Readings: Ezekiel 37:12-14; Romans 8: 8-11; John 11: 1-45 Preacher: Susan K. Roll It may have happened to you, or to someone you know. You miss your last chance to be present to someone you love before they die. When it happened to relatives of mine, they had just left their husband and father in the hospital after an unremarkable visit,… read more →
Readings: Malachi 3: 19-20a; 2 Thessalonians 3: 7-12; Luke 21: 5-19 Preacher: Susan K. Roll Several years ago, a group of concerned German Catholics sent a communication to Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich-Freising, at that time the Chair of the German Bishops’ Conference and the most prominent prelate in Germany. He was about to take part in a summit conference called… read more →
Readings: Isaiah 50: 4-7; Philippians 2: 6-11; Luke 22: 14-23:56 Preacher: Susan K. Roll Superheroes, fantasy figures, even children’s fairy tales love the idea that a person can change from one form into another. It might be Spiderman, transforming from the handsome Peter Parker into a web-spinning champion of justice at the first whiff of evil detected through his spider-sense. Or… read more →
Readings: 1 Samuel 26: 2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23; 1 Corinthians 15: 45-49; Luke 6: 27-38 Preacher: Susan K. Roll Oh gee, could this be any more of a tall order? What was Jesus thinking? Does he even live in the real world? This Sunday’s Gospel picks up from last week’s and takes the “Sermon on the Level Place,” or Sermon on… read more →
Readings: Baruch 5: 1-9; Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11; Luke 3: 1-6Preacher: Susan K. Roll Close your eyes for a moment and think of the biggest, deepest, most unexpected, heart-pounding O.M.G. pothole you have ever driven over … or around … or into. My candidate for worst pothole came up unexpectedly on a highway in post-Soviet Lithuania. Fortunately my friend who was… read more →
Readings: 1 Kings 19:4-8; Ephesians 4:30-5:2; John 6: 41-51Click here to download a PDF of this homily.Preacher: Susan K. Roll Since the start of the pandemic, food insecurity has become nothing less than catastrophic. Early on, volunteer workers in food banks noticed that those coming for food included not only people who had close to nothing, but well-dressed families driving… read more →
Readings: Amos 7:12-15; Ephesians 1: 3-14; Mark 6:7-13Click here to download a PDF of this homily.Preacher: Susan K. Roll One wonderful result of the liturgical reforms from the Second Vatican Council is that Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants now share almost the same readings of the Word of God on the same Sunday, or at least the same Gospel. This… read more →
Readings: Acts 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12: 3B-7,12-13; John 20: 19-23Click here to download a PDF of this homily.Preacher: Susan K. Roll Some years ago, when I was teaching college-level theology, I used to have great fun with this passage from Acts chapter 2. I would read it loudly, with vigor and increasing energy, “We are Parthians, Medes and Elamites, inhabitants… read more →
Readings: Genesis 9: 8-15; 1 Peter 3: 18-22; Mark 1: 12-15Click here to download a PD of this homily.Preacher: Susan K. Roll Have you ever visited Niagara Falls? Did you spend time standing above the powerful incessant rush of the water, leaning over (well, not too far over) the rail and letting the thunderous currents fill you with the grandeur… read more →
Readings: Sirach 27:30-28:7; Romans 14:7-9; Matthew 18:21-35Click here to download a PDF of this homily.Preacher: Susan K. Roll Jesus must have enjoyed answering Peter’s plaintive question “How many times must I forgive?” with an expansive rhetorical flourish calculated to knock him back on his heels: “Not seven times but seventy-seven times” (other accounts read “Seventy times seven,” even better.) One… read more →