Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 3:1-12   The Moral Code of Scrooge Grace, Waterford   ‘Tis the season…of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.   At this point in history, it is, I believe, scientifically impossible to avoid the basic framework of the beloved 1843 novella during the month of December.   The story of Scrooge and his ghosts has been endlessly re-told and adapted.   In addition to the printed page, Old Scrooge has been on the screen since 1901, in what I can only imagine, was a highly ambitious, significantly condensed, six-minute retelling of the story.   Since then, there have been dozens of additional adaptations – all longer than six minutes.   You can watch versions featuring Bill Murray, George C. Scott, Mr. Magoo, Mickey Mouse (my own nostalgic favorite), Bugs Bunny, the Flintstones, Dr. Who, the animated Ghostbusters, Barbie, Dolly Parton, Mr. Belvedere, and, of course, the Muppets – to name just a few. ...

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Isaiah 2:1-5   Dream Bigger St. Paul’s, Greenwich   Once again we welcome the advent of a new year.   This sanctified new year comes with considerably less fanfare than the one that will begin on January first.   We celebrate this new year around an altar instead of a television, at a respectable hour, not in the middle of the night.   This morning, we lit a single candle instead of dropping a gaudy, luminous ball.   Moments from now, we will drink consecrated wine rather than bubbly champagne.   And I am the only person who dared to wear a festive, pointy hat at this New Year’s celebration.     A short month from now, when the ball does drop, we will muster up our courage and make our resolutions: new dreams to wrap around our old lives.   But today, at this dawning, we do something a little different.   Recognizing that our resolve is always and forever a bit too thin, we dar...

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Micah 5:2-5a   A Prayer for Peace Trinity Church, Lansingburgh   Their prayer was a cry for all that had been lost and a longing for what had never been.   In that sense, Micah’s people didn’t ask for much except what seemed forever out of reach.   They didn’t pray for luxuries, like vast wealth or obscene riches.   They didn’t strive for power or influence.   They didn’t long for fame or glory.     They just wanted to be able to let their children play outside.   They wanted to walk carelessly though a park or daydream by a stream.   They wanted to fall asleep knowing they would wake up in the morning.   They didn’t pray for luxuries; they prayed for peace.   But they lived with war.   And so their children stayed indoors, shielded from the threat of Assyrian arrows.   The parks were battlegrounds, and the streams ran red.   And in place of day dreams t...

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Zephaniah 3:14-20   Your Salvation Story St. Stephen’s, Schenectady, NY   The salvation story is long, rooted in a remote, distant past, as ancient as the first mysterious sparks of creation.   We encounter this old story in the waters of the Exodus, in the courage of Esther, on the road out of exile.   We encounter the story in the manger of Bethlehem and, especially, in the empty tomb of Easter.   They are stories transmitted in our holy book and proclaimed from countless pulpits; tales told and passed down through time and through families – all chapters of the greatest story ever told.     But that story is not confined to the past.   Though ancient it still calls us into the future.   The salvation story is also a vision, alive and active in the dynamic mind of God; it is a promise – a promise fulfilled somewhere in the fullness of time, a promise that fuels this season of Advent. ...

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Luke 21:25-36   A hopeful perspective St. John’s, Cohoes, NY   My family has only rather recently started watching the Marvel movies.   These blockbuster superhero films have dominated the cineplex for more than a decade, but my boys were mere toddlers when the franchise was really hitting its stride.   Now that they are growing into their teenage years, we are slowly catching up.   And I must admit that watching the films more than a decade after their release does temper some of the tension.   One worries less about Tony Stark’s fate in the first Iron Man film, when Iron Man 2 and Iron Man 3, featuring Tony Stark, have already been famously released.   You have a pretty strong sense that he will make it through the first round of danger when you know he stars in the sequels.     And that knowledge breeds hope.   When it looks like everything is hopeless, like the hero is facing im...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Psalm 126   A Retrospective   I first started dreaming when you talked to me about your nightmare.     It was late in the summer of 2015. The sound of toddlers trying to be quiet filled the nervous air.   I straightened my interview best and whispered a centering prayer.   I was sitting at my dining room table, laptop open, Skype on the screen.   And, for the first time, I was seeing the faces of Grace and St. Stephen’s – a parish far away, in Colorado Springs, that I knew only from their on-line profile.   It was that profile that first piqued my interest.   It was lovely and excellent and exciting – words that I now know describe this parish perfectly.   When I first looked through its digital pages, I started to imagine standing in this pulpit, watching my children sing with the St. Nicholas choir, staring up at the lighted tower on a crisp December night.     I stumb...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Isaiah 64:1-9   And come down   Marty McFly slyly swipes the sports almanac from a devious young Biff.   Sarah Connor and Arnold protect the future savior of the human race from Skynet and a speedy shape-shifting Terminator.   Bill and Ted scour the past for history homework help.   In each of these time-travel movies, the heroes journey into the past with an important mission: to prevent a dystopian future.   Time-travel fantasies are often preoccupied with intervention: stopping Hitler before the onset of the Holocaust, evacuating a building before a horrific attack, using one’s historical knowledge to prevent a catastrophe.   In every case: using one’s power for good, to save innocent lives, to decrease human suffering, to make the world a better place.   If we had the power to prevent bad things, wouldn’t we be morally obligated to use our power to do just that?     Standing i...