Preaching the Scriptures

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Haggai 1:15b-2:9 The Problem of Nostalgia and the Promise of the Future Haggai.   We don’t talk a lot about the book of Haggai.   Actually it’s a bit of a stretch to even call it a book; it is only two chapters long.   You heard a fairly high percentage of the entire volume this morning.   Haggai really kinda puts the ‘minor’ in minor prophets. It appears that even his career as a prophet was rather abbreviated.   The prophecies contained in the book bearing his name occur over just a four month period.   Besides a couple of name drops in Ezra there is no other mention of him in the Bible.   And even those two mentions give us nothing as far as biographical information is concerned.   It seems that God took out a short-term lease on him; hired him for a very specific task: to cheer on a building project.   Probably not exactly the orders he expected when he said, “Here I am, Lord.   Send me.” ...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Ephesians 1:11-23 The Sea of Souls I stare out into the vast expanse, the vast expanse that is this ocean.   And my mind goes to poetry but poetry absent of words.   Because there are no words, no answers, no explanations that don’t feel crass – just feelings and impressions and dreams for which even the interpretations need to be interpreted.   And I stare because this is one place in the world in which staring is acceptable and not odd.   And I breathe.   I breathe in the air, a flavor unique to the shore – though many candles promise to capture it and to domesticate it – all unsuccessfully.   I breathe it in in slow, shallow breaths, as if a deep or suddenly intake of air might scare away the mystery before me.   The air is more than air; it carries the essence of this great sea, like how incense somehow puts form to holiness.   And as I slowly and cautiously inhale, I can feel that this ocean is now, so...