2021 Sermons

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

Hold the salt, and pass the peace!

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Proper 21B.  26 September 2021. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Esther 7:1-6,9-10; 9:20-22. Days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor.
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.  Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.

O God of Beauty, 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.

Well, nothing says, “Let’s begin a program year” like our Gospel reading from Mark today! As one vestry member asked the other night when we were talking about this passage with its gruesome illustrations of maiming and fiery hell, “Remind me, who makes the calendar of readings?” One answer is that the Episcopal Church’s enormous, bicameral, legislative branch meeting in convention in 2006 voted in favor of adopting the Revised Common Lectionary, the three-year calendar of scripture readings. The RCL, as it is called, was developed and tested by an ecumenical group of English-speaking liturgical scholars and denominational representatives from around the world. The practice of a liturgical calendar of readings goes back to ancient Judaism. Continue reading →

The Crux

Aside

Proper 19B.  12 September 2021. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Proverbs 1:20-33. How long, O [stupid] ones, will you love being [stupid]?
James 3:1-12. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing….This ought not to be so.
Mark 8:27-38.  Let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

O God of Integrity and 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.

Before I speak about our Gospel reading for today, I want to say something about our reading from Proverbs. It sounds to me like it could be a column in The New York Times (or a sermon in Boston) addressing those in positions of influence over our climate or our white-supremacist culture, or those who are still unvaccinated against COVID-19 by actively discouraging vaccines for economic or political gain, and who really and truly should know better. Wisdom, personified in Proverbs as a woman, is preaching, and she is making her strongest plea[1] to those who seem to love being stupid, willfully naïve, not simple in the sense of incapable of understanding, but those who have arrogantly rejected her insights and warnings. “How long, O stupid ones,” she says, “how long will you love being stupid?” Her laughter at the easy-to-predict catastrophe that has resulted from ignoring her sage advice may seem harsh, but it’s not unlike any of us rejoicing when an oppressor or tyrant falls because of self-induced calamity.[2] Wisdom’s laughter is not a generic form of Schadenfreude (or joy at another’s suffering). She is calling to account corrupt leaders, not innocent lambs. Continue reading →

Justa

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Proper 18B.  5 September 2021. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23. Do not crush the afflicted at the gate.
James 2:1-10, (11-13) 14-17. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Mark 7:24-37. Be opened.

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.

It’s rare that I love three scripture lessons appointed for a Sunday as much as I love ours today. They make it abundantly clear that the blessing of God is upon those who are generous with their actions, not only with their thoughts and prayers — those who share what they have with people who do not have enough. The evidence of blessing is not simply prosperity or good fortune. I often hear people who are experiencing abundance expressing gratitude, giving thanks to God and saying, “I am (or we are) so blessed.” But according to Proverbs, it’s not the fact of abundance that is a blessing from God; it’s the re-distribution of abundance so that everyone gets enough that is a blessing from God. The evidence of the blessing of God is in the sharing. Sharing is how the heavens get opened up for one another. And in the process of sharing, James says, mercy triumphs over judgment:  mercy outshines judgment; mercy is better than judgment, every time in the Realm of God. That’s a hard concept for many of us, so it takes practice. Whenever there’s a conflict of biblical values or teachings or interests, ask yourself which approach is more merciful, and go with that. And whatever you do, do not crush the afflicted at the gate (or in the doorways). Continue reading →

Become the bread of life!

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Proper 13B.  August 1, 2021

2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a.  There were two men in a certain city, one rich, and the other.
Ephesians 4:1-16. Speaking the truth in love…promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
John 6:24-35.  I AM the bread of life.

O God of Continual 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.

Some of you will remember that last week I mentioned that I think the feeding narratives in the Gospels are the most important stories about the ministry of Jesus because of how often they are told. Whether memory or metaphor (both, I believe), they tell a powerful truth about Jesus’ ability to satisfy hunger for huge numbers of those who crowded around him. To further emphasize this, our lectionary assignments for today and the next three weeks are from the sixth chapter of John, which follows John’s version of the feeding of the multitudes. Beginning today we have four consecutive Gospel readings in which Jesus’ message is a variation of “I AM the bread.” “I am the bread. I am the bread that came down from heaven. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” 
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Signs

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Proper 12B.  July 25, 2021

2 Samuel 11:1-15.  As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.
Ephesians 3:14-21.  That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.
John 6:1-21. Ego eimi mey phobeisthe.

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 morning we are observing the Feast Day of Mary Magdalene, transferred from July 22, thanks to our deacon, Bob Greiner’s initiative. Our observation is a little bit of a mash-up (this is Emmanuel Church, after all): the collect of the day, proper preface, and the color of our vestments reflect Mary Magdalene’s feast day, and our lectionary readings and music are for ordinary time because I didn’t want you to miss them. Besides, as Jane Redmont says, “Mary Magdalene challenges us to live in resurrection mode all the time.” So instead of hearing the Easter Day proclamation from Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles: “I have seen the Lord,” we just heard Bob read the Gospel of John’s version of the feeding of 5,000. It’s a demonstration of seeing the Lord.
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Jesus is faithful.

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Proper 11B.  July 18, 2021

2 Samuel 7:1-14a.  I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day.
Ephesians 2:11-22.  He came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56. You give them something to eat.

Precious Lord, 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.

I hope that some of you noticed that our Gospel portion for this morning is quite long for a reading from Mark. Our lectionary assignment leaves out nineteen verses and acts like nothing happened, but I’ve added them back in. These verses, in my view, are essential to the story, so I’m chagrined that they never get read in church, not next week or any week. Next week we will begin a series of five readings from the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John and hear a different version of a feeding story! 
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Telling the Story

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Proper 10B.  July 11, 2021

2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19.  David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the LORD with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.
Ephesians 1:3-14. [God] set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time.
Mark 6:14-29. What should I ask for?

O God of Our Dreaming, 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 summer lectionary has dealt us some truly terrible readings for us this morning,  readings that should give any of us pause before we say, “Thanks be to God” or “Praise to you, Lord Christ.” First is the story of how the ark of the covenant came to reside in Jerusalem, which is not a nice story, although the lectionary calls for the most troubling parts of the story to be removed. Then, we have the story of the beheading of John the Baptist with a passage from Ephesians in the middle insisting that somehow everything is going to be alright.
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Freedom is a dream.

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Proper 9B. July 4, 2021

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10. Look, we are your bone and flesh. [Take us in].
2 Corinthians 12:2-10. My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.
Mark 6:1-13. And he was amazed at their unbelief.

O Dreamer of Freedom, 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.

Sometimes people at Emmanuel wonder what a lesson like the one from 2 Samuel has to do with the Gospel (or anything else in the service). It’s a great question that often comes from experiencing a lifetime of lectionary reading selections that used to fit neatly together, in which Christians appropriated the First Testament to serve the Second Testament. That has changed somewhat with the Episcopal Church’s use of the Revised Common Lectionary. 
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Vessels of God’s Grace

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Proper 8B. June 27, 2021

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27. How the mighty have fallen.
2 Corinthians 8:7-15. As you excel in everything…so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.
Mark 5:21-43. Little girl, get up.

O God who heals, 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 know I always begin my sermons with that prayer, amended from a prayer attributed to Phillips Brooks, once Bishop of Massachusetts. It helps me find my preacher voice, as my daughter Laura calls it. Praying it is a way to locate myself in this position of privilege, which you grant to me, and to give myself permission to say things that might be challenging, hard for me to say or hear, or both. The prayer is also a frequent reminder that truth is not predictably or reliably found, and that the seeking is what I am about, what my work with you is about. While truth is costly, it always sets us free. That’s how we know it is truth. The seeking for truth is not at all about fact-finding;  it’s about experiencing freedom and joy and spreading it all around. As Paul exhorts the people in Corinth, we are to excel in generosity in what we undertake, so that the one who has gathered much does not have too much, and the one who has gathered little, does not have too little, and everyone has what they need. (Paul was reminding the people of the Torah, by the way.) This is the vision of community that we are welcoming Cooper Henry Santulli into this morning through his baptism.
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Now is the day of salvation.

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Proper 7B. June 20, 2021

1 Samuel 17:57-18:5, 10-16. Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
2 Corinthians 6:1-13. See, now is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation.
Mark 4:35-41. Let us go across to the other side.

O God of our faith, 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.

Jesus had been teaching about the Realm of God being like seed scattered on all kinds of ground, and about the Realm of God being like kudzu (well, he said mustard, but an uncontrollable weed with medicinal qualities is what he was talking about). At the end of the same day that Jesus had been teaching the crowds, when evening had come, he said, “Let’s go over to the opposite shore, to the far shore. Let’s go to the eastern side of the lake to the region of the Geresenes, to the territory of the Greco-Roman Decapolis.” He was not suggesting a vacation. 
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