Monthly Archives: December 2017

And the story isn’t finished.

Posted on by

First Sunday after Christmas, Proper 1B, December 31, 2017; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

Isaiah 61:10-62:3. For the sake of Zion I will not be silent. For the sake of Jerusalem I will not rest.
Galatians 3:23-25, 4:4-7. So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.
John 1:1-18. And the Word became flesh and lived among us.

O God of our story, 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.

First, a poem by Padraig O Tuama, called “Narrative Theology”.  [1]

And I said to him

Are there questions to all of this?

And he said

The answer is in a story

and the story is being told.

 

And I said

But there is so much pain

And she answered, plainly,

Pain will happen.

 

Then I said

Will I ever find meaning?

And they said

You will find meaning

Where you give meaning.

 

The answer is in the story

And the story isn’t finished.

Continue reading →

Angels, Virgins & Cousins

Posted on by

Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year B, December 24, 2017, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 I will not take my steadfast love from him.
Romans 16:25-27 Amen.
Luke 1:26-38 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

O God in whom is heaven, 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 our liturgical calendar is giving us the Fourth Sunday of Advent in the morning and Christmas Eve in the evening. Buckle up! For the past three weeks, our scripture readings have been full of prophetic calls to vast numbers of people for large scale civil engineering projects, leveling mountains, filling in valleys, and making travel easier for God. Today, in a dramatic downshift, we are invited into intensely intimate scenes between David and Nathan, between Mary and Gabriel. You can almost hear our theological engine revving as we slow down to make this big turn.
Continue reading →

Ready or Not (with audio)

Posted on by

Third Sunday of Advent, Year B, December 17, 2017; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Jonah 3:1-5, 10 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.
1 Corinthians 7:29-31 The present form of this world is passing away.
Mark 1:14-20 And immediately…

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

Our readings this morning, from Jonah’s advice to the great city of Ninevah, to Paul’s advice to the Jesus followers in the city of Corinth, to the Gospel of Mark’s breathless account of Jesus’ move back to Galilee, all convey a sense of urgency and risk. Ninevah has only 40 days to clean up its act (which seems like a very short time). Paul says that time has grown short, that the present form of this world is passing away. Jesus has come out of the wilderness where he was being tempted by Satan for 40 days (which seems like a very long time) to learn that John has been arrested, and has headed to Galilee quoting John directly: repent, that is, change your hearts toward God. A complete re-orientation is what John and Jesus were calling for. Jesus began to teach that the present form of this world is passing away. Continue reading →

We have work to do.

Posted on by

Second Sunday of Advent, Proper 2B, December 10, 2017; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Isaiah 40:1-11 Cry out!2 Peter 3:8-15a Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.

Mark 1:1-8 He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

O God of the prophets, 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.

Every year our branch of Christianity gives us a new year – a new advent –a new season for longing, to hear and respond to lessons of prophetic wisdom and calls for repentance writ large. These calls are not for personal repentance (that’s for the season of Lent). It’s fairly easy for people like us to understand our individual sins. (Not so easy to repent, but easy to identify.) It’s much harder in our culture for people like us to identify collective or institutional or structural sin, especially when so many of us benefit from it. Advent’s prophets are calling not for individual repentance, but for national repentance, for corporate repentance, and for ecclesiastical – that is Church — repentance. It seems to me that it doesn’t matter what your political perspective or affiliation is, we can probably agree that institutions – nations, corporations, and organizations are failing to care for people with dignity and respect. We are in a period of deep disintegration and the need for repentance, for turning around toward God, or Love, seems more pressing than ever.
Continue reading →

Take my hand!

Posted on by

First Sunday of Advent, Proper 1B, December 3, 2017; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Isaiah 64:1-9a O that you would tear open the heavens and come down… .1 Corinthians 1:1-9 As you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ… .

Mark 13:24-37 In those days.

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.

As you may have already gathered, today is the first Sunday of Advent. In much of the Western church, Advent marks the beginning of the new liturgical year, and focuses on the second coming. (Not so in the Eastern church, where the focus of Advent is on fasting in preparation for the Christmas feast without reference to “The Last Day.”) It’s odd and charming that each year, in the Western church, we prepare for the Second Coming for four weeks, and then we get a celebration of the first coming, the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. It can feel to me a little bit like the football gag in the Peanuts cartoon series, in which Charlie Brown is ever anticipating that this time, Lucy will not move the football that he is preparing to kick. But our Divine sovereign is not like Lucy Van Pelt. Our Holy One is Love.
Continue reading →