Monthly Archives: January 2021

Compassion is the ordering principle.

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Epiphany 4B, January 31, 2021, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

Deuteronomy 18:15-20. This is what you requested.
1 Corinthians 8:1-13.Love builds up.
Mark 1:21-28. They were astounded by his teaching.

O God of Compassion, 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.

This past week I was reminded in our scripture readings for today of a poem from Howard Thurman’s Meditations of the Heart, entitled “Life Goes On.” He wrote it in 1953. Like our scripture readings, it seems to have been written for 2021. [1] It begins:

During these turbulent times we must remind ourselves repeatedly that life goes on.
This we are apt to forget. The wisdom of life transcends our wisdoms; the purpose of life outlasts our purposes; the process of life cushions our processes. The mass attack of disillusion and despair, distilled out of the collapse of hope, has so invaded our thoughts that what we know to be true and valid seems unreal and ephemeral. There seems to be little energy left for aught but futility. This is the great deception. By it whole peoples have gone down to oblivion without the will to affirm the great and permanent strength of the clean and the commonplace. Let us not be deceived.

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2021

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  • 1 Jan. Orbis Books published When Tears Sing: The Art of Lament in Christian Community by our 11th rector, The Rev. Dr. William Blaine-Wallace.
  • 21 Jan.  Boston Sun article by Seth Daniel, “Made for This Time: Surprisingly Emmanuel Church Was Engineered for COVID-19”, discussed the efforts of Michael Scanlon and Julian Bullitt to monitor air quality throughout our building, which was designed in the time of tuberculosis.
  • March.  The Rev. Tamra Tucker and our rector formed two mixed groups of parishioners from common cathedral and Emmanuel to follow The Episcopal Church’s Sacred Ground dialogue series on race and faith.
  • July 29.  Kevin Neel retired as organist and parish administrator par excellence.
  • 26 Sept. We celebrated the retirement of Pat Krol, who had served as Executive Director of Emmanuel Music and greeter since 2006.  We funded the cantata and dedicated in her honor these doors, which she held open every Sunday while our choristers and liturgists to processed into the Sanctuary.
  • 31 Oct.  Memorial service for The Rev. Dr. David J. Siegenthaler (1926-2020), former priest in charge, was held in our well-ventilated sanctuary.  After leaving Emmanuel, Dr. Siegenthaler had served as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Duxbury MA, and then as archivist at the Episcopal Divinity School, where he taught for four decades.

Peaceful Thoughts

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Between the holiday season, continued pandemic, and the violent transition of leadership in our country, things have felt quite busy these last few weeks at Common Cathedral and MANNA. These events have created an ebb and flow of tension with the community as folks struggle with continued changes and emotions.  As we approached Inauguration Day, many expressed deep concerns about unrest and protests in Boston and the real physical danger of having no place to go when there is violence in the streets, when one lives outside and buildings are locked.

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Answer again the call!

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Epiphany 2B, January 17, 2021, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

1 Samuel 3:1-20. Here I am, for you called me.
1 Corinthians 6:12-20. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God and that you are not your own?
John 1:43-51. “I saw you. . .Come and see.”

O vision fair of glory, 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.

Last week I began my words to you with “what a week.” So how do I start this sermon? The British satire television program comes to mind from the early 1960’s, “That was the week that was,”. I can’t say that I “remember” the show, but I clearly remember that when I was growing up my parents practically wore out their vinyl record album of Tom Lehrer songs, “That Was the Year that Was”. If you’re too young to know these songs, your homework is to find them on YouTube! Those songs are still pertinent: the pollution of the environment, the threat of nuclear war, racial strife, religious conflict.
Lehrer liked to say, “Always predict the worst and you’ll be hailed as a prophet!” And yet, listening to his satirical prophetic wisdom helped so many people clarify their purpose and organize themselves and others to join in working for a better future. Lehrer’s work was a call for a better future.

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Pickled

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The Baptism of Our Lord, January 10, 2021, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

Genesis 1:1-5. God saw that light was good.
Acts 19:1-7. No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.
Mark 1:4-11. People from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem…[and] Jesus came from Nazareth

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

What a week. I’ve been reflecting more than usual on the history of Emmanuel Church, organized by a group of religious progressives, abolitionists whose wealth had come largely from the economics of enslaving people, though they were not slaveholders themselves. They formed Emmanuel in the spring of 1860, just eight months before states seceded from the United States, one year before the Civil War began. Our cornerstone was laid at the same time as the Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. Many in the North thought the conflict would be resolved quickly. They were so wrong; yet, their hope for the future represented by their church planting has produced so much good fruit, and it’s still producing today.

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Clear Vision

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Christmas 2B, January 3, 2021, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

Jeremiah 31:7-14 Their life shall become like a watered garden . . . and my people will be satisfied with my bounty.
Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-19a With the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which [God] has called you.
Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23 We observed his star at its rising.

O God of our dreams, 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. Amen.

Before the year 2020 began, I thought a lot about the idea that 20/20 is a term to express visual clarity. 20/20 is what optometrists strive for when prescribing corrective lenses, and did we ever see more clearly in this past year. We have seen “with the eyes of our hearts enlightened” where we have missed the marks as a society when it comes to the equitable distribution of resources, and we have seen “with the eyes of our hearts enlightened, what is the hope to which God has called us.” We have risen to previously unthought of challenges, and we have acknowledged our vulnerabilities. We have seen (in others and in ourselves) foolishness and bravery, self-absorption and self-emptying, grasping and giving away. Since hindsight is 20/20, it might take a little time before we are completely clear about all that we’ve seen and what it means for us going forward.
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