Tag Archives: mitzvah

Love at the End

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Easter 6A, 14 May 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Acts 17:22-31. For we too are [God’s] offspring.
  • 1 Peter 3:13-22. Always be ready to make… an accounting for the hope that is in you.
  • John 14:15-21. If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

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.

When I graduated from college and moved to Northern Virginia, I started looking around for a church. Just as I’d always had a toothbrush for oral hygiene, I’d always had a church for spiritual hygiene. I grew up in the church; and I went to church through college (it was a church within walking distance). My big college rebellion, when it came to practicing faith, was not to quit attending, but to become an Episcopalian! Although my dad was an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, his ecumenical and mostly non-parochial work meant that’d I’d grown up as something of a religious mutt – a mix of UCC, Lutheran, and Presbyterian for worship, Roman Catholic for school, and vacations with the Episcopalians. In my early twenties I had a car, making my reach considerably wider, so I went church shopping for an Episcopal parish. Continue reading →

Accounting for Hope

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Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A, May 21, 2017; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Acts 17:22-31 In [God] we live and move and have our being.
1 Peter 3:13-22 Always be ready to make… an accounting for the hope that is in you.
John 14:15-21 If you love me you will keep my commandments.

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.

Signs of endings are all around us – the end of the school year, the end of another wonderful cantata season, graduations and completions of all kinds are markers on the chronological timelines of our lives. And yet, in our Gospel reading for this morning, chronological time seems to have come nearly to a stop and time seems to be folding:  past, present and future are not so clearly marked.  It’s taken from what is called Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse.” Jesus’ valedictory speech comprises a full one-fifth of the whole Gospel of John, and takes place in the evening before Jesus’ nighttime arrest. This portion of Jesus’ parting words remind me of the instructions that my mother used to leave when I was in high school before my parents went away for a trip (and I always feared that they would leave us orphaned). I am the oldest child, so the list was accompanied by my mom’s admonition for me to use my best judgment. Okay, fine, I would think, I will, but do you know my brothers and my sister? Continue reading →