Preaching the Scriptures

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 5:38-48 Perfection Jesus comes up with some doozies – and this is a pretty good one: Be perfect; Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.   Now what do we do with that? Perfection is perhaps my biggest stumbling block.   I would love to be great at everything: the perfect father, perfect husband, perfect priest, perfect person.   But I'm not.   And the older I get, the more I realize that. Of course, what I mean by perfect is almost never what Jesus means.   I guess when I think about perfection it means: no mistakes, no embarrassing moments.   It means always having the best ideas and making the correct decisions.   It means coasting through life while everyone else is busy muddling through.   It means admiration, praise, and maybe even a little justifiable envy in the eyes of all who encounter me.   I think I might just like perfection; it seems like it would be good for me. ...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 5:13-20 Salt, Light, and Life Have you heard about the salt shortage?    It's a real thing.    All over Northern Ohio cities and towns are running out of rock salt.    The Morton Salt people are freaking out; they can't keep up with the demand.    One town in Northeast Ohio is using cinders on the road - "like they did 50 years ago." [1]     In many other places, only major roads are being salted.    The snowfall this winter has been overwhelming.    And there is just not enough salt. This is a problem of course because untreated roads are dangerous.    It is nice to be able to stop at intersections – rather than just sliding right through them.    The salt shortage is a problem because our snowy world of commuters needs salt; just ask those poor folks in Atlanta. Salt is, of course, versatile.    It has many important uses - not...