Tag Archives: grace

Vessels of God’s Grace

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Proper 8B. June 27, 2021

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27. How the mighty have fallen.
2 Corinthians 8:7-15. As you excel in everything…so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.
Mark 5:21-43. Little girl, get up.

O God who heals, 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 I always begin my sermons with that prayer, amended from a prayer attributed to Phillips Brooks, once Bishop of Massachusetts. It helps me find my preacher voice, as my daughter Laura calls it. Praying it is a way to locate myself in this position of privilege, which you grant to me, and to give myself permission to say things that might be challenging, hard for me to say or hear, or both. The prayer is also a frequent reminder that truth is not predictably or reliably found, and that the seeking is what I am about, what my work with you is about. While truth is costly, it always sets us free. That’s how we know it is truth. The seeking for truth is not at all about fact-finding;  it’s about experiencing freedom and joy and spreading it all around. As Paul exhorts the people in Corinth, we are to excel in generosity in what we undertake, so that the one who has gathered much does not have too much, and the one who has gathered little, does not have too little, and everyone has what they need. (Paul was reminding the people of the Torah, by the way.) This is the vision of community that we are welcoming Cooper Henry Santulli into this morning through his baptism.
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Covenantal Connectedness

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Last Sunday after the Epiphany, B, February 14, 2021, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

2 Kings 2:1-12. “Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you.” Elisha said, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.”
2 Corinthians 4:3-6. For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Mark 9:2-10. He did not know what to say for they were terrified.

O God of Revelation, 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.

We have come to the end of the season of Epiphany, the season of celebrating sacred gifts and divine disclosures. In our Hebrew Bible lesson this morning we have the wonderful story from 2 Kings about how Elisha got the power and the authority to carry on Elijah’s work after Elijah was gone, after he was “taken up.” Elisha had been travelling with and learning from Elijah for many years. He had burned his farming equipment and slaughtered his oxen, thus destroying his means of income, his livelihood;  he had left his home so that he could travel with the prophet Elijah (much more dramatic than leaving the boats and nets with Zebedee and his hired hands to follow Jesus).

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Repentance, Repair & Reconciliation

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Advent 1B, November 29, 2020.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Isaiah 64:1-9. O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.…We are your people.
1 Corinthians 1:1-9 So that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Mark 13:24-37 Keep awake.

O God of Repentance, 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 marks the beginning of a new Church year with the first Sunday in Advent. The Christian new year doesn’t begin with festivities or celebrations, but with lamentation in Isaiah, with a letter from Paul written in response to reports of in-fighting – of quarrelling in the church in Corinth, and with the Gospel of Mark’s “apocalypse” – Jesus’ prediction of the end of life as his disciples know it. The end, according to Mark, will be a very good thing because of the enormity of suffering, because of the desolation being experienced. I get this at a deeper level than I ever have before because of the revelations and devastations of this past year.
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Share the wealth!

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Proper 20A
September 20, 2020
Exodus 16:2-15. What is it? It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.
Philippians 1:21-30. It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in any way.
Matthew 20:1-16. Take what belongs to you and go.

O God of grace, 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.

Hello! Welcome into this time and space and community that is Emmanuel Church gathered. Some are gathered in this physical place, and many more are gathered in places around New England and in various other time zones, to pray together and to worship God. Welcome into the future of God’s beloved community, as we figure out ways to adapt to challenging circumstances. I often hear people remark, when I tell them that I serve as rector of Emmanuel Church in Boston, that Emmanuel has such a great history. And I’m quick to respond, “yes! And a great present and future too!” Our vision of the future is foggier, perhaps, more treacherous perhaps, but we are sticking together. This first Sunday of the cantata season is “welcome forward Sunday. Come with us into the future, Sunday.”

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A sign is not the thing.

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Lent 5A
March 29, 2020

 

Ezekiel 37:1-14 O my people.
Psalms 130 Out of the depths have I called to you.
Romans 8:6-11 To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
John 11:1-45 Jesus began to weep…. he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’….Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’

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.

 

The past two weeks I have wrestled with whether to livestream a service of Holy Eucharist, keeping as much of our customary service in tact as possible, or move to leading a service of Morning Prayer, wholly unfamiliar as a Sunday worship service at Emmanuel Church, although many Emmanuelites pray Morning Prayer as a daily practice, and have practiced Morning Prayer in other places. Continuing with the rite of Holy Eucharist is both comforting for some and painful for others, but for many of us, it is both comforting and painful at the same time: comforting to recognize the rhythm and the shape of the service, and painful to face what we are missing by not being able to be physically present with one another and with the elements of our sacrament. But then I think Eucharist means thanksgiving, and while bread and wine are signs of our thanks, they are not our thanks. While physical presence is a sign of being Church, it is not the Church.
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Bold Action & Wild Patience

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Third Sunday in Lent, March 24, 2019

Exodus 3:1-15. I AM has sent me to you.
Psalm 63:1-8. Love, my Love, for You I search. My throat thirsts for You.
1 Corinthians 10:1-13. Flee from the worship of idols.
Luke 13:1-9. Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?

O God of our longing, 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.

When I encounter our three lessons and the Psalm appointed for today, the third Sunday in Lent, I find myself drawn to the story of Moses’ encounter with the Holy One – with the disclosure of the divine – the Great “I AM” and Moses’ response: “Here I am.” It’s a story that is always close at hand in my spiritual topography: the common bush burning up but not burning out; the name of Love that can be translated: “I AM BECOMING WHO I AM BECOMING” or “I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE” and the great call to free people from the oppressively narrow places of taskmasters (external and internal). I also want to say some things to you about the language of yearning in Psalm 63.

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Building up Belovedness

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First Sunday in Lent, March 10, 2019

Deuteronomy 26:1-11. You, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you.
Romans 10:8b-13. The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart.
Luke 4:1-13. It is written … it is written … it is said.

O God of our many songs: 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.

Earlier in the week, when our Deacon Bob suggested that our Gospel lesson be read by both of us, to emphasize the dialog, I jumped at the chance to read (and embellish) the lines given to the devil because, in my experience, the voice of the devil always sounds reasonable, and I am nothing if not reasonable. You might know that the Greek word for devil, diabolos, or the Hebrew word, satan, can refer to anyone who brings charges or challenges against someone else. It’s the role of prosecutor. According to Luke, Jesus had just experienced at his baptism, a voice assuring him that he was the beloved child of the Holy One. Then, curiously, Luke adds Jesus’ 78 generation genealogy. It starts with: He was the son (as was thought) of Joseph son of Heli, son of Matthat, son of Levi…and so on, about 50 more generations through David, back to son of Judah, son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, son of Terah….and back 16 more generations to son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God. According to Luke, Jesus is (by adoption) “son of God” because he is a direct descendant of Adam, who was the son of God. The point is, Jesus has heard a voice from heaven saying, “You are my Son, the Beloved,” and Luke has listed Jesus’ lineage, back to son of Adam, son of God.
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Make the choice to let Love in!

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Fourth Sunday of Advent (C)
December 23, 2018

Micah 5:2-5a And he shall be the one of peace.
Hebrews 10:5-10 In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.
Luke 1:39-56 Blessed is she who believed.

O God of “she who believed,” 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’s been a noisy week for me around here: the newly manufactured elevator doors have been getting installed, the roofers have been walking back and forth outside my office window. At home, it’s been the gutter cleaners and leaf blowers. Aside from sawing rocks, I don’t think there’s any machine noise that I dislike more. And really, those things are quite trivial compared with the domestic and international news that just keeps going from bad to worse. While the timing might not seem so good, the noise really fits very well with where we are in our Christian calendar. Our readings have wisdom for us to hear through the din.
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Now is the time to know.

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Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (9B), July 8, 2018; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10 Thirty-three years.
2 Corinthians 12:2-10 My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.
Mark 6:1-13 And he began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority.

O God of grace, 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.

Sometimes Bible readings are so weird –even for a Bible geek like me! Second Corinthians definitely wins the prize this week. I love the story from the Gospel of Mark about when Jesus inaugurated the buddy system for his followers, to get out there to extend hearts and hands, to expect miracles, but not to carry the dirty residue of rejection with them as they went from one town to another. I love the idea that Jesus sent no-one out alone. They got sent out two by two to proclaim that everybody should turn around toward Love, and doing this, they were able to cast out many demons and heal many who were suffering. I love to preach about that, but I think I need to say something about the portion of Paul’s letter that we heard read to us this morning, because it sounds so weird that I can’t let it just sit there today.
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Looking More Resurrected

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Second Sunday of Easter, Year B, April 8, 2018; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Acts 4:32-35 There was not a needy person among them.
1 John 1:1-2:2 If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves.
John 20:19-31 Peace be with you.

O God of our wildest dreams, 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.

Today is the eighth day of Easter. Eight out of fifty of Easter – so it’s still early. The puppets from our grand first-day procession last week have been returned to their storage places, but the flowers are still pretty fresh, and there are still good Easter hymns left to be sung. We have a baptism to celebrate today. Emilia Julu Hudson Houge has brought together family and friends from near and far to join her Emmanuel Church peeps for a ceremony of Christian belonging. Thank you all for being here today. Almost any day in the church year is a good day for a baptism, as far as I’m concerned, and today is especially rich because the theological message for the second Sunday in Easter is always: “you should believe it whether or not you’ve seen it.” Because of Emi’s baptism, I’m reminded of what one of my seminary professors was fond of saying: “I believe in infant baptism, heck, I’ve seen it!” I want to make sure you know that you don’t have to have a baptism ceremony to belong here at Emmanuel Church, but why not give the community another reason to rejoice?
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