Homily: 26th OT(A) – 9.24.11

We live in a culture that thrives on appearances.  We regularly eat fruit that tastes like wax, or worse, because it has been picked prematurely and bred to ship without bruising, and to look beautiful under the special fluorescent lighting at Whole Foods or at Super Fresh.  And plastic surgeons, whose skill is a blessing for remedying disfiguring injuries or birth defects, increasingly earn the bulk of their salaries on elective (and unnecessary) cosmetic surgery.  Some people spend millions of dollars on these surgeries, all in the service of some elusive ideal of...

Homily: 25th OT(A) – 9.18.11

Well, if parables are meant to provoke, to puzzle – perhaps even to irritate us – then I suspect this story of the day laborers in the vineyard is one of Jesus’ most successful!  Our empathy naturally goes toward the laborers hired first, the ones who worked longest and who “bore the day’s burden and the heat.”  No matter how many times I hear this parable, my first reaction is always: “That’s not fair!”  And yet, maybe it really IS Good News.  Because I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not stand strictly on my performance record in serving...

From the Pastor: 10.2.11

Pastors quickly learn that unsolicited reports of good news can’t be counted on as a regular thing; so when such reports come, they are cause for gratitude and celebration.  I write, therefore, to share a couple of joyful reports about our Outreach program that have come my way of late… First off, thanks again to John Trumbore, our Outreach Program Coordinator, and to all the other generous volunteers who worked so hard during August to clean and organize our kitchen and food storage spaces in Barbelin Hall.  I can’t tell you how many comments I have had from a...

Homily: 24OT(A) 9.11.11

Parables, like Perrier, are served up with a twist; and if we fail to find the twist, we will almost certainly miss the meaning and the impact of the parable.  And the twists in today’s gospel revolve largely around numbers and amounts.  In fact, the first twist precedes the parable itself; it lies within Peter’s opening exchange with Jesus concerning forgiveness. When Peter asks Jesus whether forgiving 7 times will suffice, he probably thinks he is being pretty generous.  After all, there were rabbis at the time who taught that a serious, intentional sin should be...

Homily: 23OT(A) 9.4.11

A college philosophy professor introduced his undergrads to Aristotle’s idea that ethics is rooted in the virtue of friendship.  “Only a friend,” he said, “ knows when to press and when to hold back.  A friend has the right to tell you the truth, and truth-telling can be inherently painful.”  Over the course of the semester, the students were asked to present their own experiences of ethical dilemmas they had encountered and how they responded.   At the end of the semester, the professor couldn’t help but be struck by how many of the students had...

From the Director of Music: 9.18.11

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, At the invitation of Fr. Dan I write to you in this week’s “From the Pastor” column to share with you some of the changes that have taken place in the area of liturgy and music.  As Fr. Dan expressed earlier this Summer, due to budget constraints difficult decisions were made in several areas of the parish’s life in order to enter the new fiscal year with a balanced budget.  The 2011-2012 budget for liturgy and music was one of the areas affected. This past July 8, 2011 would have marked three years since my arrival at Old St....

From the Pastor: 9.11.11

            It’s ten years later, but I still remember that morning like it was yesterday.  It was a gorgeous Indian summer day in Baltimore – sunny and cool, the sky bright blue, punctuated with fluffy white clouds.  Classes had only met a few times; students were still excited about being back on campus; faculty and administrators were not yet feeling tired or jaded about their work.             I had chosen to work at home for a while that morning, as I often did when I had correspondence or other concentrated desk work to attend to. ...

From the Pastor: 9.4.11

Labor Day, which takes place on the first Monday in September, was first observed in Boston by the Central Labor Union on September 5, 1882.  The holiday “went national” in 1894 at the initiative of then President Grover Cleveland.  He intended it as a gesture of reconciliation with the labor movement in the aftermath of the Pullman Strike, when a number of workers unfortunately died at the hands of U.S. Marshals and U.S. military personnel.  (Congress rushed to pass the legislation at the President’s behest, and signed the holiday into law a mere six days after...