Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Zephaniah 3:14-20   Your Salvation Story St. Stephen’s, Schenectady, NY   The salvation story is long, rooted in a remote, distant past, as ancient as the first mysterious sparks of creation.   We encounter this old story in the waters of the Exodus, in the courage of Esther, on the road out of exile.   We encounter the story in the manger of Bethlehem and, especially, in the empty tomb of Easter.   They are stories transmitted in our holy book and proclaimed from countless pulpits; tales told and passed down through time and through families – all chapters of the greatest story ever told.     But that story is not confined to the past.   Though ancient it still calls us into the future.   The salvation story is also a vision, alive and active in the dynamic mind of God; it is a promise – a promise fulfilled somewhere in the fullness of time, a promise that fuels this season of Advent. ...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Genesis 45:1-15   Pit, Prison, Palace: Joseph and the Salvation Story   The brothers were speechless because they were afraid.   They were afraid because standing before them was a ghost, a ghost that they created.   A ghost that had haunted them for years, pursued them in their dreams and in their nightmares.   But only in dreams and nightmares, until now.   Now this one they could not forget was weeping before them.   Joseph: he finally caught them – and they could not escape because they could not wake up because this was not a dream.      It had to be true; every word, every tear: it had to be true.   No one in Egypt knew their secret.   No one else in the world, not even their own father, knew the true story.   They never told anyone.   The real truth was too terrible to speak, what they had done – and to their own baby brother.   They had lived with that lie...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Luke 19:1-10   Up a Tree   Luke is a Gospel of fascinating stories: the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, the afterlife adventure of the Rich Man and Lazarus, and, of course, the story of Zacchaeus, a man forever enshrined in song as “the wee little man.”   But while the other stories are all parables told by Jesus, the Zacchaeus story is the tale of an actual encounter.   Zacchaeus was not a character created by Jesus, neither was his story a fragment of divine imagination.      This is the real life story of a real man.   A rich man.   A business man.   A wealthy adult human who, in this story, is discovered up in a tree – in public – not exactly the place one might expect to find grown man of means. Zacchaeus climbs a tree by a crowded street and his favorite sports team did not even win a championship, which I think might be the only acceptable circumstance under which an adult human ...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Luke 13:10-17   Set Free   This is not the first time Jesus teaches in a synagogue.   This is not the first time Jesus teaches himself into some hot water in a synagogue.   The first time he stood in the pulpit, back in his hometown of Nazareth, the gathered assembly, the audience of his sermon, tried to throw him off of a cliff.   That is admittedly a pretty extreme reaction…to a sermon.   More typically, offended listeners might just walk out in the middle of the sermon or send a strongly worded email the next day.   These folks tried to kill Jesus.   That is a rough debut.   But you know what they say, if at first you don’t succeed…   And so Jesus tries again; this second attempt is what is described in today’s Gospel passage.   This time, the second time around, does go better; this time Jesus is only heckled by the leader of the synagogue – presumably the very person who invited him to spe...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Acts 16:16-34 Salvation Is this what salvation looks like?   As today’s story from Acts shifts and jumps, shakes and quakes, and the Holy Spirit of God working in the story does the same, it is this question that, repeatedly, at each twist, turn, pause, and break is begged.   Is this what salvation looks like? The passage begins innocently enough – if one can ever call the work of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts innocent.   And the vast number of apostolic arrests in this book suggests that maybe one cannot.   But it is the case that when Paul and his companions enter into the Macedonian city of Phillipi, they decide, blinders on, halos firmly affixed, to head straight for the place of prayer. They were not looking for any trouble. But trouble finds them.   In the guise of a slave girl – a slave girl who just happens to be possessed by a spirit – a spirit that takes a special interest in these men who are defi...