29th Sunday, Ordinary Time October 20, 2013 Genesis 32:22-31; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5; Luke 18:1-8 It is no mystery to me why a man with 2 sister wives, 2 maids and 11 children would find himself alone after decamping his household across river – because he felt constrained under his father-in-law’s roof. But I do have a little respect for someone who can hold their own in a wrestling match; with God no less. I didn’t learn to swim properly until I was in high school, and was excited to do so. In Junior Life-Saving, we were taught that the struggling …
Roberta Felker's Homily from October 13, 2013
Holy Wisdom Monastery Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time October 13, 2013 2 Kings 5:1-15c 2 Timothy 2:8-15 Luke 17:11-19 To be agents of the reign of God is a full-time job. It requires a whole-life commitment: courage, compassion, and energy. Today, on the 18th anniversary of the first celebration of Solidarity Sunday in 1995, the scripture passages present some challenging lessons and offer a serious charge to all of us who would be shepherds of the new church. Make no mistake: No sphere of society is beyond Jesus’ reach. Who would Jesus love? An obvious thread that runs …
Jim Penczykowski’s Homily from September 29, 2013
Any questions? This set of readings begs for a fire and brimstone polemic on class warfare. But alas, you will have to settle for something equally revolutionary, but a little less fiery. While Jesus follows in a long line of prophets in the history of Israel, he veered off quite a bit from the ethical prescriptions that earlier prophets doled out liberally. From my point of view, Jesus made a huge effort to avoid ethical prescriptions. What Jesus did do was emphasize relationships, his relationship with the God he called Abba, his relationship with his followers, his followers relationships …
Libby Caes' Homily from September 15, 2013
Luke 15:1-10 This past Monday I woke up with the intention of writing today’s homily. I began my usual morning routine…getting dressed and putting the usual stuff in my pocket…chap stick, cell phone. But, I could not find my cell phone. It was not on the bathroom window sill where I usually put it. It wasn’t in the pocket of the pants I had worn the night before. I didn’t find it on living room sofa where I had gone after calling my sister. I was baffled and frustrated. I knew I wouldn’t settle down until I found that damn …
Joseph Wiesenfarth's Homily from September 1, 2013
September 2013 Proverbs 25:6-7, Hebrews 13”1-8, 15-16, Luke 14:1, 7-14 If you don’t know the name Lee Child, you will not know the name Jack Reacher. Child writes crime thrillers and Reacher appears in each of them. Child came up with Reacher’s name in a supermarket when, as he tells it, “a little old lady approached me and said, ‘You’re a nice tall gentleman, so would you reach that can for me?’ My wife said to me, ‘If this writing thing doesn’t work out , you can always be a reacher in a supermarket.’ I thought, great name! And …
Colleen Hartung's Homily from July 28, 2013
Luke 11, 1-13 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given you; search and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” “Truth or Dare?” Have you ever wonder, “what exactly is Jesus talking about here?” Every single day, in every single corner of this troubled planet, a hungry child asks and does not receive; a desperate cancer patient seeks and does not find; a homeless “bum” knocks and nobody opens the …
Patti LaCross' Homily from July 14, 2013
Deuteronomy 30:9-14; Colossians 1:1-14; Luke 1o:25-7 Were there any specific phrases or images that spoke to you from this rich feast of Scriptures? Maybe “God’s delight in prospering you?” Or, “the nearness of the word in your mouth and heart?” “The love you have for all the saints”, “the hope laid up for you”, the “joyful giving of thanks”, or the image of mercy shown by the Samaritan? Any number of phrases from today’s 3 SS might one that resonates for you; listen for it! You may be gifted with a soundtrack for the next few days. Is there anyone here who has not heard …
Libby Caes' Homily from July 7, 2013
July 7, 2013 Isaiah 66:10-14 Last Sunday we sang in the Eucharistic prayer, O Holy, holy, holy God, O God of time and space, all earth and sea and sky above bear witness to your grace. We experience God in time and space All of us have memories of times and places where we have experienced the Holy. Kathleen Norris, in Dakota: A Spiritual Geography writes of returning to her childhood and ancestral home: This is my spiritual geography, the place where I have wrestled my story out of circumstances of landscape and inheritance. The word “geography” derives from the …
Sister Lynne Smith's Homily from June 2, 2013
Body and Blood of Jesus Last week I caught the end of a TV ad for the Volunteers of America. A smiling young man says: “We use our bodies to help others.” It is such an earthy image. I thought “That’s what the celebration of the Body and Blood of Jesus is about: using our bodies to help others.” Because Jesus lived among us as a flesh and blood human being, he showed us that human life is holy. To follow him is not a matter of having some esoteric knowledge. Christian discipleship involves us in the earthiness of life …
Sister Lynne Smith's Homily from Ascension Sunday on May 12, 2013
Ascension Sunday Acts 1:1-11 Some weeks I can hardly bear to read or listen to the news. This was one of those weeks: the murder trial in Lafayette County; the report of three women held captive for a decade in Cleveland; more than 1,000 deadin the collapsed building in Bangladesh, the on-going killing in Syria. The amount of pain and suffering in the world seems too much to bear sometimes. I wonder how the suffering is ever going to stop. When I was a child a Sunday School image from the book of Revelation used to console me. I …