Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

I feel like a stinky sheep.  My mind is blank, my spirit dry, and I’m late submitting this blog. Yes, I feel like a stinky sheep. Baa. In times like these I’m reminded of the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:1-17). A shepherdess leaves ninety-nine of her flock in search of the one that was lost.   Finding it, she lifts the bleating lamb over her shoulders and carries it back to town, inviting friends and neighbors to join in her jubilation! (Jesus was addressing this parable to a group of men so, naturally, he used a male shepherd in the metaphor. He just as easily could have referred to a shepherdess, to someone like Rachel, Leah, or Rebekah or many other women of that time who were shepherdesses. But I digress.) A shepherdess or shepherd holding a sheep close to the body risks rubbing her or his scent onto the sheep, which could lead to rejection by the rest of the flock. We can rejoice in the truth that Jesus the Good Shepherd never rejects anyone. Rather, he marks us wit

One joy of blogging on Catherine’s Café is reflecting on the other blogs.   So here goes it! Have you participated in any cultural exchanges lately? I enjoyed celebrating the 5 th anniversary of a local pastor, who not only is a great preacher, but also a recently elected judge in juvenile court. “Children must not be shackled when they come to this court!” he recently declared. The pastor who gave the sermon at the event is another great preacher, who preached that the preacher also must heal his/herself of his/her own pain and sin.   “Preach till the chains fall off! He proclaimed in his black preaching cadence with his Lutheran pastor soul. How are you aware of God's presence in your life? As I participated in the above service, I let the beat of the drums and the harmony of the hymns penetrate my heart and soul.   (I am not good at clapping and so my body kept still).   But God was there.   It was a God moment as I sat there 2.5 miles from where I grew up in my a