Courage & Compassion

Third Sunday of Easter
April 26, 2020

Acts 2:14a, 36-47 For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away.
1 Peter 1:17-23 …Love one another deeply from the heart.
Luke 24:13-35 Were not our hearts burning within us?
O God of our aching and burning hearts, 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.
Three weeks into Eastertide, we are still hearing stories of the first day after the Sabbath, the day when the women found the tomb where Jesus had been laid to be empty. It’s a different Gospel from the last two weeks, and the stories are different. In Luke, Jesus’ first appeared not to Mary Magdalene, but to two of his followers who were headed out of Jerusalem to a place called Emmaus – one was named Cleopas. The other, a woman, I imagine….what was her name? Oh, it doesn’t say. Well, anyway. It’s a beautiful account of the art of resurrection, about how, even when we don’t understand it, we can’t imagine it, and we certainly are not looking for it, we can come to recognize that the Risen Lord can be walking along with us; the Risen Lord can be right in front of us without our knowing it, opening our eyes to the scriptures and opening our hearts to thanksgiving for shared meals. When they hurried back to Jerusalem to tell the eleven, they heard that the Risen Lord had also appeared to Simon (presumably Simon Peter), but there’s no story about that.
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Ready to love

Second Sunday of Easter – A
April 19, 2020

Acts 2:14a, 22-32 Deeds of power, wonders, and signs.
1 Peter 1:3-9 So that the genuineness of your faith…may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
John 20:19-31 Peace be with you…Peace be with you.

O God of grace, 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 reading is a little like watching episodes of a tv show where the story leaves off at the end of one episode and picks up a moment later the following week. This passage begins, “later on the same day” – the same day that the tomb was found empty, the same day that Mary had mistaken the risen Lord for the gardener. The same day Jesus made Mary Magdalene the apostles to the apostles. And the Gospel says that she did go and tell the others that Jesus had said these things to her. That didn’t seem to do anything to assuage their fears because later on the same day, the disciples were hiding behind locked doors because they were afraid. 

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Hallelujah anyhow!

Easter A
April 12, 2020

Jeremiah 31:1-6 I have loved you with an everlasting love.
Colossians 3:1-11 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed.
John 20:1-18 I have seen the Lord.

 O God of mystery and meaning 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.

Every Easter for the last dozen years, I’ve read the story of The Three Trees from the steps to the chancel, surrounded by children of many ages. As I weighed whether to read the story in our livestreamed service, I realized that sitting alone on the empty steps seemed truer to the Easter story than ever before. I imagine you who are watching and missing the physical experience of being together in a full and carried-away church are having mixed feelings much truer to the Easter story too. 

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Repentance & Right-Relationship

Palm Sunday
April 5, 2020

 

Isaiah 50:4-9a I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.
Philippians 2:5-11 He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death.
Matthew 27:11-66 “ .”

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

Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of [these people]?” Jesus said, “You say so.” But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?” But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed. Now at the festival the governor was accustomed to release a prisoner for the crowd, anyone whom they wanted. At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Jesus Barabbas. So 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?” For he realized that it was out of jealousy that they had handed him over. While 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.” Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” Pilate said to them, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” All of them said, “Let him be crucified!” Then he asked, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!” So 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.”Then the people as a whole answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”

Meditation I 

For those of you who are joining Emmanuel Church for worship for the first time, or for whom this is your first Palm Sunday with us, I want to explain that we made a decision in 2014 to stop engaging in the custom of reading the Passion Narrative on Palm Sunday as a play script with members of the congregation taking various dialogue parts, and the congregation as a whole representing the crowd. Although it may be edifying to understand that we too are capable of the denial and betrayal of Love, and of being bystanders while brutal and deadly force is used against others, I’d rather we not practice any of that bad behavior in church! I do not believe that it is at all edifying to re-enact the highly implausible scenario that Pontius Pilate or any other Roman authority would have even permitted a large 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, economic exploitation, and political enslavement. It is not edifying to pretend that a Roman governor would have given people a voice vote about whom to crucify. Biblical scholars and historians have known this for a long long time, and yet much of the Church blithely carries on this libel in the name of tradition or custom or piety, with deadly consequences to Jews.[1] 
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A sign is not the thing.

Lent 5A
March 29, 2020

 

Ezekiel 37:1-14 O my people.
Psalms 130 Out of the depths have I called to you.
Romans 8:6-11 To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
John 11:1-45 Jesus began to weep…. he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’….Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’

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.

 

The past two weeks I have wrestled with whether to livestream a service of Holy Eucharist, keeping as much of our customary service in tact as possible, or move to leading a service of Morning Prayer, wholly unfamiliar as a Sunday worship service at Emmanuel Church, although many Emmanuelites pray Morning Prayer as a daily practice, and have practiced Morning Prayer in other places. Continuing with the rite of Holy Eucharist is both comforting for some and painful for others, but for many of us, it is both comforting and painful at the same time: comforting to recognize the rhythm and the shape of the service, and painful to face what we are missing by not being able to be physically present with one another and with the elements of our sacrament. But then I think Eucharist means thanksgiving, and while bread and wine are signs of our thanks, they are not our thanks. While physical presence is a sign of being Church, it is not the Church.
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What Love Does

Lent 4A
March 22, 2020

1 Samuel 16:1-13 But the Lord looks on the heart.
Psalm 23 The Lord is my shepherd.
Ephesians 5:8-14 Live as children of light.
John 9:1-41 As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind. So that God’s works might be revealed in him, we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am a light of the world.” When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see.
The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
They brought to the Episcopalians the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Episcopalians also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” Some of the Episcopalians said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.” The people did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the people; for the people had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the gathering. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.

O God of our 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.

 

Today I am preaching to a virtual congregation during the early days of a pandemic, the first Sunday in which our sanctuary is closed for worship since the fire in the fall of 2000, when Emmanuel quickly secured another place to gather, to continue being church. When one physical place becomes inaccessible, we typically comfort and reassure ourselves by gathering in another place. We are not used to responding to a big crisis with restraint and a discipline of distance from one another. We are trained to care for one another by sharing food, to reassure one another with physical presence especially when we don’t know the words to say. So in these early days of this pandemic, we are trying to figure out and learn new ways of being together virtually. The truth is, I feel intermittently creative and inspired, and clumsy and completely inadequate like I’m trying to build something using my grandchildren’s toddler tools. But once again, we are learning to be church in a new way.
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The Place

Lent 3A
March 15, 2020

Exodus 17:1-7 The people thirsted there.
Romans 5:1-11 God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
John 4:5-42 Give me a drink.

Good morning. I hope that our attempt to live-stream our service this morning is adding to your sense of connectedness with a community that loves you and is not adding to your sense of isolation and frustration. Technology can and does work both ways. Please know that, wherever you are on your spiritual journey, the power of prayer transcends walls and web connectivity. I am grateful for your prayers and I am keeping you in mine.

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Standing with Pelagius

Lent 1A, March 1, 2020. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7. They knew that they were naked.
Romans 5:12-21. As sin came into the world through one man.
Matthew 4:1-11. And suddenly angels came and waited on him.

O God of Forgiveness, 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 season of Lent has begun in the Church, a period of 40 days, not including Sundays, set aside for Christians to examine our personal, individual estrangement from the love and mercy of the Holy One, and to return to right relationship with one another. Although each person is doing their own Lenten practice, as a congregation we come together for mutual support and encouragement as we go through a this period of intensified self-examination with a call to increased generosity in almsgiving, praying, fasting, and studying the Bible.

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A Light You Have Carried

Last Sunday After the Epiphany (A)
February 23, 2020

Exodus 24:12-18 Come up to me on the mountain.
2 Peter 1:16-21 You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place …until the morning star rises in your hearts.
Matthew 17:1-9 Jesus came and touched them, saying “Get up and do not be afraid.

O God of majesty, mercy and mystery,[1] 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 last Sunday after the Epiphany – the Sunday we tell the story of the Transfiguration, the story of Jesus and his friends and their mystical and mystifying mountaintop experience. But if you heard the Gospel lesson last week, you, like me, might still be stuck in the weeds of a different mountain, pondering Jesus’ hard teachings, even after our Deacon Bob’s marvelous sermon. Last week, we heard Jesus teaching things like – it’s not only murder that violates God’s law, it’s being angry with another, or insulting another, that will make one liable to the flaming trash heap called Gehenna, also known as hell. It’s not only adultery that violates God’s law, it’s looking at another person with lust in one’s heart. It’s not just swearing falsely, it’s swearing at all. And, though we didn’t hear it last week, what follows is the instruction of turning the other cheek, giving away one’s cloak, going the second mile, giving to everyone who begs from us, and loving our enemies.  These are all rendered as examples of Jesus’ assertion to his followers that he did not come to abolish the law or the prophets, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter. Just for the record, I don’t think he was kidding, and I don’t know any translation tricks that offer wiggle room. It’s a wonder that Jesus had any followers left by the time he got to the mountain with Peter and James and John.  

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Worth Our Salt and Light

Epiphany 5A
February 9, 2020

Isaiah 58:1-12 You will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.
1 Corinthians 2:1-16 So that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
Matthew 5:13-20 You are the salt…you are the light.”

O God of mercy and salt 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.

I don’t know about you, but from time to time someone tells me that they don’t believe in or that they don’t like “organized religion.” My knee-jerk response is to shake my head and say, “yes, church is often completely unbelievable and we’re really not that organized.” But if I can keep quiet a minute and ask what it is the person doesn’t believe in or doesn’t like, it’s usually hypocrisy, and I can eagerly affirm that I share the feelings of disgust for hypocrisy. And then, if the person is willing to continue the conversation, I muse out loud that much of the Bible – both testaments – is devoted to calling religious people to account for hypocrisy. The Bible may have been written by and for the people who need the most help. (I believe I am one of them.)

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