Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 25:31-46   Throne   It is a funny place for a throne.   There, surrounded by the bustle of a bleating flock, sits the King.   Sheep and goats milling around in his royal presence.   The mess before him is considerable.   The odor: even more considerable.       Typically, a throne is situated in a palace – surrounded by marble floors, arched entryways, dazzling fixtures.   The odors wafting through that place far surpass, in delight, the scent of the sheepfold.   Cinnamon and citrus, perhaps frankincense and myrrh.   And servants, so that the king need never dirty his precious hands.       Israel did have a celebrated tradition of shepherd kings.   But though the image loomed large in the hearts of the people, mostly it was just about David.   He was the one called from the fields, anointed in his work clothes, the holy oils streakin...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 25:1-13   The Bridesmaids   It’s not that “Keep awake” is bad advice.   In fact, in some cases it is very sound, very relevant, advice.  Keep awake so that you don’t miss your stop on the train.   Keep awake so that you don’t snore in the crowded movie theatre, or during this sermon.   Keep awake because you are driving.   There are many situations in which it is very important to keep awake.   And so it is not a bad moral to tack onto a Jesus’ parable.   It is just that it obviously does not apply to this parable.     “Keep awake” cannot be the point of this particular Gospel story.   It cannot be the point because everybody fell asleep – all ten bridesmaids featured in Jesus' parable – both the wise and the foolish – fell asleep.  And half of them joined the party anyway.  So “keep awake,” it turns out, didn’t really matter that much and theref...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Revelation 7:9-17   Great Multitude   It might just be that we are all standing on the edge of the apocalypse.   That perhaps apocalyptic vision belongs not only to entranced prophets and the writer of the book of Revelation; that apocalyptic talk is not strictly the domain of street-corner preachers and fervent Pentecostals; that apocalyptic experiences are not reserved for the movie screen.   But for those who are permanently stained with baptismal waters, those who sway to the songs of the dead.   The word “apocalypse” is widely misunderstood in our culture and even in the Church.   For most it brings to mind cataclysmic disaster, unprecedented trauma, Rapture anxieties, even the end of the world.   But the apocalypse is not the end of the world; the apocalypse is not made of earthquakes and hurricanes. But it is an act of God: it is the moment God opens our eyes so that we can see the world for what...