Author Archives: Elizabeth Richardson

All Saints Sunday

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All Saints Sunday, (26B), November 4, 2018; The Rev. Susan Ackley

Ruth 1:1-18 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land…
Hebrews 9:11-14 But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come.
Mark 12:28-34 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another.

When I was a little Catholic girl I was invited by some church friends to meet a saint. We met on a rainy Saturday at church and walked a mile or so to the saint’s house. She was lying in bed. I remember she was plumpish and very pale and that the room smelled odd.
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Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost

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Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost (25B), October 28, 2018; The Rev. Susan Ackley

Job 42:1-6, 10-17 Then Job answered the Lord: “I know that you can do all things.”
Hebrews 7:23-28 Furthermore, the former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office.
Mark 10:46-52 As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside.

This is a difficult Sunday to preach.

How can we, gathered here this morning, possibly hold these two events together — the Baptism of little Nina and the killings at Tree of Life Synagogue?
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Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

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Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost (22B), October 7, 2018; The Rev. Susan Ackley

Job 1:1; 2:1-10 There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job.
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12 Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds
Mark 10:2-16 Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’

Ah — this Gospel, the “divorce” Gospel. Not the favorite of most preachers, definitely including me.

It’s hits me personally. I was divorced 41 years ago, but the scars, both from a very bad marriage and a clumsy divorce, remain.
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Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

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Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost (21B), September 30, 2018; The Rev. Susan Ackley

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22 So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther.
James 5:13-20 Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.
Mark 9:38-50 John said to him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.’

[I hold up one of the Hamsas.]

I know some of you know what this is and why it’s here, but I want to fill the rest of you in.

It’s a Hamsa, a symbol precious to many Jews and Muslims and middle-eastern Christians.

Among Jews it’s called the Hand of Miriam, among Muslims the Hand of Fatima (the Prophet’s favorite daughter), and for Christians, it’s the Hand of Mary.
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Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

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Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (20B), September 23, 2018; The Rev. Susan Ackley

Proverb 31:10-31 A capable wife who can find?
James 3:13-3;3, 7-8A Who is wise and understanding among you?
Mark 9:30-37 Jesus and his disciples pass through Galilee.

You might know that Emmanuel Church has started a Recovery Eucharist.

I initiated it when I came here because I’ve celebrated — and “celebrated” is a good word — a weekly Recovery Eucharist for seven years at a drug and alcohol rehab in NH.

I emphasized “celebrated” because I’m an alcoholic and I live in perpetual wonder that God lets me do this priest thing!
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Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

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Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost (19B), Sept 16, 2018; The Rev. Susan Ackley

Isaiah 50:4-9a The Lord God has given me
the tongue of a teacher…
James 3:1-12 Not many of you should become teachers…
Mark 8:27-38 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi…

Here we are back in the sanctuary.

A change of location for our worship as we move from the long, narrow space in the Lindsey Chapel back to this BIG wide open space.  Banners visible up in the choir loft. The Emmanuel Land window. All this resonant air just waiting to be charged by sounds of the Schutz, Byrd, and Bach.
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Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

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Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost (17B), September 2, 2018; The Rev. Susan Ackley

Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9 So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe…
James 1:17-27 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him…

Here we are, you and I, at the official beginning of Pam’s sabbatical.

Pam left us with a particular intention for this three months so that it might be a time for her and Emmanuel to walk paths, not precisely parallel, but definitely meandering under the same stars.

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Gather up the fragments!

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Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (12B), July 29, 2018

2 Samuel 11:1-15 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle…David [stayed home].
Ephesians 3:14-21 The power to comprehend…what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ.
John 6:1-21 ’Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ So the gathered them up.

O God of wondrous 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.

Those of you who know me will imagine that I have a head of steam built up about the story of King David’s misuse of power when it came to Bathsheba and Uriah. That might be why it is so hot in this chapel. But I’m not going to preach about that today. Rather, I want to focus on our Gospel lesson. Last week I extended our Gospel reading to include Mark’s first story of the disciples feeding the multitudes with five loaves and two fish, and of a frightening storm on the sea of Galilee. This week we hear the Gospel of John’s version, which is quite different. It’s very hard not to conflate the various versions of these famous stories, but, as usual, I want to discourage the summer gazpacho soup treatment that blends distinct ingredients. The early church embraced many incompatible narratives and meanings about the life and ministry of Jesus, and I think we should too! Different versions of the same event, making differing meanings, gives us all more theological elbow room.
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Revealing the Love of God

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Ninth Sunday after Pentecost (11B), July 22, 2018

2 Samuel 7:1-14a Are you the one to build me a house to live in?
Ephesians 2:11-22 You are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 He had compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

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.

If you were in any other church service where the Revised Common Lectionary is used for the appointed Bible readings today, you would have heard a short Gospel lesson about Jesus’ lovely invitation to his disciples to have a little R&R in a deserted place, and the compassion that Jesus had on the crowds that messed up their retreat plans. Then, skipping almost twenty verses, you would have heard that people from all over brought friends and family who were sick to Jesus, hoping to have them touch even the fringe of his cloak because all who came in contact with it were healed. Usually when verses are skipped like that, I mention something about them in my sermon, but this week I really wanted you to hear the whole story for yourselves because the skipped verses are about Jesus’ disciples. When those verses get taken out, the story becomes solely about the power and popularity of Jesus. Of course that matters, but Mark’s Gospel is not so much about how magical Jesus was. What matters much more is that Jesus’ followers fully engage, fully participate in the Rule of Love, which is another name for the Reign of God. [1]
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For what shall we ask?

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Eighth Sunday after Pentecost (10B), July 15, 2018

2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 Michal…despised him in her heart.
Ephesians 1:3-14 [God] chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before [God] in love.
Mark 6:14-29 What should I ask for?

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.

This is one of those Sundays when acclamations of thanksgiving and praise seem inappropriate after the readings. We have a particularly terrible set of readings when it comes to the denigration of women.
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