Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Luke 2:41-52   Losing Jesus   She couldn’t help it.   The angel’s words just kept playing in her mind, on this seemingly endless loop.   They wouldn’t stop; neither would her tears.     The image of that angelic face, burned into her maternal memory, haunted her now, as she frantically scoured the bustling city streets.   When Heaven showed up and asked her to carry a child, she responded immediately and affirmatively.   She went along with the crazy plan.   But now that she needed something from Heaven, a little help, a little guidance, she got back nothing but silence.   When a parent cannot find their child, time slows to a crawl – one minute stretches into an eternity.   And for Mary it had been three days – of searching and crying and trying to keep it together, oh, and praying unanswered prayers.   Three agonizing days.   Every minute introduced yet another dr...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Haggai 1:15b-2:9 The Problem of Nostalgia and the Promise of the Future Haggai.   We don’t talk a lot about the book of Haggai.   Actually it’s a bit of a stretch to even call it a book; it is only two chapters long.   You heard a fairly high percentage of the entire volume this morning.   Haggai really kinda puts the ‘minor’ in minor prophets. It appears that even his career as a prophet was rather abbreviated.   The prophecies contained in the book bearing his name occur over just a four month period.   Besides a couple of name drops in Ezra there is no other mention of him in the Bible.   And even those two mentions give us nothing as far as biographical information is concerned.   It seems that God took out a short-term lease on him; hired him for a very specific task: to cheer on a building project.   Probably not exactly the orders he expected when he said, “Here I am, Lord.   Send me.” ...