Preaching the Scriptures

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson John 20:19-31 A New Reality It was not hard to identify the moment in which life changed for the remaining eleven.   It was, of course, Friday.   On Friday, just a few days earlier, a few short days before our Gospel story takes place, they watched, from a distance, as Jesus was executed.   That harsh, abrasive sound of hammered metal echoed through their minds still.   The image of his dying body was burned into their memories.   The sounds of his last gasps for air were the stuff of their nightmares.   As Jesus died, so did their dreams, so did the triumphant future which they so surely expected.   They had imagined his fame and popular appeal might translate into a royal throne.   Everything they had seen –from the divine encounter on the mount of Transfiguration to the feeding of the masses, the way he could heal the sick and his power to calm even the turbulent waters – suggested that they had hitc...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson John 20:1-18 An Honest Easter It is Easter Sunday morning and you are at home.   Our beautiful nave sits in still darkness, the pews as empty as the tomb.   There are no lilies filling the chancel with lovely perfume; no choristers packed tightly into the choir stalls.   The high altar is stacked with neither flower nor flagon.   There are no hosts on the Holy Table. On this strange Easter morning, it would be easy to focus on what we lack.   Not only would it be easy, it would be honest.   Even as we sound our Alleluias today, we do so with a lump in our throats and grief in our hearts. And so we have something very much in common with the women who ventured to Jesus’ tomb on that first Easter morning.   In the darkness of the pre-dawn morning, they traveled a dusty path to visit the cold, dead body of their beloved – their hearts overflowing with grief, cheeks burnt red by tears, their voices silenced ...