Preaching the Scriptures

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Acts 2:1-21   What do we do with this fire?   What do we do with this fire? Breaking into locked spaces Scorching one-hundred and twenty faces Undermining homeostasis   In the upper room Where they were waiting It blew in on the breeze   At first among them And then on them Living lighters Just milling about Each saw one hundred and nineteen fires The others’ fires Everywhere Spotlighting the frenzied faces of friends and fellows Each person saw mant, but felt just one, one tongue of flame And one was enough   You don’t need to see what can be felt It’s like faith But in the hair On the scalp Like a burning bush: Consumed but not consumed   Disruptive To the days of silent prayer And talking And pacing And waiting Waiting for something To come down from the skies Like the angels promised   But not this No one expected this: To be set...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson John 17:1-11   Beautiful and baffling   Have you ever read a poem that you know is good – it’s one of those poems that is included in all the anthologies, professors assign it in their college lit classes, it is easy to find on the internet, hundreds of MFA students make it the topic of their thesis – but you have no idea what it means?   Has that ever happened to you?   I know at least of few of you know what I am talking about; I see your faces when I read poetry during Bible Study.   Have ever read a poem that at once is beautiful and baffling?   John 17 is like that.   We know it is good.   It is in the Gospel.   Spoken by the mouth of Jesus.   Precious to generations of Christians.   Beautiful but also baffling.   I am you and you are me and they are yours so they are mine and so I will give them your words which are my words but are now their words.   Also glorify...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson John 14:1-14   Do Not Let Your Hearts be Troubled   This was not how things were supposed to go.   They had a nice little evening planned.   They had reserved a spacious room for a special meal.   And together they, all thirteen, were going to celebrate salvation, the ways in which God had written this powerful story of liberation on the muddled mess of human history.   They were going to eat and drink and tell stories.   They were going to sing hymns and say prayers.   It was going to be lovely, holy, perfect.   But it wasn’t perfect, not at all.   Instead, from the moment the settings were placed, things started falling apart, coming unraveled.   It was just one thing after another.   The party, as it progressed, took on a suffocating pall.   And everyone could feel the life drain from the room.     The foot washing, in retrospect, was the beginning of the e...