Love at the End

Easter 6A, 14 May 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Acts 17:22-31. For we too are [God’s] offspring.
  • 1 Peter 3:13-22. Always be ready to make… an accounting for the hope that is in you.
  • John 14:15-21. If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

O God of Love, 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.


When I graduated from college and moved to Northern Virginia, I started looking around for a church. Just as I’d always had a toothbrush for oral hygiene, I’d always had a church for spiritual hygiene. I grew up in the church; and I went to church through college (it was a church within walking distance). My big college rebellion, when it came to practicing faith, was not to quit attending, but to become an Episcopalian! Although my dad was an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, his ecumenical and mostly non-parochial work meant that’d I’d grown up as something of a religious mutt – a mix of UCC, Lutheran, and Presbyterian for worship, Roman Catholic for school, and vacations with the Episcopalians. In my early twenties I had a car, making my reach considerably wider, so I went church shopping for an Episcopal parish. Continue reading

Belonging to Truth

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

Become the bread of life!

Proper 13B.  August 1, 2021

2 Samuel 11:26-12:13aThere were two men in a certain city, one rich, and the other.
Ephesians 4:1-16. Speaking the truth in love…promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
John 6:24-35.  I AM the bread of life.

O God of Continual 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.


Some of you will remember that last week I mentioned that I think the feeding narratives in the Gospels are the most important stories about the ministry of Jesus because of how often they are told. Whether memory or metaphor (both, I believe), they tell a powerful truth about Jesus’ ability to satisfy hunger for huge numbers of those who crowded around him. To further emphasize this, our lectionary assignments for today and the next three weeks are from the sixth chapter of John, which follows John’s version of the feeding of the multitudes. Beginning today we have four consecutive Gospel readings in which Jesus’ message is a variation of “I AM the bread.” “I am the bread. I am the bread that came down from heaven. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” 
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Vessels of God’s Grace

Proper 8B. June 27, 2021

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27. How the mighty have fallen.
2 Corinthians 8:7-15. As you excel in everything…so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.
Mark 5:21-43. Little girl, get up.

O God who heals, 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.


Many of you know I always begin my sermons with that prayer, amended from a prayer attributed to Phillips Brooks, once Bishop of Massachusetts. It helps me find my preacher voice, as my daughter Laura calls it. Praying it is a way to locate myself in this position of privilege, which you grant to me, and to give myself permission to say things that might be challenging, hard for me to say or hear, or both. The prayer is also a frequent reminder that truth is not predictably or reliably found, and that the seeking is what I am about, what my work with you is about. While truth is costly, it always sets us free. That’s how we know it is truth. The seeking for truth is not at all about fact-finding;  it’s about experiencing freedom and joy and spreading it all around. As Paul exhorts the people in Corinth, we are to excel in generosity in what we undertake, so that the one who has gathered much does not have too much, and the one who has gathered little, does not have too little, and everyone has what they need. (Paul was reminding the people of the Torah, by the way.) This is the vision of community that we are welcoming Cooper Henry Santulli into this morning through his baptism.
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Ha Ruach, Ha Kodesh

Proper 5B. June 6, 2021

1 Samuel 8:4-20; 11:14-15. We are determined to have a king over us.
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1. So we do not lose heart.
Mark 3:20-35. Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin.

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.


I hope you heard our Deacon Bob’s sermon last week for Trinity Sunday. If not, I encourage you to go to the YouTube recording of our service on May 30. Bob had my rapt attention as soon as he mentioned three-tab file folders! I’ve been thinking all week about how much my sense of well-being has to do with my documents, paper and electronic, being neatly filed and easily retrievable. And the Church has a long history of trying to label and contain and define the mystery of the Divine. Bob reminded us that the Holy One doesn’t fit in file folders or books or whole libraries, or bricks and mortar or wood frames or even bread and wine. The Holy One cannot be reduced to words or equations, and certainly not things.

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Reminders of Healing Power & Promise

Lent 4B, March 14, 2021

Numbers 21:4-9. Moses prayed for the people.
Ephesians 2:1-10. This is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.
John 3:14-21. Those who do what is true come to the light.

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. Amen.


One of the many joys of grandparenting for me is watching Sesame Street! I know I don’t have to have grandchildren to watch it, but they’re a good excuse! Some of you might remember a Sesame Street song called “One of these things is not like the other.” That is an apt song for our Hebrew Scripture passage this morning wedged into a Sunday series of covenant stories during Lent. Remember we started Lent with the story of God’s promise to Noah and then the story of God’s promise to Abraham. Then the promise from God that when (and whenever) we are loving God, we won’t behave in ways that do damage to one another and to ourselves. Next week we will hear the story of God’s promise to write God’s love on the hearts of people so that no one will have to be taught about God, everyone will already know God – by heart. But this week, we have one of those things which is not like the others. We have this peculiar little story from the Book of Numbers.
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Covenantal Connectedness

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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Answer again the call!

Epiphany 2B, January 17, 2021, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

1 Samuel 3:1-20. Here I am, for you called me.
1 Corinthians 6:12-20. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God and that you are not your own?
John 1:43-51. “I saw you. . .Come and see.”

O vision fair of glory, 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.


Last week I began my words to you with “what a week.” So how do I start this sermon? The British satire television program comes to mind from the early 1960’s, “That was the week that was,”. I can’t say that I “remember” the show, but I clearly remember that when I was growing up my parents practically wore out their vinyl record album of Tom Lehrer songs, “That Was the Year that Was”. If you’re too young to know these songs, your homework is to find them on YouTube! Those songs are still pertinent: the pollution of the environment, the threat of nuclear war, racial strife, religious conflict.
Lehrer liked to say, “Always predict the worst and you’ll be hailed as a prophet!” And yet, listening to his satirical prophetic wisdom helped so many people clarify their purpose and organize themselves and others to join in working for a better future. Lehrer’s work was a call for a better future.

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Repentance, Repair & Reconciliation

Advent 1B, November 29, 2020.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Isaiah 64:1-9. O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.…We are your people.
1 Corinthians 1:1-9 So that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Mark 13:24-37 Keep awake.

O God of Repentance, 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.


Today marks the beginning of a new Church year with the first Sunday in Advent. The Christian new year doesn’t begin with festivities or celebrations, but with lamentation in Isaiah, with a letter from Paul written in response to reports of in-fighting – of quarrelling in the church in Corinth, and with the Gospel of Mark’s “apocalypse” – Jesus’ prediction of the end of life as his disciples know it. The end, according to Mark, will be a very good thing because of the enormity of suffering, because of the desolation being experienced. I get this at a deeper level than I ever have before because of the revelations and devastations of this past year.
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Enduring Mercy & Forgiveness

Proper 22A
October 4, 2020

Exodus 20:1-4,7-9, 12-20. So that you do not sin
Philippians 2:1-13. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call in Christ Jesus
Matthew 21:33-46. Listen to another parable

O God of mercy and forgiveness, 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.

I have a little exercise for you. Many of us are out of shape from not being able to sing together, so I’m going to say some opening words of various hymns and see if you can complete the first line –do it at home if you’re joining us by livestream. Those of you at home can even sing your parts! If I say: “Amazing grace,” you’d know that the next words are: “how sweet the sound.” If I say: “The Church’s one foundation,” you’d say: “is Jesus Christ her Lord.” If I say: “O God our help in ages past,” you’d say: “our hope for years to come.” If I say: “Immortal invisible,” you’d say: “God only wise.” If I say: “This is the day that the Lord has made,” you’d say:, “Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” One more time: “This is the day that the Lord has made. (Let us rejoice and be glad in it.)”
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