Tag Archives: stewardship

Building Bridges of Compassion and Peace

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Good morning! My name is Carol Reiman. I am a newer member of Emmanuel, attending regularly for a little over a year.

The website drew me. The prospect of listening to a Bach cantata as part of the Sunday service–wonderful! The invitation beyond issues of belief. I was interested in revisiting communion, which had been a part of my childhood in an interfaith family. As it turns out, Emmanuel has a warm family relationship with Central Reform Temple, which also holds services in the church. I am delighted to have become a member of that congregation as well. I was also impressed by the programs that provide such things as food, shelter, connection, and art sessions for those with few resources.

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You are abundantly blessed.

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Sunday in the Octave of the Feast of All Saints, Nov. 6, 2022.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18. As for me…my spirit was troubled within me.
Ephesians 1:11-23. So that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.
Luke 6:20-36. Love your enemies.

Merciful and generous God, 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.

Today we are observing All Saints’ Day in the Church, because today is the Sunday within the Octave or eight days starting November 1. Today we are also observing Pledge Stewardship Sunday at Emmanuel Church, the day we set aside to encourage everyone who wants Emmanuel Church standing and thriving to make a commitment to financially support this parish in the coming year, to provide for clergy and other staff. I don’t think of Pledge Stewardship Sunday as a deadline as much as a lifeline for the coming year. We will be facing some significant financial challenges in 2023, so we would appreciate your generosity more than ever! The same amount given as last year will not go as far because of inflation, so if you are able to give more than you did last year, your giving would make an even greater difference. Continue reading →

Proportional Thanksgiving

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Proper 23C. 9 October 2022.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
2 Timothy 2:8-15. The word of God is not chained.
Luke 17:11-19. Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?”

O God of sacred story, 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 at Emmanuel Church we are giving thanks for the life and love of Joan Nordell, who was the President of the Board of Emmanuel Music when I arrived at Emmanuel almost 15 years ago. Her steady and generous leadership made a world of difference during a time of instability and uncertainty. Her commitment to Emmanuel Church was remarkable and continued to grow even after she completed her service on the board. I hope my sermon would delight her, because it’s inspired by her. I should let you know that this sermon is going to include a list-making exercise. I want you to have a pen ready or take notes on your phone. (Yes, I’m a priest who tells people to use their phones during the liturgy.) Or you could just make a mental list when the time comes.  Continue reading →

Pledging is like a Play-Doh Fun Factory.

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Before I begin, I think it would be remiss not to recognize the wisdom and brilliance of the four other women who have preceded me in this by answering the call to share thoughts about pledging to Emmanuel Church in the recent weeks of Stewardship. I’ve been inspired to hear from each of them, and it must be noted that (to my mind anyway) each of them has intricately built upon the work of the others with a through-line and a continuity, with every individual part contributing to a whole that is even greater than the sum of its parts. The overall effect has been beautiful, touching, and as profound for all of you, I hope, as it has been for me. With that, I will frankly admit that it was a very poor strategic decision on my part to volunteer to go last. Seriously, how does one follow that? So let me just say you might want to level-set your expectations right now. Continue reading →

God is there.

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Where charity and love are, God is there.  Emmanuel’s stewardship theme this year is “Love your neighbor”.  Over the past few weeks, we’ve heard about different ways that we can think of our neighbor.  A few weeks ago Karen King highlighted several places where the command to love our neighbor is found in the Bible.  She shared one of her favorites, Jesus telling in the Gospel of Luke the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Our neighbors can be those who were strangers but made neighbors thanks to compassion and mercy. Building on this the following week, Carolyn Roosevelt reminded us that the Samaritan made a pledge to the innkeeper to pay for his neighbor’s care.  Last week Mary Blocher spoke to us about how Emmanuel ensures that there is room at the inn by keeping the doors open, the programs running, the staff paid, the lights on, and the hospitality flowing.   Continue reading →

Go together!

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God, help us love our neighbor, or at least help us to act like we do, and let acting those acts of love continue to transform and sustain us.  Amen.

If pulpit pitches were a competitive sport, no entirely sane person would agree to follow Karen King and Carolyn Roosevelt. Not unless they were willing to do a swan dive off the pulpit as a finale, to up the game. Fortunately for me and for you and any EMT’s here today, this is not competitive.  We are in this together, in lock-step, to call on you to commit what you can to support Emmanuel’s continued well-being, its mission of radical hospitality, and its acts of Love.  Continue reading →

Inn on the Road to Jericho

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Good morning! Last week we heard Karen King commend to us the story of the Good Samaritan.  We heard how two people–separated by birth, geography, and circumstance–became neighbors because one of them saw the other in need and showed him Love by binding his wounds and transporting him to a safe place. Maybe the merciful Samaritan knew in his heart that the robbers might have set upon him, if the coin-flip of fortune had turned up differently. Maybe his very status as a traveller, and (from Jesus’ point of view) a foreigner, kept that possibility alive in his mind.

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Good Samaritans

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Good morning! I am so glad to be here and to be with you on this beautiful day. I started coming to Emmanuel during the Pandemic, so I am just getting to know many of you who have been here much longer, as well as those of you who are relatively new like me. I initially came in large part simply because Emmanuel was open; worship was in person, and I needed that. I stayed because the love of God is taught, preached, sung, and practiced here.
Our theme this year is “Love our neighbor.” Versions of this command occur, of course, in many places in the Bible: in Leviticus (19:18), in the Gospels, in Paul’s letters. My favorite is in the Gospel of Luke, when a religious expert asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” Continue reading →

The Widow’s Mite

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Lately I’ve been thinking about some of the contrasts that chase us through life at Emmanuel. They start on Sunday when I walk over the small round disk embossed BOSTON GROUNDWATER TRUST, which is set into the sidewalk in front of the church. It’s one of 800 wells monitoring the groundwater that still covers the 200,000 Maine spruce-tree trunks that were steam-pile driven-in 160 years ago to keep our feet out of the soup below. Sure, I know that part of the motivation for filling the Back Bay was to keep prosperous white Protestants from decamping to the suburbs, and my Irish great-grandfather south of the tracks. But still, there’s no way to get into Emmanuel without at least an unthinking pilgrimage over that magical, invisible, upside-down forest.

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Why I Contribute to Emmanuel Church & Why Others Should, Too

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The first word that comes to mind when I think about Emmanuel is open-heartedness.  It’s clear from the moment you enter the door that all are welcome here, no questions asked, no conformity to one doctrine, one church tradition, one brand of spirituality required.  Yes, of course, it’s a Christian institution.  But there’s no requirement to comply with a physical attitude – or for that matter, a spiritual attitude – to feel comfortable here.  Kneel or stand at the communion rail, if in fact you take communion at all.  Pass the peace to those around you, whether it’s the peace of Christ or simply an expression of good will from one person to another.  It’s more than possible at Emmanuel to simply revel in the company of the like-minded – or maybe not-so-like-minded – people around you.  Drink in the music, which is what got me here in the first place. Continue reading →