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Homily

Sermon, October 24, 2021 Pentecost 22

What Do You Want Me to Do for You? Our Gospel reading this morning marks a turning point in Mark’s Gospel.  This is the last healing miracle Jesus performs.  He and the disciples are heading to Jerusalem where eventually he will be arrested and crucified.  He is in Jericho taking the pilgrimage route from Galilee, […]

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Homily

Sermon, October 17, 2021 – Pentecost 21

We Don’t Know What We’re Asking There’s an old bit of wisdom that states that if one really doesn’t want to know the answer to a particular question, then don’t ask the question.  In today’s reading from the book of Job in the Hebrew scriptures and from the Gospel we hear examples of question being […]

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Homily

Sermon, October 10, 2021 – Pentecost 20

It’s All About Grace A man died and found himself standing before St. Peter and the Pearly Gates, the Book of Life was open on Peter’s desk.  He looked up the new arrival’s name and assured him that his name was indeed written in the Book.  Peter tells him there’s one more test, the man […]

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Homily

Sermon, October 3, 2021 – Feast of St. Francis of Assisi (transferred)

St. Francis’ Gift Tomorrow [October 4] is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi a thirteenth century friar about whom little is known, and much is speculated and legendary.  At various times of his life he was a soldier and prisoner of war, a party animal, and ultimately the founder of one of the largest […]

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Homily

Sermon, September 26, 2021 – Pentecost 18

Whose Gospel? or Who’s In and Who’s Out? Today’s readings offer a rich variety of topics.  The first reading from the Book of Esther is the only time in appears in our lectionary.  It’s set during the late exile after Persia has conquered Babylon.  This is the only book in the entire Bible that does […]

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Homily

Sermon, September 19, 2021 – Pentecost 17

True Greatness In today’s Gospel Jesus again announces his approaching Passion, and by example begins to teach his disciples the meaning of greatness. On his way to Jerusalem, he reminds them a second time that he is going there to suffer, to die, and to rise on the third day. How can they possibly understand […]

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Homily

Sermon, September 12, 2021

Remember There are events that are forever etched into our memories.  Events that simply recalling the event, or the date, takes us back to the moment when we first heard the news.  For many of our elders it was the attack on Pearl Harbor, for my generation it was President Kennedy’s assassination, or Neil Armstrong’s […]

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Homily

Sermon, September 5, 2021 – Pentecost 15

Just a Crumb This morning’s Gospel brings us two different healing stories they occur outside of Jesus’ home territory, one of them will affect the course of the Church’s history.  Today’s Gospel passage includes two healing stories in Tyre and Decapolis — Gentile territories historically hostile to Jews — illustrating that the reign of God […]

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Homily

Sermon, August 29, Pentecost 14

Tradition This morning our attention shifts back to Mark’s Gospel and its push to get into Jesus’ actions and conversations that set him apart from the various Jewish establishments of his day. Author and Jesuit priest Anthony DeMello tells a story about an ashram cat. An ashram is a spiritual retreat center or monastery in […]

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Homily

Sermon – August 22, 2021 Pentecost 14

Bread for the Journey, Wine for the Soul (Part 4 of 4) This morning we conclude our consideration of John’s “Bread of Life” discourse, yet in reality we are only just beginning. Bishop Dan Edwards, writing in God of Our Silent Tears (Los Angles: Cathedral Center Press, 2013), tells this fable: Once upon a time, […]