Tag Archives: salvation

The Gate

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Fourth Sunday of Easter
May 3, 2020

Acts 2:42-47 They would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.
1 Peter 2:19-25 So that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness…
John 10:1-10 Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate

O Source of life abundant, may we have the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth – come when it may, and cost what it will.

I don’t know how many of you know this, but one of the first things that the Mayor of Boston did when it became clear that the COVID-19 pandemic would hit Boston hard, was to invite the leaders of faith communities in the City to meet with him via conference call. It was a surreal St. Patrick’s Day in the City of Boston when Mayor Walsh acknowledged that faith leaders had always been there for him and for the city, but the reverse had not always been true.  Since that day, his senior staff has been working more closely than usual with religious leaders to identify people who are most vulnerable and to direct our combined resources to serve them. Weekly conference call meetings begin and end with prayer, led by participants on the call: Muslims, Jews, Christians and others. Thus surrounded by prayer, the content of the meetings focuses on food, water, access to bathrooms, safe shelter for the days and nights, public safety, children, elders, racism, xenophobia, domestic violence, addiction treatment, protecting undocumented immigrants, and financial relief through the Boston Resiliency Fund. After each meeting, the mayor’s office sends a follow-up email with resources, reminders, answers to questions and sometimes requests. Thursday we were asked to remind you to please complete the census reporting so that we get the federal funding that we need for the next ten years. I tell you this in a sermon because it is an example of good shepherding on a day known in church tradition as Good Shepherd Sunday.

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Hallelujah anyhow!

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Easter A
April 12, 2020

Jeremiah 31:1-6 I have loved you with an everlasting love.
Colossians 3:1-11 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed.
John 20:1-18 I have seen the Lord.

 O God of mystery and meaning 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.

Every Easter for the last dozen years, I’ve read the story of The Three Trees from the steps to the chancel, surrounded by children of many ages. As I weighed whether to read the story in our livestreamed service, I realized that sitting alone on the empty steps seemed truer to the Easter story than ever before. I imagine you who are watching and missing the physical experience of being together in a full and carried-away church are having mixed feelings much truer to the Easter story too. 

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Rejoice!

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Third Sunday of Advent (A), December 15, 2019.  The Rev. Pamela L. Wermtz

Isaiah 35:1-10.  A highway shall appear there, which shall be called the Holy Way.
James 5:7-10. Beloved, do not grumble against one another.
Matthew 11:2-11. Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?

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.

Today is the Sunday in Advent called Gaudete Sunday. (Gaudete means rejoice.) Our liturgical color for the third Sunday is rose; that’s why we have a rose-colored candle in our Advent wreath and rose in our vestments. It is a Sunday set aside to fill our imaginations with joyful anticipation of what God might be up to in creating new heavens and a new earth. It is a Sunday to pick our heads up and rejoice in the faithfulness of God, in the midst of everything that grieves us, in the midst of oppression and violence, in the midst of hunger and illness and imprisonment, even in the midst of destruction and death. I’ve spent considerable time this week wondering how to rejoice always in spite of wide-spread violence and hate crimes, the rise of fascism, and the wanton disregard for the well-being of our planet. It’s a hard choice, I think, not to give in to despair; it’s hard, even scandalous, to choose to rejoice. Rejoicing, however, is not the same as “holiday frolicking”, as William Stringfellow once wrote; and rejoicing certainly doesn’t mean letting up on our non-violent resistance and our actions to end oppression of all kinds.

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Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

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Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost (19B), Sept 16, 2018; The Rev. Susan Ackley

Isaiah 50:4-9a The Lord God has given me
the tongue of a teacher…
James 3:1-12 Not many of you should become teachers…
Mark 8:27-38 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi…

Here we are back in the sanctuary.

A change of location for our worship as we move from the long, narrow space in the Lindsey Chapel back to this BIG wide open space.  Banners visible up in the choir loft. The Emmanuel Land window. All this resonant air just waiting to be charged by sounds of the Schutz, Byrd, and Bach.
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Possibility Sunday

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Fourth Sunday of Easter Year A, May 7, 2017; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Acts 2:42-47 They would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.
1 Peter 2:19-25 So that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness… .
John 10:1-10 Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate.

O God of life, may we have 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 known in church tradition as Good Shepherd Sunday.  Jesus, of course, is known as the Good Shepherd, son of the Best Shepherd!  Shepherding is one of the oldest occupations known to humankind, so we probably all feel like we understand what a shepherd does, but I’m going to review the job description with you anyway.  The primary responsibility of a shepherd is to ensure that a flock gets adequate food and water.  Once that is taken care of, a good shepherd protects a flock from becoming prey or being stolen, and takes care that they are not overdriven.  Shepherding language for figures of speech when it comes to leading people is found in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and of course, Israel.  It’s worth noting that the metaphor of shepherding is generally used as a political metaphor, [1] although politics and religion weren’t so separate in ancient times (and they’re really not so separate even today). Religion is political just as the personal is political. Not acknowledging that is a form of unexamined privilege. Continue reading →

Grapes

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First Sunday after Christmas B, December 28, 2014; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Isaiah 61:10-62:3 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake, I will not rest.
Galatians 4:4-7 So that we might receive adoption as children.
Luke 2:22:40 The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

O God with us, Emmanuel, 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 Gospel portion that I just read is only told in the Gospel of Luke. It follows immediately after the verse which says, “After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child, and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. If it had been a little less chaotic at Emmanuel Church in the weeks leading up to Christmas, I might have remembered to expand our Gospel reading in your bulletins to include this verse, because of the reference to Jesus’ naming ceremony. Only Luke tells anything about Jesus before he reached later adulthood. So I wonder, what is it that Luke wanted to demonstrate with these stories of Jesus’ infancy and boyhood?

I think the first is that Jesus was a real human, according to Luke. He was born to human parents, with a genealogy that went back to Adam — earthling (who Luke calls the Son of God). The Good News of Jesus Christ in Luke is that God anointed a human being to fully embody God’s intention of freedom and right-relationship for God’s people. Jesus increased in wisdom as he increased in years. According to Luke, Jesus didn’t land on earth knowing it all. Jesus learned as he went. According to Luke, Jesus was fully, really human. Continue reading →

Jacob wrestles with God.

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Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 13, August 3, 2014, The Rev. Frederick Stecker

Genesis 32:22-31 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
Romans 9:1-5 I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
Matthew 14:13-21 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a lonely place apart.

In a book of poems entitled Yahweh’s Other Shoe Benedictine poet Kilian McDonnell interprets the Hebrew saga we’ve been following. His poem is entitled God Cheats. [1] Continue reading →