Preaching the Scriptures

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Deuteronomy 26:1-11 The Story of a Man The man’s eyes welled up with tears at the calming sound of the stream, not another mirage this time, but an actual stream.   The blue waters called out to him as if to say, “This place is nothing like the desert.”   The desert was all he had ever known.   He was born there: a wanderer from birth.   He grew up there, a there that was always changing and yet somehow always the same.   Food was scarce, water scarcer.   And they, his people, were always on the move, just walking through purgatory. But no longer; it was a miracle: to stand still.   And even more: to stand still on a patch of green.   The man, born in desolation, thought to himself, or was it out loud, “This must be what the Garden of Eden was like.”   And to have his own plot of land, after wandering for so long, a stranger in strange lands, it felt to him like the Promised Land.   And so his...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson 1 Timothy 2:1-7 A Very Episcopalian Thanksgiving Perhaps you saw the cartoon, in the newspaper or on facebook.   In it a man and woman, both wearing combat helmets, are considering their Thanksgiving gathering – no small consideration in such a divided and partisan time.   They have everything pertaining to the big family meal laid out on a giant white board – where they will seat the liberals, and the Trump supporters, and the even the vegans – under the title Operation: Seating Chart. The man in the cartoon articulates their ultimate strategy for us, the audience, saying: “Aunt Millie is an Alt-Righter & cousin Jimmy is a Socialist, but if we sit the Episcopalians between all of them, I think we have a shot at keeping the peace.” I love it because I think it says something really profound about our Episcopal tradition.   And it is not that Episcopalians are naturally neutral.   We’re Episcopalians and so we know Epis...