Easter 2A, April 27, 2014; The Rev Pamela L. Werntz

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.

We have a tradition in Christianity of congregations receiving pastoral letters, written by a bishop (in those variations of Christianity that have bishops). Some of the earliest pastoral letters came to be known as Holy Scripture in our Bible. When a bishop sends a pastoral letter, it customarily contains admonition, instruction, directions or consolation, and it is intended to be read out loud in parishes and missions on an appointed day.

In our Episcopal Church tradition, a bishop is not our boss, she or he is our chief pastor, elected through a most democratic process and then consecrated, or set apart, and charged with the gargantuan task of being our guardian. In our case that means watching over almost 200 congregations in eastern Massachusetts. When we refer to the Diocese of Massachusetts what we are talking about is not the bishop’s staff, but about 65,000 Episcopalians of all sorts and conditions! Our Diocesan Bishop, Tom Shaw, is about to retire after being our Bishop for 20 years. He has sent a pastoral letter to be read today. It’s not a letter of admonition, instruction, directions, or consolation. It’s a letter of gratitude – his gratitude for all of us – as he nears the end of his time as our bishop. I hope you will take the opportunity to respond to him with your own words of gratefulness in a book that will be available for that purpose in the parish hall after church today and for the next few weeks. Continue reading →

Easter A, April 20, 2014, The Rev. Pamela L. Wertz

O God of mystery and mischief, grant us the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may and cost what it will.

I love that children’s story of The Three Trees and I read it every Easter. One of my favorite Emmanuel Church Easter memories is from a few years ago when a young girl, urged by her mother to come forward for the story, plodded up the aisle scowling and saying, “I’ve already heard this story before!” Maybe some of you feel like that too sometimes! Continue reading →

Palm Sunday A, April 13, 2014; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew §1 – congregation is seated

¹¹Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You say so.” ¹²But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. ¹³Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?” ¹⁴But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed. ¹⁵Now at the festival the governor was accustomed to release a prisoner for the crowd, anyone whom they wanted. ¹⁶At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Jesus Barabbas. ¹⁷So after they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you, Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” ¹⁸For he realized that it was out of jealousy that they had handed him over. ¹⁹While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him.” ²⁰Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed.²¹The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” ²²Pilate said to them, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” All of them said, “Let him be crucified!” ²³Then he asked, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!” ²⁴So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.”²⁵Then the people as a whole answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”

Meditation I

This year, in conversation with the members of Emmanuel’s Worship Commission, I decided that I want us to abstain from engaging in the custom of reading the Passion Narrative as a play script with members of the congregation taking various dialogue parts, and the congregation as a whole representing the crowd. I cannot imagine how it is edifying – that is, how it might provide moral or theological instruction that would build up the body or how this practice might glorify God in any way. If any of you in the congregation are longing for a greater voice, more participation in liturgy, a deeper involvement in the narrative of salvation history, this turns out to be a most terrible place to start. No good can come from imagining ourselves as members of an angry mob. No good can come from re-enacting the highly implausible scenario that Pontius Pilate or any other Roman authority would have even permitted a crowd to gather in the occupied capital of an occupied country during the time of a great feast celebrating the notion of freedom from oppression, freedom from economic and political enslavement. Nor would a Roman governor give people a vote about whom to crucify. Continue reading →