Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Mark 8:31-38   Following Jesus St. Thomas’ Pakistani Episcopal Church   Jesus was not oblivious.   He was well aware of the excitement that followed him – a blossoming expectation that threatened full bloom.   The conversation in today’s Gospel passage follows on the heels of a miraculous banquet, the feeding of four thousand people, in the desert, with just a few loaves and fish.   Not long after the leftovers were cleared and collected, Jesus performed the stunning healing of a blind man.   Jesus was doing miracles.   And miracles make people talk and ask questions and even hope.   The disciples were not immune to the contagious excitement.   They could feel it; they were in it.   They witnessed so many miracles with Jesus, and by Jesus, that the sheer quantity could make the miraculous feel almost mundane.   They watched as Jesus’ words captured large crowds; his love transforme...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Genesis 9:8-17   Relentless mercy and fierce love St. Boniface, Guilderland   According to the book of Genesis, death came into this world, not through disease or atrophy, but through violence.   Brother against brother.   A clash of two creatures made in the divine image.   And that shattered God’s heart.   The pain vibrated through the universe.   God laid that pathos at the feet of Cain, the first killer, saying, “Your brother’s blood is crying out to me.”   And in that horrible early moment of human history, God recognized our fatal flaw and tried to stop it.   God inscribed Cain with a mark of protection in hopes that the cycle of violence might stop.   But it didn’t and we didn’t.   The violence continued, in thought, word, and deed.   Until God gave up and made a flood.   The reason God offered Noah for the watery disaster was human violence.   Genesis tells u...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Isaiah 40:21-31   By the Rivers of Babylon Zion Episcopal Church, Morris, NY   They sat, forlorn, by the rivers of Babylon.   And they wept.   Their tears fell in torrents from the dark clouds around their souls and was absorbed by the hostile land.   As they cried, they were assaulted by the smug looks and barbed taunts of their tormentors.   They sat by the rivers of Babylon: eyes burnt with sorrow, tongues pressed hard against the roof of their mouths.   Because there simply were not words.   Just a suffocating grief, a searing pain, a heart-break that felt eternal.   Even in Babylon, they were haunted by the memories.   The ghosts followed them into exile.   Once there had been good days, but they now the memories felt like thin remnants of a past life.   The first sign of their impending doom were the terrible rumors.   Then brought to life by the pulse of distan...