Preaching the Scriptures

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Mark 1:21-28 Spiritual Forces of Wickedness Public confrontations are so uncomfortable.  So it is not difficult to imagine the edgy energy present in today ’ s Gospel.  You can feel the tension ripple through the congregation.  Eyes shift to the floor.  The security team moves into position.  Parents hold their children tighter.  And Jesus pauses his teaching mid-sentence – his eyes fixed on the possessed man screaming at him from the center aisle. Somehow, despite his demons, this man got into the synagogue.  Probably because no one was keeping an eye on him.  Because once the wickedness took over, friends and family slowly drifted away.  And he was left alone – a shell of a man, a shadow of his former self, a lost cause.  That is the thing about those evil spirits, those spiritual forces of wickedness: they corrupt and destroy.  They corrupt and destroy not only their host, but the corru...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Genesis 1:1-5 In the beginning... In the beginning... That's how it always starts. A few words on a blank page. And every possibility – an indefinite future stretching across the expanse of infinity, juggling hope and failure, tragedy and triumph, mingling laughter with tears until all that is left is just life. In the beginning... God. The Creator: like a prepubescent boy, eyes like saucers, trembling with excitement, mind bursting with ideas and dreams, staring down at a huge heap of Legos – ready to turn chaos into a masterpiece. The stuff of dreams and futures and “it is good” was all there. This creation did not come from nothing. It was creation by organization. Taking the formless void and the covering darkness and the face of the deep and making sense of it – and then sweeping it alive with the wind from very lungs of God. Turning chaos into a masterpiece. And then shining a light on that masterpiece – like a work o...