Tag Archives: God’s love

Pharisees

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Proper 22B.  3 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 the Pharisees, 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.

So how about those readings? One of the things that my clergy colleagues and I often do when we see each other in the week before particularly troublesome readings is ask one another, “Are you preaching on Sunday?” And if the answer is no, the response is, “lucky!” If the answer is yes, the follow up question is, “What are you going to do with those readings?” I usually keep this to myself, but I’ll confess to you that I actually feel lucky to engage and even debate challenging scripture texts. I think of the ways that People of the Book turn to one another for perspective, guidance, sympathy, insight, and sometimes in the form of an argument. It’s not always respectful, but I think we all know that it’s supposed to be. Continue reading →

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 →

Wishing to See Jesus

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Lent 5B, March 21, 2021.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Jeremiah 31:31-34. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts.
Hebrews 5:5-10. So also Christ did not glorify himself.
John 12:20-33. We wish to see Jesus.

O God of our help, 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 season of time has passed since our reading from the Gospel of John last Sunday. Suddenly, we are only four days away from Jesus’ crucifixion. The context for our reading today is that Jesus has spent the last several years darting in and out of hiding, but has come into Jerusalem very publicly for the last time. Jesus has just ridden up to Jerusalem on a donkey, with huge crowds waving palm branches and shouting Hosanna (which means help, please or save, please). Some irritated and fearful colleagues of Jesus’ have muttered to one another about Jesus, “You see, you can do nothing. Look the world has gone over to him.”
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Saving Space for Outsiders

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Lent 3B, March 7, 2021.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz


Exodus 20:1-17. I AM.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25. Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
John 2:13-22. They believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

O God of Love, 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.

My three-year-old granddaughter asks a version of the universal question of why, which effectively blocks the response, “Because I said so,” or “because that’s the rule.” Instead of asking why, she asks, “What will happen; what will happen” if I do this thing that you’ve told me not to do? What will happen if a kid on the playground doesn’t do what they’re supposed to do; what will happen? What will happen; what will happen? She’s learning about rules, expected behaviors, desired outcomes, and consequences. Sometimes we don’t know the answer; sometimes there is a range of possibilities. This is frustrating to her; she wants to be know; she wants us to be sure of the consequences. On this Third Sunday in Lent, we have lessons about the consequences of being God’s people, of not loving Loving, of proclaiming Christ crucified, and of fidelity to Jesus.
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Make no peace with oppression!

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Proper 24A
October 18, 2020

Exodus 33:12-23. But you have not let me know whom you will send with me.
1 Thessalonians. Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.
Matthew:15-22. Whose head is this, and whose title? i.e., whose image is this and whose inscription?

O God of mercy, 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.

The other day I heard a lecture by Episcopal priest Reed Carlson, Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at United Lutheran Seminary, that made me want to go back to the end of last week’s Gospel lesson and last week’s sermon. You might remember that I posited that the story of the king that binds the hands and feet of one who is not properly dressed is not a story about how God works, but how human kings work. The verse at the end of the Gospel portion says, “For many are called but few are chosen,” or more literally, many are called but few are called out. It has always seemed like a non-sequitur to me, but I don’t believe non-sequiturs actually exist in Biblical literature. The apparent disconnect is always on our end, not the narrative’s end.
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