Preaching the Scriptures

The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 14:13-21   Too Much St. Hubert’s, Lake Pleasant   At the end of the day, it was simply far too much bread.   It is, admittedly, difficult to calculate the necessary allotment for a crowd numbered in the thousands.   And certainly, you don’t want to run out in the middle of the meal.   But as the satisfied masses dissipated, there was somehow still bread everywhere.   It was like standing in a vast field of wheat, but with no assembly required.   In the most mundane of times, life can be pretty unpredictable.   But this was an extreme version of that.   As the disciples collected the bread, five loaves and two fish must have felt like a distant memory.   All their early evening worries, like a silly dream.   By all accounts, it was a good day.   People were cured.   People were fed.   The crowds that circled the lake, on foot, left satisfied.   The expec...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 14:13-21   Such a Mom Jesus: he is such a mom.   There has been a death in the family.   And he is worried about food.   He's got to feed all these people; they're hungry.   And, of course, just like a mom, he makes way too much. When he first heard about John the Baptist ’ s death, he tried to get away, to find place to be alone.   With his thoughts.   To pray.   To cry.   To grieve.   To remember.   Jesus is human too, don't forget; he is broken-hearted.   Of course he is.   John the Baptist, whom Herod killed, was special to him.   And the death was sudden and terrible.   But the fantasy of alone-time didn't last long.   The people followed him.   Like a toddler following his mother into the bathroom, not a moment of solitude or silence, they follow Jesus.   Emptying out the towns and the villages, they go after him.   That qui...