Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Genesis 32:22-31   Heel Turn Christ Church, Cooperstown   Jacob was a heel.   It was right there in his name.   He was branded a bad guy at birth.   It’s not that he was evil, per say, but he did have a history of morally questionable behavior.   And it started in the womb.   It can be hard to outrun a name.   Or overcome a first impression.   Jacob struggled with both.   Because his name was the first impression.   And it stuck.   It could have been a cute story of how twins like to stick together.   But that is not how his parents, or the Bible, told the birth story.   When mom and dad, Rebekah and Isaac, saw Jacob’s little hand gripping the heel of his slightly older brother, they decided that the younger one would always be scheming to supplant the older one.   The name Jacob in Hebrew is related to the word for “heel,” and the phrase “one who grasps the...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Genesis 28:10-19a   The God of our Ancestors   I never met Lemuel Menear.   And I never will.   Because he died a long time ago.   He died far away from home and family.   He died in Andersonville, Georgia, in Camp Sumter.   Lemuel was one of 13,000 Union soldiers, prisoners of a civil war, who died surrounded by unbearable human suffering, amidst sickness and starvation.   He died in a prison historians have called “hell on earth.”   He was fifty-five years old.   Lemuel left behind his wife and daughters and all he loved.   To fight.   For his nation?   For unity?   For the ideals of freedom and equality?   For the future?   Because he had no other choice?   I’ll never know his reasons.   But I do know that he departed the rugged mountains of West Virginia never to return.   I never met Lemuel, but when his great-grandson died, I wept. ...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Genesis 32:22-31 God in the Dark Some people find God in the Light. Some people see God's face in a beautiful sunrise. Some watch the Spirit dance on the golden horizon, all tingly warm embrace, all peace and comfort. But some only seem to encounter God in the dark. Jacob was one of those men. And in a way, I guess it is fitting. He was the kind of guy who was always on the run, staying in the shadows, like a fox who can't help but feel the warm breath of the hounds. He always heard footsteps. I mean, to be fair, he chose this life. That day he strapped goat skin to his arm – his first great scheme, snatching the blessing from his older brother – there was no going back; he set this course. And in some ways, the treachery and scheming made for him a good life. He did arrive at the Jabbok with his two wives, his two, well, the text says maids, but those maids were more than just maids, they were two of the four mothers o...