Tag Archives: Judaism

G-AWE-D

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Epiphany 5B, 4 February 2024. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Isaiah 40:21-31. Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? [Yes!]
  • 1 Corinthians 9:16-23. In my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge.
  • Mark 1:29-39. So that I may proclaim the message.

O God of wonder, 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.

I’m going to interrupt my preaching on the Gospel of Mark this week to spend a few moments to talk with you about our Hebrew Bible lesson from the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, because it’s one of my favorites. Actually it’s Second Isaiah, which is what Chapters 40 through 55 get called, because they were so clearly written at a different time by a different author than the first thirty-nine chapters or the last eleven. The writer of Second Isaiah might be considered the great poet, rather than the great prophet. This writer never once refers to herself as a prophet. I imagine her words might have come to Jesus’ mind sometimes, especially when he was able to find a deserted place to pray while it was still very dark. 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 →

Need

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Lent 1A, 26 Feb. 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7. You will not die.
  • Romans 5:12-21. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
  • Matthew 4:1-11. Away with you, Satan!

O God all gracious and all merciful, 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 have just crossed the threshold into the season of Lent in the Church, for period of forty days, not including Sundays (hence our special reception after our service today)! The forty days are set aside for Christians to examine our estrangement from the grace and mercy of the Holy One and to return to right relationship with God and one another. Although each person is called on to do their own Lenten practice, as a congregation we come together for mutual support and encouragement as we go through a this period of intensified self-examination with a call to increased generosity in almsgiving, praying, fasting, and studying scripture. 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 →

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 →

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 →

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.
Continue reading →