For the last three years, many of us have socialized and worked on Zoom, which, while convenient, is simply not the same as in-person, human-to-human contact, particularly in therapeutic contexts, particularly when it comes to affect regulation. This last Sunday at Tikkun Time, wanting to gently introduce a gazing exercise, I drew from Marina Abramovic’s work The Artist is Present as well as classic theater works. Gazing is a powerful, and often very hard, exercise. Trauma-informed bodies and neuro-divergent brains often struggle to sustain eye contact.
Author Archives: Elizabeth Richardson
The Value of Giving
This weekend (February 3-4) when record-breaking cold was coming to Boston and surrounding areas, the topic of weather kept popping into every conversation at Boston Warm, common art, and Cafe Emmanuel. I noticed people reminding each other to take care of themselves and to close the windows as best as they could. My instinct told me that the deepest part of myself wanted to do something as a part of the community before the cold came.
How shall we live?
Epiphany 5A, 5 Feb. 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
- Isaiah 58:1-12. You will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.
- 1 Corinthians 2:1-16. Those who are spiritual discern all things.
- Matthew 5:13-20. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
O God of mercy, salt and light, 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.
As tempting as it is to preach about salt and light, I am so struck by Jesus’ teaching that he has not come to abolish the law (that is, Torah) or the prophets (that is Isaiah and the others). Jesus says, “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away [which, by the way, has not happened yet], not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law.” Just last week a visitor was marveling at the fact that a parish and a synagogue share this sacred space as well as sharing teaching, pastoral care, and outreach. The person said, “But Jews are waiting for the Messiah, right? And Christians believe the Messiah has already come.” I replied that Jews are waiting for the first coming and Christians are waiting for the second coming. We’re all waiting and wondering how (and whether) we will recognize the Messiah. Meanwhile, at 15 Newbury Street, we’re doing what we can to repair the world, which we all agree is in desperate need of healing. [1] Continue reading
On the Fear of Stepping into Ourselves
All year long, I have navigated resistance that seems to get heavier by the day, at times feels like depression; shape-shifts as needs be; takes on oh-so-many elusive forms; mutters in my ear that I can’t do it, that I shouldn’t do it, and even questions what is the point of doing it; finds excuses, blames others, drains me of all willpower to go forth. Resistance!
Begin wherever you are.
Epiphany 4A, 29 Jan. 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
- Micah 6:1-8. “[God] has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
- 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”
- Matthew 5:1-12. “Blessed…blessed…blessed.”
O God of the strangest blessings, 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.
When I sat down to write on Friday, I’d just received an alert from the Boston Police Commissioner about anticipating protests in response to the kidnapping and murder of Tyre Nichols by police officers in Memphis earlier this month, as the horrifying body-cam video was about to be released to the public. I’m grateful that the demonstrations have been peaceful in Boston and mostly peaceful around the country. Continue reading
Being in Darkness
Image by Wanyi Huang
This week at common art, I randomly drew with colored markers a cactus growing under the stars. I shared my art with S., who asked me, “Have you seen the sky at night without lights and moonlight?” He described his experiences outside the city with only the starlight singing in the sky. His experience in the starlight shower was so vivid in his brain. When my image reminded him of this joyfulness and mental stillness, he felt gratitude. They finally see the bright stars in the sky when everything is dark. Indeed, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”
It’s Love that will never abandon.
Epiphany 3A, 22 Jan. 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
- Isaiah 9:1-4. For the yoke of their burden…you have broken.
- 1 Corinthians 1:10-18. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. [To me, this is one of the funniest lines in all of scripture.]
- Matthew 4:12-23. He saw [them] … and he called them
O God of darkness and light, 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.
We’ve returned to the Gospel of Matthew; and so again, our lesson from Isaiah sounds as if it were teeing up the Gospel lesson. To Christian ears, it may even sound as if Isaiah was anticipating Jesus. But, as I said two Sundays ago, Isaiah wasn’t anticipating Jesus any more than Isaiah was anticipating George Frederic Handel. Isaiah wasn’t anticipating Emmanuel Church either, but here we are again! It’s is exactly the other way around. Probably in Antioch of Syria at least two generations after Jesus’ death, Matthew was living and growing in the teachings and stories of Jesus. Matthew’s audience was living with the political, economic, legal, religious, and cultural consequences of Roman imperialism, just as we are living with the consequences of American imperialism. [1] Retelling those teachings and stories about Jesus in a written Gospel toward the end of the first century of the Common Era, Matthew was thinking, “These stories sound so much like the stories that Isaiah told eight-hundred years ago!” Matthew wanted to make sure that his community heard and understood the connections. I want to make sure that my community hears and understands the connections, too.
Continue reading
Love is the way.
Epiphany 2A, 15 Jan. 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
- Isaiah 49:1-7. I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
- 1 Corinthians 1:1-9. God is faithful.
- John 1:29-41. Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
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.
Last week in our Gospel lesson, we heard Matthew’s version of Jesus’ baptism at the Jordan River. According to Matthew, the voice that Jesus heard was an inside-out rather than an outside-in voice. Matthew was describing the bat kol, the voice of the Divine, which sounds like the voice of a little girl, or the daughter of a voice, an echo. Matthew mentions that the heavens opened up to Jesus and a spirit of holiness landed on him like a dove and he heard the voice of the Divine, the bat kol, saying, “This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Matthew does not describe this as a voice heard by any of the others who were there. Continue reading
The work of Christmas begins.
Baptism of Our Lord, 8 Jan. 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
- Isaiah 42:1-9. I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand.
- Acts 10:34-43. Anyone who…does what is right is acceptable to [God].
- Matthew 3:13-17. Let it go for now, for it is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness.
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.
Today is the day in the church calendar called The Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. We are two days past the Feast of the Epiphany with its dramatic story of the Magi following a star with their extravagant gifts in hand. In the biblical narrative, we have advanced a generation from Jesus’ infancy to his mature adulthood. It feels too fast! I want to say, “Wait, go back!” So we have, in our first hymn and in our cantata for today; but otherwise, we are pressing ahead. Continue reading
Take a deep breath!
Christmas Day, 25 Dec. 2022. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
Isaiah 62:6-7, 10-12. You shall be called ‘Sought Out, a City Not Forsaken’.
Titus 3:4-7. We might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Luke 2:1-20. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.
Merry Christmas everyone! Take a deep breath. Pay attention to what you smell. If you are missing your sense of smell, use your memories. What are the smells you associate with Christmas? The smell of church, of greens and candles burning, of wood? Maybe more domestic smells like cinnamon and nutmeg? Baked treats? Evergreen trees? The smell of Christmas dinner? The smell of wood-burning stoves or fireplaces? Maybe Christmas smells that you remember from childhood? I remember the smell of my grandmother’s house, of antique furniture mingled with her perfume. The smell of snow, of winter air? Rudyard Kipling once said, “Smells are surer than sights and sounds to make your heart-strings crack.” [1] Continue reading