Gottesmutter

A really nice piece of b&w art that John Fenton shared over on his fb page.

During this Holy Season of Advent my thoughts are repeatedly drawn to our Mother Saint Mary of Nazareth and her husband Saint Joseph, Guardian of Our Lord.  What Spirit guided devotions they must have had in the weeks and days preceeding the Holy Nativity---

 

 

Populus Zion--The Second Sunday of Adventide: SERMON

“POPULUS  ZION”

Saint Luke 21. 25-36

Populus Zion: 7 December Anno + Domini 2014

Fr Jay Watson SSP

In The + Name of Jesus

   The problem with sinners is not that they sin, though that is damnable in itself, but, that they ARE SINNERS!   Symptoms are always dangerous and destructive but it’s the underlying disease that is the problem.  Even talking about the faceless, generic, “sinner(s)” is misdirection because it’s used by us to “pass the buck,” point the finger, and “fly under the radar” thinking anonymous escape or, at least delay, is possible; it  isn’t.   “Sinners” are not addressed by Jesus’ words today, YOU are.  You are one that betrays Him in thought, word, and deed…not Peter, not Judas,  and not the “ELCA” liberal, or the “other nasty guy in the pew” that you don’t like and that you know doesn’t do things as “good” as you do.

   You are neither professional astronomer nor Astro-physicist. But Christ addresses you with apocalyptic and parabolic words about great heavenly signs. You do not have advanced degrees in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek or Biblical exegesis, yet the Lord gives you His Holy Ghost to discern the “beginning of the end.”  Your “old Adam” either refuses to believe or doesn’t want to embrace the God/Man the way you should.  Year after year and decade after decade you’ve heard today’s pericopal lesson read; you’ve prayed at dinner “come Lord Jesus,” and you’ve even thrown around the phrase of Saint John “Maranatha,” yet do you believe…do you crave Christ’s return at this very instant?   The question is always do you “fear, love, and trust in God above all things: THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME?”  Do you love your neighbor as yourself?  These are not corporate inquiries addressed to a jury pool during voir dire but are face-to-face questions Jesus is asking you: “Who do you say the Son of Man is?”

    You confess that “He shall come again in glory to judge the quick and the dead,” and “I look for the resurrection of the dead” but you don’t act like it. Your deeds are done in darkness too much of the time.

   So, as far as “signs in the moon, and in the stars, and upon earth distress of nations,” you do what sinners always do…talk about something else. You project, rationalize, equivocate, lie, self-justify, and deny.  Your fallen nature doesn’t want Jesus to return and even though your “new creation” does, it is always burdened by “old Adam” to interject “not just yet.”

   But to want to postpone the Final Advent for more family reunions, graduations, marriages, births, vacations & cruises, or any other earthly “thing” is to gainsay our Lord’s words this morning and break the Great Commandment.

   No you don’t pay attention to the moon or fig tree like you should.  Your hearts are daily overcharged with surfeiting and “spiritual” drunkenness, and cares of this life.

   The answer is not in your struggling (though you should struggle—the Holy Ghost has Saint Paul clearly instruct you on “fighting the fight”)—but in the One Who calls you Daughter of Zion.  If earthly fathers love their little daughters how much infinitely more does The Father love you?  The answer is found in every Crucifix, in every Word of Gospel, and in every Eucharist.  The answer is in Jesus: “behold, thy Salvation commeth!”  “The Lord [Jesus], shall cause His glorious voice to be heard; and ye shall have gladness of heart.”  Jesus forgives you your trespasses. Jesus the real SUN, “light of light” (homoousias as Saint Nicholas confessed and fought for) Son of The Father had all the signs done to His precious Body on the tree. The distress of nations, i.e. the trespasses of the world, was carved into His innocent flesh.  The angelic stars hung their heads and shielded their spirit-eyes at the sight of the Atonement as the powers of the physical and stellar heaven was shaken from noon to 3pm on that Friday of Good! 

  Jesus is here and Jesus is Zion.  “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.”  Your peace and rest comes from He who does not pass away but tabernacles in your hearts, ears, and soon on your tongues.  Christ watches out for you, watches with you, and holds you tight to His bosom making you “worthy to escape all the things that shall come to pass.”

   “Gather My saints together with Me” speaks the Lord; and His Spirit so does!  The Paraclete has assembled “her that halteth, her that is driven out, and her that has been afflicted.”   In these last days it has come to pass that “the mountain of the House of The Lord” has been established at this altar.

   The Holy Communion will now be prepared…thus...  “The Kingdom of God is nigh at hand.”   “Lift up your heads...”  “Take eat the Body of Christ given in death for all of your sins.”  “The God of all hope fills you with joy and peace.”

Here endeth the Gospel

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

Adventide Midweek Thursday #1 [2014]

“THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING”

THE ADVENT OF THE KING & HIS KINGDOM

Christ’s Kingdom of Power

Adventide Midweek 1: 4 November Anno + Domini 2014

Fr Jay Watson SSP

In The Name + of The King, Christ Jesus

   The mystery and sacrament of the Nativity, of the newborn baby boy lying in the cradle, suckling at His mother’s breasts, is that He is the King of the universe.

   Adventide is a season in the Church calendar year that precedes the yearly celebration of Christ’s Nativity—Christmas. But since every Sunday, literally every day is a “day that the Lord hath made” and a day in which the ever-present incarnated God/Man reigns in His presence “for you,” every day is also Advent.  Every day you wait for His imminent return in visible glory.  If you don’t wait anxiously, prayerfully, anticipatorily, than your faith is weak and you need to repent.  And yes Advent is a season of serious repentance.  But such is the life of a Christian. Take stock!

   The sectarians are correct that God is sovereign. God is King because He is “being” and not an impersonal force.  God is Triune---Three persons in one Godhead. The King is omnipotent to be sure: “I am the almighty God” He says and has Moses record. [Gen. 17.1]  The God/Man Christ, your Advent King in the flesh says as much to His Mother and Disciples: “with God nothing shall be impossible” [Luke 1.37] and “with God all things are possible.” [Matt. 19.26]

   And with that precious baby (“not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious Blood and with His innocent suffering and death”...) the Virgin held in her arms The King of Power and His Kingdom of Power.  The King and His Kingdom are one. The Lord and His Church are one. The Bride and Groom are one. These unities are not of essence, God is creator and all else is create.  But these are communions wherein the King bestows realities.

   An Advent reality to meditate upon is that the Baby on the Christmas cards, represented by the porcelain figure in your crèche, and by artists on December 24^th worship bulletins, is the same pre-existing, always existing, Second Person: “in the beginning was The Word…and The Word was God…all things were made by Him…” [John 1] The tiny mewling 8 pound swaddled One, created “ex nihilo” the ground upon which His Mother sat and the canopy of stars which shone down on the stable.

   A proper December-time devotion for all of you is to reflect upon this King when eating sugar cookies and putting up decorations far far too early!  For this Monarch, this Bread reposing in feeding manger is His omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent Kingdom in the flesh. The newborn is also the eternal Alpha and Omega who rules, yes, in sovereignty upon quarks, quasars, black holes and distant stars.  His Kingdom encompasses sub-atomic universes, the molten inner-core of earth and the tops of the Himalayas where His angels scout and sing with final Advent preparations.

   But none of that, none of this infinite realm of power, true creative and sustaining power, matters if the breach is not repaired; if the rot is not cleansed; if the brokenness is not mended; and if your sin—the cause of all darkness and dissolution is not atoned for—paid for.  Thus the meek and mild baby, King of the First Advent, is the Forever King of the final Advent. And even that is not the true Gospel.

   The Good News this Adventide, every Advent day of your earthly life, is that the King, while sovereign, is merciful and giving.  It isn’t lion but Paschal Lamb.  It isn’t sovereign but suffering servant! The object of your worship on December 24^th and 25^th is the object of your worship as He suffered and died for you on Calvary. “Jesus came, the heavens adoring, came with peace from realms on high; Jesus came for man’s redemption, lowly came on earth to die.” [TLH 56.1]  He is the object of your worship as you receive that same Body and Blood at Mass on Sunday.  For as beautiful and meaningful as it is to sing the Magnificat, it is infinitely more beneficial to receive the object of said canticle. That which magnified Mary and filled her soul is He that does the same when placed on your tongues in His most Holy Supper of Salvation.  “Enter now my waiting heart, glorious King and Lord most holy.” [TLH 55.2]

   His Kingdom of Power is in the Advent King coming to you and for you in forgiveness and remission. The Kingdom of Power placed into you in His powerful—i.e. His glorified, peaceful, loving Body and living Word.

   Yes King David was right and truthful when He spoke of the true Christ King: “They shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom, and talk of Thy power.” [Ps. 145.11]   But the Gospel of Advent is neither in the Bethlehem cave or the Golgotha hilltop. The Gospel is Christ Crucified where He is found for you in Holy + Washing, Absolution, and Communion. The Kingdom of Power is always in the God/Man’s Body and Blood. “Come Thou precious Ransom, come…hail, hosanna, to our King!”[TLH 55.1]

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

Ad Te Levavi-The First Sunday of Adventide: SERMON

“AD TE LEVAVI”

Saint Matthew 21. 1-9

Ad Te Levavi: 30 November Anno + Domini 2014

Fr Jay Watson SSP

In The + Name of Jesus

   All the ones who don’t understand, and don’t care to, because they are not our brethren…are already playing Jingle Bells and Jingle Bell rock. They embarrassed themselves and the Lord by their bacchanalian and Midas like excesses this past Friday. Consumerism is mammon-surfing on the devil’s ocean of fire. But they are you in so far as your sinful nature still gurgles deep in your gut, your heart, like heartburn from hell. You still remember the sickly delicious taste of Eve’s fatal fruit.

   That’s why you are so sad and run-down. Your sinful nature, his, hers, theirs, ours, and its permeating and marinating stench and stain over everything, is why you and your loved ones are sick and dying; why marriages dissolve, why kids use drugs; why jobs dissolve, why people shoot those who don’t deserve being shot; why people steal and vandalize; why wars are fought and friendships shatter; and why you are a donkey to the devil tied up in his stables of offal! 

   Faith comes by hearing and hearing by The Word. Yes that is more than true it’s predestined. The Lord seeks, searches, and secures you by His Word and His Holy Ghost. You are washed + in His Blood of Calvary poured out into you at the Holy Font. You are new creations in His glorious resurrection. But, where is that glorified body that you could use right about now? Where is that peace that pass-eth all understanding in your long dark nights of the soul—brokenness and pain?

   So, since even as royal priests you feel like lepers what does God do? If as Saints you still wander around lost and lonely what does The Shepherd do? You read your Book of Concord and your loved ones continue to die and your homes are still decaying…and This Word of Life contained in Holy Scripture doesn’t make you shine like Moses and Elias on Mount Transfiguration…what does the Rabbi from Nazareth do to help—help you?

   Where is He when you cry out with His very words “Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul?”

   Christ’s Kingdom isn’t a book. The Lord’s family isn’t platonic, Gnostic, or memorial. The Savior’s triumphal entrance into Jerusalem is not just the text for Palm Sunday and the 1^st Sunday of Advent.

      Jesus is the Prince of Peace for in His word of forgiveness for you is Peace—your peace, whether you feel it or not. Jesus draws near the Jerusalem of His new and eternal Jerusalem, His Church and His family right now—this very instant! This is Bethphage, this nave and this chancel is the Mount of Olives and He pours His love into you in absolution and Baptism active, whether you “experience” it or not.  The Lord this day looks at you and knows that Satan has called you asses and maybe even convinced you that you are dumb animals (or at least that those around you are) but Jesus looses you. You have the fetters snapped off because He had thorns pushed deep and nails hammered through. This is not past story to inspire this is today’s feast to feed.  If there is no actual and real presence, REAL not spiritual, than everything is meaningless and there is no respite from your pain or hope of rest and glory. The gospel is not “about” Jesus it IS JESUS for you here and now! Your salvation is not “about” words of absolution but IS forgiveness at this very moment: “I forgive you, in the Name of Jesus”—Christ forgives you!  Where there is loosing there is life whether you have “warm & fuzzies” or not and whether your disease ceases or not and whether your loved one has to remain in the ground for a few more days or not!

   His garments, not those of a distant past crowd, are upon you…you just can’t see them with your naked eyes. The angels see; they behold you richly adorned in His brilliant red blood—so shining and sparkling that they again shield their eyes at the whiteness and purity. 

   The actual bodily presence of your Lord and your God, the Christ, is so real that you are not just joined with archangels and the whole host of heaven in an English musical setting found in a 1941 hymnal but are actually in the cosmic court of the Holy Trinity at you sing the Sanctus, Agnus Dei and Nunc Dimittis!

   Advent is here…now…it is always here because the Jesus that will return visibly, very shortly, is here right now.  He loves you and He gives you the strength to soldier on under His Cross.  In Jesus this cross is not heavy but as light and joyous as palm branches.

   Blessed is He that is here in the Name of The Lord. Hosanna in the highest—right here for you!

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

CHRIST FOUGHT, FIGHTS, AND WILL FIGHT

   Pope Leo XIII wrote "we were born for combat."  And then in my own lifetime Pius XII (the last true bad-ass pope; i.e. I want popes tellin' Lutherans that we're going to hell and not namby-pambying it all up in logomachy and tricks--makes it easier to focus on the Anti-Christ designation)...where was I?  Oh, Pius XII wrote: "fight or die, that has always been the story."  And recently, Roman Catholic lay-apologist (and actually a decent guy vis a vis ALL the "life" issues) Michael Voris wrote: "God gives the hardest battles to the strongest soldiers."

   I find much in these three statements to agree with, but only to a point.  I am afraid that the context of their utterance (writing) factors heavily into Trentian theology of synergistic sanctification at best, and "means of salvation" at worst.  To be sure, from a "kingdom of the left" perspective, in our vocations, we will indeed be immersed in combat for our families, communities, parishes, and confessions. And yes, it behooves us all to develop a "thick skin," strong spiritual muscles, an active and resiliant level of stamina, and the ability to "take a punch."    Life is certainly not easy.

But - -

   I think from a Pauline (i.e. Holy Spirit) perspective I would rather believe, teach, and confess:

"The Second Person was Incarnated the God/Man FOR US...and He died the substitutionary death FOR US.  Jesus obeyed the Law, paid for our Sins, and fought the only real combat that mattered when He met Satan, Sin, Death, & Hell on the Tree.  Our fight now, IN HIM, is to be what He has already made us, and to fight the "old Adam" in daily drowning our sins in contrition and repentance, ever looking TO HIM."

And - -

   "Christ fought and died FOR US, that IS the ONLY Story that matters. We are buried with Him into death and raised with Him in His Easter Triumph."

Finally - -

   "While there certainly have been brave and hearty Christian soldiers (Apostles, Evangelists, missionaries, pastors, laymen, mothers, martyrs, and more) we need never worry or despair over our weakness, frailty, fear, or inadequacies, for as the Apostle wrote 'And He said unto me, My Grace is sufficient for thee; for My Strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.' "

It's all about not just emphasis, but as Dr. Nagel says: "Who is doing the what!"

   We preach Christ Crucfied.  Our Sanctification is Christ active in us.   Our battle has been won though the daily "clean-up" skirmishes still have to be endured--IN CHRIST!

EVE OF A NATIONAL/GENERAL THANKSGIVING [2014]: Homily

“THEY WERE CLEANSED”

Saint Luke 17. 11-19

The Eve of a National Thanksgiving

26 November Anno + Domini 2014

Fr Jay Watson SSP

In The Name + of Jesus

   “O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good; for His mercy endureth forever.” [1 Chron. 16.34] So speaks the writer of Chronicles; so too wrote King David. The Holy Ghost wants you to give thanks to the Lord. The Spirit fills you full so that you will. The Apostle says the same thing to you and he does it by way of exhortation, and so do I “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men.” [1 Tim 2. 1]  Here your pastors, past and present, urge that you pray for and give thanks for men—your brethren; your neighbor.  Yes you are to love them as yourselves and always put the best construction on their actions and words but you are also to thank God for them—which is in effect thanking God. But you don’t. You don’t, and you can’t fulfill the Second Table of the Law because you don’t and can’t comport with the First Table.

   “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me” says the Lord. But you do. You don’t love God before all things because your first love is yourself. “Old Adam” doesn’t like giving thanks because he/you is too busy looking at himself and preening…or whining after more mammon…be it forbidden fruit, comfortable life style, better health, happier kids, or whiter teeth.  The Lord’s Second command nails it doesn’t it: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God, in vain.”  Oh, you don’t break this one because you don’t drop “f” bombs or yell out the Savior’s name when you hit your thumb with a hammer?  Luther will help you: “…His Name…but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.”  You don’t pray perfectly, you don’t praise continually, and you sure as hades (and Hades is the payoff for disobedience) don’t give thanks.

   The Sainted Kenneth Korby (R.I.P.) said there are only two ways to talk about God or to talk to God. The first is to speak His Word, receive His Word and thus praise Him by His Word.  The other way is the default position for fallen man—i.e. whine, bitch, moan, complain, and spend so much time thinking and talking about oneself that “thankfulness” is a burden at best and a hated thing at worst.

   You know that the Creed’s explanation of the 1^st Article gives a laundry-list, really a Grace eternal endowment list, of your Loving Lord’s gifts to you: “…He has given me…clothing and shoes, meat and drink, house and home, wife and children, fields, cattle, and all my goods; that He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life.”  And sometime you do thank Him for these truly wonderful things. But your old nature really only thanks Him, now & then, sort-of, side-ways…when it’s what you want; what you like; what you think you need; what you ‘appreciate.’ Sinners as sinners are spoiled not rotten but spoiled rotting in dirt and ash!  Repent!

   Repent of having these precious jewels of earthly sustenance, and not thanking your Father.

   Did the Lepers give thanks for their fine clothes and homes? They had neither. Did the 10 unclean walking-dead give thanks for their families—the ones that disowned them; did they give thanks for their health and vitality that they most assuredly did not have?  No, probably not.  Should they have? Yes.

   But the Law kills. Ten is the number of leprosy and death.  Repent you ten lepers…you nine lepers always on the way to the priests of self.

    But give thanks, and you DO, to the God Who comes to fix all that is broken and to heal all that is diseased—to bring back to life all that was cold, dry, and dead.  For the Lord gives you what you need; what is required to repent.  He gives you His Word—Himself!  The Samaritan Leper, the stranger Leper, is you, and, it is Christ Himself.  For by Grace through Faith you are in Jesus and His works and worth are now yours!  Christ became a stranger to His own people and His own family to win back all the sick and homeless; all the lost and weeping.  Christ became not just a Leper, but He took all disease, shame, sorrow, brokenness and sin upon Himself.  Your Leper Messiah cleansed those poor souls and you poor souls by becoming poor and pinned to wood.  His Blood washes you white and sterilizes you with Salvation. 

   He Who is the WAY passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee, and Shawnee on His way to Calvary.  He Who is the TRUTH brought Divinity united with Perfect Humanity to ten men separated and pathetic, and to this small band—weak and seeking rest. He Who is the LIFE brought them back not just health but eternal glory. His Presence, then and now, brings the Holy Spirit Who constrained them to cry in Faith “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” He does the same this evening and you too cry out the Kyrie: “Lord have mercy upon us!”  Jesus’ thanksgiving to His Father for all of you and for the joy set before Him—to Love the Father perfectly and to Love you to suffering and death—is given you by Grace. You are given the Faith to participate in THE THANKSGIVING: The Holy Eucharist. 

   You give the perfect thanks when you receive the Perfect Jesus—the Glory of God.

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

Just Because Lutherans Love Music

TOP TEN ROCK/POP BAND NAMES FOR LUTHERANS

(inspired by real band names)

 

10.  Blood Sweat & Tears  - - - - -   Believe Teach & Confess

9.    Spock’s Beard - - - - - - - - - -    Luther’s Gas

8.    Toad the Wet Sprocket - - - -     Baptism: The Wet Baby

7.    Average White Band - - - - -      Hyper-Euro White Band Collar

6.    Duran Duran - - - - - - - - - - -     Gaba Gaba  (for Latif J )

5.    Kool & the Gang - - - - - - - -     Tom & the Polycarpians

4.    CCR - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -    CTCR

3.    Siouxsie & the Banshees - - -     Grandma Schmidt & the Alligators

2.    Marilyn Manson - - - - - - - - -    Carl Vehse

 

DRUM ROLL PLEASE

 

 

And the Number ONE Rock/Pop Name for Lutherans

 

1.   Wolves in the Throne Room - - - -   Council of Presidents