Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson John 20:1-18   Jesus: There and Here   Mary was in the dark.   Early on the first day of the week, while the world was still shrouded in darkness, Mary Magdalene arrived at the tomb.   After the shock of Friday and the overwhelming grief of that empty Saturday, she was finally ready to confront what she knew but still could not believe: Jesus was dead.   The one who loved her and healed her and saved her was lying dead in a cold, stone tomb.   It was dark that morning but, during her bitter walk, her eyes had just enough time to adjust to the lack of light and she could see that the tomb, sealed on Friday, was standing wide open.   Her heart dropped further, if that was even possible.   It was yet another bad twist in her waking nightmare.   It was Easter Sunday and things just kept getting worse.   Mary was in the dark; she was devastated and spiraling.   The stone was rolled aw...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson John 1:1-18   Here   In the turbulent days of the Vietnam War, as the sky and the streets flashed with apocalyptic fantasies, Madeline L’Engle wrote a Christmas poem called The Risk of Birth:   This is no time for a child to be born, With the earth betrayed by war & hate And a comet slashing the sky to warn That time runs out & the sun burns late.   That was no time for a child to be born, In a land in the crushing grip of Rome; Honour & truth were trampled by scorn– Yet here did the Saviour make his home.   When is the time for love to be born? The inn is full on the planet earth, And by a comet the sky is torn– Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.   What the poet captures is the great scandal of the Incarnation – namely that it happens here.   Here: where there is never made enough room.   Here: where the rooms are too dusty and the hearts too often in...