Preaching the Scriptures

The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 14:22-33   Why Did You Doubt? St. Mary’s, Springfield Center   As he thrashed around in the tumultuous sea, the answer to Jesus’ query seemed rather obvious.   And the doubt in Peter’s mind justified.   And yet, it was in that chaotic moment in which Jesus posed his question.   Because, after all, who doesn’t enjoy a deep philosophical discussion when one is pre-occupied with drowning?   Jesus asked Peter the “why” question.   And I don’t know if that was advisable.   As a parent, I can tell you, experts work very hard to talk that question out of the parental vocabulary.   In books and blogs, they claim it causes shame or fear.   Sometimes a cognitive block.   Often defensiveness.   In the Gospel text, Peter’s response to Jesus’ “why” is not recorded – if there even was one.   It is difficult to talk when one is terrified and choking on water.   Still in th...

T he Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Acts 10:34-43   Water St. James, Au Sable Forks   We live on a world of water.   Seventy-one percent of the surface of our planet is covered in the stuff.   And that water makes life possible.   The smallest to the largest lifeforms are teeming with liquid life.   Including us.   Each person, each human being, is mostly water: babies are almost 80% water weight; adults around 60%.   Water allows us to think (the brain is about ¾ water); to breathe (the lungs are more than 80% water); to pulse with life (the heart is about 75% water and our blood checks in around 90%).   We are a water people on a watery world.   And in this big world, we happen to live and minister in a diocese very much defined by water.   Our southern border is a mountain range named after a kill, a creek – the Catskill Mountains.   Our northern border is the St. Lawrence.   Not far from here, our eastern...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Exodus 17:1-7   Water in the desert   The desert was dry The anxiety sky high The question was: why?   Why did God rescue them from slavery in Egypt only to leave them to die a more terrible death: a death of thirst, parched mouths terrorized by the ubiquitous dust, lips broken, organs failing?   Why would Moses and his miraculous staff hatch a brilliant escape plan but not map out the vast wilderness?   Why did it have to end this way?   Egypt wasn’t good.   But also it wasn’t death.   There they were abused by their taskmasters.   They were slowly erased, ground into the sandy ground.   It was suffering but suffering with water and food and so suffering they could, at least, survive.   In Egypt, they cried out to God in desperation but not this desperate; out in that dry desert the sands of time poured through the hourglass much more quickly.   In Egypt, the future was bl...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Ephesians 1:11-23 The Sea of Souls I stare out into the vast expanse, the vast expanse that is this ocean.   And my mind goes to poetry but poetry absent of words.   Because there are no words, no answers, no explanations that don’t feel crass – just feelings and impressions and dreams for which even the interpretations need to be interpreted.   And I stare because this is one place in the world in which staring is acceptable and not odd.   And I breathe.   I breathe in the air, a flavor unique to the shore – though many candles promise to capture it and to domesticate it – all unsuccessfully.   I breathe it in in slow, shallow breaths, as if a deep or suddenly intake of air might scare away the mystery before me.   The air is more than air; it carries the essence of this great sea, like how incense somehow puts form to holiness.   And as I slowly and cautiously inhale, I can feel that this ocean is now, so...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Genesis 9:8-17 Wet Fear I am not a seafaring man.   I knew ponds and streams as a boy, but I knew hills and fields better.   On those rare occasions, when I would gaze over the vastness of Lake Erie – or even rarer still, the impossible expanse of the Atlantic Ocean – those bodies of water seemed to me strangers.   But not the kindly strangers, friends one has just not yet met, but dark and mysterious strangers.   I suspected, just below the surface, there was danger. I still shy away from any water that has not yet been domesticated.   I am very fond of the water that comes from a tap, that courses through the copper pipes of my house.   But I prefer to keep the water that fills lakes, rivers and oceans at an arm's length.   There is too much unknown.   Under the surface are creepy creatures that I cannot see, that I am pretty sure want to touch me or bite me.   There are currents that are tr...