Monthly Archives: January 2023

Begin wherever you are.

Posted on by

Epiphany 4A, 29 Jan. 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Micah 6:1-8.  “[God] has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
  • 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”
  • Matthew 5:1-12. “Blessed…blessed…blessed.”

O God of the strangest blessings, 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.

When I sat down to write on Friday, I’d just received an alert from the Boston Police Commissioner about anticipating protests in response to the kidnapping and murder of Tyre Nichols by police officers in Memphis earlier this month, as the horrifying body-cam video was about to be released to the public. I’m grateful that the demonstrations have been peaceful in Boston and mostly peaceful around the country. Continue reading →

Being in Darkness

Posted on by

Image by Wanyi Huang

This week at common art, I randomly drew with colored markers a cactus growing under the stars. I shared my art with S., who asked me, “Have you seen the sky at night without lights and moonlight?” He described his experiences outside the city with only the starlight singing in the sky. His experience in the starlight shower was so vivid in his brain. When my image reminded him of this joyfulness and mental stillness, he felt gratitude. They finally see the bright stars in the sky when everything is dark. Indeed, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”

Continue reading →

It’s Love that will never abandon.

Posted on by

Epiphany 3A, 22 Jan. 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Isaiah 9:1-4. For the yoke of their burden…you have broken.
  • 1 Corinthians 1:10-18.  Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. [To me, this is one of the funniest lines in all of scripture.]
  • Matthew 4:12-23.  He saw [them] … and he called them

O God of darkness and light, 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’ve returned to the Gospel of Matthew; and so again, our lesson from Isaiah sounds as if it were teeing up the Gospel lesson. To Christian ears, it may even sound as if Isaiah was anticipating Jesus. But, as I said two Sundays ago, Isaiah wasn’t anticipating Jesus any more than Isaiah was anticipating George Frederic Handel. Isaiah wasn’t anticipating Emmanuel Church either, but here we are again! It’s is exactly the other way around. Probably in Antioch of Syria at least two generations after Jesus’ death, Matthew was living and growing in the teachings and stories of Jesus. Matthew’s audience was living with the political, economic, legal, religious, and cultural consequences of Roman imperialism, just as we are living with the consequences of American imperialism. [1] Retelling those teachings and stories about Jesus in a written Gospel toward the end of the first century of the Common Era, Matthew was thinking, “These stories sound so much like the stories that Isaiah told eight-hundred years ago!” Matthew wanted to make sure that his community heard and understood the connections. I want to make sure that my community hears and understands the connections, too. 
Continue reading →

Love is the way.

Posted on by

Epiphany 2A, 15 Jan. 2023.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Isaiah 49:1-7. I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
  • 1 Corinthians 1:1-9. God is faithful.
  • John 1:29-41. Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

O God, manifest in us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

Last week in our Gospel lesson, we heard Matthew’s version of Jesus’ baptism at the Jordan River. According to Matthew, the voice that Jesus heard was an inside-out rather than an outside-in voice. Matthew was describing the bat kol, the voice of the Divine, which sounds like the voice of a little girl, or the daughter of a voice, an echo. Matthew mentions that the heavens opened up to Jesus and a spirit of holiness landed on him like a dove and he heard the voice of the Divine, the bat kol, saying, “This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Matthew does not describe this as a voice heard by any of the others who were there. Continue reading →

The work of Christmas begins.

Posted on by

Baptism of Our Lord,  8 Jan. 2023.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Isaiah 42:1-9.  I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand.
  • Acts 10:34-43. Anyone who…does what is right is acceptable to [God].
  • Matthew 3:13-17.  Let it go for now, for it is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness.

O God, manifest in 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 day in the church calendar called The Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. We are two days past the Feast of the Epiphany with its dramatic story of the Magi following a star with their extravagant gifts in hand. In the biblical narrative, we have advanced a generation from Jesus’ infancy to his mature adulthood. It feels too fast! I want to say, “Wait, go back!” So we have, in our first hymn and in our cantata for today; but otherwise, we are pressing ahead. Continue reading →

Take a deep breath!

Posted on by

Christmas Day, 25 Dec. 2022.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Isaiah 62:6-7, 10-12. You shall be called ‘Sought Out, a City Not Forsaken’.
Titus 3:4-7. We might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Luke 2:1-20. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.

Merry Christmas everyone!  Take a deep breath. Pay attention to what you smell. If you are missing your sense of smell, use your memories.  What are the smells you associate with Christmas? The smell of church, of greens and candles burning, of wood? Maybe more domestic smells like cinnamon and nutmeg? Baked treats? Evergreen trees? The smell of Christmas dinner? The smell of wood-burning stoves or fireplaces? Maybe Christmas smells that you remember from childhood? I remember the smell of my grandmother’s house, of antique furniture mingled with her perfume. The smell of snow, of winter air? Rudyard Kipling once said, “Smells are surer than sights and sounds to make your heart-strings crack.” [1]  Continue reading →

The realm of heaven has come near.

Posted on by

Advent 2A:  Dec. 4, 2022.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

Isaiah 11:1-10.  With the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. (That’s some powerful bad breath!)
Romans 15:4-13. On behalf of the truth of God.
Matthew 3:1-12.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

O God, hope of the prophets, 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.

For our Second Sunday of Advent this year, our scripture lessons begin with the second half of a beautiful oracle or poem in Isaiah. Maybe the first half is omitted from our lesson because it is not as charming as the second half. The first half describes how the mighty have fallen like tall trees in a forest that has been clear cut. It’s a wasteland. There are only stumps left where there had been a beautiful forest. The context is the collapse of the Assyrian occupying military, which was itself in control as the result of the total failure of the dynasty of King David, which had utterly miscarried its obligations to care for those who were most vulnerable and weak: aliens, widows, orphans, and other impoverished people. The government of the people of God had neglected its duties to be morally responsible for doing no wrong, no violence, to the neediest people. Continue reading →

Love has the last word.

Posted on by

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 →

You are abundantly blessed.

Posted on by

Sunday in the Octave of the Feast of All Saints, Nov. 6, 2022.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18. As for me…my spirit was troubled within me.
Ephesians 1:11-23. So that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.
Luke 6:20-36. Love your enemies.

Merciful and generous 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.

Today we are observing All Saints’ Day in the Church, because today is the Sunday within the Octave or eight days starting November 1. Today we are also observing Pledge Stewardship Sunday at Emmanuel Church, the day we set aside to encourage everyone who wants Emmanuel Church standing and thriving to make a commitment to financially support this parish in the coming year, to provide for clergy and other staff. I don’t think of Pledge Stewardship Sunday as a deadline as much as a lifeline for the coming year. We will be facing some significant financial challenges in 2023, so we would appreciate your generosity more than ever! The same amount given as last year will not go as far because of inflation, so if you are able to give more than you did last year, your giving would make an even greater difference. Continue reading →

A Parish Where Love Lives

Posted on by

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 →