Preaching the Scriptures

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Luke 2:1-20 Christmas in the Dark Christmas: it comes under the cover of night, like a covert mission by a holy Spirit. As a weary world sleeps, Christmas comes – so silent and unnoticed that it is shocking. The light of the world smuggled into the deep darkness. When I close my eyes and picture Christmas this is always what I see. My imagination carries me into the night. I see the shepherds in the fields, huddled for protection against a deep darkness that has long since gone extinct. I see the angels, their radiant light made all the more impressive against the backdrop of midnight sky. And I see the precious nativity scene, with that tiny angelic baby perfectly framed by his human and animal admirers, lit only by an impossible star. And I see Charlie Brown and Linus pondering the profundity of the tiniest tree in the cold, dark lot. I know that last one is not biblical, but it always seems to slip in none the less. This is Chr

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Isaiah 61 & Psalm 126 The Dangerous Business of Hope I kept telling myself: “Don't get your hopes up.” Because hope is a dangerous thing. And I did not want to end up disappointed, again. But then the Browns took a two touchdown lead, in the second half, and I started to feel it bubbling up. But I've been a Browns fan far too long. And so I kept telling myself, “Don't get your hopes up.” But then it was the fourth quarter and the Browns still had a 14-point lead. And my resolve was diminishing quickly. I could feel it slipping away. When the two-minute warning hit I started thinking to myself, “They might actually do this. They might get their first win of the season.” They were, after all, still up by a touchdown and the clock was ticking. But then with 17 seconds left in the game last Sunday, the Packers scored the game-tying touchdown. And then the Browns threw an interception in overtime and the next thing I k

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Mark 1:1-8 The Prophet's Voice When I was a kid, I collected baseball cards. I loved it. I had thousands, still do in our storage room, actually. (Sorry, honey.)  Baseball card collecting combined three of my absolute favorite things: sports, sorting, and statistics. I loved opening the packs. I loved putting them in plastic sleeves. And I loved looking up the value of each card in my Beckett Baseball Price Guide. Those Becketts mesmerized me. They listed the values of baseball cards dating back as far back as the late-1800's. Each month I would buy the newest copy of the magazine at the baseball card shop and check to see the ways in which the value of my collection fluctuated. Mind you, it actually didn't matter because I never sold any cards, I was like eight years old, but I guess it was exciting, as a child, to know the things I liked held real monetary value. In the price guide there was each month, a hot and

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Mark 13:24-37 Keep Awake! “ Keep awake” is what I would tell myself every time I walked into the ground-level entrance, what some might call the basement entrance, of the library. Keep awake. By the time I arrived at the door, darkness had already enveloped the campus. Dinner had come and passed, weighing me down with happy contentment. And the cold air of the New Jersey winter was no match for that classroom so close to the boiler. I was there to learn about Orthodox Christianity from Dean James Pain – a kind and wise professor, nearing the end of a long academic career, a kind and wise professor whom I hope is not here this morning to hear this story. I would settle into one of the plush, comfy chairs, the kind with the desks attached by hinges so that one could pull up a flat space for writing, or typing, or resting one's head. The room, that basement classroom, had no windows, save the small one in the door, that simply gave

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 25:31-46 Sheep, Goats, or Something Else? Today’s Buzzfeed quiz is brought to you by the Gospel of Matthew: “BAA or MAA!?: Are you a super sheep or a ghastly goat?” Answer just six simple questions to find out! It is quite a quiz too. It has that essential element that really makes an on-line quiz pop: the element of surprise. Everyone seems very surprised by their results. And to keep it interesting, the stakes are shockingly high – not like “what will my facebook friends think of my results?” high. But still pretty high, like eternal punishment or eternal life. Today is Christ the King Sunday and the final Sunday of the Church year. And a month of very challenging Kingdom of God parables from Matthew’s Gospel has led us to this dramatic climax: the apocalyptic tale of the sheep and the goats – the final story Jesus tells the people before his arrest and crucifixion. This is the last song in the set list. In some

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 25:14-30 Scary Talented There are a number of scary texts in the Bible – tales of the Devil, demon possession, of weeping and gnashing of teeth, and people thrown into the outer darkness. And there are others: there's that time when people offered the wrong kind of incense and were consumed by fire from heaven – which is why I have the acolytes prepare the incense, just in case. There is the part about everything you do in private being made public – which is especially scary for teenagers and politicians. There is pretty much everything in the book of Revelation. And there is that thing where the one perfect, sinless person who loves everybody gets nailed to a cross – which tells me that no one is safe. And yet, growing up, there was no more terrifying story than this parable about the talents. Let me explain: When I was a child, I was pretty shy. I didn't like to draw attention to myself, didn't like to be in fron

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Revelation 7:9-17 All Saints' Day: baptism and burial All Saints' Day seems as if it should hold the answers. And yet instead it is like struggling to find the opening in a curtain that has no opening. Tangled up and twisted, desperate to glimpse the mysteries of the other side, to find answers to the questions that vex us, questions of life and death, of time and eternity. Here we are so close and yet no closer. What brings us here? To this place? To this day? To this place – equal parts baptism and burial. To this day – equal parts baptism and burial. What brings us here? Is there something we seek? And if so where might that something be found? In the wood of the pews – wood that wears a million fingerprints, worn into shape by a million worshipers, the living and the dead, who sit and stand and sit again and kneel and sit again, wood that holds cards and pencils but also decades of prayers whispered into the