Tag Archives: violence

Believe it or not!

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Proper 8A, 2 July 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Genesis 22:1-14. The Lord will provide.
  • Romans 6:12-23. Present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.
  • Matthew 10:40-42. And whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.

O God of love, 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.

Our Gospel passage from Matthew is from the conclusion of Jesus’ instructions to his disciples, made apostles (by being sent out). It’s about welcome, about radical hospitality, that is, Biblical hospitality, Torah hospitality. Jesus’ message in Matthew is that impressive religious experiences like exorcisms and miracles are great but, “What counts [more than anything] is the cup of cold water given to a thirsty person,” especially a thirsty person who has no privilege or power to demand it. [1] Jesus was sending folks out to spread the news of God’s love and assuring them that when people welcome them, they are welcoming Jesus, which means that they are welcoming the Holy One. I would love to preach a sermon about welcome this morning. Continue reading →

Both Host & Guest

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Proper 6A, 18 June 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Genesis 18:1-15 (21:1-7). When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them.
  • Romans 5:1-8. Because God’s love has been poured into our hearts.
  • Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-23). When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless….The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.

O God of the harvest, 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.

It’s rare that I can resist the urge to speak about all three of our appointed scripture lessons, and today is no exception! Today we have a vivid scene from the Torah of three men who visited Abraham and Sarah and conveyed a divine message that made Sarah laugh to herself, and not quietly. Today in Paul’s writing to Jesus’ followers in Rome, we hear his confidence that suffering can produce endurance, endurance can produce character, character can produce hope, and hope does not make us ashamed, because God’s love has been poured into the hearts of Jesus’ followers through the gift of a spirit of holiness. It’s not that we don’t get disappointed. It’s that we need not be ashamed because God’s spirit is with us. It’s really not about disappointment. Paul is saying don’t be ashamed to hope when you have love in your heart. Today we have the Gospel of Matthew’s account of when twelve disciples became twelve apostles, and the traveling instructions Jesus gave to them. How can I not mention all of these lessons? I mean, really. Continue reading →

Love has the last word.

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Last Sunday after Pentecost,  Proper 29C: Christ the King.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Wentz.

Jeremiah 23:1-6. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them!
Colossians 1:11-20. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power…prepared to endure everything with patience.
Luke 23:33-43. Today you will be with me in Paradise.

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.

 On the last Sunday of our liturgical calendar, our lectionary brings us to the foot of the cross in Luke’s Gospel, lest anyone get too sentimental about what it means to follow Jesus. This Gospel lesson is appointed for today because we are celebrating the all-embracing authority of God’s Christ, that is, Love’s redeeming urge, and we sing hymns of gratefulness and praise. While we do that we can always use a reminder that our King of kings and Lord of lords was executed as a criminal with other criminals accused of crimes against the state. He was friends with criminals while he lived; and then he died with them, too. The word that Luke uses for criminal is literally evil doer. Our king, our highest earthly authority was executed for sedition, that is, for inciting resistance or disobedience to the government. Continue reading →

A Parish Where Love Lives

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Proper 26C, 30 October 2022.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Habakkuk 1:1-2:4.  Write the vision; make it plain so that a runner can see it.”
2 Thessalonians 1:1-4,11-12. The love of everyone of you for one another is increasing.
Luke 19:1-10. The Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost.

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.

The short and powerful book of Habakkuk the Prophet begins with a title: The oracle that the prophet saw. The Hebrew word for oracle can also be understood as burden: the burden that Habakkuk saw. What Habakkuk saw clearly was indeed a great burden: violence everywhere, and God seemed not to see the degradation of justice and the utter devastation of well-being, of shalom. Habakkuk had two complaints, which could be ripped from our own headlines: 1) God has done nothing to stop the violence so far, and 2) it’s about to get worse. In this book, the voice of God is heard, but it’s not particularly good news. Essentially, God’s response is that the violence is due to the greed of the people and their failure to recognize the voice of the Holy One, Who pleads for loving, pleads for people to respect themselves and others. Habakkuk understands the violence as the Holy One’s punishing response. I understand violence as an entirely predictable consequence of greed, arrogance, and fear, which breaks the heart of the Divine. To the question of how can God let this suffering and devastation happen, I ask, how can people let this suffering and devastation happen?  Continue reading →

In Honor of Trans Day of Remembrance

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Today (11/20) is Trans Day of Remembrance. This year in the United States, we remember at least 32 transgender people who were murdered, with over 4/5th of them being trans women and 85% of them people of color. [1] Something else I am reflecting on today is how immense the contributions of trans* people have been and continue to be in our culture. From the Black drag queens who modeled the original chosen families, to the movement leaders today who continue to use their unique experiences to direct our energy as change-makers, alternative and organizing spaces would not be what they are today without trans and nonbinary people. Today I honor the trans people who were lost, and celebrate those who are living.

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Forgiveness

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Easter 7C, 29 May 2022.  The Rev. John Golenski

John 20: 19-31. Jesus appeared and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.  Then the disciples rejoiced when they recognized the Lord.

Like so many of us, I had plans this week.  My plans included the better part of a day preparing this sermon.  Then May 24th in Uvalde, Texas happened.  Sometimes, in spite of everything we intend, Life intrudes with undeniable demands.  No matter how much effort I put into focusing on the Scripture, Uvalde intruded.  So, this is the unintended, unplanned reflection on God’s Word speaking to what is happening now in our country. Continue reading →

Non-Hate

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Epiphany 7C, 20 February 2022.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Genesis 45:3-11 & 15. He kissed all his brothers and wept upon them.
1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50. Someone will ask, “How are the dead raised?”
Luke 6:27-38. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be put into your lap.

Most Merciful and Compassionate, 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.

As I began the process of preparing my sermon for you over the last ten days or so, I found myself surprised by our readings and wondered if you’d recognize them. It’s rare to have a 7th Sunday in Epiphany; I don’t think that there has been one in lectionary Year C in my 20 years of ordained ministry! My first clue that there was something unusual going on was the lesson from Genesis about Joseph encountering his brothers in Pharaoh’s court. We’ve been hearing portions from Isaiah and Jeremiah through Epiphany and, suddenly, unexpectedly, stunning high drama of the end of Genesis falls into our laps? I wonder, how many of you even know the back story. If Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat wasn’t a part of your cultural experience in the 1970’s, or you didn’t have at least half a dozen years of Sunday School, how would you know? Continue reading →

Belonging to Truth

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Last Sunday of Pentecost:  Christ the King.
Proper 29B.  21 November 2021. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

2 Samuel 23:1-7. The spirit of the LORD is upon me.
Revelation 1:4b-8. Grace to you and peace.
John 18:33-37 .  For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.

O Wondrous Power 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.

We have come to the end of our liturgical year on the last Sunday in the season of Pentecost, now known as The Feast of Christ the King. It’s a newish holiday, first declared by the Bishop of Rome, Pius XI, in 1925 as he was trying to make friends with Benito Mussolini. As Episcopalians keep our ecumenical commitment to use the Revised Common Lectionary, Christ the King Sunday has become a part of our annual observance, printed on our calendars and planning books (that’s how we know it’s real). If I didn’t feel so strongly about the redeeming urge of the Holy One, I’d say that we shouldn’t observe this feast at all; maybe take the Sunday off before the holidays. But I think we have a moral obligation to acknowledge that, as Frederick Buechner observes in his book Telling the Truth, “the Gospel is often bad news before it’s good news.” Continue reading →

Rejoice!

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Third Sunday of Advent (A), December 15, 2019.  The Rev. Pamela L. Wermtz

Isaiah 35:1-10.  A highway shall appear there, which shall be called the Holy Way.
James 5:7-10. Beloved, do not grumble against one another.
Matthew 11:2-11. Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?

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 is the Sunday in Advent called Gaudete Sunday. (Gaudete means rejoice.) Our liturgical color for the third Sunday is rose; that’s why we have a rose-colored candle in our Advent wreath and rose in our vestments. It is a Sunday set aside to fill our imaginations with joyful anticipation of what God might be up to in creating new heavens and a new earth. It is a Sunday to pick our heads up and rejoice in the faithfulness of God, in the midst of everything that grieves us, in the midst of oppression and violence, in the midst of hunger and illness and imprisonment, even in the midst of destruction and death. I’ve spent considerable time this week wondering how to rejoice always in spite of wide-spread violence and hate crimes, the rise of fascism, and the wanton disregard for the well-being of our planet. It’s a hard choice, I think, not to give in to despair; it’s hard, even scandalous, to choose to rejoice. Rejoicing, however, is not the same as “holiday frolicking”, as William Stringfellow once wrote; and rejoicing certainly doesn’t mean letting up on our non-violent resistance and our actions to end oppression of all kinds.

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Come clean!

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Proper 26C
November 3, 2019

Habakkuk 1:1-2:4 Write the vision; make it plain so that a runner can see it.
2 Thessalonians 1:1-4,11-12 The love of everyone of you for one another is increasing.
Luke 19:1-10 The Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost.

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.

This morning we are celebrating the Feasts of All Saints’ Day, which was Friday, and All Souls’ Day, which was yesterday, with our music. However, we are observing the 24th Sunday after Pentecost with our readings, because I just couldn’t skip over the readings from Habakkuk and second Thessalonians, or the story of Zacchaeus from the Gospel of Luke.

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