Saint Michael's and All Angels' Day: HOMILY

“ANGELS”

Matthew 18. 1-11; Isaiah 6. 1-7; Revelation 12. 7-12

Saint Michael’s and All Angels’ Day: 29 September Anno Domini 2013

Fr. J. Bill Watson SSP

In The Name + of THE Angel of The Lord: JESUS

   “Bless the Lord ye His angels, that excel in strength.”

   To talk about angels is simply to talk about Jesus. To examine and focus just a bit on angels is only to examine and focus on Christ, for, that is ALL and ONLY what the angels do…from Saints Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel, all the way to your own individual guardian angel. Angels worship, praise, sing to and with, serve as messengers and ambassadors for, Jesus! 

   The Hebrew word malek means messenger and the Greek New Testament term employed, angelos, also means messenger. Angels are spirit beings created by the Holy Trinity to bear His message. God is love and thus the angels speak, preach, teach, confess, and oh yes, SING, His love; but not generic love, rather sacrificial, paschal, bloody love! This message of course is true, but it’s even more than true; for many bad and sad things are true—hell is true, that is, it’s genuine and real (as is Satan). The message of these angels is also GOOD. The Greek word eu, (eu) means good and when appended to the word for message it becomes euangel or evangel. This word in early English becomes Godspell or Gospel: GOOD NEWS.

   The angels did much Good News preaching in the Hebrew texts; most especially to Esaias and Ezekiel. But the true joyous mission of the angels is seen most beautifully in Luke’s Nativity narrative when they sing to the shepherds gathered on the Judean hillside: “Glory to God in the highest (or, Glory be to God on high; now where have we heard that this joyous morning?) and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

   The angels praise God. They give laud and honor and worship to the Lord of Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts (i.e. of angels) and to the Lord of all the Universe! The angels do truly love humans, all of you, and love the fact that the Lord loves you above all created things!

   The angels are also guardians and protectors. How comforting for a Christian to know that these mighty spiritual forces, these “flames of heavenly fire,” encircle each one of you with an impenetrable shield of Christ’s Grace and security. Even as they surrounded Elisha and freed Saint Peter from prison, they also watch over you with Gods command for salvation.

   Each angel points to Christ who is THE Angel of the Lord, the Malek Adonai, and THE Apostle of the Holy Trinity. Jesus is the ultimate euangelos, THE Evangel in the Flesh, for in Jesus dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily! Jesus’ Gospel, His Good Message/News is in His very Words of forgiveness, peace, and restoration; in His very Body given and Blood shed to pay for your sins and to satisfy the Law’s demands on your behalf and in your place.

   Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Well God is the greatest and the only true and good, good. Jesus is the greatest, but, His greatness is manifested, made known and given to you, not in His greatness (power and might) but in His meekness and servanthood; in His work, suffering, dying, and tender feeding.  The greatest in the kingdom of heaven is He that came to save that which was lost. Jesus came to obey and to walk the way of Calvary and the crucifix’s shame to save you. Jesus is the greatest in that He became the least.

   Thus the Lord draws into the midst of the “12” another small and insignificant (according to the eyes of the world) one, “a little child” and says to Peter, James, John and the others “unless ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven,” and “whoso shall receive one such little child in My Name receiveth Me.” The Christ is talking about His new corps, His new batch of angels: the 12 Apostles and their successors. Elsewhere Jesus says even more clearly of the “12” Galilean angels “Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted,” and “go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of The Father and of The Son and of The Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  One of these “little ones” Saint Peter, demonstrated his own servanthood and lamb-like meekness by insisting that his own crucifixion be upside down as he was not worthy to die the same way as His Lord, and in his own Evangel (as recorded by Angel Saint Mark) also records Jesus saying: “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel (the evangel) to every creature.”

   In these many, many years after King Uzziah’s death, in these last New Testament end times, you SEE the Lord sitting upon a throne of Holy Word, and Holy Font, and most Holy Altar (His Throne on Earth). And His train fills this temple even as His words echo in proclamation, absolution, hymnody, incense of prayer, Gospel forgiveness and Verba!

There stands before you invisible seraphim and one very visible angel. They have six wings and I have the Three-in-One and One-in-Three, the Trinity of both testaments to give you glory and peace by standing in the stead of He Who is your glory and peace. Sing with me in the Sanctus “Holy, Holy, Holy” for your Jesus Lord is Holy and this parish is filled with His glory as you are filled with His precious Body and sacred Blood.

   You were undone, because before His angels carried you to His side you were only a man and woman of unclean lips. And yes, you remain for a while dwelling in a land, in the midst of a people of unclean lips, but THIS DAY, your eyes of faith see the King, the Lord of hosts. Your very own pastor angel takes a live coal in his hand by the tongs of the ciborium, from off the altar of Christ’s sacrifice and lays it upon your lips, in your mouths, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.

   Hear the good news, the evangel of Christ in your midst, in your mouths and bodies and ears. Hear, and believe, and join in with Michael’s cry of warfare fought and won; hear, and believe, and join in with Gabriel’s cry of strife and salvation from His annunciation to the Virgin to His Easter glad-tidings to the Magdalene; hear, believe, and join in with the preachment of Angel Watson: “your sin, your sorrow, Satan, your pain and sicknesses, your loss of fellow Saints, your fears and emptinesses have been overcome by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the Word(s) of Jesus’ testimony!” Now drink this Blood, eat this Lamb, for The Son of Man has come, is come, and has saved the lost.

In The Name of The Father and of The Son and of The Holy Ghost

17th Sunday after TRINITY: Homily

“THE SABBATH SAVIOR”

Saint Luke 14. 1-11

17^th Sunday after Trinity: 22 September Anno Domini 2013

Fr. Jay Watson SSP

In The Name + of Jesus

    It’s all about eating bread with Jesus. It’s all about Jesus giving you The Bread of Heaven to eat. It’s all about resting in the Meal of His Mercy.

   The Lord goes in to eat bread in the house of a Pharisee. The Lord eats with this sinner. The same Lord comes to this house today to eat with you Pharisees and sinners.

   The Lord is the meal. The Lord is the Sabbath. The seventh day for the Jews, the Sabbath, was just that, the seventh and last day of the sequential, day-after-day “week.” It was special because in the Old Testament, the Exodus of the Israelites under Moses, God commanded that His people rest on this day. But the rest, the Sabbath, was not for God’s sake but for His peoples benefit. Yes, they needed physical surcease from labors and chores, but even more so, they needed to rest spiritually in the Peace and recuperation that only The Giver could provide. Every Sabbath day for the ancient Hebrews was but a “type,” an arrow pointing to the Rest of the Righteous Redeemer—to Christ The Rest for all weary sinners!

    The enemies of Christ knew none of this because they rejected Him. Instead of resting in and with Him, they “watched Him.” Luther says that they watched Him because they thought they had Him trapped in a “no-win” dilemma. Much like the situation in the question about paying taxes to Caesar, the Pharisees and Lawyers thought that the Nazarene would either break their narrow and twisted interpretation of Sabbath inactivity, or, that He would be seen as unmerciful and callous.

   Note well that the man with dropsy didn’t ask to be healed on the Sabbath; he simply was there in the presence of The Christ. Truth faith does not “watch” but receives what the Giver gives. This poor blighter with udropikus (hydro-pikus) dangerous, debilitating, crippling excess of water, simply worships the Lord by being drawn to Him—believing, teaching, and confessing that God is good and is Man-enfleshed.

   The Lord heals when and where He chooses. He saves His own lost lambs and none will be able to thwart His rescue and restoration.

    Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? Is it good with God to work on a resting day?

   Again, to rest on a day that the Lord has designated is not to refrain from all physical activity but to refrain from work of sustenance and livelihood in order to acknowledge—hold by faith—that all mammon comes from the Lord.  In fact, in the desert wilderness, the Israelites were permitted to gather twice the normal provision of Manna on Friday so that they would not need to forage for food on Saturday. He Who gives Bread from heaven gives all that is needed.

    Jesus works on the Sabbath to bring rest to the man with dropsy. Jesus does all the work and brings all the respite. You are supposed to work, you are supposed to DO all that the two tablets demand: Love God and Love your neighbor. You are always supposed to heal your neighbor’s plight regardless of the day or hour. Jesus shows that for the Children of Israel the Law—the Third Commandment may have been “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” but that now in the New Testament of His Body and Blood, you Christians do better to remember that the Old Testament Israelites are no more; that commandment (lone among the 10) has been supplanted and improved (as Dr. Luther translates it) as simply “Sanctify the Holy Day.” You are to make holy, i.e. separate, apart, specially designated, “holy” the Lord’s day! And this is the day that the Lord has made…as is Monday and Tuesday and Friday and the others, including Saturday. The day is holy, every day is holy not in refraining from painting a fence or mowing the lawn, but rather in loving God and loving your neighbor. You are to do good; to do right. And when you don’t, Jesus does!

   The Pharisees “held their peace” they were silent. They withheld their love and they would not believe. Jesus always is speaking truth and justice because He is THE WORD, and He is PEACE incarnate giving peace by forgiving and healing.

   The Christ worked for thirty-three years of Law Keeping so that you can rest in His achievement of perfection and receive all the Bread of credit and nourishment. Jesus worked for six bloody torturous hours on the tree so that you can rest in shadow of His outstretched pierced arms. Jesus gave His Body and shed His Blood, and then rested on Saturday, the Sabbath day, in the grave of death so that you can now rest everyday In Him. You are Baptized and thus at rest. You are absolved and thus at rest. You are reclining at Table with Him and thus at rest. Jesus is your Sabbath.

   “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased and He that humbleth Himself shall be exalted.”

    The Lord humbled Himself in suffering and death, in rejection, humiliation, and pain—and the grave itself—so that you and all fellow sufferers of dropsy would be forgiven, healed, and exalted with Him on His Throne. Cured from the excess of brackish, foul, sewer water of dropsy, you are now bathed in the Holy Water of your Baptismal and Eucharistic Sabbath—Christ Jesus.

In The Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost

16th Sunday after TRINITY: Homily

“HE DELIVERS YOU TO YOUR MOTHER AND FATHER”

Saint Luke 7. 11-17

16^th Sunday after Trinity: 15 September Anno Domini 2013

Fr. Jay Watson SSP

In The + Name of Jesus

   After the devil got Eve to say yes to sin, self, and to him, Satan, the Triune God’s eternal yes was done and over, and all that was left was an existence of no. No joy, no peace, no satisfaction, no security, no health, no fullness, no nothing. Thus the pain; thus the dying—the dead.

   The village called Nain reminds one of the German word nein, which means no. Nein, no, is the devil’s word when it’s used to negate all the good of God, when it is the final result of an inborn contagion of original trespass and resulting damnation. No you don’t love God with all your heart. No you don’t love your neighbor as yourself.

   “No I don’t really love you Eve” said the serpent to the woman after the dirty deed was done. “No you won’t really become like ‘God’…I lied.”  “No you won’t have an eternity ruling Eden…I lied, and have murdered you and your off-spring.”

   Eve had the very first funeral procession to the grave yard, so small and so sad, as she and Adam carried out the dead man Abel—their dead son Abel. Eve too was wracked by convulsions of tears and visceral pain from the pit of the gut that only a parent can know when a child dies.

   When the Christ and His “12” came to the gates of the city called Nain it was Life coming to defeat death; it was the YES of God in Christ coming to vanquish the no of the fallen dead world; it was the YES of water, wine, bread, body, blood, breath, and family; and it was the YES of forgiveness conquering the no of decay, rot, and dry crackling hell-fire. Jesus is The Way, The Truth, and The Life. In the God/Man’s words present, and in His Body and Blood present, is the YES of God for you.

   Abel was the first to suffer and die of sin because he was born in sin and was a sinner. And when the Lord saw Eve, He had compassion on her, and said unto her, “(weep not) I will put enmity between the serpent and you, and between his seed and your seed, thy seed will bruise the serpent’s head…”

   And since that day so many young sons have suffered and died. The long black parade of “no,” of death and cemeteries, is almost endless…almost. But “no” is broken again this morning. “No” is absolved and washed away in the YES of Christ’s Body and Blood; in Christ’s smiling “Weep not, I forgive you…young men and young women, I say unto thee, arise!”

   Even as Christ came in the voice, the words, of Elias and Elisha and raised from the funeral biers the dead young sons of the Widow of Zarephath and the Shunammite woman; the same Word was made flesh of the woman Mary and He would come to the gates of other cities, to Capernaum and to Bethany where His merciful YES would raise to life Jairus’ child and His own dear friend Lazarus.

   Jesus the Christ comes, and is here now, to this walled city of 21^st century earth, America, Kansas, and Shawnee. He comes nigh to the gates of the city of your old Adam, of your daily sinful actions, and He has compassion on you. He came to your dead body when it first resided on the funeral bier at a font, and he plunged you into His Blood and Water and spoke forgiveness + and life there—and here! For TODAY it continues and is new again: oh YES, YES!

   Another mother, another weeping woman saw her own precious Son laid out on a makeshift bier of cloth and sheet as Nicodemus and the Arimathean marched to that cemetery in a cave. Her soul pierced through with a sword, would weep…tears from the Mother of God…but, only until the Third Day…the Easter morn…and THIS Third Day!

   The Lord’s perfect life of keeping Torah, which Abel, Abraham, Moses, and all the Israelites could not keep; which Jairus daughter, Lazarus, the Blessed Virgin, Saint Peter, and all of you could not keep, has been kept in Christ’s YES to His Father, and your Father. All the decay, death, and “No” of your sins have been paid for in Jesus’ YES to the crucifix, to being made sin for you. “Thy will be done Father, not Mine,” prayed Jesus—the YES of the Gospel in the flesh—Christ Crucified for forgiveness, life and salvation.

   Augsburgers, brothers and sisters, it does come to pass this day that Jesus and His disciples come to the gates of this sinful city of your heart. Jesus knows. He sees the deadness of your guilt and of your falleness. Jesus has compassion on your pain and sorrows; upon your physical maladies and emotional trials. Jesus doesn’t just see your tears and you’re your gasps of inner pain, He feels them (He felt them), and He says “weep not.” “I am your YES, I am your Peace. I deliver you this morning to your Mother the Church, to your brothers and sisters, to your heavenly Father. I touch not just your casket of fleshly sin, your funeral bier, but I touch your ears and your tongues with My very own Words and Flesh and Blood.”

   I say unto thee, Arise.

In The Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost

15th Sunday after TRINITY: Homily

“CLOTHED AND FED WITH JESUS”

Saint Matthew 6. 24-34

15^th Sunday after Trinity: 8 September Anno Domini 2013

Father J. Watson SSP

In The Name + of Jesus

   Fowls, lilies, masters, and Solomon…it’s just another opportunity to talk about Jesus.

   Because if all you want to talk about is you, you’re in a world of hurt—a world of hellish rot and burning dead flesh.

   You can’t be both white and black when you play chess. You can’t be fighting for both Sitting Bull and Armstrong Custer; for Rommel and Montgomery; or for Lee and McClellan. How much less can you serve in the armies of BOTH good and evil, of The Lord and of the ancient liar and murderer the devil?

   The pagan serves Satan. The heathenish non-believer is an enemy of the Truth—of Christ. It matters not how nice, agreeable and friendly the heretic or heathen is, he works full time for the enemy of good. The slave, of this master of blackness, works for and is rewarded with mammon. Mammon is the stuff of this fallen world. It may temporarily glitter like gold, or like retirement, health-care, 501Ks, IRAs, caches of silver, ammo and freeze-dried food, but like all mammon it’s nothing but manure with the master of the flies, of manure, Beelzebub, buzzing around and biting—for eternity.

  Some of you like to dress up in fine raiment, whether clothes, or simply your peacock ego, reputation and popularity. Some of you like to accumulate and consume the finest meats and wines, whether meat and wine, or whatever your appetites desire. All of you worry about these things. You worry because you’re sinners. Repent and pray for the Holy Ghost to focus you on Jesus. A pagan slave to the devil will be numbed by his opium of mammon and will stumble through a life of misery masked by medication. But you are Christian Saints, warriors of “The” Way, who through your own pain of trials and temptations, will fight the good fight of faith and repent of your attractions to mammon. Fight their alluring lies and eat and drink Jesus. Wear Jesus. Bathe in Jesus.

   But, telling you to do things, even things like praying and “repent,” and stop worrying and fretting over creature comforts that are really creature necessities, is the Law. If you had to rely on your own self-discipline and ascetic focus on Scripture, study, and prayer, you would soon fall into hypocrisy and/or despair. You will worry until the day you die. You will flirt with the sirens of mammon until you breathe your last breath.

   Thank the Lord for Jesus. Jesus is your Master who has become a slave to save you. Jesus refused to bow His knee to mammon—to Satan—so that you would be seated on thrones this morning.

   As beautiful as lilies are, as much as they give off the perfume of resurrection, they too are merely more colorful grass. Christ re-speaks His words to the Prophet Isaiah “the grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the Word of our God shall stand forever.” [Is. 40.8].  Clothes go out of fashion, tear, are stained, are out-grown, and are eaten by moths. The raiment of Jesus—your Baptismal wedding garments are imperishable.

   As important as are the fowls of the air, both the beauty and artistry of the soaring and diving eagles and falcons, as well as the delectable sustenance of the roasted duck, turkey, quail, and common chicken; they fall and are turned back to dust. Yet not even one of them falls to the ground without your heavenly Father knowing it—and your Master Jesus lamenting it—the brokenness of His original creation of life. Meat and potatoes can go bad, and are all digested and expelled nonetheless. Water and wine, beer and coffee, as quenching and delightful to the spirit as they are, never really quench to perfect satisfaction, and are also expelled. Only the Water of Life which is Christ slakes the thirst of your fear and anxiety; only the meat of His Body and Blood fills the emptiness and loneliness of life in the vale of tears. For unlike lilies and fowl, the Word of the Lord endures forever. The Christ is omnipotent and eternal, and so are His brothers and sisters whom He clothes and feeds with Himself.

   As necessary as the First Article gifts of God are for your well-being, here—under the Cross, the far, far, infinitely greater gift and gifts are the Second Article—the Body and Blood of Jesus the God/Man, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins; for salvation and life.

   This morning, for you, the Greater Solomon is present with His love and mercy, but also with His actual words of remission, peace, and family-- blessing; He is actually present with His Body and Blood. The rebuilt Holy Temple of the Trinity, the Tabernacle of Light and Life bestows Himself upon His brethren.

   The Kingdom of God (the King) and His righteousness has sought and found you. All things are now added to you by your Master of Mercy.

In The Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost