Tag Archives: God’s love

Say I love you, too.

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Epiphany 1B, 7 January 2024. The Very 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 the day that the Church celebrates the Baptism of Our Lord. Jesus’ baptism is considered the beginning of his ministry; and so we have three scripture readings before us today that speak of new beginnings. “In the beginning,” goes our first reading from the first book of the Bible. “In the beginning God created” are the first words of Genesis, the first words of the Torah.  Actually in Hebrew they say something more like, “When God began shaping.” There is no completed action. Rather, there is a strong sense of ongoing, incomplete shaping. Continue reading →

Embracing the Teachings of Jesus

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Proper 11A, 30 July 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Genesis 29:15-28. When morning came, it was Leah!
  • Romans 8:26-39.  We do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.
  • Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52. Have you understood all this? They answered, “Yes.”

O God of mercy, 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.

Whenever the story of Jacob’s procurement of Leah and Rachel gets told in our appointed lessons, I’m tempted to preach about the biblical model of marriage illustrated in the book of Genesis, just so we’re all clear what “Biblical marriage” is. It’s especially true this year in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in the bigoted-website case. Instead, I’m going to trust that the Spirit is interceding with sighs too deep for words. Continue reading →

Eternal Life

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Easter 7A, 21 May 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Acts 1:6-14. All of these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women.
  • 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11 [but what about 4:16?]. If any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name.
  • John 17:1-11. Protect them in your name that you have given me…so that they may be one as we are one.

O God our protector, 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 in our Church calendar we mark the time between the Feast of the Ascension and the Feast of Pentecost. It’s a liturgical acknowledgement of a sort of limbo, in which Jesus has triumphed over death and but has yet to go to his heavenly reward; the comfort and the inspiration, the clarifying flame of the Holy Spirit, which he had promised to send, has not yet arrived. It’s a little bit like the in-between time at Emmanuel between the end of our cantata season and the beginning of chapel camp. Continue reading →

Our Only Way

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Easter 5A, 7 May 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Acts 7:55-60. But they covered their ears.
  • 1 Peter 2:2-10. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
  • John 14:1-14.  Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

O God of our redemption, 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.

When I was in seminary, I took a class called “Teaching and Preaching Texts of Terror.” The idea behind the title was that there are passages in scripture that scare the daylights out of people; and this was a course designed for us to face our terrors with some companions. We each had to pick our top-two-most-terrifying Biblical texts. (Picking only two was the hardest part!) Our Gospel lesson for today was one of the two that I picked because of Jesus’ claim that no one comes to the Father except through him. I do love Jesus, but I’m terrorized by the idea of Jesus as the only way: Jesus, the gatekeeper, rather than the gate; Jesus holding all the tickets; Jesus, the anti-Jewish Jew; Jesus on the shields of the Crusaders; Jesus, the champion of the Doctrine of Discovery; Jesus, who became definitively white in Warner Sallman’s ubiquitous depiction in 1940 of “The Head of Christ” with blond-hair and blue-eyes; Jesus on the minds of those who commit all kinds of hate crimes and enact hateful legislation; Jesus in the prayers of the “in groups” as they justify the exclusion of others. Isn’t it ironic, then, that this passage begins with “Let not your hearts be troubled.” Do not give in to your distress. Continue reading →

It’s Love that will never abandon.

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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. 
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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 →

Do the works of Love!

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Proper 7C, 19 June 2022, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

1 Kings 19:1-15a. What are you doing here Elijah?
Psalm 42.  Deep calls to deep,
Galatians 3:23-29.  For all of you are one.
Luke 8:26-39. Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.

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

I grew up with the expectation that, as theologian Karl Barth taught, preachers should “preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” My dad always did that. It’s my intention too, but some days my hands are just not big enough and, though I have two, I don’t have as many as I need. Today is one of those days. On one hand, we have the story of Elijah on the run, of the deep calling to deep that we are to put our hope in God and give thanks to God who is our ever-present help in the Psalms. Then there’s Paul’s brilliant teaching in his letter to the Galatians that when we clothe ourselves in Christ Jesus, there is no Jew or Gentile, enslaved person or freed person; there is no male and female. And then the story of the Geresene demoniac – I could work on the study of that story for all the Sundays left in 2022. Continue reading →

Well on The Way

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Epiphany 4C, 30 January 2022.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Jeremiah 1:4-10. Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a ….
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 . The greatest of these is love.
Luke 4:21-30. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

O God of Generosity, 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 the portion of the Gospel we heard this morning, Luke tells us that a group of people in Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth, who had been pleased and even astonished by Jesus, got so angry with him that they threw him out of the house of worship, ran him out of town, and wanted to throw him off the cliff. That is angry! Luke says that Jesus’ reputation as a spirit-filled leader had spread around the country prior to his return to Nazareth. Last week we heard that all in Nazareth spoke well of him, when he read from, and commented on, the scripture at the religious gathering in Nazareth. So what made them turn on him? Luke tells us what Jesus said to make them so angry; but it doesn’t sound that bad, does it? So we are left to debate what provoked them so about the story of Elijah being sent to a widow (probably a Syrophoenician) at Zarephath in Sidon and about Elisha healing the leprosy of Naaman the Syrian. Jesus was reminding them of stories that were part of their own tradition, and it made them so mad that they wanted to annihilate him. It wasn’t new stuff he was telling them; it was old, and it was a main Bible theme, not an obscure part of their tradition. The reading we just heard from the prophet Jeremiah tells about how Jeremiah understood himself to be sent to proclaim that God’s message was not just for Israel but for all nations. So what is the problem? Continue reading →

Your love changes everything.

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Epiphany 3C, 23 January 2022.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10. Do not be grieved; the joy of the Lord is your strength.
1 Corinthians 12:12-31. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
Luke 4:14-21. Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

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.

Before I address Luke’s signature story about the miraculous beginning of the ministry of Jesus, I want to make sure you noticed that two verses are omitted from our lectionary-appointed reading of Nehemiah this morning: verses 4 and 7. I hope you wondered what was missing when you looked at the citation. Maybe you even guessed that I would tell you? (I will!) The verses contain long lists of names. Verse 4 lists the names of the thirteen people who stood with Ezra as he read the Torah, on a wooden platform, which had been made for the purpose. He was standing with his leadership team. [1] And then in verse 7 is a list of thirteen other people, who were there to help the congregation to understand the sacred text. [2] Let’s not miss the idea that the scripture has always been challenging to understand, and that it’s best engaged in conversation, in community. The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the church in Corinth, has also left us a pep talk about what it means to be a part of a gathering – one body with many members with a variety of gifts, who have great need of one another. The passage we heard this morning tees up his treatise on love, which we will hear next Sunday. Continue reading →

Approach the throne of grace.

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Proper 23B.  10 October 2021. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Job 1:1, 2:1-10. Do you still persist in your integrity?
Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12. Someone has testified somewhere.
Mark 10:2-16.  Receive the kingdom of God as a little child.

O God of Possibility, 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.

Last week I shared a question that I often hear from my colleagues, that is: “What are you going to do with those readings?” That question has been rolling around in my head and lingering in my prayer. A startling idea occurred to me this week that maybe the better question is: “What are those readings going to do with me or you?” Because as we just heard in Hebrews: [1]

Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before God no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.

In the passage we heard this morning, even while Job searches in vain for God, he knows that God sees him. Continue reading →