Tag Archives: injustice

Meditation on Gaudete Sunday

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In this week’s sermon on the meaning of Gaudete (rejoice) Sunday, Pam encouraged us to eschew despair in times when our hearts are understandably heavy. As we enter into the week before Christmas, she suggested that we look for small instances of joy, in which we find evidence love’s power to redeem.

Howard Thurman, author, minister, civil-rights leader, and educator, inspired many civil-rights advocates in his time and ours. It is said that his well-known work Jesus and the Disinherited was deeply influential on Martin Luther King’s thought and preaching, and that MLK carried a well-worn copy of it during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas invokes Thurman when she speaks about going beyond charity to engage in changing the conditions that allow inequality and injustice to prevail. Continue reading →

Begin wherever you are.

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Epiphany 4A, 29 Jan. 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Micah 6:1-8.  “[God] has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
  • 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”
  • Matthew 5:1-12. “Blessed…blessed…blessed.”

O God of the strangest blessings, 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 sat down to write on Friday, I’d just received an alert from the Boston Police Commissioner about anticipating protests in response to the kidnapping and murder of Tyre Nichols by police officers in Memphis earlier this month, as the horrifying body-cam video was about to be released to the public. I’m grateful that the demonstrations have been peaceful in Boston and mostly peaceful around the country. Continue reading →

A Parish Where Love Lives

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Proper 26C, 30 October 2022.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Habakkuk 1:1-2:4.  Write the vision; make it plain so that a runner can see it.”
2 Thessalonians 1:1-4,11-12. The love of everyone of you for one another is increasing.
Luke 19:1-10. The Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost.

O God of 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.

The short and powerful book of Habakkuk the Prophet begins with a title: The oracle that the prophet saw. The Hebrew word for oracle can also be understood as burden: the burden that Habakkuk saw. What Habakkuk saw clearly was indeed a great burden: violence everywhere, and God seemed not to see the degradation of justice and the utter devastation of well-being, of shalom. Habakkuk had two complaints, which could be ripped from our own headlines: 1) God has done nothing to stop the violence so far, and 2) it’s about to get worse. In this book, the voice of God is heard, but it’s not particularly good news. Essentially, God’s response is that the violence is due to the greed of the people and their failure to recognize the voice of the Holy One, Who pleads for loving, pleads for people to respect themselves and others. Habakkuk understands the violence as the Holy One’s punishing response. I understand violence as an entirely predictable consequence of greed, arrogance, and fear, which breaks the heart of the Divine. To the question of how can God let this suffering and devastation happen, I ask, how can people let this suffering and devastation happen?  Continue reading →

The Book of How

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Proper 22C. 2 October 2022.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Lamentations 1:1-6. Her priests groan, her young girls grieve, and her lot is bitter.
2 Timothy 1:1-11.  Recalling your tears…I am reminded of…a faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice….Rekindle the gift of God that is within you.
Luke 17:5-10.  The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

O God of our weary years and silent tears, 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 first reading this morning was taken from the book of Lamentations, and I want to linger there a while because we so seldom read anything from this book of the Bible. Only once every three years do we hear any passage from Lamentations during our Sunday worship. It doesn’t surprise me that we don’t read from this book more often, because it’s a collection of five dirges, five poems of deep pain and suffering, of outrage and grief, of complaint and protest, in response to political calamity, social and economic devastation, and utter theological collapse. The poetry of Lamentations challenges the notion that religious life should somehow be spiritual but not political. I often think that anyone who believes that hasn’t read very much of the Bible, but the lectionary colludes by not scheduling many overtly-political readings. Continue reading →

Keep your hand on the plow and hold on.

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Proper 8C, 26 June 2022, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

1 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14. You have asked a hard thing….(Keep your eyes on me as I am taken).
Galatians 5:1,13-25.  The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Luke 9:51-62. Follow me.

O God our help and our hope, 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.

Buckle up. On Friday, I was listening to a recording of Mahalia Jackson singing the African American spiritual “Keep your hand on the plow, hold on,” when the news came that the Supreme Court of the United States had overturned Roe vs. Wade, eliminating the Constitutional right to the bodily autonomy of people who are pregnant. It hit me like the news of a loved-one’s death after a prolonged illness. The news seemed sudden and felt devastating, even though I expected it. It’s like a gut punch or, to put a finer point on it, for some of us it’s a uterine punch. The majority decision that reproductive autonomy, when it comes to pregnancy, is a states-rights issue rather than a human-rights issue, will immediately eliminate access to legal abortions in 20 states, for about 25.5 million people with a uterus who are of reproduction age (which starts at about 12, by the way, and can go beyond 50). Continue reading →

Raise your heads!

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Advent 1C.  28 November 2021. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Jeremiah 33:14-16 [Jerusalem] will be called [the Holy One] is our righteousness.
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13. Someone has testified somewhere.
Luke 21:25-36 Raise your heads because your redemption is drawing near.

O startling God, 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.

Good morning! Happy Advent! It’s the Church’s New Year and the beginning of a season characterized by re-awakening, of waking up to re-examine our collective systems, our institutions. Advent calls for corporate, collective reflection, and repentance. It’s like an annual check-up for our communal systems. It’s a season of waking up even more to reports of sin, chaos, and devastation among the nations confused and disturbed by the roaring sea, the waves, and the shaking, agitated heavens. Fortunately, that’s just what our Gospel reading addresses this morning. Continue reading →

Immersion

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Proper 24B.  17 October 2021. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Job 38:1-7, 34-41. Who?
Hebrews 5:1-10. Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears.
Mark 10:35-45.  What is it you want me to do for you?

O God of Mercy and Compassion, 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 many reasons to deck our dear souls, our dear selves, with gladness, as the famous chorale tune begins. God woke us up today and called us to this place. We have responded to our longings, whether they are barely perceptible or practically billboard-sized. God has put longings in our hearts, longings to make spiritual meaning of our lives and of our world with shared prayer, communal wisdom, and the practice of self-giving love. Now I realize that some of you might be thinking, “Oh, that’s not why I’m here! I’m just here for Diana’s baptism,” or “I’m just here for the music!” or “I’m just here because it matters to someone I care about.” My response is, “I am too! It’s all good, and I’m so glad you’re here!” 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.” 
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Freedom is a dream.

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Proper 9B. July 4, 2021

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10. Look, we are your bone and flesh. [Take us in].
2 Corinthians 12:2-10. My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.
Mark 6:1-13. And he was amazed at their unbelief.

O Dreamer of Freedom, 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 people at Emmanuel wonder what a lesson like the one from 2 Samuel has to do with the Gospel (or anything else in the service). It’s a great question that often comes from experiencing a lifetime of lectionary reading selections that used to fit neatly together, in which Christians appropriated the First Testament to serve the Second Testament. That has changed somewhat with the Episcopal Church’s use of the Revised Common Lectionary. 
Continue reading →

Processing Emotional Discomfort

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As I come into the end of my internship with Emmanuel Church, I am reflecting on what I can take away from this experience.  What am I taking with me from this internship beyond the indelible impact of resilient, artistic, and caring individuals?  Undoubtedly, the ways I have been impacted by others and the wonderful memories I have made with people in this internship will be something I carry with me for the rest of my life. In addition, I have been reflecting on what growth and new skills this internship has given me.  I believe that one of the most important skills I have gained from this internship – something that I can take with me into future career opportunities and life in general – is the ability to sit with my own discomfort.  This is not to suggest that I should sit idle if I feel like my personal safety or the safety of others is at risk, but I am suggesting that it is okay and maybe even essential to therapeutic presence to be able to sit with and process the emotional discomfort that can arise in difficult situations.     Continue reading →