Category Archive

  Grace and Peace indeed to each of you, and to our assembly as a whole this morning! This greeting twins the ancient Jewish salutation of Peace –  expressing hope that the promise given Abraham will bear fruit;  and Grace –  the early Christian statement of  new life …through the mercy of Jesus. We are the heirs to both. Today’s short selection from Revelation omits a further three part blessing that precedes and gives contexts to this passage: Verse 3:  Blessed the One who Reads this aloud ; Blessed are those who Listen; and Blessed those who Take to Heart …

Joseph Wiesenfarth 15 November 2015 Daniel 12:1-3; Hebrews 10:11-25; Mark 13:1-8   “[I have been] blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd.”  Now this, of course, is not me, though I can  suggest how it might be.  But it is quite recognizably Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice once she realizes how badly she has misjudged Fitzwilliam Darcy.  But these words could be mine if I pretended to talk any way but tentatively about the Last Things, which is what so much in today’s readings are about. Daniel speaks of “a time of anguish such as has never occurred since nations …

November 8, 2015 I Kings 17: 8-16; Mark 12:38-44 Ah, the widow’s mite! I suspect this story triggers all sorts of reactions. Because this widow has given all at great cost to herself,  I am left feeling guilty because my life and gifts have not been as sacrificial as hers. Do any of you share this feeling? In my past life I worked in the nonprofit sector. At least in evangelical circles, the teeny, tiny gifts, the widow’s mite, are extolled as being the most virtuous one. But, let’s be real, aren’t the bigger gifts what allow non-profits to survive …

Holy Wisdom Monastery First Sunday of Advent November 29, 2015   Jeremiah 33: 14-16 1 Thessalonians 5: 1-11 Luke 21: 25-36 Advent.  At no other time in the year does the church’s proclamation of the gospel stand at such apparent cross-purposes to the culture in which we live.  In the midst of the catalogs and Amazon orders and the babble of holiday crowds, we are preparing to celebrate the day of the mystery, of the promise and coming of Jesus.  And yet just as the festive time of Advent’s expectation and fulfillment is beginning, as the writer of Jeremiah assures …

Solidarity Sunday By Stephen J. Zwettler “Solidarity With the Marginalized Especially Our LGBT Sisters and Brothers” It is good to be together on this beautiful autumn day to celebrate the Eucharist and to support each other in prayer.  I am always moved by the beauty of the two maple trees at the top of the parking lot when I pull into the Monastery grounds-such brilliant red and orange and golds.  What a gift for us! Many of you know that in preaching I often lean on the arts to provide strong images that connect with the Scriptures and give flesh …

Divine things and human things; A matter of perspective? Mark 8:27-38 Homily delivered on September 13, 2015 By Colleen Hartung   In one of the last scenes of my favorite movie, The Sound of Music, Sister Margaretha and Sister Berthe approach the Reverend Mother as the Nazis spread out across the Abbey to search for the Von Trapp family.  “Reverend Mother I have sinned” says Sister Margaretha.  “I too” says sister Bertha.  The Reverend Mother asks the sisters what sin they have committed.  The sisters lift their robes revealing the distributors and coils they have removed from the Nazis’ cars.  …

The Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time September 6, 2015 Wisdom 10:15-18, 20-21; 11:1-5 James 2:1-10, 14-17 Mark 7:24-37   “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field.  I’ll meet you there.  When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.”   These words of the 13th. century Persian poet, Jalāl ad-Dīn Rūmī, have continued to run through my mind over the last month as I have meditated on today’s scripture readings.  Let me read it again…   “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field.  I’ll meet you …

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18; Ephesians 6: 10-20, John 6:56-69 By Joseph Wiesenfarth Joshua led the Israelites across the River Jordan into Canaan, the Promised Land, which had been inhabited by the Amorites, whom, the elders rightly say, “lived in this land.”  The reason that they don’t live there anymore is because Joshua either drove them out or  killed them.  He then divided Canaan among the twelve tribes, who were descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob.  They then proceeded to fight and kill each other. The hitch is that we don’t know who wrote the Book of Joshua because it took …