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.

The Anxious Class

Posted on by

Proper 21C, 25 September 2022.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15. Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.
1 Timothy 6:11-19. As for those who…are rich, command them to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share.
Luke 16:19-31. They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.

O God of peace, 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.

Partly by chance and partly by design, in the last two weeks, I’ve pondered and discussed our Gospel lesson for today with more than three dozen people, lay people and clergy. In the last two weeks, I’ve also deliberated with our Boston Harbor Deanery assembly about how to distribute some of what has fallen from the tables of the rich to people who lack adequate food, clothing, and shelter; and I’ve visited a dozen women in prison at South Bay, which requires driving through the encampments of destitute people at Melnea Cass and Mass. Ave..The story of the rich man and Lazarus has been very alive and present for me, right in my face. I’m aware that this is a story of great hope, of Good News, for anyone who is at the gates begging, but a story that sounds harsh and unforgiving, that it stirs up fear, shame, and defensiveness in many of us who have more-than-adequate food, clothing, and shelter. Continue reading →

Being Faithful

Posted on by

Proper 20C, 18 September 2022. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1. The summer is ended and we are not saved.
1 Timothy 2:1-7. “First of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone.
Luke 16:1-13. You cannot serve God and wealth.

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, whether it is surrounding you because you are here in person, or you’re seeing it online again through the lenses of cameras. Welcome to this magnificent community whose mission is to welcome you, no matter how long you’ve been here, no matter how long you’ve been away, and wherever you are on your spiritual journey, even and especially if you are not in such a good place! Welcome to a gathering of people whose mission is also to love you just the way you are and love you too much to let you stay that way! Welcome to a church that is very likely to change you for the better. 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 lovely! Welcome to a community long on questions and short on answers, and yet, one where one beggar can always show another beggar where to get some bread. Although we may have been apart for a time, this is not, “Welcome back”; this is, as I like to say, “Welcome forward”. Continue reading →

Rejoice with the angels!

Posted on by

Proper 19C.  11 September 2022. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28. It will be said a hot wind comes from me…toward my poor people.
1 Timothy 1:12-17. But I received mercy.
Luke 15:1-10. This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.

O God our help and our home, 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.

Hello! I’m so glad to see you. I’ve missed you! This morning I want to invite you to reflect with me about sinning and repenting. How’s that for my first sermon out of the gate after vacation? You may know that in our lectionary cycle of readings, the pairing of the First Testament reading with the Gospel is random during Ordinary Time. That is, we hear large segments of Hebrew scripture, scheduled without consideration of the Gospel appointments. So the pairing of Jeremiah and Luke is coincidental. Today, we also hear Psalm 14 and a reading from 1 Timothy. In seminary, preachers are admonished to stick with one lesson in our sermons, but I just can’t do it. I hear the readings in conversation with each other, even if they weren’t designed to be, and in conversation with us, even though they didn’t anticipate us.  Continue reading →

You are set free from your ailment.

Posted on by

11th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 17C, August 21, 2022; The Rev. Dr. John D. Golenski

Luke 13:12.  When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”

In our Gospel portion today, the authors of Luke describe an encounter between a woman living with long-term consequences of something like Guillain–Barré Syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, or tuberculosis of the spine.  As so often happens in the Gospel stories, when a diseased, wounded, or psychically-damaged person encounters Jesus, a profound healing results.  These accounts of Jesus’s cures, however, are not selectively recounted in the Gospel just to convince us that Jesus is divine.  Usually, there is a message or lesson embedded in the account of the healing. Continue reading →

Do you not know how to interpret the present time?

Posted on by

The 10th Sunday after Pentecost, August 14, 2022; The Rev. Dr. John D. Golenski

Luke 12:56. Do you not know how to interpret the present time?

Believe me when I tell you that clergy in Christian churches using the Revised Common Lectionary dread August.  That’s when we have to deal in our preaching with the apocalyptic passages in the Synoptic Gospels.  When last we shared a meal, I joked with Pam that she always takes her vacation during this month so she can escape all these “doom and gloom” passages.  Seriously, there is a lot of gloom in the portions from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke that are assigned for August’s Sundays.  Suffused with what we could call an apocalyptic vision, they focus on the inevitability of divine judgment and the imminence of the end of time.

Continue reading →

Do not be afraid.

Posted on by

9th Sunday after Pentecost, 7 August 2022,  The Rev. Dr. John D. Golenski

Genesis 15:1. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1.  Do not be afraid, little flock.
Luke 12:32.

On the island of Torcello in the northern reaches of the Venetian lagoon, stands a Romanesque basilica built by the Veneti people over several centuries. They had left their cities on the mainland to seek refuge from the ravages of the Huns. There they worshipped with their bishops until malaria drove them to the group of islands we know now as the city of Venice. The basilica remains on the almost-deserted island, a relic of earlier Christian worship.

Directly in front of the central doors of this basilica, which is really a museum, are the
ruins of an octagonal building which was pillaged for marble and bricks for constructions in Venice. It served as the baptistry, a separate building which opened into the basilica’s narthex. Looking into the eight-sided ruin, which had been topped by a dome, one quickly realizes that the structure focuses on the exact center where a large stone basin would have been placed. We know a good deal about the practices of the first centuries of the Church through the writings of hierarchs and scholars of the time, but also from the structure of buildings, many in ruins like Torcello’s baptistry, built around the liturgies of baptism and the Eucharist. Continue reading →

Don’t mismanage your miracle.

Posted on by
Proper 13C, 31 July 2022. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Hosea 11:1-11. My compassion grows warm and tender.
Colossians 3:1-11. The wrath of God is coming on whose who are disobedient.
Luke 12:13-21. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.

O God of abundance, 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 we have scripture readings that take the clichéd and inaccurate characterization of Old Testament god of wrath and New Testament god of love and turn it on its head. You might know that one of my life goals is to stop as many Christians as possible from thinking that the First Testament or Hebrew Bible depicts an angry God and the Second or Christian Testament depicts a loving God. I also want those people who finally learn to spread the news to others. Alas, it’s like the work of coming out: my work is never done.
Continue reading →

Claim Check

Posted on by

Proper 12C, 24 July.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Hosea 1:2-10. Children of the living God.
Colossians 2:6-19. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit.
Luke 11:1-13. Because of his [lack of shame or honor].

O God of dignity, 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 love that our hand fans proclaim that Emmanuel Church is prayer conditioned on a very hot day when our Gospel lesson is about Jesus’ teaching about how to pray. His answer to the disciples’ request to teach them to pray, the way John taught his disciples, is: ask, search, knock. Claim your honor and your dignity. Notice, though, that what is being sought is learning to pray, and what is being offered in Jesus’ response and words of assurance is a holy spirit, a spirit of holiness. In the original text, there is no definite article, and there are no capital letters. (This is long before the theological idea of Trinity got codified.) If you ask for a spirit of holiness, if you search for a spirit of holiness, if you knock on doors asserting your right to enter into a spirit of holiness, it will be given to you; it will be opened for you. Continue reading →

The Better Portion

Posted on by

Proper 11C. 17 July 2022.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Amos 8:1-12. Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land.
Colossians 1:15-29. For this I toil and struggle with all the energy that he powerfully inspires within me.
Luke 10:38-42 The better portion.

O God beyond our perceiving, 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 might just be because it’s hot and I’m getting close to vacation, so I’m a little grumpier than usual; but I looked at our readings for today earlier this week and thought to myself, “I don’t really want to say thanks be to God or praise be to you, Lord Christ to any of these three!” 

Amos, of course, is responding to the ancient command of the Divine: “If you see something, say something.” What he saw was the shocking evils of a flourishing urban elite exploiting people and extracting resources in a way that was impoverishing the whole country. Amos saw that military might, extravagant wealth, and shallow piety would result in utter devastation if those in power did not repent and return to the Holy One, to the Mosaic Law of love for neighbor, which meant (and still means) the just distribution of resources. The word of hope in Amos, which our lectionary doesn’t include, is that the time will come when those who plow shall overtake those who reap, when those who plant the vineyards will enjoy the fruit of their labor. Continue reading →

Unbounded Mercy

Posted on by

Proper 10C.  10 July 2022, The 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.

This parable called The Good Samaritan, found only in Luke, might be the most famous parable of them all. One doesn’t have to be a church goer to have heard of it and understand something about it. Hospitals, emergency services, counseling services, laws about liability limits, and award programs, all get called Good Samaritan. With its fame comes the enormous, sometimes crushing, weight of Protestant moral theology and Sunday-school lessons, both with 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 who have been beaten and robbed, lying in life’s various ditches, and not doing enough, or anything at all, to help. In my time as a priest, this story has provoked more confessions and more attempts at self-justification than any other I know. It reminds me of something bell hooks said, which feels like the essence of my vocation: [1]

I am often struck by the dangerous narcissism fostered by spiritual rhetoric that pays so much attention to individual self-improvement and so little to the practice of love within the context of community.

Continue reading →