Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 28:16-20   Go! St. John, Delhi   Another week; another mountain.   The disciples have once again gathered at altitude to watch the resurrected Jesus leave.   It feels like we just did this.   Two Sundays ago, on the Seventh Sunday of Easter, on the Sunday after the Ascension, we heard of a similar scene, that time from Luke’s perspective, this time from Matthew’s.   And while the stories do bear a striking resemblance, there is an important distinction between these two goodbyes.   In the telling we heard two weeks ago, the disciples were told to huddle up in an upper room and prepare for the coming of the Holy Spirit.   That is not the message of this Gospel passage, these final verses of Matthew’s Gospel.   In Acts, the disciples were directed to wait; here they are told to “GO”!   This “go” is famously how the Gospel of Matthew ends.   It is a stirring and memora...

The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Acts 2:1-21   Superpower St. John’s, Troy   It was April of 2023, and I was sitting in St. Michael’s Chapel at Christ the King for the first, but not the last, time.   Where the congregation typically sits were the members of the diocesan Profile and Search Committee.   Before the altar, on high, backless stools, were those in discernment, those prayerfully considering a new form of ministry.   I was on one of those stools.   And, along with my fellow candidates, I was answering questions pulled, if I am remembering correctly, randomly from a hat, or from some similar utilitarian receptacle.     The questions throughout this semi-finalist retreat had been probing and challenging and appropriately complex.   Those days we spent together were days of deep discernment.   The committee needed to leave that retreat with a slate of finalists to present to the public.   Each question alo...

T he Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Acts 1:1-14   Hard to Believe Good Shepherd, Elizabethtown   It was hard to believe.   And they were standing right there, watching it happen.   They thought that Jesus might finally settle down, after everything, but instead he was going up.   And there was no stopping him.   Before their very eyes, he was lifted up, beyond their reach, beyond their words, beyond any feeble attempt to reason with him, or beg him to stay.   There was nothing they could do but watch him go.   And that is exactly what they did: they just stood there staring, stunned silent, mouths agape, angels lecturing and shouting instructions.   They likely arrived on the scene with some preconceived notion, some sense of expectation.   But they were not expecting this.   It was just so hard to believe.   But for the disciples, this was nothing new.   Not really.   Jesus had this tendency to surprise...

The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson John 14:15-21   Never, Ever Alone Church of the Messiah, Glens Falls   I have a little sister.   She is two years younger than me.   When we were children, she had a favorite movie.   We watched it all the time.   I could recite all the lines; I knew the catchy songs.   I enjoyed the dumb dog.   I appreciated that the male lead was bald.     Annie, set during the Great Depression, was about the eponymous little orphan girl, remembered for her bright red afro, who is adopted by that wealthy bald man, Daddy Warbucks.   She lived a hard-knock life, in a smelly orphanage, with the great Carol Burnett, until, in the end, she finds her happily ever after.   It is little Annie whom I picture when I imagine an orphan.   I do not imagine eleven grown men – all free range, some with wives and children, some with parents who are, in fact, explicitly mentioned in the Bible doing thi...

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Luke 24:13-35   A Hope that does not Disappoint St. Paul’s, Sidney   They had hoped.   But the long walk of retreat was evidence that hope was no longer on the agenda.   They had hoped.   But now, standing before an inquisitive stranger, they just look sad.   The bright glow of hope went out when the sharp nails went into Jesus’ precious body.   Where hope once reigned, there was now nothing but disappointment.   It was a very human experience that they were experiencing on the road back to Emmaus.   This is what people do: they get their hopes up only to be let down.   And those two disciples were let down…because they had hoped.   People place their hope in a lot of things – and always have.   The Hebrew Scriptures are filled with stories of misplaced hope: golden calves melted down, stone idols turned to dust, mighty kings disgraced.   As the psalmist reminds u...

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 28:1-10   But Not for God   She was helpless.   Utterly helpless.   It was the Friday of a week that had spun out of control, in the very worst possible way.   And there was nothing she could do to stop the spinning.   Mary Magdalene stood at a distance now, but the distance provided no perspective, no safety – just more pain.   From that distance, she was still close enough to see the ending of a story that was, apparently, a tragedy.   For a while, it had felt like a fairy tale.   But the cross at the end proved otherwise; it was a twist ending she did not see coming.     Because he was best of us, impossibly good, completely selfless, just made of love. It was like kindness flowed through his veins.   If anyone should get the happy ending, it was Jesus.   But he got the death penalty instead.   And now here she was, looking on from a distance as his bloo...