Tag Archives: Transfiguration

Drive like it!

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Last Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B, 11 February 2024. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • 2 Kings 2:1-12. “Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you.” Elisha said, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.”
  • 1 Corinthians 4:3-6. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
  • Mark 9:2-10. He did not know what to say for they were terrified.

O God of revelation, 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.

This past week I had an unusually high number of harrowing experiences as I was navigating the streets in and around Boston. Last Tuesday, two cars crashed right in front of me on the Mass Pike; and on Thursday a car I was riding in nearly got T-boned by a distracted driver. I witnessed pedestrians nearly getting hit in crosswalks by drivers running red lights, bicyclists riding against traffic and traffic signs, aggressive tailgating, erratic lane changing, and gridlocked intersections. It seems to me that drivers have gotten so much worse in the last few years. I googled the worst drivers in the country and was shocked by the results; it’s very bad news. Boston is not even in the top-twenty cities with the worst drivers; we are not even close; we’re not even competitive! Continue reading →

An Auspicious Day

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Last Sunday after the Epiphany (A), 19 Feb. 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Exodus 24:12-18. Come up to me on the mountain.
  • 2 Peter 1:16-21. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place…until the morning star rises in your hearts.
  • Matthew 17:1-9.  Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.”

O God of majesty, mercy and mystery, [1] 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 is an auspicious day, the last Sunday after the Epiphany, the Sunday we tell the story of the Transfiguration, the story of Jesus and his friends and their majestic, merciful, and mystical mountaintop experience. But if you heard the Gospel lesson last week, you (like me) might still be stuck in the weeds of a different mountain, pondering Jesus’ hard teachings, even after our seminarian Lisa’s marvelous sermon. Last week, we heard Jesus teaching things like: it’s not only murder that violates God’s law (or Love’s rule), it’s being angry with another or insulting another that will make one liable to the flaming trash heap called Gehenna, also known as hell. It’s not only adultery that violates God’s law (or Love’s rule), it’s looking at another person with lust in one’s heart. It’s not just swearing falsely; it’s swearing at all. Although we didn’t hear it last week, what follows is about turning the other cheek, giving away one’s extra cloak, going the second mile, giving to everyone who begs from us, and loving our enemies. Continue reading →

Covenantal Connectedness

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Last Sunday after the Epiphany, B, February 14, 2021, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

2 Kings 2:1-12. “Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you.” Elisha said, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.”
2 Corinthians 4:3-6. For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Mark 9:2-10. He did not know what to say for they were terrified.

O God of Revelation, 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.

We have come to the end of the season of Epiphany, the season of celebrating sacred gifts and divine disclosures. In our Hebrew Bible lesson this morning we have the wonderful story from 2 Kings about how Elisha got the power and the authority to carry on Elijah’s work after Elijah was gone, after he was “taken up.” Elisha had been travelling with and learning from Elijah for many years. He had burned his farming equipment and slaughtered his oxen, thus destroying his means of income, his livelihood;  he had left his home so that he could travel with the prophet Elijah (much more dramatic than leaving the boats and nets with Zebedee and his hired hands to follow Jesus).

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Subversive Alleluias

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Last Sunday after the Epiphany,
March 3, 2019

Exodus 34:29-35. Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone.
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:12. Since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry we do not lose heart.
Luke 9:28-43a. And all were astounded by the greatness of God.

O God of glory, 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.

Those of you who have heard me preach before will know that my desire to preach against the ways that the Christian Church has promoted supersessionist theology (that is, the idea that Christianity supercedes Judaism) gets stronger every year. Supersessionism is very much like racism – it’s systemic, it’s oppressive, it’s insidious, it’s often internalized, unexamined, and always wrong. It distorts our vision and injures our souls.
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