Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Romans 5:1-5   Suffering and Hope   Candy Land, a game “lovingly” described on Wikipedia as requiring, “no reading…minimal counting skills [and] no strategy,” is a wonderfully accessible way to introduce even the youngest of children to the timeless idea of journey.   It is true that the Candy Land journey is a bit more simplistic than the journey through life – all laid out as it is in a predictably static two dimensions.   But while the path on the board is clear, every trip has its own challenges. At times the cards you draw will set you off in the direction of your goal; at others times there are setbacks and slowdowns in the cards.   You might be forced to retrace your steps a time or two; your plastic child could at times get stuck in some sticky sugar for a turn.   But what is always true is that the road begins at the Cupcake Commons, runs past the Lollypop Woods, and ends at the Promised Land of Candy Castle.   And if you stay in the ga

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Acts 2:1-21   Speaking Your Language   But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”   Which makes me question whether the others were familiar with the general concept of intoxication.   Because, typically, drunkenness does not endow one with heightened linguistic abilities or the grasp of previously unknown languages.   At least that is what I have been told.   I guess I don’t really know; I don’t drink. Then again, also I don’t speak Phrygian.   Is that a coincidence?   Would I speak Phrygian if I imbibed a healthy dose of that new wine?   There was someone in that chaotic crowd, described in our reading from Acts, who did speak Phrygian.   One Galilean, for one day and probably never again, spoke the language of a people very far removed from the Galilean hills.   One Galilean, after being set on fire and then blown out the door by a powerful gust of interior wind, started speaking the native language of an ancient people