Christmas Eve, December 24, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O great Light and abundant 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.

I wish you could see yourselves the way you look from this pulpit! You look so beautiful! I was hoping that you would be here and I am so glad that you are. Thank you for coming to Emmanuel Church to spend some of your Christmas time. Welcome to those of you who are here for the first time, welcome to those of you who have been here more times than you can count, and welcome to all of you who are in between. I always like to begin my sermon on Christmas Eve by letting you know that I imagine that some of you have been looking forward to being here and could not wait to get to this lovely church on this holy night, to hear the extraordinary music and the lessons and the prayers of Christmas. And I imagine that for others of you, this was not your first choice, maybe you are here because it matters to someone you love, or maybe there’s a sadder reason that you’re here. Maybe some of you don’t even quite know the reason – and I’m especially grateful that you’re here too. Whether you skipped or stumbled here, thank you for coming into this refuge – this sanctuary. My Christmas hope for all of you is that, however you’re feeling, thrilled, ambivalent, healthy or unwell, joyful or heavy hearted, peaceful or downright stressed and cranky, you will leave here tonight feeling better than when you arrived. Continue reading →

Fourth Sunday of Advent (A), December 22, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God of blessing, 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 according to Matthew begins with a genealogy genealogy, and it’s too bad that it’s not included in our lectionary portion for today (although it’s full of tongue-twisting names and lectors all over Christendom are probably grateful for its omission)! It begins with Abraham and lists fourteen generations to David, then another fourteen generations to the deportation to Babylon, and fourteen generations from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah. (A handful of kings have to be omitted in order to achieve the perfect symmetry – oh well.) The best thing about the genealogy is that the list includes women, non-Jewish ancestors and several immoral characters.¹ In other words, it’s not an unblemished pedigree, in other words – it’s a mixed bag, not unlike my own ancestry! Continue reading →

Third Sunday of Advent (A), December 15, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God, 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.

“Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us.” Some of you might remember that I already declared my favorite collect of the day a few weeks ago. This one is also my favorites. “With great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us.” I’m sure you don’t need me to read this to you again, but I can’t hear it enough. Today, on the third Sunday of Advent, it’s the American Episcopal Church’s Stir-up Sunday.

In England, Stir-up Sunday is the last Sunday before Advent when the collect begins with the plea for God to stir things up. Maybe you know the children’s rhyme: Stir, up, we beseech thee/ the pudding in the pot/ And when we get home/ We’ll all eat it hot! In other words, the children don’t want to wait until Christmas to eat the Christmas pudding. Do you know people who don’t want to wait until Christmas to eat Christmas treats or open Christmas presents? (I’m not one of them, but I am married to one!) Continue reading →

Second Sunday of Advent (A), December 8, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God, hope 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.

It’s the second Sunday of Advent, and once again (in the Church, anyway) we have to go by John the Baptist in order to get to the baby Jesus. I don’t know about you, but whenever I encounter John the Baptist, in scripture or in people that remind me of him in day-to-day life, I have a strong urge to steer clear. It’s not that I disagree with John the Baptist’s message; it’s just hard for me to look at him and hard to listen to him, especially when he starts his blistering critiques of well-meaning religious teachers and priests (which is what Pharisees and Sadducees were). I feel inclined to respond, “Look, come back and talk to me when you’ve calmed down and you’ve had a good meal and a shower.” But John the Baptist never calms down. And I don’t want to look him in the eyes any more than I want to look people in the eyes who are rough and wild and eating whatever they can find out of garbage cans in the wilderness of places like the Back Bay. I don’t want to listen to John the Baptist any more than I want to listen to the angry rants about injustice from a disgruntled resident of the women’s shelter downstairs or anyone else, for that matter. Continue reading →

Christ the King, Proper 29C, November 24, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Merciful and generous God, 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.

There are days when I am tempted to depart from preaching the lectionary – and this is one of those days. There’s a lot going on this morning. Today is the Feast of the Reign of Christ – or Christ the King Sunday. This is the last Sunday in the church year – the completion of our lectionary cycle of Bible readings – our version of the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah!¹ Our new liturgical year begins next week. Also, it’s almost Thanksgiving and just past the somber 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy. We are celebrating the baptism of Connor Christopher Carmine today, welcoming him into the household of faith at Emmanuel Church. And it’s pledge stewardship Sunday – a day on which we give thanks to God for this parish’s important witness in the world, and pledge our financial commitment to do all in our power to keep the ministries and ministers of this place going – or better, growing — for another year! Quite a casserole! And those are just the things I know about. I’m sure there’s more going on with you all. (That’s just how life is, isn’t it?) Continue reading →

Proper 28C, November 17, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God of our testimony, 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 collect for the day is my all-time favorite. “Blessed Lord who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them.” Eat this scroll – as the story goes in Ezekiel. This is holy scripture – eat up! Inwardly digest it. Except, I have to say, apocalyptic Biblical literature, can be hard to swallow for many progressive Christians, and that is what is on our plates in today’s Gospel lesson from Luke.

Biblical scholars are in wide agreement that these passages, written as a prediction, describe what had already happened to the followers of the Rabbi from Nazareth. By the time Luke was written near the end of the first century, the temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Roman army in the year 70. Nations were rising against nations, and utter chaos and devastation were being experienced by those who claimed Jesus as Lord. Was Jesus able to predict this future? Just as sure as he was able to quote Isaiah and 2 Chronicles that predicted the same thing. Continue reading →

Proper 23C, October 13, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God of sacred story, 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 sermon is going to include a list-making exercise.  So you might want to have a pen or pencil ready – or your notes page on your smart phone will do also. If we were a parish that had a sign with this week’s sermon title listed out front, I’d call this sermon, “In Defense of the Other Nine.” Ten lepers yelled out to Jesus to have mercy on them. Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests. He didn’t say “okay, I do have mercy.” He didn’t say “great is your faith.” He didn’t say, “not my job,” but he also didn’t touch them – there’s nothing to suggest that he even got near them. They kept their distance, the story says. They shouted out asking for mercy. He said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests,” he says. “Go on.” Continue reading →

Proper 22C, October 6, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
Lamentations 1:1-6 Her priests groan, her young girls grieve, and her lot is bitter….nobody goes to church any more.
2 Timothy 1:1-11 I am reminded of …a faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice…rekindle the gift of God that is within you.
Luke 17:5-10 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

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.

I have some show and tell for you today. While my helpers are passing out mustard seeds, I want to say something about the cantata placement today. This cantata was written to bracket the sermon. So we are offering it today as Bach intended. Thanks to everyone who made the complicated logistics work. I love that phrase “as Bach intended.” It’s not completely as Bach intended though – because Bach also intended that the pitch be higher, the lights be dimmer, the preacher to be a man and for the sermon to last for at least 45 minutes (which sounds like some good nap time)! I don’t think you’re going to have time for a nap this morning. Continue reading →

Proper 20C, September 22, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

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.

Welcome to this grand sanctuary, this haven of beauty. Welcome to this magnificent community, whose mission is to welcome you, no matter how long you’ve been here, and wherever you are on your spiritual journey, even and especially if you are not in such a good place on your spiritual journey! Welcome to a gathering of people that will love you just the way you are and will love you too much to let you stay that way! Welcome to church in the Back Bay, which often turns out to be very hard to get to, in bad weather and in good weather! Welcome to a worship service in which the readings are usually challenging and sometimes confounding, the prayers of the people are often disturbing, and the music is reliably sublime! Welcome to a church long on questions and short on answers, and yet, a church where one beggar can always show another beggar where to get some bread. Continue reading →