Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Genesis 9:8-17   The True Story of Noah   What people always want to know about the oldest stories is: are they real?   Are they true?   And the answer is, that of course they are true.   The best stories, the stories that stick in the soul, are always true – even if they don’t belong in the history books.   How I know they are true is that though they are old they continue to be remade and relived.   You likely haven’t built an ark to ride upon the primordial          chaos.   But I suspect you have surveyed the wreckage that chaos left behind in your life and felt the cold empty weight of despair.   You see, everyone talks about Noah’s flood, but they never think about what it feels like to live with the emptiness left behind by the receding waters.   This story is marketed to children.   It has cute animals and a boat.   It has a co...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Exodus 20:1-17 The Ten Commandments If I were inclined to guess, I would guess that the number one reason people reject the Christian religion is the Christians. We're a large group and some of the individual members are, ya know, crazy, strange, hateful.   And honestly all of us have bad days, days when the love of Christ in our lives is less than obvious.   So if one were looking for a reason to not follow Jesus, Jesus' followers offer many very solid reasons. But after the Christians, I suspect the next most prevalent reason to dismiss the faith is the impression that Christianity is all about rules, restrictions, judgment: Thou shalt not!    It's no surprise that some people think this; I mean, every time a Christian group wants to set up a monument in a public space, it is never the Beatitudes or the Fruits of the Spirit, it's always a big statue of the Ten Commandments – in King James' English, of course.   I...