Preaching the Scriptures

The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 18:15-20 & Romans 13:8-14   A New Perspective/A New Commandment St. Sacrement, Bolton Landing   The pants were navy blue.   I was almost definitely sure of that.   I think.   And so I was confused about my wife’s outfit – an outfit seemingly coordinated around black pants, which she was almost definitely not wearing.   Except that she was wearing black pants – and she was almost definitely sure of that.   But I could not see it.   We simply could not agree on the color of those pants.   They were navy blue, for sure – unless they were black.   Of course, in the grand scheme of things, it was no big deal.   She’s allowed to clash if she wants to.   But, it was further proof that people see the same things differently.   It happens all the time – in big and small ways.     This morning, these pews are filled with people who see and experience the worl...

The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Romans 8:26-39   Nothing Transfiguration, Blue Mountain Lake   This is a sermon about “nothing.”   Perhaps you are thinking to yourself, I have heard many sermons about nothing.   Well, that may be the case.   But this sermon is about a very specific “nothing.”   You see, for all the words spilled about the Christian faith over the centuries, “nothing” matters.   In a world populated by billions of diverse and different, beautiful and broken people, “nothing” matters.   Amidst the unfathomable vastness of creation, “nothing” matters.   When you leave this place today, I hope you leave with “nothing.”   Because this “nothing” I have in mind means everything.   We Church people have a long history of complicating and obfuscating the Gospel.   But it is really quite simple.   We tend to qualify and nullify the power of the Christian message, as if our human ingenuity could some...

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Isaiah 43:1-7   Love Song St. Matthew’s, Latham   This is a love song for a devastated people.   Isaiah is writing to a nation in exile, a nation that was traumatized, violated, and displaced; a nation of broken hearts and shattered lives.   The people felt lost and they had lost hope.   But in their darkest hour, it is this prophetic word that finds them.   “Do not fear.”   But they were afraid – of the nightmares in their past, of the painful present, and of the uncertain future.   They were afraid.   But God wasn’t.   And so this is where God started: Do not fear.   God understood that they were scared; God always knows.   And so like a Creator speaking a new reality into being, God whispered peace to their trembling souls; God held on tightly to their shaky hands, until they steadied.   Because God knew that a word of comfort and blessed assurance was what they ne...

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson John 6:1-21   Jesus Walks St. John’s, Ogdensburg   He just walked away.   The bread was still warm.   The fish were still fresh.   The crowds had never been more enthused, never more ready to embrace his reign.   And Jesus just walked away.   Like he had done his entire life.   The temptations from the desert, from the haunted wilderness, from the days just after his baptism, never left him alone.   They would fade for a time, but they would come back.   Always whispering about a throne.   Playing the songs of national triumph through his mind: songs of power and might and success, the songs they play for mighty kings.   And promising long life.   Certainly no cross.   The crowds, on that day, in this Gospel, they were convinced that he was the one.   And so they decided to come and take him by force to make him king.   Convinced that he was the...

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Acts 10:44-48           Afternoon Dreaming Church of the Holy Spirit, Schenevus   It all started with a dream.     Peter just couldn’t keep his eyes open; they were so heavy.   I don’t know about you, but I can relate.   Sometimes prayer makes us sleepy.   It’s just true.   Good intentions and dogged devotion are, at times, simply not enough.   And in the midst of a pious moment, we find ourselves drifting into a slumber.   It happens to the best of us – including St. Peter.     In his dream, Peter saw the heavens open – an exciting beginning, to be sure.   And then from that celestial rift descended…bedding – specifically a large sheet.   Jacob got angels climbing a ladder; Joseph: thin cows eating fat cows.   Peter gets a sheet.        It turns out the sheet, as you might remember from this sto...

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson I John 3:16-24   Words and Love St. Peter’s, Hobart   If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.   Eloquent prophecies: they will come to an end; tongues: they will cease; knowledge: it too will come to an end.     You know these words; you have heard them at weddings.   They are St. Paul’s words; they are words about words.   Beautiful words; timeless words.   But also words written to articulate the stark limitation of our words.   Proclaimed to you today by a man who wrote words about a passage of ancient words, from the first letter of John, that implore us to not love in word and speech alone.   Because, while words are great, words...