SEXAGESIMA: Homily

“HIS GOOD AND HONEST HEART BLEEDING INTO THE CHALICE FOR YOU”

Saint Luke 8. 4-15

Sexagesima: 23 February Anno Domini 2014

Fr. Jay Watson SSP

In The Name + Jesus

   Why did our Lord speak in parables? Was it to confuse and befuddle the Pharisees and non-believing enemy Jews? Yes. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word. The work of our saving God is a gift—free and clear; it is the giving of the giver and not of works; not of intellect, reason, perception or great knowledge. As the Paraclete spake by Esaias: “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud…so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” [Is. 55. 9-11]  Those that Jesus wanted to receive His parabolic wisdom—Wisdom is the Holy Ghost—were able to grasp by faith what He was teaching. And, when old-Adam blinders obscured His verity, then He was willing and eager to explain Himself in greater detail. This He did to His “12” when they ask Him in verse 9 “what might this parable be?”

   Unless ye become like a little child you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Holy Baptism of infants (ideally at near nativity…8 days old is a beautiful bench-mark) is the template for adoption by Grace into the Kingdom of Christ’s eternal Church!

   Our hearts are searching and empty until they find their rest and peace in the Heart of the Blessed Trinity—the heart of the God/Man!

   For the flock to “know,” to believe what their Sower Savior is all about, what He’s given them and IS giving them, they simply receive His catechesis in vv. 11-15. The Shepherd feeds not only the Disciples with green living grass of Grace but all of you also eat His life-giving provender in His own explanation—the sermon of Jesus!

   Bare ground produces nothing. The earth unaided in its natural state is dead and lifeless. Only an outside “source” creates. Only an artist paints a portrait and only a composer composes a symphony.

As Johnny Appleseed purportedly simply traipsed about the Ohio valley (and other places) freely and liberally broadcasting apple seeds, our Lord and His churchly agents (through the means of the Word of Scripture and most especially the Evangel of Christ’s Person and Work) do the same thing. Trust in Him.

  You were filthy and septic little “dust-devils” when carried to the still waters of His Blood and Water at the 8-sided womb of atonement. The Holy Ghost, ever the guardian gardener of the seed from Nazareth, carried you with the four friends of the Gospel on the pallet of the Word already incensing you while 9 months in utero. Jesus planted Himself in your broken up soil during Baptism’s Holy rite. He made you “good ground” by Himself being buried in the ground for your transgressions. He insured His Seed, His SELF, would find “an honest and good heart” by letting His heart keep the Law in your stead, and then be pierced through with a pagan spear head of all the world’s sin, all your trespasses, at Calvary. The place of the skull was bathed in Seed, the Seed of His Body; watered by the Blood of God, so that Calvary, “then” would make Baptism “now” (in-time) a fecund and fertile regeneration of your righteousness IN HIM the Righteous One!

   The Gesima season is a short three-Sunday descent from the glory of Mt. Transfiguration to the Lenten desert which leads to the true glory of the Cross at Golgotha. Sexagesima (about 60 days before Holy Pascha) is about repenting…to get you ready for…more repentance. The Reformer was right in Thesis #1 of his 95: “Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam agite, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.” Repent of your own dalliances with the devil and his pigeons from hell which seek to take the word away from; which seek to pluck the seed from your ears with their shrieks of worldly entertainment and distraction. Repent of your rocky old-nature which daily calcifies with the crusty shell of selfishness, bitterness, and enmity. Repent of your fearful cares and worries, which at the heart, are all due to lack of trust in your Loving Father and Bleeding Redeemer. Repent of your controlling and domineering desires to “second guess” God on WHY not all seed bears the fruit you think it should, when and where you demand it to! Repent. Repent and believe that you not only bear fruit by His Spirit, but that you ARE the fruit of His red Seed. You are the “hundredfold” of His fruitful cross, His fruitful altar, and His fruitful Word and Body.

He is patient. He will do it. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear:” Go in peace your sins are forgiven!

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