Preaching the Scriptures

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Romans 8:26-39   Trusting the Grip I just stared at the picture.   Looking at the faces.   They were my brothers and my sisters in Christ, they were even fellow members of the Anglican Communion, but they did not really like me; they were browner than I am – which, of course, is not difficult.   The men mostly had beards.   The women, they wore coverings on their heads.   They sat there in the church, looking at the one standing in the pulpit, holding a camera.   And they smiled, with their lips and their eyes, they smiled.   The church, it was full.   And I just stared. Mostly it was just a picture of people in a church – an Anglican Church.   There was nothing extraordinary about the quality of the picture.   In almost every way it was common, normal.   But for one thing: the picture was taken in the heart of Baghdad, at St. George's Church.   There they sat, people of all ages, smiling at the camera, ready to worship Jesus in a bui

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Romans 8:12-25 These Labor Pains It has been said that “on a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.” [1]   And I suppose that could be extended to every thing as well: animals, plants, civilizations, even worlds, even planets.   On a long enough time line, the survival rate of everything drops to zero.   Everything has an expiration date. In many ways St. Paul's world, the world of the 1 st   century Roman Empire, was very different from our own.   In a time before refrigeration and dentistry, “decay” was a more aggressive daily reality.   In the centuries since Paul penned this letter to the church in Rome, from which we heard this morning, we have created and innovated; we have changed the landscape.   We have built warehouses full of gadgets that slow decay, postpone decay, delay decay.   But never stop it.   We've yet to stop it.   Some things never change.   For all our technological advances, w