2022 Sermons

Sermons of The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz and others at Emmanuel Church in the City of Boston

Take a deep breath!

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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 →

You are set free from your ailment.

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11th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 17C, August 21, 2022; The Rev. Dr. John D. Golenski

Luke 13:12.  When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”

In our Gospel portion today, the authors of Luke describe an encounter between a woman living with long-term consequences of something like Guillain–Barré Syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, or tuberculosis of the spine.  As so often happens in the Gospel stories, when a diseased, wounded, or psychically-damaged person encounters Jesus, a profound healing results.  These accounts of Jesus’s cures, however, are not selectively recounted in the Gospel just to convince us that Jesus is divine.  Usually, there is a message or lesson embedded in the account of the healing. Continue reading →

Do you not know how to interpret the present time?

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The 10th Sunday after Pentecost, August 14, 2022; The Rev. Dr. John D. Golenski

Luke 12:56. Do you not know how to interpret the present time?

Believe me when I tell you that clergy in Christian churches using the Revised Common Lectionary dread August.  That’s when we have to deal in our preaching with the apocalyptic passages in the Synoptic Gospels.  When last we shared a meal, I joked with Pam that she always takes her vacation during this month so she can escape all these “doom and gloom” passages.  Seriously, there is a lot of gloom in the portions from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke that are assigned for August’s Sundays.  Suffused with what we could call an apocalyptic vision, they focus on the inevitability of divine judgment and the imminence of the end of time.

Continue reading →

Do not be afraid.

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9th Sunday after Pentecost, 7 August 2022,  The Rev. Dr. John D. Golenski

Genesis 15:1. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1.  Do not be afraid, little flock.
Luke 12:32.

On the island of Torcello in the northern reaches of the Venetian lagoon, stands a Romanesque basilica built by the Veneti people over several centuries. They had left their cities on the mainland to seek refuge from the ravages of the Huns. There they worshipped with their bishops until malaria drove them to the group of islands we know now as the city of Venice. The basilica remains on the almost-deserted island, a relic of earlier Christian worship.

Directly in front of the central doors of this basilica, which is really a museum, are the
ruins of an octagonal building which was pillaged for marble and bricks for constructions in Venice. It served as the baptistry, a separate building which opened into the basilica’s narthex. Looking into the eight-sided ruin, which had been topped by a dome, one quickly realizes that the structure focuses on the exact center where a large stone basin would have been placed. We know a good deal about the practices of the first centuries of the Church through the writings of hierarchs and scholars of the time, but also from the structure of buildings, many in ruins like Torcello’s baptistry, built around the liturgies of baptism and the Eucharist. Continue reading →

Don’t mismanage your miracle.

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Proper 13C, 31 July 2022. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Hosea 11:1-11. My compassion grows warm and tender.
Colossians 3:1-11. The wrath of God is coming on whose who are disobedient.
Luke 12:13-21. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.

O God of abundance, 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 have scripture readings that take the clichéd and inaccurate characterization of Old Testament god of wrath and New Testament god of love and turn it on its head. You might know that one of my life goals is to stop as many Christians as possible from thinking that the First Testament or Hebrew Bible depicts an angry God and the Second or Christian Testament depicts a loving God. I also want those people who finally learn to spread the news to others. Alas, it’s like the work of coming out: my work is never done.
Continue reading →

Claim Check

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Proper 12C, 24 July.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Hosea 1:2-10. Children of the living God.
Colossians 2:6-19. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit.
Luke 11:1-13. Because of his [lack of shame or honor].

O God of dignity, 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 love that our hand fans proclaim that Emmanuel Church is prayer conditioned on a very hot day when our Gospel lesson is about Jesus’ teaching about how to pray. His answer to the disciples’ request to teach them to pray, the way John taught his disciples, is: ask, search, knock. Claim your honor and your dignity. Notice, though, that what is being sought is learning to pray, and what is being offered in Jesus’ response and words of assurance is a holy spirit, a spirit of holiness. In the original text, there is no definite article, and there are no capital letters. (This is long before the theological idea of Trinity got codified.) If you ask for a spirit of holiness, if you search for a spirit of holiness, if you knock on doors asserting your right to enter into a spirit of holiness, it will be given to you; it will be opened for you. Continue reading →

The Better Portion

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Proper 11C. 17 July 2022.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Amos 8:1-12. Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land.
Colossians 1:15-29. For this I toil and struggle with all the energy that he powerfully inspires within me.
Luke 10:38-42 The better portion.

O God beyond our perceiving, 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 might just be because it’s hot and I’m getting close to vacation, so I’m a little grumpier than usual; but I looked at our readings for today earlier this week and thought to myself, “I don’t really want to say thanks be to God or praise be to you, Lord Christ to any of these three!” 

Amos, of course, is responding to the ancient command of the Divine: “If you see something, say something.” What he saw was the shocking evils of a flourishing urban elite exploiting people and extracting resources in a way that was impoverishing the whole country. Amos saw that military might, extravagant wealth, and shallow piety would result in utter devastation if those in power did not repent and return to the Holy One, to the Mosaic Law of love for neighbor, which meant (and still means) the just distribution of resources. The word of hope in Amos, which our lectionary doesn’t include, is that the time will come when those who plow shall overtake those who reap, when those who plant the vineyards will enjoy the fruit of their labor. Continue reading →

Unbounded Mercy

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Proper 10C.  10 July 2022, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

Amos 7:7-17. The Lord said to me, “Go prophesy to my people Israel.”
Colossians 1:1-14. Grace to you and peace from God.
Luke 10:25-37. But wanting to justify himself…

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.

This parable called The Good Samaritan, found only in Luke, might be the most famous parable of them all. One doesn’t have to be a church goer to have heard of it and understand something about it. Hospitals, emergency services, counseling services, laws about liability limits, and award programs, all get called Good Samaritan. With its fame comes the enormous, sometimes crushing, weight of Protestant moral theology and Sunday-school lessons, both with a hefty dose of Christian anti-Jewish bias. The preaching challenge for me seems formidable because of what we all think we already know about this story and the guilt that has been wired into most of us about seeing people who have been beaten and robbed, lying in life’s various ditches, and not doing enough, or anything at all, to help. In my time as a priest, this story has provoked more confessions and more attempts at self-justification than any other I know. It reminds me of something bell hooks said, which feels like the essence of my vocation: [1]

I am often struck by the dangerous narcissism fostered by spiritual rhetoric that pays so much attention to individual self-improvement and so little to the practice of love within the context of community.

Continue reading →

Not the End of the Story

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Proper 9C, 3 July 2022, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

2 Kings 5:1-14. Had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel and she served Naaman’s wife.
Galatians 6:1-16. “If anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a Spirit of gentleness….Bear one another’s burdens.
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20. Do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

O God of dignity, 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’ve spent some time thinking about dignity in this past week as I continue to shudder at the dramatic disregard for the well-being of people whose right to bodily autonomy has been eliminated or severely jeopardized by the United States Supreme Court. Maybe you saw the guest opinion piece in last Sunday’s New York Times by Michele Goodwin, law professor at the University of California, who pointed out that in the Dodd decision, the majority of the Supreme Court failed to honor the 13th amendments which prohibits involuntary servitude and provides protection of bodily autonomy for Black women, and the 14th amendment which defend privacy and freedom. Goodwin wrote that “state-mandated pregnancy will exacerbate what are already alarming health and dignity harms, especially in states with horrific records of maternal mortality and morbidity.” [1] Her analysis was very present in my mind as I reflected on our reading for today from 2 Kings. Continue reading →

Keep your hand on the plow and hold on.

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Proper 8C, 26 June 2022, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

1 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14. You have asked a hard thing….(Keep your eyes on me as I am taken).
Galatians 5:1,13-25.  The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Luke 9:51-62. Follow me.

O God our help and our hope, 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.

Buckle up. On Friday, I was listening to a recording of Mahalia Jackson singing the African American spiritual “Keep your hand on the plow, hold on,” when the news came that the Supreme Court of the United States had overturned Roe vs. Wade, eliminating the Constitutional right to the bodily autonomy of people who are pregnant. It hit me like the news of a loved-one’s death after a prolonged illness. The news seemed sudden and felt devastating, even though I expected it. It’s like a gut punch or, to put a finer point on it, for some of us it’s a uterine punch. The majority decision that reproductive autonomy, when it comes to pregnancy, is a states-rights issue rather than a human-rights issue, will immediately eliminate access to legal abortions in 20 states, for about 25.5 million people with a uterus who are of reproduction age (which starts at about 12, by the way, and can go beyond 50). Continue reading →