Author Archives: Elizabeth Richardson

Narrative Theology

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First Sunday after Christmas
December 29, 2019

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…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.

If you were in church here on Christmas Eve or anywhere else on Christmas morning, you heard the prologue from the Gospel of John, verses 1-14 of it anyway. Our deacon Bob and I chanted it by candlelight. So it’s curious that the lectionary assigns it again for the First Sunday of Christmas with four more verses. Curious, but I kind of like it because there are just some places a preacher shouldn’t go in a Christmas Eve sermon in an overly full service in the sanctuary. But today, in Lindsey Chapel, we can go there. Today we can review some Biblical Greek. Not many people want to review Biblical Greek on Christmas Eve. This morning we’ve got a little elbow room and I’m going to take full advantage. 

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Claim the scandalous holiness of God!

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Fourth Sunday of Advent (A)
December 22, 2019

Isaiah 7:10-16 The Lord will give you a sign.
Romans 1:1-7 [You] yourselves are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
Matthew 1:18-25 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place this way.

O God of love, 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.
Many of you have heard me say I love the way that each of our four Gospels tells a different story about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry – of how and when Jesus the Christ, Love incarnate, came into our world. The Gospel of Mark notes the beginning with John the Baptist preparing the way in the wilderness. Jesus came into the world, according to Mark, at his baptism. For Matthew, the preparation began with Abraham and he came into the world at his birth. Luke says, yes, he came into the world at his birth, but the preparation went all the way back to Adam. And for John – he was before the world even existed. Today the Gospel account belongs to Matthew, who writes, “Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah [or the Christ] took place in this way.” If, as I think, Matthew’s Gospel was written a few years before Luke, then this is the earliest extant birth narrative for Jesus.

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Crisis Intervention

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I’ve had my challenges during my months at common cathedral. Boundaries, as I’ve mentioned, have caused some growing pains, as has facing the fact that I must make mistakes in order to learn. Last week I felt a sort of charged frustration when I encountered someone in crisis and I felt unable to help them because of my role as intern. My instincts told me that I could effectively jump in to crisis intervention mode. The rules of my internship told me otherwise. Logically I understood why—I don’t have the proper training, for one, and I’d be crossing some boundaries established to protect community members, interns, staff, and the common art program. It also may set a precedent that I can’t keep up with—for this individual and for other community members. Still, I felt helpless and angry.

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Rejoice!

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Third Sunday of Advent (A), December 15, 2019.  The Rev. Pamela L. Wermtz

Isaiah 35:1-10.  A highway shall appear there, which shall be called the Holy Way.
James 5:7-10. Beloved, do not grumble against one another.
Matthew 11:2-11. Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?

O God of mercy, 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.

Today is the Sunday in Advent called Gaudete Sunday. (Gaudete means rejoice.) Our liturgical color for the third Sunday is rose; that’s why we have a rose-colored candle in our Advent wreath and rose in our vestments. It is a Sunday set aside to fill our imaginations with joyful anticipation of what God might be up to in creating new heavens and a new earth. It is a Sunday to pick our heads up and rejoice in the faithfulness of God, in the midst of everything that grieves us, in the midst of oppression and violence, in the midst of hunger and illness and imprisonment, even in the midst of destruction and death. I’ve spent considerable time this week wondering how to rejoice always in spite of wide-spread violence and hate crimes, the rise of fascism, and the wanton disregard for the well-being of our planet. It’s a hard choice, I think, not to give in to despair; it’s hard, even scandalous, to choose to rejoice. Rejoicing, however, is not the same as “holiday frolicking”, as William Stringfellow once wrote; and rejoicing certainly doesn’t mean letting up on our non-violent resistance and our actions to end oppression of all kinds.

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Repent as a group!

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Second Sunday of Advent (A)
December 8, 2019

Isaiah 11:1-10 and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. (that’s some powerful bad breath!)
Romans 15:4-13 …on behalf of the truth of God.
Matthew 3:1-12 He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

O God of hope of the prophets, 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.

Last week at Emmanuel Church, the musical through line of our worship service was Wachet Auf (or wake up). In our musical through line today we are calling on the Savior of the nations (or a little more rudely, Savior of the heathens) to come now! Do any of you worry about calling on the Divine so boldly? Do any of you think of Annie Dillard’s famous warning about how we should be wearing crash helmets when we blithely invoke the power of God,. She adds that church “ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense; or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.” It can and does happen.
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Talent Show

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Two weeks ago, I wrote about my “silliness” skill and my ability to make others feel comfortable being goofballs. Then I spoke to a friend of mine who also has this skill.  From her perspective, the skill isn’t just about making others feel comfortable being playful, but also about making others feel more comfortable about their insecurities. She explained that when we heighten and exaggerate our own insecurities, bringing them to a “ten,” the insecurities become a lot less intimidating and a lot more ridiculous, evoking more laughter and less anxiety. For example, I tend to be a perfectionist, a behavior rooted in my insecurity of not being good enough. When I notice I’m feeling perfectionistic, I exaggerate the statement—“If I don’t have straight A’s, I’m not trying hard enough” becomes “I MUST score an ‘A’ on EVERY assignment or else I don’t deserve to be in school at all!” This statement is accompanied by a deep, scratchy, commanding voice and dramatic, clutching hand gestures. With this insecurity externalized and heightened, I’m able to see what parts of it are ridiculous and illogical; I can see how these perfectionistic thoughts, which are so natural and constant in my mind, don’t actually serve me. It was empowering for me to recognize that my “silliness” skill has broader implications than I thought. It’s not only about helping others feel comfortable being playful; it’s also about helping others feel comfortable and safe enough to confront their insecurities, hopefully to then view them with a fresh and less anxious perspective.

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Bear the light as a group!

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First Sunday of Advent (A)
November 30, 2019

Isaiah 2:1-5 [When God judges] they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.
Romans 13:11-14 [love is the fulfilling of the law] let us live honorably.
Matthew 24:37-44 Therefore you also must be ready

O God of our new year, 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.

Today our new church (or liturgical) year begins. Happy New Year! What did you all do for the Church’s New Year’s Eve last night? Did you stay awake celebrating past midnight? (Probably most of you did not, or you wouldn’t be here now!) That’s okay – staying up past midnight is overrated. Have you made any churchy new year’s resolutions about spiritual or religious diet and exercise to get ready for the Feast of the Nativity? I saw a meme the other day that said, “It’s almost time to switch from your regular anxiety to your fancy Christmas anxiety!” Isn’t that what Advent is for? What is Advent for?

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A Garden in Paradise

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Last Sunday after Pentecost (29C)
November 24, 2019

Jeremiah 23:1-6 Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!
Colossians 1:11-20 In him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.
Luke 23:33-43 Paradise.

Merciful and generous 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.

Today is the Feast of the Reign of Christ (a liturgical observance not yet 100 years old) that has been placed on the last Sunday in the church year – the completion of our lectionary cycle of Bible readings. Although we don’t read our Gospel portions in order, today is the last time we will hear from the Gospel of Luke except for Christmas-time nativity stories until Advent of 2022.
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LOL

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Well, it’s official: I have one “Laugh Out Loud” (my current code word for “drama therapy”) session under my belt, and I don’t think I’m speaking out of line to say it turned out pretty well. Part of me thinks it’s silly to feel accomplished after playing some theater games in a church basement with a few volunteers, but I also understand that it’s more than that—just because I enjoy playing games and feel natural being silly doesn’t mean it’s not an accomplishment to help others do the same. Beyond that, I was genuinely impressed with the volunteers’ creativity and willingness to “buy into” the games.

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Covenant Celebration

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Covenant Celebration
November 15, 2019
Central Reform Temple and Emmanuel Church

Isaiah 65:17-25 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.
Luke 21:5-19 By your endurance you will gain your souls [or lives].

In our celebration of our new covenant between Central Reform Temple and Emmanuel Church, the prayer that I usually pray at the beginning of my sermons – you know, about searching always and everywhere after truth, come when it may and cost what it will, seems particularly apt, because truth is costly, both in the sense of consequences and even sacrifice, and in the sense of precious and dear (teuer in German).
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