Preaching the Scriptures

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson I Thessalonians 5:12-25 Goodbye This is it.   As I was writing this, I could only imagine my emotions at this moment.   Because this is just words on a screen, on a page, before I say it to you out loud.   And somehow saying it out loud makes it real, really real, if that makes sense.   In the back of our brains, we all know that everything ends, but then it does and it makes for heavy hearts and biting the inside of my lip to control my emotions and steady my voice.   And like so many Sundays before this one, I see your faces looking back at me – and listening; I appreciate that; I've always appreciated that.   Your gazes, your eyes, always help write the sermon and they give me hints of what your heart is feeling.   Today mostly they are telling me that you too feel the unique sadness that accompanies a goodbye – as if it would be easier to just let time move us past these last things without having to acknowledge this with words.   B

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23 God with us It is still Christmas.   But the plot has twisted, has grown twisted.   The angels did not declare the terror that would come so early in the life of the baby Christ.   The shepherds did not offer this news to his parents.   Mary did not treasure in her heart the hard destiny of her newborn son.   It was supposed to be a time of celebration; Mary and Joseph were new parents; their baby was healthy, thanks be to God; Mary's life was preserved through the pain and anxiety of child-birth.   The struggles were supposed to be those common to new parents: enduring sleepless nights, coaxing a successful and productive latch, helping mom recover from the physical trauma of child-birth, enduring whatever postpartum symptoms might occur in the weeks following.   It was supposed to be the normal new normal. Certainly, Joseph, a common laborer, a man from a village in the hills, would never have anticipated