Preaching the Scriptures

The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 13:24-30, 36-42   In the Garden St. Mark’s, Malone   In the Spring of 2020, I planted a garden.   Property-bound by a mysterious pandemic, my ministry suddenly became work from home.   Screens are inevitable, even in the healthiest of times, but during the earliest days of COVID there was little else.   Morning Prayer and Bible Studies were livestreamed from my living room.   Sermons were recorded for digital upload.   Pastoral care was done by actually talking on the phone.   Everything else, and there was a lot of else, was a seemingly inexhaustible series of Zoom meetings.   The garden became my excuse to disconnect and go outside.   The first thing I planted in my garden was spinach.   I don’t remember why.   Maybe because it can be planted early in the growing season.   Maybe because I was told it is easier to grow than some other veggies.   Maybe because e...

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Mark 4:26-34   Planting seeds All Saints’, Hoosick   In 2020, during the height of the early pandemic, I decided to plant a garden.   Not very original, I know, but my wife has a gluten allergy and so bread-baking was pretty much off the table, and I am too cheap to buy a Peloton bike.   And so, I tended to a garden.   My first year was fairly successful.   I grew more spinach than we could possibly eat; the basil was fresh and delicious; my oldest son devoured the cherry tomatoes.   It was not a large garden; it did not solely sustain us through the ravages of the first year of the pandemic (I still had to buy and sanitize groceries), but I found the routine of my garden rewarding and the fruits of my labors fulfilling.     And then year two arrived.   I planted that second garden as life was reemerging.   The vaccine was available.   Masks were the norm; groceries no...