Preaching the Scriptures

The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Exodus 3:1-15   A Burning Bush St. John’s, Essex   It was a pin prick in the universe.   It was a lonely ember in the ashes of an exhausted fire.   It was a single star pushing through the cloudy cover.   And it was God.   Such a subtle turn in the career of the Creator.   Once before a time, God spoke and worlds were created, planets in their courses; whales filled the salty seas of this island home; comets crossed the skies; velvety blackness dominated the edge of everything.   With a word, so much, much more than a human mind could ever comprehend.   And now, that God: the size of a cozy campfire.     In a world that needed much bigger.   Moses was, at this point, a husband and a father, and a shepherd.   Also a fugitive.   His story was captivating.   He was born under a death threat.   Set sail in a tiny ark on a big river.   Found salvation ...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Exodus 33:12-23   Bold Prayers   If one find’s oneself in the presence of the British Monarch, one better behave appropriately.   In such rarified company, a guest is expected to arrive in advance of the monarch and leave before the royal exits the room.   In doing so, the guest must never turn their back to the monarch; such behavior is considered quite rude.   Do not initiate physical contact; that is not your place.   Shake only if shaken.   Do not speak unless spoken to; do not sit unless the monarch first sits; and do not eat unless you first witness food enter the mouth of the sovereign.   And ladies, if you curtsy, please remember to limit your curtsy to a short bob, “ keeping the back straight, hands by the side, dropping the knees slightly and bowing the head. ” [1]   Above all, be polite and civilized; you are meeting a royal after all.      Fortunately for him, Moses ...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Exodus 32:1-14   Seen   They were afraid.   And they felt alone and abandoned.   They were stranded in that vast and hostile desert when Moses just walked away.   He left them.   And now, there was no one left to lead the way.   No one left to escort them to the Promised Land.   No one left to walk out in front, to hear and execute the divine navigation.   No one to rescue them from hot sands and parched skin, from this scorching purgatory.     They were shriveling in the sun, wasting away day by day, stuck in neutral.   They were miserable.   But it wasn’t their fault that Moses ditched or died.   It was just clear that Moses was out of the picture.   And so there was nothing to do, nothing to see.   And they desperately needed to catch a glimpse of something.   Aaron was the one Moses left in charge.   He was the backup, the placeholder. ...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Exodus 17:1-7   Water in the desert   The desert was dry The anxiety sky high The question was: why?   Why did God rescue them from slavery in Egypt only to leave them to die a more terrible death: a death of thirst, parched mouths terrorized by the ubiquitous dust, lips broken, organs failing?   Why would Moses and his miraculous staff hatch a brilliant escape plan but not map out the vast wilderness?   Why did it have to end this way?   Egypt wasn’t good.   But also it wasn’t death.   There they were abused by their taskmasters.   They were slowly erased, ground into the sandy ground.   It was suffering but suffering with water and food and so suffering they could, at least, survive.   In Egypt, they cried out to God in desperation but not this desperate; out in that dry desert the sands of time poured through the hourglass much more quickly.   In Egypt, the future was bl...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Psalm 90:1-12   Life is Short   There are 150 psalms.   Just one is associated with Moses.   That one is Psalm 90, the psalm we recited this morning.   Moses did not write the psalm; it emerged long after his death. But it is called, in its scriptural superscription, a prayer of Moses.   And so I imagine the poet, the writer of this psalm, dwelling in the soul of a soul long at rest, like poets and storytellers often do.   I imagine the poet looking out from Moses’ tear-blurred eyes, as the man of God stands at the top of Mt. Nebo.   And this poem: inspired by that devastating view.   A promised land on the horizon, close enough to touch, but forever and ever away.   One long pursued but never achieved.   The cruel reality of mortality.   All those desert days, following the promise, chasing a dream, and then only this brief glimpse.   And then, as he ponders a world he wil...

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 Exodus 3:1-15 Burning Bush If you are hoping for a burning bush, remember: it was never enough. For the slaves suffering in Egypt, a fiery bush in the middle of the desert did nothing to ease their pain. It was just God at a distance. For Moses, God started as just a flame on the periphery, something one sees out of the corner of an eye. God as little more than a curiosity; I guess it is a good thing Moses was curious. On occasion, in the Scriptures, God makes a big splash – like splitting the sea in halves. On occasion, God makes a grand entrance – like a series of devastating plagues: frogs, locusts, and rivers of blood. But mostly we are Elijah waiting out the whirlwind and the earthquake and the firestorm desperately listening for the voice of God in the sheer silence. It is as confusing as it is frustrating as it is sometimes devastating. “ Who are you?” It seems like a fair question. Moses was raised in Egypt as an Egyptia...