Preaching the Scriptures

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson John 1:1-18 The Prologue According to author Kristen Lamb, there are two, and only two, good reasons to include a prologue at the beginning of one's novel.   I should tell you, she has a much longer list of reasons to not include one, but the “pros” list is rather short.   And I take this list seriously because she has multiple award graphics posted in the right-hand margin of her blog, including a “2013 Top Ten blogs for writers award” from,   I assume, an organization that ranks blogs.   And also, she is wearing a viking hat in her picture, so... She writes that “Prologues can be used to resolve a time gap with information critical to the story” or “...if there is a critical element in the backstory relevant to the plot.” [1] Today we are talking prologues – specifically the prologue that begins the Gospel of John, those eighteen verses that open the Fourth Gospel.   You know the one; it begins, “In the beginni...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Luke 2:1-20 A Spark I’d like to begin tonight with a poem, by Scott Cairns, called Annunciation Deep within the clay, and O my people very deep within the wholly earthen compound of our kind arrives of one clear, star-illumined evening a spark igniting once again the tinder of our lately banked noetic fire. She burns but she is not consumed. The dew lights gently, suffusing the pure fleece. The wall comes down. And – do you feel the pulse? - we all become the kindled kindred of a king whose birth thereafter bears to all a bright nativity. [1] It changed everything, you see.   All of creation defined by a single moment, like the world spinning on the head of a pin.   Just one single human birth split time in two – and now it is before and after.   Just a birth: special, but nothing special.   Everyone has been born, made of the same stuff, all shaped of the same ancient clay.   The ange...