Tag Archives: theophany

Doing the Next Brave & Compassionate Thing

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Proper 12B, 28 July 2024. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • 2 Samuel 11:1-15.  As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.
  • Ephesians 3:14-21.  That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.
  • John 6:1-21. Ego eimi mey phobeisthe.

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.

Today we hear the two stories that were left out of last week’s Gospel lesson from Mark. For some reason, the lectionary assigns the Gospel reading for today from John’s version. If you’d like a homework assignment, read all six feeding stories in the four Gospels side by side! Given how very different the four Gospels are, the versions of these stories are remarkably similar. Mark’s version is characteristically a little rougher, John’s is more polished. Mark’s Jesus is in the thick of conflict and confusion all along; for John, Jesus’ feet never really touched the ground. The story of Jesus feeding a huge, hungry crowd is one of the most significant stories about Jesus. It’s rare that a miracle story appears in all four Gospels. I still think that the lectionary should have stuck with Mark this week, though, because it’s complicated and confusing to mix and match Gospel stories. It means shifting gears rather wildly from one literary world to another, each with different assumptions, strategies, purposes, and even audiences. [1] Some may wonder whether the repetition and similarities of the feeding stories make them more likely memory and less likely metaphor. I don’t know; but for me, the stories are equally powerful either as memory or metaphor.  Continue reading →

Signs

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Proper 12B.  July 25, 2021

2 Samuel 11:1-15.  As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.
Ephesians 3:14-21.  That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.
John 6:1-21. Ego eimi mey phobeisthe.

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.

 This morning we are observing the Feast Day of Mary Magdalene, transferred from July 22, thanks to our deacon, Bob Greiner’s initiative. Our observation is a little bit of a mash-up (this is Emmanuel Church, after all): the collect of the day, proper preface, and the color of our vestments reflect Mary Magdalene’s feast day, and our lectionary readings and music are for ordinary time because I didn’t want you to miss them. Besides, as Jane Redmont says, “Mary Magdalene challenges us to live in resurrection mode all the time.” So instead of hearing the Easter Day proclamation from Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles: “I have seen the Lord,” we just heard Bob read the Gospel of John’s version of the feeding of 5,000. It’s a demonstration of seeing the Lord.
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It is I.

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The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 12B, July 26, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

2 Samuel 11:1-15. In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle…David [stayed home].
Ephesians 3:14-21. The power to comprehend…what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ.
John 6:1-21.  Ego eimi mey phobeisthe.

O God of Wonder, 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, for our edification this morning, two fantastic stories, so famous that you certainly don’t have to be a Christian to know them – stories of abundance out of scarcity in the loaves and fishes and of walking on water in some rough weather. The stories get larger and more profound with each iteration in the four Gospels. By the time that the Gospel of John was written, the hunger of the crowds and the threatening storm have become less problems to be solved by Jesus and more lessons to be taught by Jesus, who knew all along, according to John, what he was going to do to try to impress on his followers the meaning of the presence, the power, and the promise of God. The Gospel of John has the biggest fish story of all! Continue reading →