Preaching the Scriptures

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30   Rejection and Invitation “ Meh. ”   That was the response.   It's deflating; that is a deflating response.   John the Baptist was tearing it up.   Yelling words of judgment – the veins on his temples pulsing.   He was spinning amazingly devastating metaphors about hacking trees with axes and broods of vipers.   He was fearlessly calling powerful people out for their indiscretions.   He was drowning sins in the river.   He was making the way for the Messiah and the kingdom of God.   He was fired up for some repentance.   He was wailing, but no one mourned.   He was the prophet for which they had long waited, but, you know, folks were busy.   And so instead of falling on the mercy of God, folks walked by the river, shrugged their shoulders, and let out a collective, “ meh. ” But that was John; I mean, he was a big deal but it's not like he was the Mes...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 10:40-42   Simple Vision It all seems so complicated, doesn't it?    The Bible is too big and too complicated.    The problems in our world are too big and too complicated.    And it makes it difficult to know how to really live like a Christian in the world.    We seldom come across anything simple. The Bible is a huge book.    Actually the Bible is a huge collection of books: 39 books in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament, and then, for us Anglicans, the books of the Apocrypha.    And they are written by a wide variety of authors, with a wide variety of theologies, in a wide variety of genres, over a number of centuries.    It is the kind of collection that has a martyred prophet in 2 Chronicles invoke the vengeance of God with his last breath and has another martyred prophet use his last breath to pray for the forgiveness of his killers.  ...