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.

Like a Hen

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Lent 2C, February 24, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 I am your shield.
Philippians 3:17-4:1 He will transform the body of our humiliation.
Luke 13:31-35 How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.

O God our shield and defender, 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 text strikes me as a little strange. It’s strange to be catapulted from Luke’s account of Jesus in the wilderness before his ministry began, past miles of travel, teaching and healing all around the Galilee and beyond, to the middle of the Gospel of Luke, at the end of chapter thirteen. (Next week the scheduled portion is back in the beginning of chapter 13.) The slow, almost leisurely pace of Jesus’ ministry which includes story-telling, prayer and Sabbath meals gets completely eclipsed in our Lenten reading of Luke’s Gospel. Continue reading →

Get ready to celebrate!

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Lent 1C, February 17, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Deuteronomy 26:1-11 Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.
Romans 10:8b-13 How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!
Luke 4:1-13 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness.

O God of our callings, 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 of Luke tells us that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit in the wilderness. It’s a little gentler version than the Gospel of Mark’s description of Jesus being driven out to the wilderness by the Spirit. It was after he was baptized, according to Luke, but not before Luke recites Jesus’ genealogy. It’s a curious place to put a 77 generation genealogy – four chapters in to the story. But for Luke, it becomes the connective tissue between the baptism and the wilderness in which Jesus began his work – his ministry. The genealogy demonstrates that Jesus is a child of Israel, a child of all humanity, and a child of the Creator. Our lectionary does this crazy thing of splitting the story of Jesus’ baptism which we heard at the beginning of Epiphany, early in January, and this time in the wilderness. In the last six weeks we’ve heard all kinds of other stories in between the baptism and the wilderness, like last week’s account of the Transfiguration which comes much later in Luke. But the Gospel narrative is that Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit at baptism goes immediately into a harsh place of physical and spiritual danger. Continue reading →

Shehecheyanu

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Last Sunday After the Epiphany (C), February 10, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Exodus 34:29-35 the skin of his face was shining and they were afraid to come near him.
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:12 Since then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness.
Luke 9:28-43a And all were astounded by the greatness of God.

O God of faithfulness, 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.

One of the benefits for me of regularly sharing the pulpit of Emmanuel Church with a Rabbi is that it continues to challenge and change the way I encounter Holy Scripture.  My sensitivity to the need for “corrective lenses” is heightened.  My desire to preach against the ways that the Christian Church has promoted supersessionist theology is even more keen than before I got here five years ago.  Christian supersessionism is very much like racism as far as I am concerned – it’s systemic, it’s oppressive, it’s often internalized, and it’s always wrong.  It distorts our vision and damages our souls. Continue reading →

Let’s go team!

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Third Sunday after the Epiphany (C), January 24, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10 do not be grieved; the joy of the Lord is your strength.
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
Luke 4:14-21 Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

O God of freedom, 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’m going to say some things about Luke’s signature story about the miraculous beginning of the ministry of Jesus, but first I want to make sure you noticed that two verses are omitted from our lectionary-appointed reading of Nehemiah this morning: verses 4 and 7. I hope those of you who have heard me preach before noticed that and wondered what was missing! Maybe you even guessed that I would tell you! (I will.) The verses contain long lists of names. Perhaps they’re left out in deference to church readers everywhere – but I wish they hadn’t been. Continue reading →

Epiphany or bust!

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Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Isaiah 60:1-6 A multitude of camels shall cover you.
Ephesians3:1-12 [It] will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ.
Matthew 2:1-12 We observed his star at its rising.

O God of 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.

The feast of Epiphany so rarely falls on a Sunday – it feels great to celebrate it with all of you! We have a precious handmade ornament that hangs on our Christmas tree at home every year that says, “Epiphany or Bust!” Once again, we appear to have made it with the grace of God! You probably know that the word epiphany comes from the Greek word for showing or revelation or manifestation. So the Feast of Epiphany is a celebration of the vision of well-being – of the shalom of God. And we have a marvelous trio of readings about seeing the goodness of God in the darkness, through the dense fog; about perceiving the mystery of the Christ, the redeeming urge of the Divine in what feels like a god-forsaken place; and about searching for meaning and a true moral compass in the midst of fear, evil, and false directives. Of course, there’s good news and bad news. Continue reading →

Tears and Physics

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Christmas Eve, December 24, 2012; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Titus 3:4-7 Those who lived in a land of deep darkness–on them light has shined.
Titus 3:4-7 we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
John 1:1-14 All things came into being through [the Word], and without [the Word] not one thing came into being.

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 how amazing you all look! Thank you for coming to Emmanuel Church on this holy night. I always imagine that some of you have been looking forward to being here and could not wait to get to this beautiful sanctuary tonight, 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 for a sadder reason, or maybe you don’t even quite know the reason – and I’m especially grateful that you’re here too.

Anne Lamott has a new book about her essential prayers – which are Help, Thanks, and Wow. I want you to know that by your very presence here tonight you have already been an answer to those prayers for someone else – just by showing up. And I pray that you will experience some answer to your own deepest prayers of help, thanks and wow. My Christmas hope for each of us is , however we’re feeling – thrilled or deeply ambivalent, glad or grieving, or downright stressed and cranky, that we all leave here tonight feeling a little better than when we walked in the door. Continue reading →

God is Love.

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Advent 4C, December 23, 2012

Micah 5:2-5a And he shall be the one of peace.
Hebrews 10:5-10 In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.
Luke 1:39-56 Blessed is she who believed.

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.

Our Gospel reading this morning depicts an amazing scene – rare in its proclamation in the church but much celebrated in art and music.  It’s an extended dialogue between two loving women in the Biblical narrative (only Ruth and Naomi have similar prominence).  Here is a story of two pregnant prophets – one a crone and one a maiden – whose lives have been turned upside down and who sensed that the children they carried were prophets too, and would someday turn many other lives rightside up.  Here are two pregnant prophets blessing and praising and singing a version of an old old song, Hannah’s song, about the glorious impossibility of how God works and what God has done. Continue reading →

We have work to do.

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Advent 1C, December 9, 2012; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Baruch 5:1-9 Put on the robe of righteousness that comes from God.
Philippians 1:1-11 And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best.
Luke 3:1-6 Prepare the way of the Lord.

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.

This Advent, like most every Advent, I find myself wishing for some pre-holiday quiet – at least in worship! But John the Baptist is always loud. It’s hard to get a sense of just what kind of loud he is from the first six verses of Luke, chapter 3, when, in many of our heads, the prophet Isaiah’s words are accompanied by beautiful music from Handel’s Messiah. But in verse seven, which we will hear next week, John the Baptist shouts to folks who have come out to be baptized by him – mind you, they have come to receive the very baptism of repentance that he was calling for – and he yells at them, “you brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. If you don’t, you are like a tree that is cut down and thrown into the fire.” John the Baptist is loud and he’s in a very bad mood. He’s wild-eyed and hopping mad. John the Baptist is not the patron saint of sipping tea through a peppermint stick for a straw. Continue reading →

Love is very near.

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Advent 1C, December 2, 2012. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Jeremiah 33:14-16 Justice and righteousness in the land.
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all.
Luke 21:25-36 Then he told them a parable.

O unsettling 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.

Ready or not, we are beginning a new church year. It’s Advent!  If you were here late last night for the Christmas Oratorio, I bet this feels a lot like New Year’s Day. You’ll notice changes in our liturgy that mark this season of preparation and repentance: changes in color, in our music and prayers – whether you like them or not, the changes will probably feel unsettling or unfamiliar. Our Gospel readings in this liturgical year will be mostly from Luke. Whereas last year’s Gospel of Mark was terse and spare prose, interested in getting down just the most basic facts of the ministry and teaching of Jesus and of the circumstances of his death; the language of Luke is expansive and poetic, dramatically and outwardly focused — mission oriented. Ironically, we begin each new year with a teaching from Jesus about the world as it is known ending. This is no coincidence – all of the Gospels were written through the lens of the crucifixion and the experience of Love more powerful than the grave, and the longing for a world where the justice and peace of God will reign once and for all: all time and all people. Continue reading →

If I had a big screen….

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Christ the King, Proper 29B, November 25, 2012; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

2 Samuel 23:1-7 The spirit of the LORD is upon me.
Revelation 1:4b-8 Grace to you and peace.
John 18:33-37 For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth..

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.

Today we mark the end of the liturgical (or church) year – the last Sunday in Pentecost. This day has come to be known as The Feast of Christ the King – or The Reign of Christ Sunday for folks moving away from patriarchal language. It’s a fairly new church holiday — first declared by Pius the 11th in 1925. It was a Roman Catholic feast day; then it caught on with the Lutherans. As recently as a dozen years ago, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church described it as “kept unofficially in some Anglican churches.” As we Episcopalians have lived into our commitment to use the Revised Common Lectionary (shared with other major Christian denominations), Christ the King Sunday has become a part of our common practice, printed on our calendars (so you know it’s legit), but I’m a bit slow in my own conversion. Continue reading →