Preaching the Scriptures

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Luke 9:51-62 Calling Down Fire Well, that escalated quickly: straight to the fire. Once again (and this seems to be a recurring theme in his life) Jesus cannot find any lodging. He's been having this problem since the day he was born; no room ready that day either. And unlike his parents, Mary and Joseph, who settled for some rather unusual accommodations for the newborn baby Jesus, James and John are less understanding, less flexible. “Burn it to the ground.” So, this feels like an extreme reaction, right? An extreme reaction for really any rational adult. Especially, one does not expect this from Jesus' disciples. Specifically one does not expect this from the disciples in his inner circle, two of the disciples who, along with Peter, just prior to this incident witnessed the Transfiguration, two disciples whom we commemorate as saints – we name churches after these guys – and they are ready to call down a divine nuclear stri...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson 2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15 Righteous Sinners I suppose it's just a dirty business – politics. One's gotta do what one's gotta do to survive, to stay ahead in the polls. If you work hard enough at it, close your eyes and hold your nose, you can justify just about anything, don't you think? And that is the way to the top – or so so many fallen princes have reasoned before their collapse. And, there is no doubt about it: this is a collapse. Today we join the episode already in progress – this sordid tale found in the second book of Samuel. A punchline with no set-up; an ending with no beginning is what we have today. So, I suppose, we'll need a little backstory. It is in some ways your typical story of the corrupting influence of power. The powerful man in this tale, King David, exerts his considerable, unchecked power to take what he wants – to fulfill his basest desires, to satisfy his dark, perverted fantasi...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Luke 7:11-17 A Good Story This is a good story, don't you think? Just a good story – an ancient tale from the life of an itinerant Jewish prophet. It is a story not terribly unlike those of the prophets of old – Old Testament. In fact, you perhaps noticed the similarities: the stories of Elijah and Jesus that we heard today share a strong family resemblance. It's a good story, a story that would, for the original audience, hearken back to the days of yore – the days when the prophets of God worked miracles in their nation. What happens in this story is that after healing the centurion's slave, the story we heard last week, Jesus heads on over to Nain – a now-forgotten town mentioned only here in the Bible – and raises the dead. So that's a pretty big deal; not something one sees every day. It is a miracle in the tradition of the great Elijah. A feather in Jesus' hat, for sure. The chain of events begin at...