Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson I Timothy 1:12-17   Sin and Love   So many sinners this Sunday – and not just in the pews.   There are sinners all over these Scripture passages.   Sinners making golden calves.   Sinners singing psalms.   Sinners writing letters – presumably to other sinners.   Sinners eating lunch with Jesus.   And sinners grumbling about the sinners eating lunch with Jesus.   That’s a lot of sinners.   And where there are sinners there is bound to be sin.   I grew up in a Pentecostal church and there I heard enough sermons about sin to last me a lifetime.   I knew our list of mortal sins well: strong drink, bad language, naughty thoughts, anything related to rainbow flags, and also voting for Bill Clinton.   By the way, a lot of you folks would really scandalize the Pentecostals I grew up with.   Of course there were many other sins as well, ones that we didn’t talk about quite as m...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Psalm 79 & 1 Timothy 2:1-7 Prayer and Love The Bible is a strangely complex book.   And occasionally the lectionary makes sure that we do not forget that fact.   Today is one of those days.   The contrast between the abrasive emotion of today’s psalm and the gentle inclusivity we heard in the letter to Timothy, for example, is significant; there is an emotional range displayed there.   It is kind of like the range of emotions in our nation the day after a presidential election, when half of the country, those for the whom the election did not go as they had hoped, is crying out with the psalmist, “Pour out your wrath upon the heathen” and the other half is like my grandma, posting facebook memes reminding those in anguish that the Bible does tell us to say our prayers for “kings and all who are in high positions.”   The Bible has range. What is perhaps most interesting about these divergent scriptural expressions,...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson 1 Timothy 2:1-7 A Very Episcopalian Thanksgiving Perhaps you saw the cartoon, in the newspaper or on facebook.   In it a man and woman, both wearing combat helmets, are considering their Thanksgiving gathering – no small consideration in such a divided and partisan time.   They have everything pertaining to the big family meal laid out on a giant white board – where they will seat the liberals, and the Trump supporters, and the even the vegans – under the title Operation: Seating Chart. The man in the cartoon articulates their ultimate strategy for us, the audience, saying: “Aunt Millie is an Alt-Righter & cousin Jimmy is a Socialist, but if we sit the Episcopalians between all of them, I think we have a shot at keeping the peace.” I love it because I think it says something really profound about our Episcopal tradition.   And it is not that Episcopalians are naturally neutral.   We’re Episcopalians and so we know Epis...