Preaching the Scriptures

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...

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 9:35-38     Remember Your “Why” Cathedral of All Saints and St. Thomas, Tupper Lake   In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus never once checks his email.   And I think we all know what that means: he is going to fall hopelessly behind – and then have to spend the rest of the week desperately trying to catch up.     Of course, I am only kidding: no one ever catches up on email, not even Jesus.   Because they just keep coming – always and forever.     The expectations of ministry have certainly changed over the centuries.   Priests and deacons of the past would never have imagined the shape and demands of ordained life in the 21 st century.   And it is not just your inbox.   Administrative expectations and mundane tasks constantly clog up our to-do lists.   You have to fill out the parochial report.   And beg someone to serve on the vestry.   And proo...

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew’s Passion [26:14-27:66]   A Reflection on the Passion Gospel St. Thomas, Tupper Lake   Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord?   Today we heard a story of unfathomable tragedy.   It is the story of an innocent man captured by the tremendous momentum of human violence.   It is the story of the one Roman crucifixion that is still worn around our necks.   And it occurred so long ago.   And so you, of course, were not there.   Because this tale transpired almost two thousand years ago, in a place far from here, a place still too familiar with violence and death.   The events of our Gospel took place long before St. Thomas Episcopal Church was founded.   Long before the Episcopal Church held its first Convention.  ...

T he Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson John 3:1-17   Lifted Up: Snakes and Salvation on the Journey Home Christ Church, Duanesburg   There is no place like home…and that is what they missed.   They missed having a place to call home – a place where you can hang your clothes, where the kids can roam the neighborhood with their friends, where the crops you plant are the ones you harvest.   And they did not have that, any of that.   Because they were lost in the wilderness – somewhere between what was and what they desperately hoped would be.   Their patience was thin to the point of threadbare.   And yet Moses decided they should take the scenic route…again.   The people, those tired and tattered wilderness people, did not respond well to that suggestion.   In fact, they lose it.   They lose the little bit of patience they still had.   They lose all self-control.   They lose their sense of decorum.   And they lose...