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 Romans 8:26-39   Nothing Transfiguration, Blue Mountain Lake   This is a sermon about “nothing.”   Perhaps you are thinking to yourself, I have heard many sermons about nothing.   Well, that may be the case.   But this sermon is about a very specific “nothing.”   You see, for all the words spilled about the Christian faith over the centuries, “nothing” matters.   In a world populated by billions of diverse and different, beautiful and broken people, “nothing” matters.   Amidst the unfathomable vastness of creation, “nothing” matters.   When you leave this place today, I hope you leave with “nothing.”   Because this “nothing” I have in mind means everything.   We Church people have a long history of complicating and obfuscating the Gospel.   But it is really quite simple.   We tend to qualify and nullify the power of the Christian message, as if our human ingenuity could some...

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Romans 5:1-5   The Unshakable Foundation St. Philip’s, Norwood   Dear Church, I know you are tired…of waking up to a world of uncertainty…of warily doomscrolling your social media…of turning on and tuning in to a steady cycle of changes, chances, and crises.   I know you are tired…of the images of pain and suffering, of war and violence, of despair.   In the nation.   In the world.   And now very much seared into your soul.   I know you are tired…because you no longer know what to do or say or how to feel, because the emotions are so mixed these days, mixed to the point of muddled.   The foundations are being shaken.   Those things long taken for granted in our society are being questioned and undermined and, in some cases, discarded.   Trust has eroded as the very technologies we believed would usher in an information age have proved at least equally adept at transmitting misinfo...

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Acts 2:1-21 & Romans 8:22-27   Pentecostal Hope St. Ann's, Amsterdam, NY   All they had was unseen hope.   Because Incarnation had faded into invisible right before their startled eyes.   In a matter of weeks, these disciples had witnessed death and then life and now out of sight.   In a matter of weeks, they experienced impossible pain and unexpected joy and…what now?   Maybe both?   Jesus left again.   Not on a cross but on a cloud.   This was not the sting of death but also this time it was chosen, and so it still stung.   And anyway, he was gone.   And together they were alone.     Once again, for the second time in as many months, the future was hazy.   And in the dizzying presence of change, they reverted to old patterns.   Every time Jesus was gone, they locked up in a room.   They were disciples and, by nature, disciples follow.   The...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Romans 15:4-13   A Welcome Church   The wolf shall live with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.   It is a pastel vision fit for a nursey wall.   It is also unrealistic in a way that hurts, that stirs up a kind of desperate unfulfilled longing most often reserved for prayers we dare not say out loud.   It is the kind of vision that makes one homesick for a place we’ve never known.   Isaiah always finds a way to set our best dreams to poetry.   His poetic visions are so fiercely beautiful that I named my son after him.   Because I want my son, my Isaiah, to dream these impossible dreams and hope for a future that is entirely unreasonable.   I want him to be the little child whose feet are firmly planted in the coming kingdom of God.   I love poetry – for all the ways in which is stirs the sou...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Romans 5:1-5   Suffering and Hope   Candy Land, a game “lovingly” described on Wikipedia as requiring, “no reading…minimal counting skills [and] no strategy,” is a wonderfully accessible way to introduce even the youngest of children to the timeless idea of journey.   It is true that the Candy Land journey is a bit more simplistic than the journey through life – all laid out as it is in a predictably static two dimensions.   But while the path on the board is clear, every trip has its own challenges. At times the cards you draw will set you off in the direction of your goal; at others times there are setbacks and slowdowns in the cards.   You might be forced to retrace your steps a time or two; your plastic child could at times get stuck in some sticky sugar for a turn.   But what is always true is that the road begins at the Cupcake Commons, runs past the Lollypop Woods, and ends at the Promised Land of Candy C...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Romans 8:22-27   An Ancient Song   This story, like most stories, starts in the beginning.   It starts in the deep silence of a formless void – the long, breathless pause of anticipation.   And then, just like that, everything happened: an eternity of silence shattered by a single, startling note.   The opening aria of the divine triune being, the God who created all things with a song.   And as the song played the Spirit, the holy Spirit, danced over the face of the deep, floated on the waves of the delicate melody.   At first alone, a solo act: God created a chorus.   And each newly made voice was invited to sing along, to layer rich, hauntingly beautiful harmonies beneath the ancient, timeless melody.   The howling planets and the rhythmic crash of plasma waves in interstellar space.   The rocking wash of the sea and the gentle babble of a brook.   The drone of the lurching earth ...