2025 Sermons

The Realm of God is coming.

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Proper 14C, 10 August 2025.  The Rev. Dr. John D. Golenski.

Luke 12:32.  Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not be afraid, little flock.”

The very first time I consciously witnessed a death was the day my dog Jet was fatally injured while chasing a car.  We called him Jet because he was jet black, a fiercely loyal Cocker Spaniel, whom I had cared for since my parents brought him home in a basket.   He was protective of our family in general, but he was truly my dog, patrolling our large yard and garden whenever I went out.  Once in a while,  when I opened the gate, he would fool me and zip through into the street.  For some reason he was convinced that moving car tires posed an existential threat, so he had to chase them away. One summer day when I was eleven, Jet snuck out.  I ran after him trying to distract him from the street traffic, but he must have slipped; somehow he was pulled under the moving tire.  I watched in horror as the car rolled over him.  The driver, a local mother with her infant in the car, ran up to me as Jet limped back to me, collapsed at my feet, and expired. Continue reading →

The Peace of God’s Realm

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Proper 13 C, 3 August 2025.  The Rev. Dr. John D. Golenski.

Luke 12:13.  “Teacher, tell my sibling to divide the family inheritance with me.”

Whenever I hear this portion of Luke’s Gospel, I am carried back to an eerie parallel in my extended family’s history. One of my maternal uncles, Zephyr (everyone called him “Fee”), one of my mother’s younger brothers, returned from the Second World War in one piece. He had served in the Allied Persian Corridor Logistics Corps, which had built and maintained the route for almost half the lend-lease materiel sent from the US to the Soviet Union. They had helped the Russians to repulse the German invasion of 1941-44. Fee’s parents proudly displayed a photo of the “Big Three” meeting at Yalta. In the background, Fee is standing at attention as one of the honor guards. Continue reading →

It’s already in you.

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Proper 12C, July 27, 2025.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Hosea 1:2-10.  In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ it shall be said to them, ‘Children of the Living God.’,
  • Colossians 2:6-19. Do not let anyone disqualify you.
  • Luke 11:1-13. Everyone who ask . . . everyone who searches . . . everyone who knocks.

O God of Everyone, 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 want to preach about the Gospel lesson from Luke, but I cannot leave the reading from Hosea just hanging there! Hosea, a prophet of Israel, was crying out against his people for breaking the covenant by not worshipping The Holy One alone. Idolatry and whoredom, in ancient Hebrew, are the same word – the very same thing. [1]  The people had promised fidelity to the Holy One of Israel, but they had been seeing other gods. They had been engaged in moral defection, fraud and cheating, improper intercourse with other deities. They have been putting their faith in wealth and other forms of power, engaging in dishonorable and undignified behavior, rather than acting in compassion and with high regard for both neighbors and aliens. (This could be ripped from today’s headlines.) Hosea charged that economic resources were being misused to wage war, and the government was exploiting poor people. When the Lord first spoke within Hosea, Hosea heard, ‘find a wife who is seeing other gods, because you’ll not be able to find one who is not seeing other gods – everyone in the land is doing it…and name your children after a place of a brutal massacre; “no compassion;” and “not my people.” Hosea heard God saying, “because I am not your becoming; I am not your being; I am not your will be.”

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What God Has Joined Together

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Proper 11C, July 21, 2025. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Amos 8:1-12. The end has come upon my people Israel.
  • Colossians 1:15-28. Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
  • Luke 10:38-42. She had a sister named Mary, who [ALSO] sat at the Lord’s feet.

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.

Here we go again with another set of lectionary readings that have been used to advance truly regrettable theologies about women, work, contemplation versus action, and divine judgment. What a combination: the apocalyptic vision of Amos, the cosmic Christ of Colossians, and two sisters whose story has been weaponized for centuries to pit so-called “spiritual” people against those who engage in the messy work of hospitality and care. However, I see glimmers of hope in this collision of texts that seem to speak past each other at first glance. I invite you to hear these passages not as separate little moral lessons, but as a unified testimony written over the course of more than 800 years about divine priorities and what it means to lean into God’s realm. Continue reading →

Clarity comes from merciful action.

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Proper 10C, July 13, 2025.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Amos 7:7-17.  The Lord said to me, Go prophesy to my people Israel.,
  • Colossians 1:1-14.  Grace to you and peace from God.
  • Luke 10:25-37.  But wanting to justify himself.

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 story called “the good Samaritan” is such an iconic story that one doesn’t have to be a church goer to know it. You don’t have to be a Christian to have heard of it or understand something about it. Hospitals, emergency services, counseling services, hotlines, rules of law about limits of liability, award programs, all get called Good Samaritan. This parable, found only in Luke, might be the most famous parable of them all. And with its fame comes the enormous and crushing weight of Protestant Moral Theology, Sunday School lessons, and a hefty dose of Christian anti-Jewish bias. The preaching challenge for me seems formidable because of what we think we already know about this story, and the guilt that has been wired into most of us about seeing people in life’s various ditches and not doing enough or not doing anything at all to help. In my time as a priest, this bible story has provoked in me more confessions and more defensive attempts at self-justification than any other I can think of.

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Fullness of Joy

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Proper 9C, July 6, 2025.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • 2 Kings 5:1-14.  Had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel and she served Naaman’s wife.
  • Galatians 6:1-16.  If anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a Spirit of gentleness….Bear one another’s burdens.
  • Luke 10:1-11, 16-20.  Do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

O God of the plentiful harvest, 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.

Our Gospel lesson for this morning picks up right after Jesus has told four people who wanted to follow him that they couldn’t. Then Jesus has appointed 70 others to be sent out – meaning Jesus has appointed apostles. Apostle means one sent – as in an agent or ambassador. (According to Luke there were 70 apostles, not 12). The number 70 in the Bible symbolizes comprehensive universality. Jesus appointed the number of all the nations, according to the Torah. In the 10th chapter of Genesis, the ancient “verbal map” of the whole world describes a network of human relatedness, of cousins, if you will, and belonging, an ecumenical vision of belonging that is remarkably, radically inclusive. [1]  The number 70 is also reminiscent of the number of elders appointed by God to help Moses when Moses told God “I alone am not able to bear all this people because it is too heavy for me.”

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Labyrinth

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Proper 8C, June 29, 2025.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • 2 Kings 2: 1-2,6-14. Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.
  • Galatians 5:1,13-25. You were called to freedom…do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence.
  • Luke 9: 51-62. Follow me.

O God 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.

All three of our scripture readings today speak about the costs of seeking after truth – of following great teachers, of listening to prophets, of listening for God’s very Self-disclosure, and the cost of discipleship, which, as the late Walter Brueggemann used to say, is no picnic!
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Younger Than We Expected

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Proper 7C, June 22, 2025.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
  • 1 Kings 19:1-15a. “What are you doing here Elijah?”
  • Galatians 3:23-29. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female for all of you are one.
  • Luke 8:26-39.  Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.

O God of our future, 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 there is just too much to preach about, and I’m not just talking about the terrible news reports from last night or this past week. This is one of those days that makes me think there should be a rule about not having too many great readings from scripture on the same day: the story of Elijah hearing the still, small voice of God; Paul’s letter to the Galatians asserting that in Christ, there is no Jew or Greek, no slave or free, no male and female, because all are one; and then the Gerasene demoniac story. I mean, come on; what preacher can resist that? And we are celebrating the baptism of Hudson Grey Meinero, whose parents were married at Emmanuel and whose mother and uncle were baptized here, too. Hudson will embody hope for the future today as his baptism calls us to recommit ourselves to peace with justice. Continue reading →

Conspiring with God

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ccreedTrinity C, June 15, 2025.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Proverbs 8:1-4,22-31. Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? ….”To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live.”

Romans 5:1-11.  We boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God…because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

John 16:12-15. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

O indescribable Holy One, 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 any who struggle with the Gospel of John, today’s Gospel reading is for you. It begins with an acknowledgement that, while there is much more to say, Jesus knows that you cannot bear it now. Perhaps this is recognition of saturation, of exhaustion, of grief, of the lack of additional capacity among Jesus’ followers. It seems like it might be compassionate or parental; or perhaps it was the confession or projection of a tired scribe. Whatever the case, I like to imagine it is a true statement in every age, that there are more things than we can hear or bear. (Just keep up with the news, and you’ll know what I mean.) I find it to be a hopeful idea that there is more wisdom and truth than are recorded in the scriptures. Wisdom and truth were not fully revealed in Jesus’ time; they are not completely revealed even yet. The revelation of the Divine is ongoing, continuing. “God is still speaking,” as the United Church of Christ’s banners proclaimed some years ago; and we are still listening. Continue reading →

Godsend

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Pentecost C, June 8, 2025.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Genesis 11:1-9. And from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
  • Acts 2:1-21. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.
  • John 14:8-17. This is the Spirit of truth…[who] will be among you.

O God of our glorious diversity, 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.

A couple of Friday evenings ago, I had the honor and delight to preach at Central Reform Temple’s Shabbat service. I preached about how the Jewish and Christian liturgical calendars are so similar – like cousins – when it comes to the observances of Passover and Easter and the 50th day after each, which is the celebration of Pentecost (or in Hebrew, Shavuot). After the service I was having a conversation with one of the members of the Temple who was asking me about the Christian story of Pentecost. I said that the traditional teaching for Christians is that the Acts 2 story is understood to be the reversal of what happened at the Tower of Babel. We heard the two stories a few minutes ago, about how the Holy One confused, or mixed, or mingled the language of the ancient Hebrew people, but on the 50th day after the resurrection, the Holy One brought people of all languages together to unite them.  Continue reading →