Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21     Stop Waiting for Jesus   Almost ten years ago I re-wrote a sermon.   On a Friday.   In the background, the babbling of a toddler clashed with the increasingly devastating news reports coming through my television screen.   As I struggled to find words, something worthwhile to say to my people, something to say about something unspeakable, the death toll kept rising.   Parents kept weeping.   I was a new dad and I was watching people live my worst nightmare.   Except for the exceptionally cruel people with their conspiracy theories, it felt like the entire nation wept with the people of Newtown, Connecticut.   How could we not?   Twenty children, little children, children barely able to tie their own shoes.   Six adult staff members.   All stolen away without mercy and without warning.   The victims walked into school, an elementa...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Isaiah 2:1-5 Expecting Folks do tend to confuse the seasons of Advent and Lent. It's understandable; it is not hard to do. There are some clear similarities: they both end in the same sound: -ent; some churches use the same liturgical color for both seasons; at this parish we worship in old-style language only during the two seasons of Advent and Lent; and both are often, unfortunately, greatly overshadowed by the feasts they precede: Christmas and Easter. And so when people ask me to explain the difference between these two seasons, and that has happened many times in my decade of ordained ministry, I always say the same thing: “It is the difference between preparing for a death and preparing for a birth.” I have prepared for a birth – a couple of times actually. I know that time. That pregnant time is unlike any other time. The days, so filled with expectation, seem at once to move too slowly and too quickly. You wait for th...