Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 5:43-48   This beautiful, messy us   There are things that I cannot say to members of my own extended family, topics I do not broach, conversations I do not have.   I suppose part of it is that I don’t love conflict. I put up with it, it is, at times, an occupational hazard, but I don’t enjoy it.   And if I am being honest, I guess that is part of the reason why I avoid certain subject matter.   But more than that, it seems to me that we no longer speak the same language. And of course we don’t.   Because while we live in the same nation, we inhabit different worlds.   The clever algorithms and curated feeds and news media are intentionally designed to reinforce our echoing silos and limit our perspectives.   The lines drawn cut through cities and neighborhoods and churches and families and friendships.   And people drift into clans codified by shared stories, mythologies, and, of course, ...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Deuteronomy 10:17-21   True Story   I have a family story, as do you.   I suspect mine is neither better nor worse than your own.   Because my family story, like all family stories, is one of riches and poverty.   It is a story of both sorrow and beauty, of shame and pride, of love and pain.   I, at times, embrace this rugged history; and then, just as intensely, try to distance myself from the most dismal of its chapters.   But what I cannot deny is that the story is mine; it marks my soul in the best and worst ways.   It shapes me even as I hope to shape its destiny into something of which my children and my children’s children can be proud.   There is always a temptation to tell an edited version of our stories, to hide away the darkest and most devastating chapters.   But the power of a family story is found in our willingness to tell it as a true story – as painful and, at times, as embarra...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Deuteronomy 10:17-21 A Compassionate Nation It seems to me that no one loved the nation of the Hebrews more than Moses.   That guy was all in.   He risked his life to rescue them from slavery in Egypt.   He spent forty years wandering with them through desert wastelands.   He stuck with them after the golden calf, through the coup d’etats, and despite much, much murmuring.   And he didn’t do it for the perks.   Sure he was leader of the nation, something of a proto-king.   But the role really only offered the negatives associated with power.   And so he was subject to all the complaint and plenty of second-guessing.   He was embarrassed by the nation’s many missteps, which certainly reflected poorly on the one in charge.   He was expected to provide food in a food desert and water in an actual desert.   He knocked on God’s door to beg and plead for the people, on their behalf, countless t...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Deuteronomy 10:17-21 Freedom for Good Freedom is a good thing. I like freedom. I suspect you do too. Of course, you do. There is just something in the human soul that longs to experience freedom. In fact, one might go so far as to say that freedom is not just a good thing, but even a God thing. According to the biblical story, God has been about the work of freedom in this world since the very beginning – building it right into the system, granting Adam and Eve the freedom to violate God's will and break God's heart. And even after the Adam and Eve experiment failed, God stayed the course. God still blessed humankind with the freedom to choose even though that means a lot of poor choices. God created us with the urge to live free despite our propensity to wander. God gives us freedom and then foolishly hopes that one day we will surrender our freedom to become servants in the Kingdom of God. What can I say? God is a dreamer. ...