Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Mark 12:28-34   Our Return to the Nave   Well, we’re inside.   This is an exciting day, one we have long awaited.   Today, for the first time in many months, I can gesture with both hands while I preach, like God intended, without having to worry about my pages flying off into Tejon Street.   I don’t to have to wonder if the altar book will turn its pages in the middle of a chant.   I will no longer spend my Sunday mornings envious of your bundled heads and sunglassed eyes and supported backs.     Because we are, after many months, back in the nave.   I want to thank you for your patience, for your understanding, and for your trust.   I know it wasn’t always easy.   But I do appreciate your willingness to be inconvenienced for the greater good, to love our members more than your comfort.   I know today that I don’t need to say too much about the Gospel lesson, because I have see...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Psalm 126   The Final Sunday on the South Lawn   Sometimes I see old pictures, pictures from a time that no longer exists, pictures from way back in the year 2019.   And in those old pictures the world looks different.   There are no masks, of course, very little concern about personal space, and an alarming lack of distancing, and that is always a bit striking.   But more than that, I see in those old pre-pandemic pictures a people who have not yet lived under the cloud of disease.   They have no idea that life is about to stop.   And change.   And change.   And change.   And scar them in ways still not entirely known.   They have no idea how many people they will bury, hundreds of thousands of people killed by a virus of which they have not yet heard.     Those pre-pandemic people had no idea how a world would respond to a global pandemic of this magnitude.   They co...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Genesis 2:18-24   Making Things Good   In the beginning, God was pleased – at least that is the impression one gets when reading the creation story that opens our Bible.   God made and God liked what God made.   Everything is evaluated and called good.   Water = good.   Dry land = good.   Plants yielding seed = good.   Lights in the dome of the sky = good.   Winged birds, great sea monsters, even creeping things = good.   God makes things and those things are good.   But it gets better; God decides that the whole is actually greater than the sum of the parts.   After stepping back and evaluating all of those good things together, God decides that the whole of creation is, in fact, very good.   God is pleased.   But in all of that goodness, there is still something amiss; something is not quite right.   God continues to look around at this very good creation until ...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a What will we be?   I remember exactly where I was when I realized this virus was serious.   I was in my car, pulling out of the parking lot of First Baptist, when the voice on the radio declared that the NCAA had canceled March Madness, the extraordinarily popular college basketball tournament.   That’s a billion dollars.   No one, especially not the NCAA, throws away a billion dollars – unless they absolutely have to.     In the days that followed, cancelations and closures piled up.   And pretty soon, the world was on hold.   Our clocks kept ticking, but there were no longer appointments.   We stilled crossed off the days on the calendar, but our calendars were empty.   March of 2020 was eighteen long months ago.   What seemed at first an unwelcome interruption, a short inconvenience, became a pandemic slog.   I shed tears of disbelief when the virus interfered...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Mark 8:27-38   A Hard Teaching   James’ advice is certainly some of the least heeded in the entire Bible.   “Not many of you should become teachers…”   Considering there are approximately 3.5 million teachers in our country alone, not to mention professors, instructors, and faith leaders, I would suppose even the most ardent biblical literalists do not take this canonical counsel literally.   “Not many of you should become teachers…” is an interesting passage to hear on the very Sunday we begin Sunday School, on the day we bless students and teachers, on the day Mthr. Claire teaches the first session of our new class, The Road to Emmaus, at the beginning of a new year of Ribbon Training, and early in this sixth season of our Parish Bible Study.   Teaching, it seems, is much more popular in the parish than it is in the epistle of James.   Honestly, even Jesus doesn’t take James all that seriously. ...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Isaiah 35:4-7a   Dreamer   Isaiah was as dreamer.   And I mean that as a compliment.   And I say that, because, while I know pretty much what every person in this world is against these days, I know almost nothing of their dreams.   I know what makes them rage, but I have no idea what brings tears to their eyes.     It sometimes feels like we are living on a scorched earth.   To me it feels like everywhere I look there is seething discontent, just so much anger; every post, that is not a baby, a pet, or a pun, is a complaint, frustration, or insult; every headline a tragedy; every cable news segment a red-hot poker; every life and every death fuel for some partisan fire.     Of course, there are things in the world that should fill us with holy anger, but just probably not everything.     I don’t claim to know all the reasons for all the anger; I’m sure they are legion. ...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Jeremiah 26:1-9, 12-15   Grant us wisdom, grant us courage   God of grace and God of glory, on thy people pour thy power: these were the first words to ever shake the pews of the famous Riverside Church in New York.   These enduring words were written by the pastor of that church, Henry Emerson Fosdick.   Originally set to the tune Regent Square, the hymn accompanied the opening opening procession in their new building.   The poetry was actually written for the dedication of that majestic new edifice, a celebratory moment to be sure, but it was also written against the backdrop of the Great Depression, at a time of immense wealth disparity in our nation, and between two World Wars.   The hymn was a prayer, gifted by a pastor to his people, a people living in a world beset by dread and destruction, a people called to proclaim the good news in a time of harrowing headlines.   Fosdick was invited to pastor the c...