Preaching the Scriptures

 T he Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 10:40-42   Welcome you, welcome me Trinity, Potsdam   Friends, you are all over this Gospel passage.   You play every part, like the star of a one-person show.   You are guest and host.   You are prophet and little one.   You are filling the glass and you are emptying it.   This entire tenth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel has been complex and encompassing.   It is a missionary commissioning; Jesus is sending his followers out of his shadow and into the world.   The exhortations volley between promise and warning, celebration and suffering.   Even last week in our Gospel we ran the gamut: biological families were at odds even as the household of God was coming together, life was lost and gained, words told in the dark found the light, whispers were shouted from the rooftops.   Life on the Gospel mission was hard, but every moment was held in the loving, attentive gaze of Go...

The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7   How the Story Goes St. Luke the Physician, Saranac Lake   In the heat of the day, on the horizon of the desert, the distance is always out of focus.   The hottest heat bends and warps reality.   Abraham was trying to find a bit of relief, an occasional breeze, as the world around him was trying not to melt into a puddle of chaos.   It was hot in the desert.   Blazing hot.  One could smell the stale brine of the Dead Sea from Mamre.  And in that suffocating heat, one could also feel a hint of the death for which the sea was named.  It was not the most hospitable place.    And so, given the treacherous conditions, the patriarch was probably not expecting to see a traveling trio come into focus.   But there they were: three men walking in his general direction.  Abraham should have instantly kicked into threat assessment mode.   They were thre...