Preaching the Scriptures

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Matthew 4:18-22 St. Andrew: Called and Followed. “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart.”   That could be a promise.   Or that could be a description.   Or that could be a threat. Today we celebrate St. Andrew.   He is our saint, our patron, the one to whom we have tied our identity.   And we are his parish – according to the apostrophe “s” in the name of this church. His story begins in that place where lake meets dry land; Jesus calls him out of the waters and into a new reality.   This story begins with a word – a word that cut through the sounds of wind and waves and birds and fisherman hauling heavy nets onto the shore.   The word was like a knife – making a clean cut – separating Andrew's past from the entirely new future that was about to begin.   The word was like a knife – lodging itself in his heart.   Our Gospel story today is an origin story.   It is the s...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Mark 7:24-37   Enemy Lines Why, Jesus, why?   Why did you have to go and say such a terrible thing?   And to a woman?   To a desperate, heartbroken woman?   She wanted her daughter to be made well.   She begged.   And you called her a dog. This is a tough Gospel.   It is hard to understand; commentators and preachers offer a variety of explanations – for me, every one leaves nagging questions unanswered.   One of the problems is that it is difficult to square this episode with what comes before and what follows it in Mark's Gospel.   In the lectionary today, the story of the Syrophoenician woman is paired with the healing story that follows it.   After the encounter with this woman, Jesus heals another gentile – also in gentile territory – but without a negative word, without hesitation.   And you might remember from last week's reading that before Jesus' encounter with the...