Preaching the Scriptures

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson A New Reality It has only been three and a half years, but sometimes I forget what it was like before I had a child.   Sometimes my son will appear in memories in which he does not belong – as if he were photo-shopped into a moment that once belonged to just me and my wife.   And usually it will be my wife who reminds me that that happened before we had kids.   It just feels like he has always been there.   Or maybe that's just because we haven't really slept in three and a half years.   But birth does that.   It creates a new reality.   It is amazing how one small human being changes an entire family.   One small human being changes other lives; that baby makes new parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins and siblings.   Birth does that.   It creates a new reality. Our Gospel reading from Luke begins with the world that was – that was before the birth.   There is the Emperor, Augustus.   There is the governor o

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Christmas Eve 2014   A Nativity Poem Have you seen a birth?   I've seen two. They are not clean.   Not even in a hospital.   Not even in a sterile room.   Nothing is clean about birth.   It is messy.   The pain.   The sounds.   The bodies.   Maybe even the language.   Nothing is clean about birth. There is something violent about the experience.   A warrior completing the final stage.   A battle that ends in victory.   An ending that is really just the beginning of the warrior's next impossible quest – raising a child.   There is something violent about the experience.   A warrior completing the final stage.   A battle that ends in a new world.   An ending that is really just the beginning of the warrior's next impossible quest – life. Neither looks much like what one imagines a warrior to be – except for the blood on the faces.   The birth-giver, a young woman – exhausted and glowing with relief and joy.   The new per

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Luke 1:26-38 A Great Cost for the Greater Good Something doesn't seem quite right here.   I think it is supposed to be Elizabeth.   That is how the story should go.   That is the way God always does it.   The special child is supposed to come out of the barren womb of the aged woman.   Like Isaac from Sarah.   Like Samuel from Hannah.   That's it; that is how God has always done it. And that would have been perfect.   The story of the Messiah's birth, it would perfectly mirrored Israel's narrative – a history of longing, waiting, just about to lose hope – and then God acts.   In an unexpected way, in a miraculous way, but also in a manner in which the people of God, those who were really paying attention, had come to expect. On paper, Elizabeth was the perfect candidate.   And not only that, people would have celebrated their good news.   They were good people.   They had been married for a long time.   Zechariah, Eliz