Tag Archives: grace

The Splendor of Grace

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Easter Sunday C, 17 April 2022.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Isaiah 65:17-25. Be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating.
1 Corinthians 15:19-26. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Luke 24:1-12. Amazed at what had happened.

O God with us, 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.

Good morning! Good job getting here, whether you are here in the sanctuary or here via livestream. I’m so glad that you’re here whether you love this holiday, or you’re just trying to get through it. Maybe you couldn’t wait to celebrate Easter at Emmanuel for the first time in three years, and maybe you’re joining us for the first time ever. Maybe you are here because it matters to someone you love, or you are here for a sadder reason. I love to say, whether you have come for celebration or solace, whether you are energized or exhausted, excited or grumpy, whether you have skipped or stumbled into this Easter celebration, my hope for all of you is that you will leave here today knowing more deeply that you are loved, that even if (and maybe especially if) you don’t feel like you fit in, still you belong with us today. Emmanuel Church is a place where we actively practice belonging to one another no matter what. It’s not always easy, I assure you, but it is always worth it. This is a parish where we focus our efforts and attention not on whether we (or anyone else) will get into heaven, but on whether any heaven will get into us. This is a parish where we focus not so much on implausible ideas, but on fidelity in relationship. Continue reading →

Entering the Gates of Holy Week

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Palm Sunday C, 10 April 2022.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Isaiah 50:4-9a. It is the Lord God who helps me.
Philippians 2:5-11. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.
Luke 23:1-49. Watching these things.

1.  They had been enemies.  
You know, each of our four canonical Gospels tells its own story of the Good News of Jesus as the Christ. Each has its own voice, its own intended audience, its own character. I believe that we hear and understand best when we hear the distinctive voices telling different stories, when we do not try to make a puree by blending all of the ingredients of the four Gospels, seasoned with church traditions. Continue reading →

Biblical Marriage

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Epiphany 2C, 16 January 2022.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Isaiah 62:1-5 . For the Lord delights in you and your land shall be married….So shall your God rejoice in you.
1 Corinthians 12:1-11. Now there are varieties of gifts…of services…of activities…for the common good.
John 2:1-11. The first of his signs…revealed his glory…his disciples believed in him.

O God of Justice, 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 readings appointed for the second Sunday after the Epiphany in the third year of our lectionary cycle always provoke a rant inside my head that threatens to come out in the pulpit in an Andy Rooney style of commentary (for those of you of a certain age). But it’s not a rant about the lectionary (this time). This time it’s a rant about biblical marriage. Now if I asked random people walking up Newbury Street what the definition of biblical marriage is, I feel confident that, no matter what their religious background, most would respond with some version of one man and one woman. They probably wouldn’t know that marriage descriptions in biblical times, which span more than 1,000 years, differ widely (and even wildly) in terms of expectations:  of polygamy or monogamy; parent-arranged or husband-initiated; endogamy or exogamy (that is, within one’s clan or outside of it); the obligation for a man to marry his brother’s widow; not to mention the estimations of perceived time until the end of the world. There are also major considerations and differences in the Bible when it comes to property, procreation, strategic political alliance, and divorce. A man “taking” a wife literally means procuring, buying, and the acquisition is called betrothal. And Paul writes to the church in Corinth, “Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried.” Continue reading →

The Harvest of Righteousness

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Advent 2C.  19 December 2021. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Baruch 5:1-9 Take off the garment of sorrow and affliction and put on the robe of righteousness.
Phillipians 1:31-11. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God
Luke 3:1-6 All flesh shall see the salvation of God.

God all merciful and all compassionate, 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.

As I said last week, Advent is a season for communal and institutional reflection and repentance, for collective atonement and reparations. Our readings for this second Sunday in Advent are so full and big with calls for repentance and reparations; it is almost as if they are pregnant with possibility. The prophet Baruch and the evangelist Luke are both reminding their hearers about the words of the prophet Isaiah. And Luke draws a picture of John the Baptist that is just like the prophet Jeremiah, consecrated before he was born, and just like Elijah by the Jordan in the wilderness. Luke also has already explained that John’s work was so closely related to Jesus’s work, their purposes were so akin to one another, that it was as if they must have known one another before they were even born. Continue reading →

Peace at the Last

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Proper 27B.  7 November 2021. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17. I need to seek security for you.
Hebrews 9:24-28. Not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Mark 12:38-44.  She…has put in everything she had.

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.

Being within the Octave or eight days of November 1, we are observing the celebration of All Saints’ Day today. Eight is a sacred number in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In our sacred texts, eight represents a fullness of time, more than complete, a time for new life and new beginning, entrance into the eternal. In Islam, there are eight gates to heaven. The Arabic numeral 8 on its side stands for infinity. For Christians, there are traditionally eight sides on a baptismal font recalling the Torah command to circumcise on the eighth day, the Torah command to observe the feast of Passover, and the Gospel account of the resurrection of Jesus on the eighth day. Today we are sacramentally full to the brim. Liturgically, our cup is overflowing with Jane Harte’s baptism and with our celebration of Holy Eucharist. Our Great Thanksgiving will memorialize and honor those on the heart of our parish who have died since All Saints’ Day in 2020, and the beautiful Ruehr requiem will commemorate Ruth Ann Richwine Ruehr and all who died in 2020. Continue reading →

Respond, repair, rebuild!

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Proper 26B.  31 October 2021. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Ruth 1:1-18. Do not beg me to leave you anymore, woman.
Hebrews 9:11-14. Purify our conscience from dead observances for worship of the living God.
Mark 12:28-34.  You are not far from the Realm of God.

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.

Many of you know that the formal name of our educational and artistic collaboration program with Central Reform Temple is Emmanuel Center. You’ll see our statement of purpose in the back of your bulletins. Essentially it says that faithfully rooted in our distinct religious traditions and shared spiritual heritage, we model compassionate encounters between Judaism and Christianity that affirm the difficult challenges of history and aspire to new levels of understanding. The Emmanuel Center Board comprises leaders from the parish and the synagogue to plan activities that explore spiritual and ethical perspectives on our shared human experience. When the board met this past Tuesday, we spent considerable time talking about the history being made right now with regard to the tens of thousands of refugees of rapacious militarism coming into the US from Afghanistan to be resettled here. Afghani people are living in refugee camps on five military bases in this country; the pictures of Fort Bliss (a highly ironic name) in New Mexico show about 100 huge tents holding 6,000 people. Our conversation on the board had to do with our moral obligation to respond with welcome and assistance, and the process of figuring out how. Where to begin? 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 →

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 →

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.” 
Continue reading →

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! 
Continue reading →