Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson 1 Corinthians 8:1-13   What would YOU not do for love?   What would you not do for love?   That is the question.   More specifically: would you not eat the meat, you know, for love’s sake?   The Apostle Paul posed this question to the Christians in Corinth: are you willing to say no to some delicious idol meat – not the flesh of idols, of course, but animal flesh first offered to idols – if it really mattered to the person in the next pew?   That is the question of this morning’s epistle reading.   And people think the Bible isn’t relevant to our lives…   Probably you have had this very conversation with your friends a hundred times.   Likely a cousin has blocked you on facebook because of your out-spoken opinion on this very touchy tenderloin topic.   Perhaps a little background information would be helpful. In the first century, Corinth was a prominent city within the Roman Empire...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Mark 1:4-11   That Love   John the Baptist was very much a human.   I doubt that is a controversial statement.   But I say it because I believe that is what the Gospel of Mark would like us to understand.   The man who appeared in the wilderness, the man who stood waist deep in the waters of the Jordan, was human.   Mark gives us quite the description of John.   He was a baptizer; that was his vocation.   His message was repentance.   He was magnetic – or at least his message was.   Also, he wore, what I can only imagine, was a distinctive, and probably itchy, suit of camel’s hair.   He cinched it up with a leather belt.   And he lived off of the land, eating bugs and their vomit – honey.   Mark paints for us a fairly effective picture.   According to the gospel writer, John was a rugged, focused, unique, and holy human.   And I suspect an acquired taste – with hi...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 2:1-12   Scary Baby   I too have been afraid because of a baby – but for reasons very unlike the king.   All those times that now, in retrospect, after raising two babies, don’t seem scary at all, but in the moment did: When I was first alone with that tiny human, when my wife took a well-deserved first post-partum shower, and being a new dad became very real.   It was just the two of us, in that bright, sterile hospital room – him clueless about the world, me clueless about parenthood.   Of course, it was that very moment when that little baby decided to fill his diaper for the first time, which is, in itself, a scary scene, something right out of a horror movie.   And I remember that anxiety I would feel when the baby monitor would begin to sound and his little form would begin to stir in his crib – Jen at a meeting miles away.   I would spring into action; get the bottle warmer ready and pray tha...