Preaching the Scriptures

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 21:23-32 The Good People at the Back of the Line By what authority?   Who gave him this authority?   Who asks those questions?   Who would dare question Jesus' authority?   He's Jesus.   He doesn't need permission.   He doesn't need some random dude to sign off on his actions – no matter how wild or crazy those actions may be.   He's Jesus – the Messiah – God Incarnate.   How dare anyone challenge his authority?   I mean, can you imagine? Actually, let's imagine.   Let's imagine a church – a large church – a successful church – a nice, big, money-making church with influential pastors.   A job-creating, economic hub of a church.   Maybe it's one of those well-marketed mega-churches.   And let's imagine a charismatic drifter strolls in on a busy Sunday and starts overturning the merch tables, starts chucking the fancy coffee, sets the food court on fire, and pour...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Jonah 3:10-4:11 Jonah and the Problem of Mercy This is not my idea of biblical hero.   Jonah seems like a jerk.   Am I wrong?   This passage from the book bearing his name is the very end of the book.   And there is no redemptive moment.   In this passage he even builds his own personal grandstand to sit and see what he hopes will be the destruction of an entire city.   He is praying for 120,000 people to die.   And he is furious when they do not.   Jonah seems like a jerk. And not many people know this part of the story because every complicated Bible story from the Old Testament that has an animal in it is sanitized until it is safe for a nursery wall.   They all get the Kids Bop treatment.   Noah's Ark – the story of the time God killed almost everything on Earth – is the best example – but the Jonah story is very similar.   The whale thing is usually the only thing anyone knows abo...