Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Luke 6:27-38 What if we try it?   What if it doesn’t work?   What if you try it, try everything that Jesus asks of his followers in today’s Gospel, every single thing, and it doesn’t work?   What if you walk this way of love, give your heart to this crazy code of ethics, do all of these hard things that no one really wants to do, and the world is still is mess?   What if you try it, and it doesn’t work?   Today’s Gospel is what Jesus says to those who made it through the woes.   You might remember last week’s Gospel; it was the Lukan version of the beatitudes.   You might also remember that after all of the more memorable happy blessings at the beginning of that little sermon, Jesus issues a series of woes that are decidedly less pleasant than what precedes them.   And that probably is why he opens this portion of the sermon by basically saying, “And now for those who are still listening, here are so...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Luke 5:1-11   Believing in Miracles   Always a crowd; always pressing in on Jesus.   Before, in the previous chapter of Luke’s Gospel, it was the angry hometown crowd, trying to press Jesus right off a cliff.   And today it is a lakeshore crowd pressing Jesus into the choppy waters of the lake of Gennesaret, aka the Sea of Galilee.   Even in the best of times, this Jesus’ work is dangerous business.     Fortunately for Jesus, the mood has changed since his visit in Nazareth.   This crowd, the one by the water, is not angry, not jealous, not even murderous, they are desperate.   They are pressing in to hear the Gospel, to hear Jesus preach the Good News.     If it is possible to be overly eager to hear a sermon, this crowd is that.   They press in so hard that Jesus is forced to make alternative pulpit arrangements.   He decides to find his safety in an empty boat. ...