Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 25:1-13   The Bridesmaids   It’s not that “Keep awake” is bad advice.   In fact, in some cases it is very sound, very relevant, advice.  Keep awake so that you don’t miss your stop on the train.   Keep awake so that you don’t snore in the crowded movie theatre, or during this sermon.   Keep awake because you are driving.   There are many situations in which it is very important to keep awake.   And so it is not a bad moral to tack onto a Jesus’ parable.   It is just that it obviously does not apply to this parable.     “Keep awake” cannot be the point of this particular Gospel story.   It cannot be the point because everybody fell asleep – all ten bridesmaids featured in Jesus' parable – both the wise and the foolish – fell asleep.  And half of them joined the party anyway.  So “keep awake,” it turns out, didn’t really matter that much and theref...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 20:1-16   Not Fair   This parable is not fair.   And this landowner, he does not appear to be great at business.     And I do hope the people in Jesus’ crowd understood that this story was a folksy parable – because if they took this as entrepreneurial advice, financial ruin was all but guaranteed.   In this strange parable, the owner of the vineyard is employing a highly questionable business model.   If the landowner followed this strange pattern daily, it would not be long before the morning shift suffered some serious atrophy; laborers would keep a lower profile at sunrise – even though the landowner, as the parable reminds us, does pay a fair daily wage.   Most of the laborers would apply in the late afternoon – knowing that their hourly rate skyrockets as the evening approaches.   As the word got out, and it would, the fields would become drastically understaffed and under-worked...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 21:33-46   The Violent Tenants   Jesus said, “Listen to another parable.”   And we trained our ears, instead, for a simple allegory.   But Jesus said, “Listen to another parable.”   And we quickly sifted through his words for a glimpse of God, a hint that might help us solve the divine mystery.   But Jesus’ parables only give a path further into mystery.   These strange stories always defy our narrow focus and our easy answers.   Parables are not simply theological talk made interesting.   They are odd stories that are unclear enough to help us see a bit more clearly.   Parables are not puzzles for us to solve; they are puzzles that help us solve ourselves.   This Gospel story is a strange story – although it begins in an ordinary way.   A landowner plants and equips a vineyard.   Once it is ready to be tended, he leases it to others who will do the work required to...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Luke 18:9-14 Honest Prayers and God’s Grace Now, you can say what you want about the Pharisee in today’s Gospel, but I’ll tell you this: the man is honest.   I have no doubt that he meant every word he prayed.   “God, I just, I just want to thank you…thank you…that I am not like other people.   Thank you for making me so much better than the rest of these disgusting humans – a collection of thieves, rogues, and adulterers.   And, you know, while I am offering you this beautiful prayer of thanksgiving, let me add this: Thank you for making me better than that guy, that guy over in the corner.   Amen.”   That is an honest prayer.   I mean, most people think stuff like that.   But not many people are bold enough and confident enough to pray that.   And so for all the flaws that the Pharisee does have, at least he is honest; his prayer is heart-felt. And what about that guy across the room, the one bea...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Luke 16:19-31 It’s not too late This was the story he was born to tell.   It was in his DNA.   His mother sang this song to him in the womb – a song of a world turned up-side-down, a song of hope for the poor and forgotten, a dream to be dreamed by those covered in sores, for those dying on the side of the road.   The lyrics lived in his soul: “God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly, has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”   It was Mary’s Song.   And now it was his: his story to tell.   A story of salvation, perched at the edge of the apocalypse. Jesus’ story, his parable, is the story of two men: one powerful and one lowly, one rich and one hungry.   And because this is a parable, and because Jesus’ parables tend to often employ hyperbolic language to draw the listeners in, to peak their interest, the extremes here are very extreme. ...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 25:14-30 Scary Talented There are a number of scary texts in the Bible – tales of the Devil, demon possession, of weeping and gnashing of teeth, and people thrown into the outer darkness. And there are others: there's that time when people offered the wrong kind of incense and were consumed by fire from heaven – which is why I have the acolytes prepare the incense, just in case. There is the part about everything you do in private being made public – which is especially scary for teenagers and politicians. There is pretty much everything in the book of Revelation. And there is that thing where the one perfect, sinless person who loves everybody gets nailed to a cross – which tells me that no one is safe. And yet, growing up, there was no more terrifying story than this parable about the talents. Let me explain: When I was a child, I was pretty shy. I didn't like to draw attention to myself, didn't like to be in fron...