Category Archive

Homily: 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time  Jan 21, 2024 Somewhere back in grade school, it was impressed upon me and my classmates that every story has a beginning, middle and an end. Today’s readings present us with two beginnings (one of which is also an end) and one end (which is really a middle). In the gospel, we have Mark’s breathless description of the call of the first four disciples as Jesus begins his public ministry. In the reading from the first letter to the Corinthians, we have a middle, even though Paul thinks it is an end. But that’s …

January 14, 2024 Holy Wisdom Monastery 1 Samuel 1:9-18,20; 1 Corinth 6:12-20, John 1:35-51 Patti La Cross It is a lovely and rare treat to hear from John’s gospel today, and my privilege to be steeped in it for a time. I am of the opinion that this gospel ‘pairs well’ with a community like ours, this community of communities. It speaks well to the inclusiveness we treasure, our shared worship, values and leadership. Significantly, many of those Jesus encounters in this gospel are women – women shown as whole, complex, and utterly worthy disciples and leaders! In recent weeks …

Epiphany  January 7, 2024                            Homily   Matthew 2:1-12                                          Pam Shellberg                  Since the 4th century, the church has observed epiphany as a liturgical season, with gospel texts that manifest, reveal, unveil what the incarnation of God in Jesus means. If Christmas celebrates the fact of divine life come to us, the fact of God become human, the fact of God-with-us, then Epiphany celebrates the truth of us-with-God, unveils for us the divinity of our humanity in Christ, reveals the divine glory in which we and all creation dwell. Today’s gospel, which comes from the gospel of Matthew is read …

Most of our sisters and brothers in the Eastern Churches celebrate Easter today.  Let us be mindful of them, many of whom suffer spiritual turmoil along with physical deprivations and separation from loved ones. Our faith depends on the testimony of the first believers, Mary Magdalene, the other women, then Peter, James, and John, and others. In our passage today we hear the Gospel writer’s attempt to mark the transition from the last to see, to the rest of us. Attempts to squelch or squash or re-direct that testimony as we see in our first reading from the Acts of …

I’m not exactly sure why this night requires a homily because tonight is not so much about “words” as it is about “signs.” In some ways the whole service is a sign. Our readings point us in this way. Exodus spoke about the blood on the doorposts being a “sign” of God’s passing over and sparing the enslaved Hebrews from the wrath descending on the land of Egypt. In Paul’s simple words to the Corinthians we have the earliest reference in the New Testament to what we now call the “Eucharist” or “Holy Communion” and learn that bread and cup …

The Cross:  A Way of Transformation Palm Sunday:  2022 By:  Steve Zwettler Each year —when the rains come—and winter reluctantly gives way to Springtime—we hear the same Mysterious and Life-giving Story.  We know it so well.  We come face to face with the brutal and bloody death of Jesus by Roman Crucifixion.  A moment in History which continues to challenge and amaze, inspire and intrigue all who take the time to look deeply. So……..What Does It Matter?  What does it mean for us Believers & Seekers right here and now?                 On a personal level……speaking just for my own spiritual …

The1982 German film The White Rose is set in the early 1940’s; it covers the final five days in the shining life of 21-year-old Sophia Magdalena Scholl, and her brother, Hans. Raised in a spirited Lutheran family; their father had earlier been detained for denouncing the Nazis. Hans was a popular leader in the Hitler Youth. After a stint of national service, he entered medical school at the University in Munich, and Sophie joined him. Their shared friends circle- all immersed in philosophy and theology- were outraged by the mass murders in Poland and Russia, and hearing of the rounding …

The Lost Sons: 4th Sunday of Lent, 2022Since thisis the longest of Jesus’ parables, and I don’t intend to rush it, I invite you to please sit. Since itisalso among the most familiar passages of the Bible, Ialso invite us all to pause for just a few seconds,close our eyes, and enter into our deepest listening selves perhaps to hear these words we have heard sooften in a new way.A Reading from the Gospel according to Luke…(Luke 15:1-3, llb-32)The scandal begins right at the start of today’s Gospel. “All the tax collectors and sinners were comingnear to listen to Jesus.” …

This first Sunday of Lent invites us to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to be led by the Spirit. More on that later. “Nurturing grievances” is on my mind for the past several weeks. It is an expression usually reserved for interpersonal relationships. But when I read or heard “nurturing grievances” as a description of Vladimir Putin in his escalation of troops at the border with Ukraine, I realized that much of the distress in human history can be reduced to that term. Consider for a moment the Genesis story of Cain and Abel. That relationship we can …

Ash Wednesday • Joel 2:1–2, 12–17 • 2 Cor 5:20–6:10 • Mt 6:1–6, 16–21 • March 2, 2022   Barry Lopez has written with great clarity and beauty about nature, human exploitation, and—most meaningfully to me—the irreducibility of mystery. I was lucky enough to attend a talk and book-signing, in which someone asked him about the magical realism in some of his short stories. Refusing to analyze the magic, he built more of it into his response. I was in awe of his ability to find those words on the spot. I stood in a long line afterward, finally reaching …