By Jenny Williams

Slow and Abundant Faithfulness by Jenny Williams (5/2/2012)
In the mid-2000s, I served two small-membership United Methodist churches in small towns in West Virginia. One of those churches served as a pilot congregation for the CFI process. About 15 people in a church of 45 active members committed to a two-year engagement with the CFI material. Of the five pilot congregations, ours was probably the least educated, and we were able to navigate the material very well. As the introduction to CFI states, the curriculum is intended to be a scaffolding on which conversations can hang. CFI studies provide a congregation with language to have discussions about the purpose of being a called-out people. I was amazed to watch how discussions about formation and Christian practice aided this congregation in their faithfulness, both as indi...
Leadership Lessons by Jenny Williams (10/20/2011)
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost Deuteronomy 34:1-12 Let’s give credit where credit is due. I had never read the stories about Moses in light of what it means to be a leader of God’s people until I heard Lillian Daniel preach at an Ekklesia Project Gathering many years back. As a good seminarian I had only thought of Exodus as a witness to God’s preferential option for the poor or as a testimony to the fact that the people of God have always been whiny. Lillian delightfully re-narrated one of the Moses stories and suggested that if he were to be an effective leader he might need to take a course in anger management. I sup...
Family Ties by Jenny Williams (6/14/2011)
Genesis 1:1-2:4a; Matthew 28:16-20 One of our church members, Sally, is serving a sentence in a regional jail. She joined our church on Pentecost last year, and though she had been baptized as a child, had never been brought up in church. She’s had very little Christian formation, so she set out to use her incarceration to engage in an intense study of the Bible. The growth that she is experiencing during this time is phenomenal. As they say in my neck of the woods, “The Holy Spirit has really gotten hold of her.” When I visited her this week, in a very excited voice she said to me right off the bat, “I finally understand what family is all about!” She went on to tell me that a woman in her family, Kelly, just discovered that man she had always known as her father was...
What’s goin’ on? by Jenny Williams (5/4/2011)
Luke 24:13-35 “Are you the only person who doesn’t know what’s been going on for the past few days?” Apparently Jesus had not been reading Facebook. Or listening to NPR. Or reading the newspaper. Seriously—how could this guy not know what’s been happening? In the last few days the whole world has been in an uproar over the death of one man. Some people thought he should be killed. Others mourned his loss. Others didn’t know what to think. Sound familiar? One man, killed at the hands of the government, whom many religious people were glad to see murdered. The death of Osama bin Laden has dominated discourse over the past week. In the wake of his death, some people are throwing parties, some are ready to break out the duct tape and plastic sheeting, and the rest of us ...
Valley Girls (and Guys) by Jenny Williams (3/4/2011)
Exodus 24:12-18; Psalm 99; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9 Growing up just north of Los Angeles, I was hyper-aware of the San Fernando Valley. Neither suburban nor Hollywood-cool, the Valley boasted its own style of dress and peculiar language. Like, fer shure. Living in the Valley had its difficulties: stop-and-go freeway traffic during many hours of the day and an oppressive layer of smog bearing down upon the residents most of the year. Our denomination had nine summer camps scattered all over southern California, and all of them were located in the mountains. Kids from that Valley and the one I grew up in (the San Gabriel Valley) could get away for a week to find God and a little fresh air. We hiked among towering pines, sat on rocks to sing songs around a fire, and when we...
Voice lessons by Jenny Williams (1/6/2011)
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Psalm 29; Matthew 3:13-17 It’s no wonder that parts of the Church used to observe Christmas, Epiphany, and the Baptism of the Lord as part of one unified and extended celebration. There’s a lot of revelation going on there. Christ’s identity is revealed to shepherds,...
Got Conflict? by Jenny Williams (11/11/2010)
[image]Isaiah 12; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19 Tired of congregational conflict? Recently I had ...
Buckle Your Seatbelt by Jenny Williams (9/3/2010)
[image]Luke 14:25-33
Over 60% of teenagers admit to having texted while driving. Someone is injured in a car crash every 14 seconds. Car accidents are the leading cause of acquired disability nationwide. The risks of traveling by automobile are tremendous, and yet most people drive or ride daily. Why would we do such a thing? We have decided to ...
Whose Word is It Anyway? by Jenny Williams (7/11/2010)
In late summer 2004, I was approached by the Chair of the Democractic Party in the county in which I lived to offer a prayer at an upcoming appearance of John Edwards, then-Vice-Presidential candidate and pre-fall media darling. I received this phone call just weeks after returning to full-time pastoral ministry from maternity leave. I hemmed and hawed in response to her invitation, explaining that I was still trying to figure out each day how to get a shower, tend to pastoral duties, and be my son’s main food source. She was shocked at my lack of enthusiasm. Even though we had never met and she did not know me, she exclaimed, “I thought you would be honored to do it!” Truth be told, I faced the prospect with dread. The maternity issues were only part of my concerns. I knew I would h...
In Unity We Lift Our Song by Jenny Williams (4/22/2010)

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John 10:22-30; Revelation 7:9-17 One of the many blessings in my life has been the gift of church music. I grew up in a family who valued music and in a church that valued music. Because I was reared in a high steeple church, I was privileged to be exposed at a young age to string ensembles,...
How Well Do We Let Scripture Claim Us? by Jenny Williams (2/15/2010)
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Luke 4:1-13 One of the interpretations of this text that I have favored in recent years is that Jesus resisted temptation to do even things that have good results. If he turns stones into bread, he can feed the hungry people in the whole world. If he gives his allegiance to the devil, the whole world will belong to Jesus in an instant. If h...
A Political Pregnancy (and the Beatles) by Jenny Williams (12/15/2009)
Luke 1:39-46, 47-55; Micah 5:2-5a Though it is not my regularly scheduled week to share a lectionary reflection with you, I was struck with some thoughts this morning while I prepared for Sunday’s sermon. Charles L. Aaron, writing in this month’s Lectionary Homiletics on the gospel text for Advent 4C, takes the two Lukan pericopes as they come in Luke, one after the other, rather than separating them into the Visitation (to be read as the gospel lesson) and the Magnificat (to be read as the Psalter or the Canticle for the day). In doing so, he contrasts the innocence of...
I’ve Got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy by Jenny Williams (12/9/2009)
Zephaniah 3:14-20; Isaiah 12:2-6; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18 The second most popular Advent question asked in the United Methodist Churches I’ve served is “Why is there one pink candle on the Advent wreath?” (THE most popular question has of course been “When can we start singing Christmas carols?”) The pink candle is lit on the third Sunday of Advent because since the 10th century, that day has been recognized by the catholic church as Gaudete, or Joy, Sunday. (See one history here.) As early as the fifth ce...
A Christian Memorial Day by Jenny Williams (10/27/2009)
[image] Isaiah 25:6-9; Psalm 24; Revelation 21:1-6; John 11:32-44 Where I live, remembering and honoring the dead is celebrated annually in May. Over Memorial Day weeken...
The Kingdom’s Gatekeepers by Jenny Williams (9/2/2009)
[image]James 2:1-10, 11-17; Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23 Ouch. James must have been visiting churches in No...