Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23   Vanity   There was a bowl on the table of the family room.   In it were the remnants of an oatmeal breakfast – unfortunately, from the day before.   No one but the child who carried it out of the dining room and down the stairs knew it was there – until it was found – dried out and adhered in only the way old oatmeal can adhere.   My wife stood over the sink painstakingly dislocating stubborn oats from the vessel.   With much effort and time, the bowl was washed and dried and returned to the cupboard – just in time for it to once again be removed and filled and dirtied.   The bowl will be washed and dried and returned to the cupboard hundreds of times – over and over again, until the day it is dropped.   That one simple bowl will require hours of labor, hours of human life, to remain in circulation.   Each shirt: worn, washed, dried, folded, unfolded, worn, w...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Psalm 90:1-12   Life is Short   There are 150 psalms.   Just one is associated with Moses.   That one is Psalm 90, the psalm we recited this morning.   Moses did not write the psalm; it emerged long after his death. But it is called, in its scriptural superscription, a prayer of Moses.   And so I imagine the poet, the writer of this psalm, dwelling in the soul of a soul long at rest, like poets and storytellers often do.   I imagine the poet looking out from Moses’ tear-blurred eyes, as the man of God stands at the top of Mt. Nebo.   And this poem: inspired by that devastating view.   A promised land on the horizon, close enough to touch, but forever and ever away.   One long pursued but never achieved.   The cruel reality of mortality.   All those desert days, following the promise, chasing a dream, and then only this brief glimpse.   And then, as he ponders a world he wil...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Mark 9:38-50 Word and Example As I stand here in this pulpit, and look out over this crowd of people, one thing is clear to me: no one in this room is a biblical literalist.   There are many reasons for which I am glad about that, not the least of which is the disturbingly graphic Gospel passage we heard this very morning, with all its lopped off limbs and plucked out eyes.   This is probably one of the few passages that really draws a hard line in the sand for aspiring literalists, the other being the one about giving all of one’s money to the poor. I am an Episcopal priest these days, living in a denominational land where biblical literalism is scarcely found.   But I grew up in the Pentecostal tradition and so I know a thing or two about Biblical literalism.   This will give you an idea of that landscape: I was once warned that if I did not take everything in the Bible literally I was calling the entire Bible a lie. ...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Revelation 7:9-17 All Saints' Day: baptism and burial All Saints' Day seems as if it should hold the answers. And yet instead it is like struggling to find the opening in a curtain that has no opening. Tangled up and twisted, desperate to glimpse the mysteries of the other side, to find answers to the questions that vex us, questions of life and death, of time and eternity. Here we are so close and yet no closer. What brings us here? To this place? To this day? To this place – equal parts baptism and burial. To this day – equal parts baptism and burial. What brings us here? Is there something we seek? And if so where might that something be found? In the wood of the pews – wood that wears a million fingerprints, worn into shape by a million worshipers, the living and the dead, who sit and stand and sit again and kneel and sit again, wood that holds cards and pencils but also decades of prayers whispered into the ...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Mark 8:31-38   Blood-letting There is more than one way to lose your life.   It doesn't always happen in one fell swoop.   It's not always a hard stop.   Sometimes it means leaving little drops everywhere you go until your life blood is exhausted. This gradual blood-letting is a drain.   There is nothing flashy about it.   It is not celebrated.   Make no mistake Jesus is inviting his disciples to walk the way of death.   There is no doubt about that.   But following Jesus obviously does not always end in martyrdom.   There is more than one way to lose your life.   Now, it is true that most of Jesus' first disciples did die for Jesus' sake and for the sake of the gospel.   It is true that the Church calendar is filled with days commemorating those who lost their mortal lives following in Jesus' footsteps.   It is true that there are Christians sharing this planet with us right...