2014 Sermons

Unless noted otherwise these sermons were preached by Emmanuel’s Rector, the Reverend Pamela L. Werntz.  For other years, please see the links on Sermons.

Blessing Day

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Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, 19A, September 14, 2014; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Exodus 14:19-31 The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground…the Egyptians pursued and went into the sea after them.
Romans 14:1-12 Welcome
Matthew 18:21-35 Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?

O God of mercy, 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.

Today’s Gospel passage concludes the section in Matthew about what discipleship really means for Jesus followers. Those of you who were here last week might remember my rant about the words in the ancient Greek which read, “my brother,” being translated as “member of the church.” Since the problematic translation occurs again in today’s reading, this week I took the time to try to discover when that shift from “my brother” to “member of the church” happened – in the ancient Latin translation of the early church? Was it during the German or the English reformation? I went on an investigative tear. Alas. It was in 1989 with our present translation in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. I’m completely baffled by that. Continue reading →

As a Gentile and a Tax Collector

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Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, 18A, September 7, 2014; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Exodus 12:1-14 This day shall be a day of remembrance for you.
Romans 13:8-14 Love is the fulfilling of the law.
Matthew 18:15-20 Let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

O God of mercy, 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.

Those of you who have heard me preach more than once or twice might know that I often complain about lectionary reading combination – the scheduled selections of the Hebrew Bible, Second Testament, and Gospel readings. Today I love them. Today, the reading from Exodus in the Torah, the piece of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, and the Gospel passage from Matthew all speak to each other so beautifully, at least to my ears. I especially love the way the first two readings can help us realize what the Gospel reading is all about, not in a way that props up the Gospel, but in a way that illuminates the path for us. Continue reading →

Be Messiah to each other!

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The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 16a, August 24, 2014, The Rev Rick Stecker

Exodus 1:8-2:10 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
Romans 12:1-8 I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Matthew 16:13-20 When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

Jesus is in the district of Caesarea-Philippi. He is in foreign land. Today we would place him ten miles from Mt. Hermon and two miles east of the Golan Heights. He is near a spring, in a place called Pannias, one of the sources of the Jordan River. As is the case with many springs in ancient times, there are shrines and temples dedicated in thanksgiving for a life source. Back then, there was a shrine to the god Pan, the god of flocks and herds, and Pan is portrayed as having a man’s body and having the horns and legs of a goat. His sudden appearance is cause for surprise; we get the word panic from this god’s name. And so in Caesarea-Phillipi there is a shrine to the god Pan as well as a large temple to Caesar and several more temples to fertility gods. Fertility gods were believed to abide in the underworld during the winter (sort of like going to Florida) and they returned to the earth in the spring. The caves, which produced water, were thought to be entrance places to the underworld. I visited Israel some years ago and on this site now stands a mosque. Continue reading →

Jacob wrestles with God.

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Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 13, August 3, 2014, The Rev. Frederick Stecker

Genesis 32:22-31 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
Romans 9:1-5 I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
Matthew 14:13-21 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a lonely place apart.

In a book of poems entitled Yahweh’s Other Shoe Benedictine poet Kilian McDonnell interprets the Hebrew saga we’ve been following. His poem is entitled God Cheats. [1] Continue reading →

Come down, O Love Divine!

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Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, 12A, July 27, 2014; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Genesis 29:15-28 This is not done in our country.

Romans 8:26-39 We do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 Have you understood all this?O God of grace, 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.
Everyone take a deep breath and blow it out twice as slowly as you took it in. Do it again, breathing in the gift of oxygen; breathing out your gift back to the plants of carbon dioxide. Breathe the Divine Love come down – the breath of life – in and out. You know, in biblical terms, the word for breath, and wind, and spirit are all the same: ruach in Hebrew. I thought we might start with feeling thankful for breath – because — Continue reading →

For the Love of God

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Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, 10A, July 13, 2014; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Genesis 25:19-34 If it is going to be this way, why do I live?

Romans 8:1-11 Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

Matthew 13:1-23 In one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.

O God of grace, 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.

There is an old Jewish wisdom teaching that God created humans because God loves stories. It follows that God is the Word – we make the narratives with the Word. Two of our three readings this morning are stories – we have the story of Esau and Jacob and the most expensive bowl of red lentil soup there ever was in the history of the world. Our Gospel story is famously known as the Parable of the Sower. I so often wonder if the Apostle Paul’s letters might have been more comprehensible and, thus persuasive, as folk stories rather than high rhetoric – elegant as it is. Continue reading →

Dat Guy

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Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 9A, July 6, 2014; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67 Please give me a little water.

Romans 7:15-25a For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.O God of mercy, 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.

You know that desert island question, if you were stranded on a desert island and could have only one book, which would it be? My tricky answer, since at least the third grade, (geek that I am) has been The Bible, because that’s when I learned that there were 66 books in the Bible (that is, the Christian Protestant Bible, or the real Bible, according to my Protestant father). Imagine my delight when I arrived at college and got my hands on the Bible that the Episcopal Church uses with 16 more books in it for a grand total of 82! Bonus! But it’s not only because there are so many books bound into one that I love the literature of the Bible – it’s that there’s hardly a part in which I cannot lose myself and find myself in the stories of the chances and challenges of the people of God. Continue reading →

Inspired, Courageous & Generous Lives

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Second Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 7A, June 22, 2014; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Genesis 21:8-21 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.

Romans 6:1b-11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 10:24-39 Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

O God of grace, 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.

You know, I would be hard pressed to think of three more difficult readings to preach on for a Sunday service in which we will have a baptism. In Genesis, we hear a story of Abraham’s highly questionable parenting skills, seemingly divinely directed. In Romans we learn that our baptisms are baptisms into the death of Christ Jesus. And if that’s not discouraging enough, Jesus says, in the Gospel of Matthew, “Pay attention, there are wolves out there where I’m sending you – away from here, out there into the world, so be wise – have insight and understanding like the serpent and be innocent, that is, unspoiled by what is harmful and damaging…. There are predators out there who will want to do you in. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name.” This does not seem like a winning recruiting strategy. Continue reading →

Doubt or No Doubt

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Trinity Sunday (A), June 6, 2014; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Genesis 1:1-2:4 Good…good…good…good…good…good…very good.

2 Corinthians 13:11-13 Put things in order; agree with one another; live in peace.

Matthew 28:16-20 But some doubted.

Creating 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.

I hope you liked Carolyn’s reading of the beginning of Genesis. Although it is among the most famous passages in the Bible, we don’t hear it very often in our Sunday liturgy – scheduled, as it is, in summer every three years. I wonder if you noticed how many times God beheld the goodness of creation – six times God saw what was good. And when it came to humankind, God saw that humankind was very good. (Not perfect, but very good!) I wonder if you noticed that this is not a story about before there was anything at all. According to this story, there was darkness and there was water for the breath of God to be blowing over. The earth was there, but it was a formless void, our text says. Actually, in Hebrew it says that the earth was all “tohu wabohu” which is a little bit like it sounds – crazy chaos – helter skelter — nonsense. “When God began to create” is how the Jewish Publication Society Bible translates it. Divine shaping or creating, according to the Bible, is ongoing and incomplete. When God first began shaping, the earth was tohu wabohu. God began to get things in order, making sense of nonsense. I wonder if you noticed that this story doesn’t have God eliminating chaos or night or the frightening abyss of the sea; God began to create some order, some distinctions, to set some limits. And it was all good. Continue reading →

Extravagant Love

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Pentecost (A), June 8, 2014; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Numbers 11:24-30 Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!

Acts 2:1-11 In our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.

John 7:37-39 For as yet there was no Spirit, [sic] because Jesus was not yet glorified.

O God whose call to us is irresistible, 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.

Happy Pentecost everyone! I don’t know about you, but I am always so taken with the experience of hearing the story of Pentecost in a multitude of languages. It’s thrilling to me to think that almost 25% of the population of the world could have understood the story in their own language as read just now in our little chapel!

According to the Book of Acts, nearly two thousand years ago, devout Jews from every nation under heaven were living in Jerusalem. And others from near and far were arriving in Jerusalem for the great celebration of Pentecost. The city was bustling with Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Judeans, Cappadocians, folks from Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and my favorite, Pamphylia, from Egypt and Libya, and Rome, all there to celebrate the ancient Jewish holiday where the first fruits of the harvest were offered to God – fifty days after Passover. The Jewish Pentecost holiday (in Hebrew, Shavu’ot) commemorates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. It was in thanksgiving for the gift of God’s rule of love that people joyfully set aside time and wealth to give back to God from the first takings of the harvest – not from the leftovers. Pentecost is a feast of stewardship and thanksgiving. Continue reading →