Third Sunday of the Year Homily
THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 21 JANUARY 2018 HOMILY As most of you know I was raised in a small town: 312 people, 7 bars, and 1 Catholic Church. Life was not easy for these people who got some of the worst farming land around. The hard life made them hearty, it also made them a bit contrary. I’ve always said that was one place I would never want to be pastor. There are too many “contentious” people in that parish–most of them are my relatives. Hatley generally did not get the cream of the crop of pastors. However for one brief shining moment of about 15 years, after I was ordained they had...
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SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT 10 December 2017 Homily Robertson and Muriel McQuilkin were married for 55 years. They had a wonderful life together. He was a minister and president of a seminary, She an artist, counselor and teacher. In 1979. Alzheimer’s disease began taking hold of Muriel. As the disease progressed, Robertson resigned his position to take care of Muriel. For 25 years he stood by his beloved Muriel as her condition deteriorated. He wrote three articles in Christianity Today about this last chapter of their lives. To all those people who wondered how he could walk away from his...
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FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT 3 December 2017 When I was first ordained I used to regularly visit an elderly woman who had had a hard life. Her husband had been an alcoholic who ran off and left her w/ 5 children to raise. Which she did, working a factory job and doing laundry on the side. Her oldest son was killed in World War II. In her old age this woman developed colon cancer. One day I saw her in the hospital. She was in a great deal of pain and a long recovery period was forecast. When I came in she managed a bit of a smile and raised her hand to touch mine. We talked a bit. She asked...
Read MoreChrist the King Homily
FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING 26 November 2017 Several years ago I spent a few days in Waashington, DC. It is one of my favorite cites. One of the things I did was go to the Vietnam Memorial–the Black Wall with the name of every soldier who died in Vietnam on it. I arrived at about 10:00 pm and was amazed by the number of people who were there. I was moved as well by the number of people who were openly grieving at the site– after all these years, still grieving. Maybe because it was dark, maybe because I too had lived through that era, and maybe because you can’t go to...
Read MoreThirty-Third Sunday of the Year Homily
THIRTY THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 19 NOVEMBER 2017 HOMILY Several years ago I drove to my parent’s home in Hatley to take them out to dinner. Now, my parents were at that age, where they liked to go for the early bird specials. We left for the restaurant plenty early; as a matter of fact too early. It wasn’t even open yet. Right next door to the restaurant, however, was a casino. My parents eagerly suggested we go in to pass the time. I had never been in one of these northern Wisconsin casinos. Amazing places. It was packed. I turned to my father and said: “Why would all...
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THIRTY SECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 12 November 2017 Homily I have a lot of empathy for the foolish virgins/bridesmaids in the story Jesus tells today. I’ve discovered that some people are just too gentle for this world, too easily broken. They always seem to be in the wrong place at the right time, or in the right place at the wrong time. Several years ago I went to visit a boarding school to visit the son of a parishioner. When we met he said, “No one likes me.” He was new to the school, coming in half way through the year. With all of my earthly wisdom, I said, “It’s hard to change schools...
Read MoreThirty First Sunday of the Year Homily
THIRTY FIRST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 5 November 2017 Homily I would like to think that today’s gospel is not about me. I would like to think that today’s gospel is pointed directly at someone else. But of course it is about me. And that makes me uncomfortable and it makes me mad. It makes me uncomfortable because I am sure that I have been guilty of some of the deficiencies the Matthean author has Jesus point out. It makes me mad because I never really wanted this job in the first place. It’s really Jesus’ fault for getting me into this. I have a friend who persists in telling me the...
Read MoreTwenty-Eighth Sunday of the Year Homily
TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 15 October 2017 Homily My father drove semi-truck for almost all of his working life after WWII. He worked long hours. Because he worked and was gone all week, and because he sat so much in the truck, My father liked to get out in the woods and work on weekends, Saturdays mostly. He also thought it was the perfect bonding time to be with his sons. Saturday morning he=d yell up the stairs: “Day light in the swamp.@ If it were winter we’d be cutting cedar posts in the swamp. If it were spring or early summer, we=d be peeling popple. Truly two of the most...
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