Preaching the Scriptures

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson John 4:5-42 Christ in the Face of the Stranger More than four decades ago, Henri Nouwen wrote: “In our world full of strangers, estranged from their own past, culture and country, from their neighbors, friends and family, from their deepest self and their God, we witness a painful search for a hospitable place where life can be lived without fear and where community can be found. Although many, we might even say most, strangers in this world become easily the victim of fearful hostility, it is possible for men and women, and obligatory for Christians, to offer an open and hospitable space where strangers can cast off their strangeness and become our fellow human beings. The movement from hostility to hospitality is hard and full of difficulties. Our society seems to be increasingly full of fearful, defensive, aggressive people anxiously clinging to their property and inclined to look at their surrounding world with suspicion, always expecting...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Mark 13:24-37   How do you say, Christ will come again? How do you say it?   How do you say, “Christ will come again”?   Christ Will come again!? Or Christ will come again?   Or Christ will come again ?   Or do you whisper it so that no one thinks you are weird?   Or is it a question: Will Christ come again?   And then there is that context thing.   Here, in church, it feels normal to say “Christ will come again.”   Everyone says it together.   It is a thing we do every Sunday.   We are Christians; we declare Christ's return.   But on a street corner, in downtown, while holding a megaphone, it does not feel quite as normal.   In a private conversation, at a bar, at a party, as a pick-up line, going door-to-door, it is not necessarily the most comfortable thing to say.   Or to hear.   Do you really want to get stuck in a conversation with the guy who wants to tell ...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Christ the King A 11-23-2014 Matthew 25:31-46 Treason! Two visions of sheep.   Two visions of a divided flock.   Two visions of a King.   Two visions of a Kingdom.   But it is not that they are the same – not exactly.   Not all of the details match up.   The historical contexts were certainly different.   And so were the speakers. The prophet Ezekiel speaks to the nation during a time of exile – the flock has been scattered.   In his vision the kings and leaders of Israel have failed.   The people have been separated from their homes, their land, each other.   But even crisis presents opportunity – if one is willing to take advantage; And the wealthiest members of the nation take advantage – exploiting and devastating the needy.   Ezekiel longs for the people to again become one flock under the true Shepherd – not another earthly monarch but God.   Ezekiel longs for G...