Preaching the Scriptures

The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 18:15-20 & Romans 13:8-14   A New Perspective/A New Commandment St. Sacrement, Bolton Landing   The pants were navy blue.   I was almost definitely sure of that.   I think.   And so I was confused about my wife’s outfit – an outfit seemingly coordinated around black pants, which she was almost definitely not wearing.   Except that she was wearing black pants – and she was almost definitely sure of that.   But I could not see it.   We simply could not agree on the color of those pants.   They were navy blue, for sure – unless they were black.   Of course, in the grand scheme of things, it was no big deal.   She’s allowed to clash if she wants to.   But, it was further proof that people see the same things differently.   It happens all the time – in big and small ways.     This morning, these pews are filled with people who see and experience the worl...

The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 14:13-21   Too Much St. Hubert’s, Lake Pleasant   At the end of the day, it was simply far too much bread.   It is, admittedly, difficult to calculate the necessary allotment for a crowd numbered in the thousands.   And certainly, you don’t want to run out in the middle of the meal.   But as the satisfied masses dissipated, there was somehow still bread everywhere.   It was like standing in a vast field of wheat, but with no assembly required.   In the most mundane of times, life can be pretty unpredictable.   But this was an extreme version of that.   As the disciples collected the bread, five loaves and two fish must have felt like a distant memory.   All their early evening worries, like a silly dream.   By all accounts, it was a good day.   People were cured.   People were fed.   The crowds that circled the lake, on foot, left satisfied.   The expec...

The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 13:24-30, 36-42   In the Garden St. Mark’s, Malone   In the Spring of 2020, I planted a garden.   Property-bound by a mysterious pandemic, my ministry suddenly became work from home.   Screens are inevitable, even in the healthiest of times, but during the earliest days of COVID there was little else.   Morning Prayer and Bible Studies were livestreamed from my living room.   Sermons were recorded for digital upload.   Pastoral care was done by actually talking on the phone.   Everything else, and there was a lot of else, was a seemingly inexhaustible series of Zoom meetings.   The garden became my excuse to disconnect and go outside.   The first thing I planted in my garden was spinach.   I don’t remember why.   Maybe because it can be planted early in the growing season.   Maybe because I was told it is easier to grow than some other veggies.   Maybe because e...

The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30   250 Zion, Colton   Yesterday we celebrated the 250th anniversary of the birth of our country.   The semiquincentennial is a momentous occasion – a cause for parades, fireworks, and fanfares.   And we live in an amazing part of the country to revel in it.   Our diocese is dotted with blue historical signs pointing to the earliest days of our national organization.   And yet, for many, it was a complex event given the national strife we are experiencing.   In our United States, we feel the weight of our divisions.   Our one country can feel like an uneasy collection of competing ideologies.     We live in an intensely partisan time – one driven by social media, cash infusions, and political theatre.   The partisanship in our nation is exhausting and it is relentless.   At some level it feels like not many of us really like it, and yet we can’t seem to quit...

 T he Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 10:40-42   Welcome you, welcome me Trinity, Potsdam   Friends, you are all over this Gospel passage.   You play every part, like the star of a one-person show.   You are guest and host.   You are prophet and little one.   You are filling the glass and you are emptying it.   This entire tenth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel has been complex and encompassing.   It is a missionary commissioning; Jesus is sending his followers out of his shadow and into the world.   The exhortations volley between promise and warning, celebration and suffering.   Even last week in our Gospel we ran the gamut: biological families were at odds even as the household of God was coming together, life was lost and gained, words told in the dark found the light, whispers were shouted from the rooftops.   Life on the Gospel mission was hard, but every moment was held in the loving, attentive gaze of Go...

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 28:16-20   Go! St. John, Delhi   Another week; another mountain.   The disciples have once again gathered at altitude to watch the resurrected Jesus leave.   It feels like we just did this.   Two Sundays ago, on the Seventh Sunday of Easter, on the Sunday after the Ascension, we heard of a similar scene, that time from Luke’s perspective, this time from Matthew’s.   And while the stories do bear a striking resemblance, there is an important distinction between these two goodbyes.   In the telling we heard two weeks ago, the disciples were told to huddle up in an upper room and prepare for the coming of the Holy Spirit.   That is not the message of this Gospel passage, these final verses of Matthew’s Gospel.   In Acts, the disciples were directed to wait; here they are told to “GO”!   This “go” is famously how the Gospel of Matthew ends.   It is a stirring and memora...

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 28:1-10   But Not for God   She was helpless.   Utterly helpless.   It was the Friday of a week that had spun out of control, in the very worst possible way.   And there was nothing she could do to stop the spinning.   Mary Magdalene stood at a distance now, but the distance provided no perspective, no safety – just more pain.   From that distance, she was still close enough to see the ending of a story that was, apparently, a tragedy.   For a while, it had felt like a fairy tale.   But the cross at the end proved otherwise; it was a twist ending she did not see coming.     Because he was best of us, impossibly good, completely selfless, just made of love. It was like kindness flowed through his veins.   If anyone should get the happy ending, it was Jesus.   But he got the death penalty instead.   And now here she was, looking on from a distance as his bloo...

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 9:35-38     Remember Your “Why” Cathedral of All Saints and St. Thomas, Tupper Lake   In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus never once checks his email.   And I think we all know what that means: he is going to fall hopelessly behind – and then have to spend the rest of the week desperately trying to catch up.     Of course, I am only kidding: no one ever catches up on email, not even Jesus.   Because they just keep coming – always and forever.     The expectations of ministry have certainly changed over the centuries.   Priests and deacons of the past would never have imagined the shape and demands of ordained life in the 21 st century.   And it is not just your inbox.   Administrative expectations and mundane tasks constantly clog up our to-do lists.   You have to fill out the parochial report.   And beg someone to serve on the vestry.   And proo...