Preaching the Scriptures

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Acts 6-7 Seeing the Beautiful I must admit: sometimes I forget to see beautiful in this world, this same world that God created and calls good.   I forget that every thing, every single thing, that surrounds me is amazing, impossibly intricate, carefully crafted, a product of impossible divine love.   This entire world, our island home, is just covered in the stardust-y fingerprints of our ancient Creator.   And so in that sense: is saturated through and through with the beauty of holiness.   And somehow, most of the time, I miss it; I fail to see it.   I forget to see beautiful in this world.   Maybe it’s because I’m too focused on my calendar, too worried about my task list, too concerned with my routine.   Maybe it’s because the headlines are so packed with atrocities that it seems impossible for there to be enough room in this world for goodness.   Maybe because the history of our species is written...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Psalm 8 Beautiful Trinity This week I drove a road – the road through the mountains. I drove that road and I most unexpectedly became a witness to the agony and ecstasy of creation – as if transported to the beginning, before there was time. I saw the saw the mountains reach for the heavens with their violent thrusts, lifting their blankets of white to meet the white clouds. I saw aged peaks rounded off by the gentle caress of the wind of God. I saw two pronghorn antelopes kiss in the muted watercolors that stretch across the severe plains. I saw streams cut the rocky ground, spilling crystal clear blood, life-giving waters. I saw the agony and ecstasy of creation; I drove right through it – trying to keep my car on the road, trying to keep my breath. I saw mountains, valleys, and plains. I saw streams and lakes. I saw snow caps and creatures. I saw the love of this Triune God, poured out in this great creative expression. Spe...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson John 9:1-41 A Beautiful Mystery In her book, Christianity for the Rest of Us, Diana Butler Bass shares an experience writer and Episcopalian Phyllis Tickle had while speaking to a large crowd at one of our Southern cathedrals: “[After her talk,] during the question-and-answer period, someone asked what she thought about the Virgin Birth. As such questions...do, this one devolved into a discussion of whether the Virgin Birth was a matter of scientific and historical fact. As the discussion got more heated, Phyllis noticed that a young man, about seventeen years old, who was helping set up refreshments...had stopped his work to listen. She could see him...listening intently to the exchange. When she closed her lecture, he came up to talk with her privately. 'Ma'am,' he said politely, 'there's something I don't understand.' In her...generous way, Phyllis asked him, 'What don't you understand?' She ...