Category Archive

Rex Piercy A Meditation for the Second Sunday of Advent, December 6, 2020 Preached at Sunday Assembly of Holy Wisdom Monastery, Middleton, WI I have always considered Advent to be a season for the church insider. Out there beyond these doors it’s just December and the rush to Christmas. Outside the church Advent is little known and pretty much ignored. Out there these days from Black Friday and Cyber Monday to Christmas are often just a mad flurry of “to dos”: buy presents, even if online; write Christmas cards, or draft a single email to mass mail to your address …

Joseph Wiesenfarth 29 November 2020 Isaiah 64:1-9, 1 Corinthians 3-9, Mark 13:24-37 In these fraught times, I am thinking about something they remind me of in the  past.  Once upon a time when I was about half of my present age,  I was editing a notebook of George Eliot’s with entries in seven languages, many of which were in                   German.  So I took myself off to a Goethe-Institut in Blaubeuren, then West Germany.  Classes were six hours a day, five days a week for a month.  Now Blaubeuren was famous for a large pool of very blue waters, but not …

Sunday of the Fulfillment Sunday Assembly, Holy Wisdom Monastery, Matthew 25:31-46 November 22, 2020              In our Gospel Jesus tells us that when ‘the Son of Man’ returns and is sitting on his throne in glory …  “All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”        The sheep are gathered on the right side of Christ—the side of approval and honor, and the goats on the left side—for condemnation.And the standard for judgment:  Christ does not ask anyone about their creeds or their …

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time November 8, 2020 Wisdom of Solomon 6:12-16 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Matthew 25:1-13 In the legends about the life of Siddhartha Gautama, better known as the Buddha, there is a story about an encounter he had on the road soon after his enlightenment.  A passerby noticed the Buddha’s radiance and peaceful presence.  He asked the Buddha, “Are you a celestial being or a god?”  “No,” the Buddha replied.  “Are you some kind of wizard or magician?”  “No,” he replied.  “Are you a man?”  “No,” he replied.  “Then, pray, friend, what are you?”  The Buddha replied, “I …

All Saints Day Holy Wisdom Monastery November 1, 2020 Revelation 7:9-17; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12 Roberta Felker All Hallows Eve, All Saints/All Souls, Dia de los Muertos are described as “thin places” – elusive spaces where our experiences with the sacred assume both more immediacy and more intimacy.  Where the veil between the worlds is said to be like gossamer, where we are unmasked.  What a perfect family reunion time for the church – the feast where we are reunited with both the saints of our canon and, as Pope Francis named them, our “next door saints” – those …

Meditation for October 18, 2020 preached at Sunday Assembly, Holy Wisdom Monastery, Middleton, WI (and shared at Hanapepe UCC, Kauai, Hawaii) Many of you may know that in the course of my ministerial career, I attended law school. That pursuit arose primarily out of a long-standing interest in matters of church-state relations. The recent confirmation hearing for a new Supreme Court justice has once again brought to the fore the tension between church and state in a pluralistic democratic society. So of course when this lesson from Matthew 22 appeared, I could not resist. As so often during his ministry, …

Solidarity: A public yes to the invitation to stand up and be counted. Homily: Matthew 22:1-14 October 11, 2020 By Colleen D. Hartung The stated purpose of Solidarity Sunday, which was started back in 1995 by Dignity USA, is to stand against the physical, verbal, emotional and spiritual violence perpetrated against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.  And there have been advances in the 25 years since its inception; marriage equality is the law of the land, there is greater visibility for the struggle of gay, lesbian and transgender youth and we have raised a generation of young people who …

Paul Knitter “What He Did, He Does – in Us”             I’ve been one of those homilists who occasionally complain about having been dealt a hand of really difficult readings.  Well, I certainly have no complaints today.  You might say that I hit the homiletic jackpot this Sunday.  A Precious Text             Our second reading from Paul’s letter to the Philippians is one of the oldest, and most precious, passages in the entire New Testament. Paul wrote this letter in the mid to late 50s. But in the section we heard this morning, scholars tells us, he was quoting from …

Homily for Sunday, Sept. 20, 2020-Wayne Sigelko At first glance, there are few more pathetic and less likeable figures in the bible than Jonah in today’s first reading.  Partly, I suppose this is because of the style in which it is written.  Jonah is like the 5th century BCE version of the graphic novel.  It puts before us wonderfully dramatic and, as in today’s reading, even comic scenes.  I have a friend who loves this little book so much he takes twenty minutes every week or two to read through the Jonah story because, in his mind, it captures so …

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time August 30, 2020 Jeremiah 15:15-21 Romans 12:9-21 Matthew 16:21-28 When I received today’s gospel text, I was very happy.  It contains a message that is very close to my spiritual heart:  the instruction to give oneself away.  I thought it would be relatively easy to say something meaningful about this.  Alas, as I delved more deeply into the subject, things became more difficult.  I remembered Mr. Dumby in Oscar Wilde’s play, Lady Windermere’s Fan, when he says, ““In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other …