Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Amos 7:7-15   Amos   Cows and trees: that is what Amos did.   Perhaps not terribly glamorous, but it was a living.   He, by his own admission, was a simple herdsman.   He patrolled the Judean fields, looked after his cattle.   He dressed his sycamore trees, ensured the fruit was healthy and the predatory wasps kept at bay.   And finally, he had a flock; a flock that he followed.   Amos doesn’t specify in today’s text what type of flock he followed but I suspect it was not a flock of birds; because bird are pretty fast and it would be extremely difficult to follow them.   So more likely we’re talking about some sheep or goats, in addition to his herd of cattle.   The man was a farmer, a rancher, an agriculturalist.   He was, no doubt, a busy man, an honest, hard-working man.   And, though this is a little surprising since this book is the called the book of the prophet Amos, what he ...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 3:1-12 Repentance The first religious leader who appeared in John’s audience was likely caught off guard – by the attention he received and the intensity of the rhetoric.   Like the person in the crowd singled out by a comedian: unaware, going in, that he was about to be featured in the show.   But the Gospel says that there were many Pharisees and Sadducees who ventured to the banks of the Jordan.   And that I find curious.   After the first guy slunk away red-faced, humiliated, each subsequent religious leader should have known better.   And still they came.   That either speaks to the overwhelmingly magnetic charisma possessed by this desert prophet.   Or perhaps to the limited entertainment options of the 1 st century.   Or, maybe, something else entirely.   The Gospel is not terribly clear on this point. But the Gospel does say that those religious leaders, the clergy folk, who s...