Monthly Archives: June 2014

Inspired, Courageous & Generous Lives

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Second Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 7A, June 22, 2014; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Genesis 21:8-21 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.

Romans 6:1b-11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 10:24-39 Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

O God of grace, may we have the wisdom, the strength, and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth – come when it may and cost what it will.

You know, I would be hard pressed to think of three more difficult readings to preach on for a Sunday service in which we will have a baptism. In Genesis, we hear a story of Abraham’s highly questionable parenting skills, seemingly divinely directed. In Romans we learn that our baptisms are baptisms into the death of Christ Jesus. And if that’s not discouraging enough, Jesus says, in the Gospel of Matthew, “Pay attention, there are wolves out there where I’m sending you – away from here, out there into the world, so be wise – have insight and understanding like the serpent and be innocent, that is, unspoiled by what is harmful and damaging…. There are predators out there who will want to do you in. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name.” This does not seem like a winning recruiting strategy. Continue reading →

Doubt or No Doubt

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Trinity Sunday (A), June 6, 2014; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Genesis 1:1-2:4 Good…good…good…good…good…good…very good.

2 Corinthians 13:11-13 Put things in order; agree with one another; live in peace.

Matthew 28:16-20 But some doubted.

Creating God, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

I hope you liked Carolyn’s reading of the beginning of Genesis. Although it is among the most famous passages in the Bible, we don’t hear it very often in our Sunday liturgy – scheduled, as it is, in summer every three years. I wonder if you noticed how many times God beheld the goodness of creation – six times God saw what was good. And when it came to humankind, God saw that humankind was very good. (Not perfect, but very good!) I wonder if you noticed that this is not a story about before there was anything at all. According to this story, there was darkness and there was water for the breath of God to be blowing over. The earth was there, but it was a formless void, our text says. Actually, in Hebrew it says that the earth was all “tohu wabohu” which is a little bit like it sounds – crazy chaos – helter skelter — nonsense. “When God began to create” is how the Jewish Publication Society Bible translates it. Divine shaping or creating, according to the Bible, is ongoing and incomplete. When God first began shaping, the earth was tohu wabohu. God began to get things in order, making sense of nonsense. I wonder if you noticed that this story doesn’t have God eliminating chaos or night or the frightening abyss of the sea; God began to create some order, some distinctions, to set some limits. And it was all good. Continue reading →

Extravagant Love

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Pentecost (A), June 8, 2014; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Numbers 11:24-30 Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!

Acts 2:1-11 In our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.

John 7:37-39 For as yet there was no Spirit, [sic] because Jesus was not yet glorified.

O God whose call to us is irresistible, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

Happy Pentecost everyone! I don’t know about you, but I am always so taken with the experience of hearing the story of Pentecost in a multitude of languages. It’s thrilling to me to think that almost 25% of the population of the world could have understood the story in their own language as read just now in our little chapel!

According to the Book of Acts, nearly two thousand years ago, devout Jews from every nation under heaven were living in Jerusalem. And others from near and far were arriving in Jerusalem for the great celebration of Pentecost. The city was bustling with Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Judeans, Cappadocians, folks from Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and my favorite, Pamphylia, from Egypt and Libya, and Rome, all there to celebrate the ancient Jewish holiday where the first fruits of the harvest were offered to God – fifty days after Passover. The Jewish Pentecost holiday (in Hebrew, Shavu’ot) commemorates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. It was in thanksgiving for the gift of God’s rule of love that people joyfully set aside time and wealth to give back to God from the first takings of the harvest – not from the leftovers. Pentecost is a feast of stewardship and thanksgiving. Continue reading →

Let it be me!

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7th Sunday in Easter, Year A, June 1, 2014; The Rev. Pamela Werntz

Acts 1:6-14 All of these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women…

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11 (but what about 4:16?) If any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name.

John 17:1-11 protect them in your name that you have given me.” … “so that they may be one as we are one.

O God our protector, may we have the wisdom, the strength, and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth – come when it may and cost what it will.

Today, in our church calendar, we mark the time between the Feast of the Ascension and the Feast of Pentecost – an official acknowledgement of a sort of liturgical limbo. In our New Testament narrative Jesus has triumphed over death; Jesus has gone to his heavenly reward; but comfort and the inspiration, the clarifying flame of the Holy Spirit that he promised to send has not yet arrived. The wonder is that this in-between season lasts for only nine days – because in my experience, the time between great distress and loss and comfort and clarity is usually much longer than nine days! Then I remember that our calendar days really don’t have much to do with God’s time.

Many of you know that I almost always have a bone to pick with the lessons as they are given to us in the lectionary, and today is no exception. The passage from 1 Peter skips right over some really important verses, in my humble opinion. The passage from the Gospel of John gives us half a prayer – stopping right in the middle of an idea. In 1 Peter, this line is left out: “If any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name.” That seems pretty important to me – and it can be a key to understanding the reading from John that it is paired with on this seventh Sunday of Easter. I’ll read the skipped verse again. “If any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name,” that is, the name “Christian.” The name Christian was a derogatory label when it was first applied. It was a bad word. Both the writer of 1 Peter and John the Evangelist know from experience that if you’re doing your job following Jesus, you are going to suffer, because suffering is a consequence of compassion and the struggle for justice. It’s a consequence of living in community and staying in relationship! Continue reading →