Tag Archives: baptism

Do not be afraid.

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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 →

Living in Love

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Epiphany 6C, 13 February 2022.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Jeremiah 17:5-10. In the year of the drought it is not anxious and it does not cease to bear fruit.
1 Corinthians 15:12-20. The first fruits of those who have died.
Luke 6:17-26. Blessed…blessed…blessed…blessed….Woe…woe…woe…woe.

O God of the Sabbath, 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 call your attention to some powerful connections between our readings from Jeremiah and Luke, but I think I’ll leave the brain-scrambling passage in 1 Corinthians about resurrection and the dreadful cantata text for another sermon! The prophet Jeremiah is addressing his nation with judgment and lamentation for abandoning its covenant relationship with the Holy One. He says the ways in which the nation has missed the mark of Love are engraved on the hearts of the people because their obstinate behaviors go so deep; they are marred to the core (heart). Jeremiah uses the metaphor of a dried-up shrub to describe the nation that has turned toward its own strength and away from the Holy One. Jeremiah says the nation is so compromised it will not even see when relief comes, when good comes. It’s an ancient way of saying, “They wouldn’t know a good thing if it knocked them in the head.” Continue reading →

Fire of God

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Baptism of Our Lord, 9 January 2022.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Isaiah 43:1-7. Because you are precious in my sight and I love you.
Acts 8:14-17. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Luke 3:15-17 [18-20] 21-22. You are my…beloved; with you I am well pleased.

O God of fire, 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 Feast of the Baptism of our Lord, the first Sunday in the season of Epiphany, churchy season of revelations, of proclamations of justice, and of joining with others to work for the common good. Our first reading from Isaiah, Chapter 43, is a passage about the decisive love of God, who gathers the people from every direction, paying whatever it takes to bring them home, to make sure they know that “Thus says the Holy One.” When they are in over their heads, the Holy One will be with them. When they are in extremely difficult and dangerous situations (aka walking through fire), the Holy One will comfort them, because they are precious, honored, and deeply loved. (Except, Isaiah puts the voice of the Holy One in first person and the people in the second person, in an exquisite and intimate I-Thou pairing.) Continue reading →

The Harvest of Righteousness

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Advent 2C.  19 December 2021. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Baruch 5:1-9 Take off the garment of sorrow and affliction and put on the robe of righteousness.
Phillipians 1:31-11. 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, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God
Luke 3:1-6 All flesh shall see the salvation of God.

God all merciful and all compassionate, 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.

As I said last week, Advent is a season for communal and institutional reflection and repentance, for collective atonement and reparations. Our readings for this second Sunday in Advent are so full and big with calls for repentance and reparations; it is almost as if they are pregnant with possibility. The prophet Baruch and the evangelist Luke are both reminding their hearers about the words of the prophet Isaiah. And Luke draws a picture of John the Baptist that is just like the prophet Jeremiah, consecrated before he was born, and just like Elijah by the Jordan in the wilderness. Luke also has already explained that John’s work was so closely related to Jesus’s work, their purposes were so akin to one another, that it was as if they must have known one another before they were even born. Continue reading →

Immersion

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Proper 24B.  17 October 2021. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Job 38:1-7, 34-41. Who?
Hebrews 5:1-10. Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears.
Mark 10:35-45.  What is it you want me to do for you?

O God of Mercy and Compassion, 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 many reasons to deck our dear souls, our dear selves, with gladness, as the famous chorale tune begins. God woke us up today and called us to this place. We have responded to our longings, whether they are barely perceptible or practically billboard-sized. God has put longings in our hearts, longings to make spiritual meaning of our lives and of our world with shared prayer, communal wisdom, and the practice of self-giving love. Now I realize that some of you might be thinking, “Oh, that’s not why I’m here! I’m just here for Diana’s baptism,” or “I’m just here for the music!” or “I’m just here because it matters to someone I care about.” My response is, “I am too! It’s all good, and I’m so glad you’re here!” Continue reading →

Vessels of God’s Grace

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Proper 8B. June 27, 2021

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27. How the mighty have fallen.
2 Corinthians 8:7-15. As you excel in everything…so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.
Mark 5:21-43. Little girl, get up.

O God who heals, 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.

Many of you know I always begin my sermons with that prayer, amended from a prayer attributed to Phillips Brooks, once Bishop of Massachusetts. It helps me find my preacher voice, as my daughter Laura calls it. Praying it is a way to locate myself in this position of privilege, which you grant to me, and to give myself permission to say things that might be challenging, hard for me to say or hear, or both. The prayer is also a frequent reminder that truth is not predictably or reliably found, and that the seeking is what I am about, what my work with you is about. While truth is costly, it always sets us free. That’s how we know it is truth. The seeking for truth is not at all about fact-finding;  it’s about experiencing freedom and joy and spreading it all around. As Paul exhorts the people in Corinth, we are to excel in generosity in what we undertake, so that the one who has gathered much does not have too much, and the one who has gathered little, does not have too little, and everyone has what they need. (Paul was reminding the people of the Torah, by the way.) This is the vision of community that we are welcoming Cooper Henry Santulli into this morning through his baptism.
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What a harvest!

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Proper 6B, June 13, 2021

1 Samuel 15:34-16:13.  The Lord looks on the heart.
2 Corinthians 5:6-17. The love of Christ urges us on.
Mark 4:26-34.  He does not know how.

O Startling God, 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 we are celebrating a harvest in the Church in the baptism of Baker Chapman Ryan, and we are celebrating Deacon Sunday! Baker is right here with his family and friends. Our own deacon, Bob Greiner, is guest preaching at Trinity Church in Melrose this morning, but he’ll join us for a Chapel Camp gathering on Zoom at 12:30 to talk about the blessing of diaconal ministry. We welcome back Isaac Everett, who is serving as our deacon, although he is a priest. Priests and bishops are always deacons first.
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A Place in This Seedpod

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Lent 1B, February 21, 2021, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

Genesis 9:8-17. I will remember my covenant.
1 Peter 3:18-22. An appeal to God for a good conscience.
Mark 1:9-15. The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.

O God of Love, 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.

I always love praying the Great Litany with you on the first Sunday of Lent, and I’m sad not to have prayed it chanting in a solemn procession that surrounds and enfolds the congregation in this prayer written for, and intended to be used during, times of great duress, danger, or devastation. I’ve been thinking about and hearing from some of you about how right it feels to be back in our liturgical, spiritual season of Lent. Lent is a season that aligns with much of what we are experiencing: a season of self-sacrifice, a season of recognition of when, where, and how we’ve missed the mark of Love, which is the Biblical definition of sin. Continue reading →

Pickled

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The Baptism of Our Lord, January 10, 2021, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

Genesis 1:1-5. God saw that light was good.
Acts 19:1-7. No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.
Mark 1:4-11. People from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem…[and] Jesus came from Nazareth

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

What a week. I’ve been reflecting more than usual on the history of Emmanuel Church, organized by a group of religious progressives, abolitionists whose wealth had come largely from the economics of enslaving people, though they were not slaveholders themselves. They formed Emmanuel in the spring of 1860, just eight months before states seceded from the United States, one year before the Civil War began. Our cornerstone was laid at the same time as the Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. Many in the North thought the conflict would be resolved quickly. They were so wrong; yet, their hope for the future represented by their church planting has produced so much good fruit, and it’s still producing today.

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Unholy Trinity: Idolatry, Blasphemy & White Supremacy

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Trinity Sunday (A), June 7, 2020.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Genesis 1:1-2:4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
2 Corinthians 13:11-13 Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace.
Matthew 28:16-20 But some doubted.

O Trinity of blessed 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.

Happy Trinity Sunday everyone. I’m feeling particularly spun up by the Holy Spirit this week and I want to preach about the turbulence of civil and religious unrest. A mighty wind is blowing people out of their homes, as Bishop Gates preached last week, and into the streets, throughout our land. We are hearing the Spirit in a variety of languages. Last Sunday, because it was Pentecost, we renewed our baptismal promises, and this week I’m going to speak to those promises. I’m particularly speaking to the questions: Will you persevere in resisting evil, and whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord? And will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being? Because Emmanuel Church is a predominantly white parish, not entirely, but predominately, this white priest is preaching primarily to the white people who are listening today. I think you know deep in your hearts the things I’m going to say, and yet, I have to be sure even though it feels awkward.

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