. We're likely to get scared along the way, and we'll hurt a little bit -- sometimes more than a little bit. (Those shots and vet visits were really for Octavia's own good, but she didn't know that.) And remember how Octavia started hissing and spitting at the other cats in our house? There will be times when we look around at our brothers and sisters in Christ, and feel like hissing and spitting at them, too, especially when we're not quite sure that God means to keep the promises God has made to us, times we're not sure there's enough God to go around. We like our spiritual life just fine when God lifts us up, and puts us in the Divine Lap where we feel safe and secure and loved…but when God says "OK, enough" and puts us back down to do God's work in the world, and gives us such a strange tribe of brothers and sisters in Christ to be with while we do the work God has given us to do, that can be another story. Whether we hiss and spit because we don't feel special any more, or whether we joyfully take our place as just another Christian -- saved and loved and cherished forever, just like every other Christian -- depends on how we answer one question.

On your journey in Christ, and to Christ, and through Christ -- just where, beloved in Christ, do you think you're going? Truly, I tell you, you are going where you will be loved and cherished and cared for, for all eternity. In fact, you are there already, today. And so you can have courage, and go out to do God's work in the world, just another Christian among other strange and wonderful Christians, now and forever, Amen.