Lent 2C, February 24, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God our shield and defender, 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’s Gospel text strikes me as a little strange. It’s strange to be catapulted from Luke’s account of Jesus in the wilderness before his ministry began, past miles of travel, teaching and healing all around the Galilee and beyond, to the middle of the Gospel of Luke, at the end of chapter thirteen. (Next week the scheduled portion is back in the beginning of chapter 13.) The slow, almost leisurely pace of Jesus’ ministry which includes story-telling, prayer and Sabbath meals gets completely eclipsed in our Lenten reading of Luke’s Gospel. Continue reading →

Lent 1C, February 17, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God of our callings, 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 Gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit in the wilderness. It’s a little gentler version than the Gospel of Mark’s description of Jesus being driven out to the wilderness by the Spirit. It was after he was baptized, according to Luke, but not before Luke recites Jesus’ genealogy. It’s a curious place to put a 77 generation genealogy – four chapters in to the story. But for Luke, it becomes the connective tissue between the baptism and the wilderness in which Jesus began his work – his ministry. The genealogy demonstrates that Jesus is a child of Israel, a child of all humanity, and a child of the Creator. Our lectionary does this crazy thing of splitting the story of Jesus’ baptism which we heard at the beginning of Epiphany, early in January, and this time in the wilderness. In the last six weeks we’ve heard all kinds of other stories in between the baptism and the wilderness, like last week’s account of the Transfiguration which comes much later in Luke. But the Gospel narrative is that Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit at baptism goes immediately into a harsh place of physical and spiritual danger. Continue reading →

Last Sunday After the Epiphany (C), February 10, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God of faithfulness, 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.

One of the benefits for me of regularly sharing the pulpit of Emmanuel Church with a Rabbi is that it continues to challenge and change the way I encounter Holy Scripture.  My sensitivity to the need for “corrective lenses” is heightened.  My desire to preach against the ways that the Christian Church has promoted supersessionist theology is even more keen than before I got here five years ago.  Christian supersessionism is very much like racism as far as I am concerned – it’s systemic, it’s oppressive, it’s often internalized, and it’s always wrong.  It distorts our vision and damages our souls. Continue reading →

Third Sunday after the Epiphany (C), January 24, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God of freedom, 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’m going to say some things about Luke’s signature story about the miraculous beginning of the ministry of Jesus, but first I want to make sure you noticed that two verses are omitted from our lectionary-appointed reading of Nehemiah this morning: verses 4 and 7. I hope those of you who have heard me preach before noticed that and wondered what was missing! Maybe you even guessed that I would tell you! (I will.) The verses contain long lists of names. Perhaps they’re left out in deference to church readers everywhere – but I wish they hadn’t been. Continue reading →

Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God of 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.

The feast of Epiphany so rarely falls on a Sunday – it feels great to celebrate it with all of you! We have a precious handmade ornament that hangs on our Christmas tree at home every year that says, “Epiphany or Bust!” Once again, we appear to have made it with the grace of God! You probably know that the word epiphany comes from the Greek word for showing or revelation or manifestation. So the Feast of Epiphany is a celebration of the vision of well-being – of the shalom of God. And we have a marvelous trio of readings about seeing the goodness of God in the darkness, through the dense fog; about perceiving the mystery of the Christ, the redeeming urge of the Divine in what feels like a god-forsaken place; and about searching for meaning and a true moral compass in the midst of fear, evil, and false directives. Of course, there’s good news and bad news. Continue reading →