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