Tag Archives: judgment

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 →

Justa

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Proper 18B.  5 September 2021. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23. Do not crush the afflicted at the gate.
James 2:1-10, (11-13) 14-17. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Mark 7:24-37. Be opened.

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.

It’s rare that I love three scripture lessons appointed for a Sunday as much as I love ours today. They make it abundantly clear that the blessing of God is upon those who are generous with their actions, not only with their thoughts and prayers — those who share what they have with people who do not have enough. The evidence of blessing is not simply prosperity or good fortune. I often hear people who are experiencing abundance expressing gratitude, giving thanks to God and saying, “I am (or we are) so blessed.” But according to Proverbs, it’s not the fact of abundance that is a blessing from God; it’s the re-distribution of abundance so that everyone gets enough that is a blessing from God. The evidence of the blessing of God is in the sharing. Sharing is how the heavens get opened up for one another. And in the process of sharing, James says, mercy triumphs over judgment:  mercy outshines judgment; mercy is better than judgment, every time in the Realm of God. That’s a hard concept for many of us, so it takes practice. Whenever there’s a conflict of biblical values or teachings or interests, ask yourself which approach is more merciful, and go with that. And whatever you do, do not crush the afflicted at the gate (or in the doorways). 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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Answer again the call!

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Epiphany 2B, January 17, 2021, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

1 Samuel 3:1-20. Here I am, for you called me.
1 Corinthians 6:12-20. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God and that you are not your own?
John 1:43-51. “I saw you. . .Come and see.”

O vision fair of glory, 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.

Last week I began my words to you with “what a week.” So how do I start this sermon? The British satire television program comes to mind from the early 1960’s, “That was the week that was,”. I can’t say that I “remember” the show, but I clearly remember that when I was growing up my parents practically wore out their vinyl record album of Tom Lehrer songs, “That Was the Year that Was”. If you’re too young to know these songs, your homework is to find them on YouTube! Those songs are still pertinent: the pollution of the environment, the threat of nuclear war, racial strife, religious conflict.
Lehrer liked to say, “Always predict the worst and you’ll be hailed as a prophet!” And yet, listening to his satirical prophetic wisdom helped so many people clarify their purpose and organize themselves and others to join in working for a better future. Lehrer’s work was a call for a better future.

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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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The Mystery of God’s Justice (with audio)

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Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 28, November 19, 2017; The Rev. Dr. Cameron E. Partridge

It’s a privilege to be with you here at Emmanuel Church. Thank you very much, Pam, for the invitation to preach and to all of you for welcoming me this morning. I enjoyed getting to collaborate with you on the Boston-Cambridge Mission Hub when I served as Campus Minister for Episcopal students at Boston University, and I’m glad that being in town for the American Academy of Religion / Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting has finally given me the opportunity to worship with you on a Sunday morning. Continue reading →