Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson John 1:1-18   Here   In the turbulent days of the Vietnam War, as the sky and the streets flashed with apocalyptic fantasies, Madeline L’Engle wrote a Christmas poem called The Risk of Birth:   This is no time for a child to be born, With the earth betrayed by war & hate And a comet slashing the sky to warn That time runs out & the sun burns late.   That was no time for a child to be born, In a land in the crushing grip of Rome; Honour & truth were trampled by scorn– Yet here did the Saviour make his home.   When is the time for love to be born? The inn is full on the planet earth, And by a comet the sky is torn– Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.   What the poet captures is the great scandal of the Incarnation – namely that it happens here.   Here: where there is never made enough room.   Here: where the rooms are too dusty and the hearts too often inhospitable.   Here: where the pain can be de

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24   Rejoice Always   Joy.   Joy is the theme of this Third Sunday of the Advent season.   This has long been the case in the Church.   On this very Sunday, at the mid-point of this season of anticipation, each year, the introit of the old Latin mass would break the penitential silence of western Christendom with the stirring cry of “Guadete,” rejoice.   Joy is the reason we don pink vestments today (vestments that we call rose-colored), on this third Sunday of Advent.   Joy is the reason we light a pink candle today (we call it rose-colored), on this third Sunday of the Advent season.   Joy is the reason this morning’s epistle lesson, taken from the end of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, is chosen for this particular Sunday – because it begins with the word that sets the tone: rejoice!     Rejoice!   Christmas is coming!   The angels are about to rouse the weary shepherds and brighten the dull night sky.   Rej

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Isaiah 40:1-11   Immanuel The first word broke the silence, a silence that had lingered for far too long.   It had been a haunting silence, a painful silence, a silence heavy with lament.     That silence, it lives between the end of the 39 th chapter of Isaiah and the first word of chapter 40.   For over a century the prophet went silent.   There were no words.   Somehow more than 150 years of silence abides in the little white space of your Bible that separates the two prophetic oracles.     While the nation waited a century and a half to hear a word from God, a lot happened.   The Babylonian empire rose to power and Jerusalem fell into ruin.   The Davidic dynasty died.   The Temple was reduced to rubble.   And the people were carried away into exile and deposited by the rivers of Babylon.   And all the while the silence, that persistent, deafening silence.   The people met the silence with tears and with anguish, with heartache and l

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Mark 13:24-37   Keep Awake   For Lincoln, Nebraska businessman, Robert Kay the fourth time was the charm.   His first three attempts to summit Mount Everest had ended in disappointment; the fourth in pinnacular triumph.   But reaching the “roof of the world” is never the end of the story.   The final goal is getting back home.   And the most dangerous part of the entire expedition is after the apex, between the peak and the base of the mountain.   The most important thing one must do is keep awake during the decent back through the “Death Zone.”   And too often climbers do not.   “It was like watching a character die in a television show, Robert Kay said [in a story reported on Nebraska’s NPR network.] Except it was real. Kay thought he was dying. ‘It was a detached sensation,’ he recalled. ‘I didn’t feel scared or upset. I know where [and] when I'm going to die and it's right here in a few seconds. Not many people get to know ex

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Psalm 90:1-12   Life is Short   There are 150 psalms.   Just one is associated with Moses.   That one is Psalm 90, the psalm we recited this morning.   Moses did not write the psalm; it emerged long after his death. But it is called, in its scriptural superscription, a prayer of Moses.   And so I imagine the poet, the writer of this psalm, dwelling in the soul of a soul long at rest, like poets and storytellers often do.   I imagine the poet looking out from Moses’ tear-blurred eyes, as the man of God stands at the top of Mt. Nebo.   And this poem: inspired by that devastating view.   A promised land on the horizon, close enough to touch, but forever and ever away.   One long pursued but never achieved.   The cruel reality of mortality.   All those desert days, following the promise, chasing a dream, and then only this brief glimpse.   And then, as he ponders a world he will never know, the mountain wind turns the hallowed leader into dust d

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 5:1-12   Unsung Saints   This has been a hard year, really hard.   Death, division, and discrimination have dominated the news cycle and more than a few dinner table discussions.   Arguments and anxiety are as ubiquitous as the screens on which they are featured.   The world has never been smaller and we have perhaps never felt more isolated.           And I recognize that is a strange thing to say on All Saints’ Day: that we are isolated.   Strange, because we stand today in the midst of this immense Communion of Saints, connected to a great mystical fellowship of holy ancestors.   We dine with them around this holy table; we pray with them; we feel their presence as we rehearse the very liturgical language they spoke while on this earth.   We stand haunted by this beautiful, holy mystery: soaked in the heavenly love of generations of saints.   And yet, even as we feel so connected to those whom we have never met, to the long dead

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 22:34-46   The Greatest Commandment is Love   The question Jesus is asked in today’s Gospel passage is hardly an easy one.   Jewish tradition holds that there are 613 laws in the Hebrew Scriptures.   Jesus is asked to pick just one.   It is like when someone asks you to identify your favorite hymn, your favorite Paul Rudd film, your favorite child.   It’s not easy.   And as always the stakes are high.   The Pharisees have been engaged in a war of words with Jesus for much of his public ministry.   They have been setting verbal traps in the hope that they might, once and for all, discredit this popular provocateur.   Once again, as he has in previous passages, including last week’s, the Gospel writer identifies this question, not as a mere curiosity, but as a test.     If the Pharisees were the ones grading this particular test, Jesus would have passed with flying colors.   His answer was both predictable and deeply traditional.  

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 22:15-22   To Whom do You Belong?   Jesus does not have to answer your questions.   He is Jesus.   Throughout the Gospels he makes this abundantly clear.   Often the religious leaders confront him with tricky questions, always hoping to put Jesus in a precarious position, always hoping that his answer will erode his popular support or justify his arrest.   Today is no exception.   Once again the religious leaders scheme up a very difficult question.   Today’s is an especially rich query.   It combines the trifecta of trickiness: politics, money, and religion.   It is not difficult to imagine the Pharisees and the Herodians suppressing gleeful smiles and shaking with the buzz of excitement as they set up the ask.   Finally, after many unsatisfactory showdowns, many embarrassing encounters, they are going to force Jesus to reveal his partisan leanings.   The strange alliance that spawned this clever question would have immediately