The Baptism of our Lord (C), January 10, 2016; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God of wonder, 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 is the day in the church when we remember Jesus’ baptism and have an opportunity to remember and renew baptismal vows. It’s not the usual way of remembering – because none of us (not even Luke) was around when Jesus was baptized, and those of us who were babies when we were baptized can’t recall what it was like. But we remember by telling the story again and in a few minutes we’ll remember by renewing baptismal promises. After church today, if you’re lucky enough to have someone around who was there for your baptism, ask them to tell you the stories of your baptism that they remember. And if you were old enough, when you were baptized, that you remember it, or if you know because you’ve been told, tell someone else the story of your baptism. If you’ve never gotten baptized, I invite you to take a moment and imagine getting baptized! Under what circumstances would you ever consider making a public commitment to cast your lot with the kind of Christians who baptize with water in the name of the Trinity and make promises to support one another? Are there any circumstances in which you would be willing to wade into this troubled water to witness to the power of redeeming love made manifest in Jesus? Continue reading →

Second Sunday after Christmas (C), January 3, 2016; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God of hope, 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 readings for the Second Sunday after Christmas are as full of treasures as the caravan of the magi. There is the beautiful promise of return from exile, a picture of restoration and redemption – a prediction that the people of God will finally be satisfied with the bounty of God. The passage from Ephesians predicts that the eyes of the heart of the congregation in Ephesus will be enlightened so that they will know the hope to which they have been called, so that they will know the riches of their glorious inheritance (which is hope), and what is the immeasurable greatness of the power of God (or Love) for those who believe. I’d add that the power of Love is immeasurably great whether or not they believe! Continue reading →

Fourth Sunday of Advent (C), December 20, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God of “she who believed,” 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 always loved Mary, the mother of Jesus – the Godbearer, more than a good Protestant girl should. It is Mary who draws me to the catholicity of the Episcopal Church, but I’ve never understood Mary to be meek or mild or mindless, and I don’t know how anyone who reads Biblical accounts of her could understand her that way either. I don’t know how anyone who hears the words of the Magnificat, which are taken from the Song of Hannah in the Hebrew Bible book of Samuel, could hear anything but a religious and political manifesto. Earlier this month, the Rev. Nancy Rockwell, wrote an essay entitled, “No More Lying about Mary,” that captured in writing what I have always believed about Mary – that she was brave and strong. Continue reading →

Third Sunday of Advent (C), December 13, 2015, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Zephaniah 3:14-20 I will change their shame into praise.
Philippians 4:4-7 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Luke 3:7-18 He proclaimed good news to the people.

O God of bountiful grace and 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 this third Sunday of Advent, our scripture lessons all contain great and prophetic dissonance. The dissonance is easy to hear in the Gospel reading from Luke. John the Baptist is yelling things at the people who came to be baptized by him, like “You brood of vipers!…Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees…He will baptize you with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” and then the writer of Luke adds in his best story-telling voice, “with many other exhortations John the Baptist proclaimed the good news to the people.” That always makes me think, “Boy, if that’s the good news, I’d hate to hear the bad news.” Continue reading →

Second Sunday of Advent (C), December 6, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

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.

In the third year of the presidency of George W. Bush, son of George H. W. Bush; when Mitt Romney, son of George Romney, was governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, during the Episcopacy of M. Thomas Shaw, Jr., and during the 26^th year of the Rectorate of George M. Chapman and the 2^nd year of the Assistant Rectorate of Pamela L. Werntz at a parish in Brookline named after St. Paul, the word of God came to a homeless person named Matthew in the wilderness (the wilder-ness) of the Boston Common. [1] He went into all the region around Boston, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah and the evangelist Luke: “The voice of one crying out: “in the wilderness ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” In other words, the lone voice of one yelling — in the wilderness – the dangerous place – the unclean place of madness, of testing and of demons and of chaos: get to work on making God’s way, which of course, is Love’s way. To make God’s way, you will raise up the depressed places, lower the insurmountable obstacles, straighten out the run-around, make the rough ways easy so that ALL people can see the goodness of God – the goodness of Love — salvation. Continue reading →

Last Sunday in Pentecost: Christ the King, Proper 29B-15, November 22, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

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

Today is the last Sunday of the church year. This day has come to be known as The Feast of Christ the King. It’s a new church holiday — first declared by Bishop of Rome, Pius the 11^th in 1925 – so not yet 100 years old even in the Roman Catholic Church. As recently as fifteen years ago, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church described it as observed “unofficially in some Anglican churches.” As Episcopalians live into our ecumenical commitment to use the Revised Common Lectionary (shared with other major Christian denominations), Christ the King Sunday has become a part of our practice, printed on our calendars and worship planning books (so you know it’s real). Continue reading →