Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Mark 16:1-8   Do Not Be Afraid The Cathedral of All Saints, Albany, NY   Of course they were afraid.   This is a scary world.   You heard tonight’s Scriptures.   In this world, though created good, predators stalk gardens of paradise, even Eden.   In this world, the innocent are enslaved and pursued to the point of hopelessness.   In this world, exiles long for home, sometimes long for what is left of home.   In this world, the path to the tomb can be treacherous and, because the shadows are so long, people have to travel in groups.   Even in the pages of the Scriptures.   Even in the earliest hours of Easter.   And then there is death.   In this world.   In the Easter Scriptures.   These women, the ones who walked to the tomb, they carried spices.   The spices were their gift for the dead, to cover the unpleasantness, and to give distraction to their unpleasa...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Luke 24:1-12 Fear in the Age of Resurrection It was Easter Sunday and the tomb was empty.   And while the wide world struggled under the weight of those same ancient foes – fear and pain, sorrow and death – God had just whispered a word into the darkness, the darkness that would soon give way to the dawn.   It was a word much more powerful than any terror that stalked the human race.   The world waited and wondered and God had the answer.   The women, the first to see the stone rolled away, had stumbled into, rather unexpectedly and unawares, this new age of Resurrection.   When they willed themselves out of bed on that first Easter morning, nothing seemed different except the heaviness in their hearts.   And yet, everything was different, because the tomb was empty.   Everything was different because resurrection was in the air; everything was different because Jesus was alive and on the move.   They j...