Wine

Jesus turned water into wine, as we learned in the Gospel lesson for today.

Then we sang the Hymn of the Month: "Fill My Cup, Lord."

Wal-Mart joke for subversives

Wal-Mart joke.

Christmas Decorations

I have an uncomfortable relationship with Christmas decorations and decorating. Mostly, I want, desperately, to be NOT like the world, i.e. the commercial establishments, that decorate even before Thanksgiving and then are so, so tired of these red and green do dads, that they take them down on Dec. 26. Freudian slip: I wrote "red and greed."

But decorating just before Dec. 25 so that my decorations are up until Ephiphany makes me feel like I'm just behind again and dull. Besides, if we travel for the holidays, we don't even get to enjoy our own decorations.

So I compromise by doing some Advent activites and slowly getting out the Christmas related decorations.

And what does it mean to be Christmas related? Now that is a good question. It seems that anything at all that is red, green, gold, or can hang on a tree is Christmasy.

I was looking at my ornaments, most of which I purchased, and asking myself, "What does this have to do with Christmas?" But I found one little tacky plastic ornament that actually has a Christmas message. Glory be to God for His Son!

Raffles are gambling

After the Lutheran Zephyr posted regarding gambling, I found this joke and I couldn’t resist posting it. Did I tell you I hate raffles, especially in church.

Donkey Raffle

A Cajun named Jean Paul moved to Texas and bought a donkey from an old farmer for $100.00. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day. The next day the farmer drove up and said, "Sorry, but I got some bad news. The donkey died."

"Well then, just give me my money back."

"Cain't do that. I went and spent it already."

"OK then, just unload the donkey."

"What ya gonna do with em."

"I'm gonna raffle him off."

"Ya cain't raffle off a dead donkey!"

"Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anyone he's dead."

A month later the farmer met up with the Cajun and asked, "What happened with the dead donkey?"

"I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at $2.00 apiece and made a profit of $898.00."

"Didn't no one complain?"

"Just the guy who won. So I gave him his $2.00 back."