“SAVIOR SEED
GROWS YOU”
Saint Luke 8.
4-15
Sexagesima: 3 February Anno Domini 2013
Fr. Jay Watson
SSP
In The Name + of
Jesus
There! The homily should be over. God has
watered the Seed—The Word, with The Seed—The Word. But, to continue… GRACE IS PASSIVELY
RECEIVED.
The parable of Christ is not an earthly
reality that reflects a truth of God so much as it is a Divine reality that norms
and creates
an earthly truth.
Jesus is the Sower. Jesus is the Seed. Jesus the Word, the Logos—God of God, Light of Light, is the planter, waterer, weeder,
protector, nurturer, and harvester. He does it all and that’s that…it’s called
Grace, and OH is it passively received.
The Seed which is the Word was spoken, sowed
by The Word right before Genesis 1.1.
God spoke the Word, the eternally begotten Son, and, with the Spirit,
the Holy Trinity made a fecund crop of life—through the Seed—The Word.
The Lord planted that same Seed—The Word,
the Son of God, into a mass of lifeless mud, inanimate earth, and the Holy
Ghost poked that Salvific Seed right down dirt-man’s mouth…breathing perfection
and imaging likeness; the true kiss of Peace, and Adam was!
The pile of ground contributed as much to
Adam’s creation as you did to your own conception, to your Baptismal + regeneration,
to your adoption into Christ’s family.
You didn’t decide to be a follower of Christ; He decided you, i.e. He loved you before the
foundation! He found you dead, dirty,
and naked—and He rescued you. You didn’t
plant or sow yourself into cultivated and fertile potting soil; He broke your
concrete-hard scrabble rock surface with His Law and then planted Himself into
your black hearts with His own scarred, red, bleeding Hands. He sowed His tears, His Blood, His breath,
His love, into you.
As the wheat stalk and rose bush takes no
credit, does no bragging for its existence or growth (or beauty), so too all
credit and thanks belong to Jesus alone—Soli
Deo Gloria; Sola Gratia.
You didn’t save your life, Jesus did. You can’t save anyone else’s life, only the
Lord can. You can’t make someone a
Christian and you can’t make this parish grow; only Jesus can.
Our Lord’s parable is not about evangelism
or missions. Although, to be sure, the
Church does send called and ordained Pastors (every Pastor is a missionary) to
broadcast His Seed—His Word, His Person and Work…to all ears in all
places. Every one of you does the same
everyday to those who listen to the reason of the hope which is in you.
Hope, Peace, Rest and Sustenance from
the trials and tears of this passing evil age, is what the Seed—The Word of
Christ enfleshed and inscripturated means to you; and produces in you.
This parable is for the elect of God, the
pre-destined family of the Father and sheep of the Good Shepherd, or, the
bountiful crop of fruit—“a
hundredfold.” Jesus planted into the ground of Calvary for
your trespasses, Jesus the dead kernel of the Trinity buried in the earth in
your place, and Jesus watered with His own sweat, and innocent Blood. Jesus sown into you at the + font, Jesus watering and giving you more
Jesus through His Scriptures, and Jesus giving you Son-shine and more Water
again from His side through Holy Absolution and Holy Eucharist. You are what Jesus has made you. You produce just what Jesus has you
produce. Jesus in you Saves and makes
Holy; He does, and IN HIM, you grow, bloom, flourish…to life everlasting.
In The Name of
The Father and + of The Son and of The Holy Ghost
The Lord's parable is certainly not about frenetic or even duplicitous bait-and-switch evangelistic efforts, on the part of anxious man.
ReplyDeleteThe Sower is amazingly nonchalant, if altogether confidently generous ... to the point of "Sonful prodicality" ... in His casting about the precious Seed. He's not even scaring the birds away, or desperately thrashing the thistles. He lets the Spirit do His thing.
So what's the end result of this relaxed husbandry? The harvest is magnificent, nonetheless!
Your (unworthy) servant,
Herr Doktor, SSP
Thank you for your Christcentric comment by good Brother Doktor! How much do you charge for homilies? Your couple of paragraphs fill me way more with the Bread of the Seed/Word/Logos than my screed :) Can you get them to me by Saturday night? :)
ReplyDeleteDeo Vindice,
FrJ SSP
Ah, dear Father Watson,
ReplyDeleteI am honored to have the opportunity to post on this wonderful blogssite ... so I have decided on no charge, no bill in the mail, and obviously no spell-checker on the PC. "Prodicality?" What the sam-hill is that? Obviously, I took the low road to tap out a "c," instead of a "g."
If I may say so, I thought "Sonful prodigality" was a nice parabolic play on "sinful profligacy." I'd be very surprised if it were original to my poor brain, though. In any event, thank God for the Sonful version, stooping to spend His riches, and wildly at that, on thieving pigs like me.
Lest this simply devolve into a mutual admiration society :) let me just say that it is your felicitous prose and wordsmithing artistry (along with the blogging of Chad Bird, Ken Kelly and our own beloved Dean, Father Hollywood) that inspired me to start this blog in the first place. With a batallion of laymen such as yourself, my good Doktor, we could storm the very gates of hell...but, we don't have to, Our Lord of Sabaoth has already won the war and we get to joyously rout out all the demonic pockets of resistance. There is no one I'd rather stand on the bloody plain with than you and men of your caliber.
ReplyDelete