2015 Sermons

Unless noted otherwise these sermons were preached by Emmanuel’s Rector, the Reverend Pamela L. Werntz.  For other years, please see the links on Sermons.

Watch the women!

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Palm Sunday, B; March 29, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Isaiah 50:4-9a I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.
Philippians 2:5-11 He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death.
Mark 14:3-15:47

The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark §1

3While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. 4But some were there who said to one another in anger, “Why was the ointment wasted in this way? 5For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. 7For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. 8She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial.9Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”
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Real Life

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Fourth Sunday in Lent, B; March 15, 2015; The Rev Pamela L. Werntz

Numbers 21:4-9 But the people became impatient on the way.
Ephesians 2:1-10 This is not your own doing; it is the gift of God
John 3:14-21 Those who do what is true come to the light.

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.

I’ve spent most of this last week without a voice – a terrible malady for a singer or a preacher! Imagining that I would need to be prudent with my speaking today, last week I asked Clark if he would preside. He offered to preach as well, which was generous and great, but I already had a head of steam building about the readings, about some of the translations, and about punctuation and so I was too greedy to talk, to explore these heavily freighted scripture passages that some Christians cling to and some want to get as far from as possible. Emmanuelites are often in that latter group of saints! To many here, the passage from John seems like one more description of a divine sorting mechanism to decide who is in and who is out of God’s realm. One esteemed member of our community has called our Gospel reading a shakedown. Continue reading →

Live long and prosper!

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Second Sunday in Lent, B; March 1, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 I am God Almighty.
Romans 4:13-25 Hoping against hope.
Mark 8:31-38 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?

O God of the Word, 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.

A few weeks ago at our Annual meeting, we engaged in an exercise of writing words that we relate to prayers for Emmanuel for help, of thanksgiving, and of awe. We saw a graphic representation of the words in our Annual Report document, a picture called a word cloud, which shows the words in font sizes that increase the more times a word appears in a document. Joy Howard took the words of our prayers and made word clouds at the meeting. The word clouds are now on Emmanuel’s web page in the section about the Annual Meeting. Mike Scanlon is in the process of transferring the images onto a banner for the lobby – so look for that in the next few weeks. Continue reading →

Take that chance!

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First Sunday in Lent, B; February 22, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Genesis 9:8-17 I will remember my covenant.
1 Peter 3:18-22 An appeal to God for a good conscience.
Mark 1:9-15 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.

O God of love, 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.

I always love praying The Great Litany with you each year on the first Sunday of Lent. Intended to be used during times of great duress or danger or devastation, The Great Litany seems particularly appropriate this year as we are in the midst of what feels like a slow motion, wide-spread, ongoing disaster of a winter in Boston with record-breaking snowfalls and low temperatures which are straining people and systems to the breaking point. I hesitate to call weather disasters “natural” disasters because the most disastrous parts have the fingerprints of humans all over them. (People are a part of nature, I guess, but that’s not usually what’s meant.) The suffering is born by most people, of course, but the disparate impact on those who have limited or insufficient resources is scandalous and painful. With coming cycles of melting and freezing, hoped for warmer temperatures are actually going to reveal and result in much more structural damage and flooding in buildings including our own parish house, where it’s been raining in the kitchen, music room, and basement for much the last week. I’ve been hearing similar stories from parishioners all week. If you are distressed by the disaster, I’m glad you’ve found your way here to this warm building and, more importantly, warm community. If you are not distressed by the disaster, please take a little time in the weeks to come to see what you can do to help people who are struggling. Continue reading →

Dazzling White

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Last Sunday after the Epiphany, B, February 15, 2015, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

2 Kings 2:1-12 Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.
2 Corinthians 4:3-6 We do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord.
Mark 9:2-10 Dazzling white.

O God of blessing, 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.

Reflecting on white more dazzling than any bleach could achieve struck me as I pondered our Gospel passage for this morning as the threat of yet another blizzard developed. However you feel about the snow, invigorated or exhausted, it sure is dazzling white.
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Sharing the Blessings of the Gospel

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Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, B, February 8, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Isaiah 40:21-31 Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these.
1 Corinthians 9:16-23 I do it all for the sake of the Gospel, so that I might share its blessings.
Mark 1:29-39 Everyone is searching for you.

O God of Blessing, 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.

When I look at the three scripture readings we have before us today I am reminded that, one of the things I love about the Bible is that it gives us more questions than answers. And I love the questions. I hear a question being called out in each of our readings. Our first reading, from the 40th chapter of Isaiah follows the famous plea from God for comfort and consolation for a people who have been devastated and who are despairing. “Comfort, comfort ye my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and call to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is more than fully paid…‘in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in a desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all people shall see it together. God is going to gather up the lambs and carry them and gently lead the mother sheep.’” What we hear today in Isaiah is the last part of a tender overture to an opus of consolation – a continuation of a love song written to bring relief to people who had been far from home, in exile in Babylon for more than half a century. Continue reading →

Asserting Exousia

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Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, B, February 1, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Deuteronomy 18:15-20 If I hear the voice of the Lord my God any more…I will die. 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Mark 1:21-28 What is this?

O God of love, 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. In our reading from Deuteronomy this morning, the last book of the Torah, we hear a portion of the section of Moses’ teaching about developing and maintaining the welfare of the community. A couple of chapters earlier, Deuteronomy has taught, “If there is among you anyone in need within the land that you inhabit, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand…give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so…open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor.” Compassion is one of the hallmark values of Deuteronomy. [1] Compassion is an ordering principle for Torah and Gospel. Continue reading →

How Love Works

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The Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B, January 18, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

1 Samuel 3:1-20 Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.
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.

O God of our wildest dreams, 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.

This morning we heard the stirring reading of the call of Samuel with the fantastic introduction that back then (“then” being about 1100 BCE), in the olden days, the word of the Lord was rare, and the ability to see clearly was not widespread! Eli the priest and his sons were responsible for guarding the Ark of the Covenant and its holy oracle, which, in those days, was more like a war trophy than a piece of liturgical furniture. Eli’s sons did not behave well at all and Eli wasn’t able to get them to change their violent ways. This is a story of the transfer of authority from Eli to Samuel that highlights Eli’s wisdom and integrity, and Samuel’s responsiveness and bravery. For me, this story has always been a powerful lesson about how the Word of the Holy One can come through the voices of humans, in this case, a beloved teacher. Have you ever heard your name called by a beloved teacher and known that you were being invited to grow in leadership and authority? That’s how God works sometimes. Continue reading →

New Beginnings

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The First Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B, January 11, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Genesis 1:1-5 Beginning…
Acts 19:1-7 We have not even heard that there is a holy spirit.
Mark 1:4-11 He will baptize you with the[sic] holy spirit.

O God of beginning again, 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 is a special day in the Church – a Feast Day called, “The Baptism of our Lord.” It’s a perfect day to celebrate Patrick Cheng’s ordination to priesthood in the Episcopal Church. (However, I will tell you that, any day would be a perfect day to celebrate Patrick Cheng’s ordination to priesthood in the Episcopal Church, which took place yesterday. Congratulations Patrick!) As most of you know, Patrick lives in New York City now and is working for the Church Pension Fund. He’s been commuting to Boston to serve Emmanuel for the last four months. It’s a long way to come to volunteer to help out at a church! On behalf of all of us, thank you for that, Patrick, and thank you for choosing Emmanuel, Boston as the place for your first Eucharist as Episcopal priest! This is nearly, but not quite goodbye, because Patrick will be back in two weeks to preach and preside while I am away at the end of the month. Patrick, we hope you’ll be back with us whenever your schedule permits. Continue reading →

Give me Jesus!

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Second Sunday After Christmas B, January 4, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Jeremiah 31:7-14 Their life shall become like a watered garden.
Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-19a I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.
Luke 2:41-52 I must be in that belonging to my Father.

O God with us, 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.

The Gospel of Luke contains the only story of the boyhood of Jesus in the Bible – and I’ll tell you, it baffles Biblical scholars. We know that ancient biographies commonly told stories of heroes in their youth to demonstrate that there were signs of greatness early on. There are some fantastic stories about Jesus’ magical powers as a youth that didn’t make the cut when the scriptural canon was being set. But none of the other three Gospels that did make it into the Bible have any stories from Jesus’ youth, and Luke’s intention is not clear. Is Luke demonstrating that Jesus was like other heroes, fulfilling a divine promise clear in his youth? Or was Luke demonstrating that Jesus was NOT like the others because he didn’t start out knowing everything? Was he a child prodigy, teaching the teachers in the temple? Or was the young Jesus an ordinary adolescent, not telling his parents where he was, doing something quite dangerous getting separated from his family, worrying them sick for the better part of a week? The answer to all these questions seems to be yes. Continue reading →