Monthly Archives: November 2012

If I had a big screen….

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Christ the King, Proper 29B, November 25, 2012; 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 God of hope, 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 mark the end of the liturgical (or church) year – the last Sunday in Pentecost. This day has come to be known as The Feast of Christ the King – or The Reign of Christ Sunday for folks moving away from patriarchal language. It’s a fairly new church holiday — first declared by Pius the 11th in 1925. It was a Roman Catholic feast day; then it caught on with the Lutherans. As recently as a dozen years ago, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church described it as “kept unofficially in some Anglican churches.” As we Episcopalians have lived into our commitment to use the Revised Common Lectionary (shared with other major Christian denominations), Christ the King Sunday has become a part of our common practice, printed on our calendars (so you know it’s legit), but I’m a bit slow in my own conversion. Continue reading →

Love one another!

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Proper 28B, November 18, 2012; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

1 Samuel 1:4-20 The Lord remembered her.
Hebrews 10:11-25 Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.
Mark 13:1-8 This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.

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.

Some weeks feel more challenging than others to be a lectionary preacher! The other day I was sitting with a group of colleagues who were all talking about how they had changed the lessons for this Sunday – to celebrate Thanksgiving or various other events in the life of their parishes. I thought glumly, “why didn’t I think of that?” It’s highly ironic to me to pray the beautiful words of the opening collect about scripture – to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest – on a day when our appointed Gospel lesson is the beginning of the apocalypse in Mark. Episcopalians generally don’t like dwelling on the fact that we have apocalyptic scripture. Continue reading →

To Live with Dignity

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Proper 27B, November 11, 2012; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17 I need to seek security for you.
Hebrews 9:24-28 Not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Mark 12:38-44 She…has put in everything she had.

O God of vision, 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 that we have been steeping in Jewish commentary on the New Testament now for more than six years at Emmanuel Church. Having a Rabbi in Residence should and does change the way we sing our songs, say our prayers, and read our scripture. So when a Gospel portion like this one today comes along, we are challenged to put on our “corrective lenses” to see Jesus in his Jewish context, which is not the way most of our eyes were trained to see Jesus in Sunday School or in adult education or in our Christo-centric popular culture. Continue reading →

Some days in the life of the church are really big.

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All Saints, Proper 26B, November 4, 2012; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Ruth 1:1-18 Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die— there will I be buried…even death [will not] part me from you!
Revelation 21:1-6a See, I am making all things new.
Mark 12:28-34 You are not far from the kingdom of God.

O God of all things new, 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 days in the life of the church are really big – Christmas Eve, Easter Day, Pentecost and All Saints are generally the four biggest for us. Today is the Sunday in the octave (or eight days) of the great feast day of All Saints, a day on the Christian calendar to celebrate the saints, known and unknown. This past Friday was All Souls’ Day – the day set aside in the church calendar for commemoration of those who have departed this life. So this is a Sunday to remember the past – to honor all those who have gone before us – all saints and all souls. Continue reading →