Tag Archives: community

Peace

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Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 21C, September 25, 2016; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Jeremiah 32:1-3a 6-15 Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.
1 Timothy 6:11-19 But as for you, [person] of God…pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.
Luke 16:19-31 They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.

O God of peace, 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.

Welcome to this grand sanctuary – this haven of beauty. Welcome to this magnificent community whose primary mission includes welcoming you, no matter how long you’ve been here, and wherever you are on your spiritual journey, even and especially if you are not in such a good place on your spiritual journey! Welcome to a gathering of people that will love you just the way you are and will love you too much to let you stay that way! Welcome to church in the Back Bay, which often turns out to be very hard to get to because of road rallies, fundraisers, and movie makers! Welcome to a worship service in which the readings are usually challenging and sometimes confounding, the prayers of the people are often disturbing, and the music is reliably sublime! Welcome to a church long on questions and short on answers, and yet, a church where one beggar can always show another beggar where to get some bread. Continue reading →

The Parable of the Dimes

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Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 20C, September 18, 2016; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1. Is there no balm in Gilead?
1 Timothy 2:1-7. I am telling you the truth. I am not lying.
Luke 16:1-13. You cannot serve God and wealth.

O God of our struggle, 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.

In our readings for this morning, we heard Jeremiah tell us what we already know: the summer is ended and we are not saved. Poor people are not being properly cared for. Poor people are hurting and that hurts the heart of the Holy One. The epistle of Timothy is urging prayers for kings and others in high positions – presumably this instruction is directed to people who do not wish to pray for those in power – presumably because it is the powerful and the wealthy who benefit from economic systems that trample on people who are needy, people who are poor. And Jesus, in the Gospel of Luke, seems to be celebrating and encouraging dishonesty. What? Continue reading →

Love is calling you.

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Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 13C, July 31, 2016, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Hosea 11:1-11 I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love.
Colossians 3:1-11 The wrath of God on whose who are disobedient.
Luke 12:13-21 The land of a rich man produced abundantly.

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 a pair of scripture readings that take the cliché and inaccurate characterization of OT “god of wrath” and NT “god of love” and turn it on its head. Colossians warns of the wrath of God on those who are disobedient. But through the prophet Hosea, a compassionate and merciful Holy One is telling the story of falling in love with the “god strugglers” (which is what Israel literally means) when they were children. God fell in love with those children when they were in a tight spot, a bind, a narrow place (which is what Egypt literally means). God called those children, but the more God called, the more the children ran in the other direction. They kept giving their precious resources to the wrong gods (gods of everything BUT love); they kept offering their devotion to worthless causes, placing their hopes in idols or dummies. And yet, God knows that they will eventually come trembling back from the narrow place (Egypt) and the militarized place (Assyria) and God will return them to their homes. Continue reading →

The word is shalom.

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Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 11C, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz, July 17, 2016

Amos 8:1-12 A basket of summer fruit.
Colossians 1:15-28 Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
Luke 10:38-42 The better part

O God of shalom, 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.

What a hard week, in a series of hard weeks. There seems to be no end in sight to the violence at home and abroad. I want to say something about each of our three scripture readings this morning. I don’t know about you, but I hear the prophet Amos speaking directly to us from about 760 BCE. Amos, a shepherd and dresser of sycamore trees, was the first prophet of the Hebrew Bible to write his description of what happens when some people in a society get richer and more powerful, at the expense of those who are poor and getting poorer. He was writing at a time when his country had expanded in wealth and military might by taking advantage of the most vulnerable, the neediest people, violating the Torah commandments to care for refugees and aliens, and others who cannot care for themselves. Perhaps you already knew what it means that Amos was a dresser of sycamore trees, but I had to look it up. Sycamore trees in the Middle East produce fruit that smell like figs, but taste pretty bad. Only poor people eat it, because nobody with other options would touch it. If the fruit is punctured while it’s still on the tree, it ripens faster. A dresser of sycamores is someone who is helping to feed those who are poor.
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Some Women of Means

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Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (6C), June 12, 2016; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

1 Kings 21:1-21a Jezebel.
Galatians 2:15-21 I do not nullify the grace of God.
Luke 7:36-8:3 The twelve were with him as well as some women…who provided for them out of their resources.

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.

In today’s Gospel reading, we hear the famous story of an unnamed city woman who lived a life of flagrant disobedience to the law (aka a criminal). In order to undercut the authority of religious leaders in Luke’s own time at the end of the first century, Luke misrepresents and caricatures a Pharisee named Simon in a way that is historically mistaken and theologically inappropriate. Pharisees were quite clear in their teachings about the abundant mercy and compassion of God, and their teachings that faithful people were to emulate God in offering mercy and compassion. Of course there may have been a gap between teachings and behavior. We’ve seen that in our own religious practices, haven’t we? Ironically, Luke, and those who have repeated the slander of Pharisees, put themselves in the position of needing great forgiveness. [1] Continue reading →

Author, Word & Inspiration

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Trinity Sunday, (C), May 22, 2016; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Proverbs 8:1-4,22-31 Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? …’To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live.’
Romans 5:1-11 We boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God…because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
John 16:12-15 I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

O indescribable Holy One, 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.

For those of you who struggle with the Gospel of John, this Gospel reading is for you. It begins with an acknowledgement that, while there is much more to say, Jesus knows that you cannot bear it now. Perhaps this is recognition of saturation, of exhaustion, of grief, of the lack of additional capacity among Jesus’ followers. It seems like it might be compassionate, parental. Or, perhaps the scribe was just tired or short on papyrus and so he wrote that into the Gospel story. Either way, I like to imagine that it is a statement that is true in every age that there are more things than we can hear or bear. I find it to be a very hopeful idea that there is more wisdom and truth than are recorded in the scriptures. Wisdom and truth were not completely revealed in Jesus’ time – they are not completely revealed even yet. The revelation of the Divine is ongoing, continuing. Continue reading →

We are doing it.

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The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost, 27B, November 8, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17 Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without next-of-kin.
Hebrews 9:24-28 Now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
Mark 12:38-44 This poor widow has put in more than all those…she out of her poverty has put in everything she had.

O God of all, 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.

The Gospel lesson that we just heard is a very familiar story about the woman who put two copper coins, approximately enough money to buy one meal, in the offering in the temple. It’s a story many of us learned in Church School. People know it by the title, “the widow’s mite” (mite meaning a tiny little bit). It’s a nice story for little children who are learning about mite boxes and putting coins in offering plates. I’m aware that when the story gets told about Jesus commending the woman for giving everything she had, especially during pledge stewardship season (probably no coincidence, by the way), many of us adults kind of seize up inside. You know – we kind of brace ourselves for what’s coming next. Continue reading →

Go lead!

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Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost, 25B, October 24, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Job 42:1-6, 10-17 Now my eyes see you.
Hebrews 7:23-28 Prevented by death from continuing in office!
Mark 10:46-52 What do you want me to do for you?

O God of our wildest dreams, 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.

Dan Hazen had a vision of how he wanted his completed life acknowledged at Emmanuel Church and it did not include a sermon being preached about him. (I’ll honor his wish.) But I want to share one of the things Dan frequently mentioned in the seven short years that I knew him. It was that he didn’t like worship services that tied things up in a neat bow. So instead of eulogizing him from this pulpit, I’ll do my best to offer a sermon that is long on questions and short on answers, one that doesn’t even try to make sense of the incongruities and ambiguities! Continue reading →

Come closer! (with audio)

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Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost, 24B, October 18, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Isaiah 53:4-12 It was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.
[Job 38:1-7, 34-41 Who.]
Hebrews 5:1-10 He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
Mark 10:35-45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.

O suffering God, 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.

Our Rabbi-in-Residence, Howard Berman, is fond of asking me whenever he preaches at one of our services, “Why do I always get the hard texts?” I say, I wonder the very same thing! Why do I always get the hard texts?” (I think the answer might be that they’re almost all hard.) When it comes to the Isaiah reading, I’ll admit that I did it to myself when I agreed to take a week away from our reading of the story of Job in the interest of Ryan Turner’s request for the lovely Distler motet.
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Pass the peace! (with audio)

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Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, 21B, September 27, 2015; 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 our redemption, 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 just heard a part of the great story of Queen Esther, beautiful, brave, patient and smart, who used her position and her gifts, and risked her own life on behalf of her people. Esther’s name appears more times than any other woman in the Bible, and she speaks more than any named women except for Judith. She is the ideal against which Herodius, in the Christian testament of the Bible, was compared and was found to have utterly missed the mark, when a king, intoxicated by wine and the beauty of a woman, offered to do anything she wanted. Queen Herodius coached her daughter to ask for murder. Queen Esther asked that all of her people be saved from scheduled massacre. The Feast of Purim, which celebrates Queen Esther’s courage, compassion and creativity, is observed by Jews each year at the end of winter (in the Northern Hemisphere) with celebrations that include presents for people who are poor, and gifts of food for all. Continue reading →