Naming Cows

Newcastle University in the United Kingdom reported that they have discovered that cows give more milk when they are called by name. The study reports that cows will produce as much as 500 pints more when named. It seems the cows respond better to humans when they are treated as individuals rather than just another bovine in the barn. The study doesn’t tell us how to find out what the cows’ names are. It would seem to me that Ol’ Bessie would not want to be called Ol’ Jill. In fact, Ol’ Jill might even take offense at Bessie being given her name. What would happen then? Less milk? They might even be moooooved to quit giving altogether.

As udderly ridiculous (sorry) as it might sound, we aren’t too unlike our hooved friends. We all like to be remembered and called by name. It makes me feel good when someone I barely know remembers my name. It makes me want to go out and buy them a gallon of milk or two. I had a friend in seminary, I forget his name, that after his first day of registration went home and wrote down the names of over 200 people he had met that day. He even included something that he had learned about them. He had a gift.

God has a gift too. Sixty buhzillion people and he knows every single one of them, by name. Not only that, he calls to us, each one of us, as he leads us on the journey. “Michael, follow me. Jennifer, over here. Leslie, it won’t be long.” Can’t hear God? Listen closer. God might be speaking through someone or something unexpected: like a friend, a book, a song, even blogs. We just need to pay attention.

The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. – John 10

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday was last week. Baptists typically don’t observe Ash Wednesday citing that it is “too Catholic.” Our church is one of the few but growing numbers of Baptist churches that do observe the day. It is my privilege each year to retrieve the dried palms that were used in last year’s Palm Sunday processional and burn them. It will be those ashes that are used to mark the foreheads of those who choose to have ashes imposed upon them in worship. It is a sacred task.

During the imposition, the worshipper comes forward to have the sign of the cross placed on their forehead. I plunge my thumb into the bowl of ashes and say, “From dust you came, to dust you shall return.” I then smear the black remnants of palms upon the forehead. It is a holy moment, each one. The act is to remind us that life is transient and all too short. We don’t have time to dawdle. There is too much to do, too much sin to deal with, too many injustices to make right, too many excesses to curtail, too many failures to overcome. Too many . . .

So with the mark upon our foreheads we enter into the season of Lent. It is a time of deep reflection as we ponder our relationship with God and with others. Some will practice the discipline of deprivation, giving up chocolate, or soft drinks, or some other craving. Others will give up time, volunteering somewhere or simply giving God the early morning hour for prayer. The 40 days, excluding Sundays, of “giving up” will allow us to be reminded daily that life is fleeting, that we are sinners saved by grace, that there is a day of great celebration that we are leaning toward. Let it also remind us daily that Christ gave up far more than we ever can. It was Christ who left the Presence and came to dwell among us, as one of us, and eventually bore a cross. A cross not of ash, but of death, for us.