Sermons

We invite you to enjoy sermons of our rector The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz and others., which are collected by year with links in the column on the right. Our earliest sermons are posted in an archive covering the years 2000-09 include sermons by the late Rabbi Howard Berman, The Rev. William Blaine-Wallace, The Rev. Dr. Maureen D. Kemeza, The Rev. Dr. James M. Weiss, The Rev. Christiaan A. Beukman, and others.

In 2022 we began to broadcast her sermons in our livestreamed services.  Please listen to her dynamic preaching about 20 minutes into our live-streamed services on our YouTube Channel.  Her sermons preached in Lindsey Chapel are not available in video.

Partakers

Posted on by

Proper 12C
July 28, 2019

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 asks…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 say some things about our Gospel reading, but first, I want to say something about the First Testament lesson. 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] Fidelity to the Holy One of Israel had been promised and the people have been seeing other gods. They have 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 in compassion and regard for both neighbors and aliens. (This could be ripped from today’s headlines.) Hosea charged that economic resources are being exploited to wage war, the government is 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…Name your children Jezreel, after a place of a brutal massacre; Lo-Ruhamah meaning no compassion; and Lo-Ammi, not my people. Do this,’” Hosea hears God saying, “’because I am not your becoming; I am not your being; I am not your will be.’”

Continue reading →

Resist!

Posted on by

Proper 11C
July 21, 2019

Amos 8:1-12  A famine…of hearing the words of the Lord.
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.

  • I have an exercise for you. Choir and altar party, you too.
    If you love the heat of the summer because you can finally get warm, stand on the lectern side of the chapel.
  • If you feel wiped out by the heat, stand on the pulpit side. (and thank you very much for being here, in spite of the heat). Now to the Gospel story we just heard.
  • If you identify as more of a Martha, stand on the pulpit side of the chapel. If you identify as more of a Mary, stand on the lectern side of the chapel.
  • If you sympathize more with Martha, move to the pulpit side of the chapel. If you sympathize more with Mary, stand on the lectern side of the chapel.
  • If you really dislike this story of Jesus with Martha and Mary, stand on the pulpit side of the chapel. If you love this story, stand on the lectern side. How many of you really want to stand in the middle but there’s not enough room? Okay – you can return to your seats.

Thank you – I wanted to see how divided you are when it comes to this Gospel story, which is wedged between the story of the Good Samaritan and the story of Jesus’ teaching about how to pray, and it is trouble with a capital T packed into five short verses. I could have also asked you to stand on one side if you are aware of the divisiveness of this story and on the other side if you, prior to now, have been blissfully unaware of any conflict! This is a story that always reminds me that whenever two or three are gathered in Jesus’ name, there will be a disagreement! This particular story pits women against each other and invariably fuels resentment and division in groups that study it together, no matter what the participants’ gender identities. And since it is a story about two sisters, through the ages, it has had the powerful effect of stopping and shutting up women – scolding Marthas and making sure Marys stay quiet.

Continue reading →

Love the one who shows mercy!

Posted on by

Proper 10C
July 15 2019

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.

Following my sermon last week about Galatians, I thought I might do some teaching about the letter to the Colossians, but I just couldn’t let the story called “The Good Samaritan” go unaddressed. It’s 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, rules of law about limits of liability, award programs, all get called Good Samaritan. This parable called “The Good Samaritan,” 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 all 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 more confessions and more defensive attempts at self-justification than any other I know.

Continue reading →

Bearing One Another’s Burdens

Posted on by

Proper 9C
July 7, 2019

2 Kings 5:1-14 Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.
Galatians 6:1-16 [You all,} bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 Peace to this house.

O God of gentleness and redemption, 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.

This morning I want to focus our attention on our reading from Galatians, because we aren’t going to hear from this beautiful letter for another three years, and it’s one of the most important books in our Second Testament, theologically and ethically. We don’t know for sure, but it might be the second oldest document in our Christian scripture, probably written just after the year 50. Galatia was a large territory in what is now known as central Turkey. Paul was writing to a group of communities, not just to a gathering in one town or city. Here is the oldest document that asserts justification by faith and not works (works, in this case, mean circumcision for men and keeping dietary commandments – it doesn’t mean “good deeds”). The thing about justification by faith, though, is that, according to Paul, it’s the faith of or from Jesus Christ, not faith in Jesus Christ that saves us. It was Jesus’s faith, not his followers’ faith, and that’s a good thing, because as a group, we aren’t all that faithful. As far as I can tell, Paul never meant to suggest that we don’t have work to do in response to Jesus’ faith in God and in his followers.
Continue reading →

Cost what it will.

Posted on by

Proper 8C  
June 30, 2019

1 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 our ground of all being, 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.

Last week I gave you some homework: to re-read or pray with Psalm 42 to help you acknowledge your thirst for the Divine; to disable or dial down the “better-than/worse-than” calculators that are always running in our brains and using up power like background apps on a smart phone or like clocks on kitchen appliances. And finally, to tell others what the Holy One has done for you. How did it go? If you missed the assignment or the dog ate your homework, it’s okay. You’re here – that’s the important thing! Thank you for being here. Church is one place in life where you get full credit just for showing up!

Continue reading →

Tell how much God has done for you!

Posted on by

Proper 7C
June 23, 2019

1 Kings 19:1-15a What are you doing here Elijah?
Psalm 42 Deep calls to deep.
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 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.

Those of you who have heard me preach know I often have scripture readings to complain about. (Think the late Andy Rooney of 60 Minutes.) Today I want to say that there should be a lectionary rule about not having too many good readings from scripture on the same day. The story of Elijah, Psalm 42, Paul’s letter to the Galatians, and the Gerasene demoniac story – I mean, come on. It’s just too much. I love these scriptures – they are touchstones for me in my own life of faith. Very often, they are at the top of my head and the tip of my tongue. Today there’s too much to say about what I love.

Continue reading →

A Time of Prayer

Posted on by

Seventh Sunday in Easter (C)
June 2, 2019

Acts 16:16-34  Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21  And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
John 17:20-26  So that the love with which you have loved me may be in them.

O God of purpose and possibility, 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.

In our Church calendar, we have entered into the commemoration of a period of time after Jesus’ death, in between when his friends stopped having powerful external experiences of his presence and started internalizing his presence. After they watched Jesus work and before they started feeling brave enough and inspired enough to make his work their own. In the Church calendar, the commemoration is nine days – a novena – a period of special devotion, a period of prayerful waiting for a spirit of holiness to deliver some grace in a circumstance of peril or need. Of course, any churchy observance or season might feel mismatched with what we’re experiencing or feeling. You might already be filled with inspiration – like our newly ordained deacon Sarah. You might be feeling dazed and confused by the sorrows of your life or the sorrows of the world. Either way, the Church invites you to be in a time of prayer about what’s next.

Continue reading →

Fixer-Uppers

Posted on by

Sixth Sunday in Easter, Year C, May 26, 2019.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Acts 16:9-15. Come and stay at my home.
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5. Gates will never be shut by day and there will be no night.
John 14:23-29.  We will come to them and make our home with them.

O God of Homecoming, 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.

More visions this week in our scripture readings: today a vision of Paul, another vision of John of Patmos, and more of the vision of John the Evangelist. What strikes me about the three visions last week and this week is that they are visions of home. They’ve reminded me that I really miss the occupation description “homemaker.” I’m sorry that it has become a bad word for progressives and I want to take it back. I also miss the name home economics as a course of study. The root meaning of the word economy is household. A household or home, in this sense, is a place where the residents (who are not necessarily related) share their meals and rest together. There is an economy.

Continue reading →

Surprising Visions of Peace

Posted on by

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C
May 19, 2019

Acts 11:1-18 The spirit told me…not to make a distinction between them and us.
Revelation 21:1-6 I am making all things new…to the thirsty I will give water as a gift.
John 13:31-35 I give you a new commandment, [in order] that you love one another.
O God of all, 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 are thirty-five days into Eastertide, and our scripture lessons today describe visions: Peter’s vision, John of Patmos’ vision, and John the Evangelist’s vision. While Peter was in a trance of prayer, he had a life-changing dream that revealed there is no distinction between “them” and “us.” In other words, when it comes to the redeeming urge or work of the Holy One, (also known as Jesus Christ for Christians), there is no Jew or Gentile, no free or slave, no male and female, [1]  no insiders and outsiders, no gender binary; all people are one. While there are always those in the center and those on the margins, those with more power and those with less, those of us who have and use more than our fair share of resources and those who do not have their basic needs met, we are all one. Peter realizes that he should not be hindering the work of God by deciding who is inside and who is outside of God’s reach when it comes to sacred and profane practices. Here’s where we often get tripped up as Christians. How does any of us decide what is godly is and what it’s not? Well, for starters, as our Presiding Bishop Curry is fond of saying, “if it’s not about love, it’s not about God.” Of course it gets complicated, but that’s where we start. If it looks like there are competing interests that all have to do with love, we might need to enlarge our view. We might need to look at the situation from 30,000 feet where differences become imperceptible.

Continue reading →

Come alive!

Posted on by

Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year C
May 12, 2019

Acts 9:36-43 He gave her his hand and helped her up.
Revelation 7:9-17 He will guide them to springs of the water of life.
John 10:22-30 It was winter.

O God of eternal life, 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.

During Eastertide, our lectionary offers no lessons from the First Testament. The effect, I think, is to overemphasize a break between Jesus’ followers and Jesus’ religious identity and tradition. Instead, we have passages from the Acts of the Apostles’ romantic accounts of the beginnings of Christianity, written toward the end of the first century about “the good old days.” (Always be suspicious when you hear about good old days, because they’ve never been good for everybody.) Today it’s Peter raising Dorcas from the dead with a line that is almost exactly the same as what Jesus said to raise Jairus’ daughter from the dead. Jesus reportedly said, “talitha cum” which means arise or wake up, come alive! Here Peter says, “tabitha anasteythi” which means arise or wake up, come alive!. In other words, Peter was ministering just like Jesus.

Continue reading →