“GOD’S FULL
MEASURE—THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST”
Saint Luke 6.
36-42
4th Sunday after Trinity: 13 July Anno +
Domini 2014
Fr Jay Watson
SSP
In The + Name of
Jesus
Christians are called upon to judge and
weigh doctrine. Followers of The Christ follow His teachings and truths and not
the doctrines of men. You are to be very familiar and comfortable with the
doctrines and dogmas of His Holy Word so that you can avoid heretical beliefs
as well as pagan practices.
You are not to judge others. You are to be
dispensers of mercy.
To love your neighbor as yourself means just
that. You wouldn’t want to go to hell
by denying the Trinity or the Personal Union of Christ’s two natures in One Person.
You wouldn’t want to die unrepentant
by willfully breaking the 10 Commandments. You
are grateful when a teacher points out some heterodoxy that has crept into your
mind-set and you joyfully come to
confession to kneel and receive your merciful Lords absolution. You desire these same things for those
you come into contact with and those you might have some influence upon. The
way you speak with a casual one-time contact is always going to be somewhat
different and nuanced than how you converse and relate to someone you see every
day at work or in a social setting. So
remember that The Lord is the Judge. It
is the glorified and returning God/Man Who sits upon the throne separating the
sheep from the goats—not you. Don’t “jump
the gun.” Some people that you assume are damned are not even dead yet. God desires all men to be saved; so do you. So stop judging like a Pharisee and continue
loving like a caring brother or sister.
This is not indifferentism or libertinism.
No one is being instructed to turn a blind eye to flagrant sin and harmful
behavior. You are to speak the truth about the sins of divorce and sodomy. You
are to share the Law with those who gossip and lie. You are to defend
traditional marriage and sexual chastity before the wedding vows. You are to
urge people who don’t come to Mass to start attending the Divine Service. You
are to counsel repentance and Christian virtues.
But
all of that is borne of love—Christ’s love for you. Because Jesus has forgiven
you for sins every bit as disgusting and heinous as those you “cluck about” you are more than eager to
pass on this kind of mercy. You don’t condone someone in the hardness of their
heart true enough; you don’t slather them with pious platitudes about
forgiveness if they’re gloriously and happily embedded in their sin,
luxuriating in its filth, true enough. But what did Simon Peter once say? If my
brother comes to me…how many times
must I forgive?
The Christian, who refuses to forgive, is a “Christian”
who doesn’t believe the Our Father’s 5th
petition! One who won’t forgive is
in more danger than the one whose sins seem to be the object of his self-righteous
condemnation.
But your “old
Adam” is a buzzard that can’t be lectured or hectored into becoming an
angel of mercy. Your sinful self gets too much pleasure in petty and malicious
grudges and snits! Only Jesus the Forgiving One can rescue the sinner…that
would be the one you’re so obsessed with, and YOU AS WELL! Jesus takes both of your trespassing selves
into Himself as He is crucified and killed.
You can give, you do give, because Jesus
gave for you. You can love, you do love, because you are loved. You can bear,
you do bear your brothers burdens, because Jesus bore yours on the Tree.
Can the blind lead the blind? No. Can someone without any moisture, any
water, give a drink to someone else? No. Can an empty sack provide food to someone
starving? No.
Jesus is the answer. Christ is the source
for He is SAVIOR and FORGIVER. You point your wounded selves and your former
antagonists and adversaries to the Redeemer’s rood, His crucifix. At the foot
of the Cross the rain of righteousness, the deluge of Divine Blood washes,
nourishes, and fills all with rest and peace.
Where is that
Calvary? Not inside your heart and not in downtown Jerusalem. Those are ditches
of emotionalism and mysticism. Christ’s forgiveness is where He has attached
it; where He has cemented it with the gracious glue of His Word, Blood, Body,
Water, and actual presence!
Because Jesus HAS given to you the merits of
His obedience and His atoning death for your sin…you have “good measure, pressed down, and shaken together.” You have The
Body which was pressed down on the wood, The flesh that was shaken by slaps,
whips, and spikes. The “good measure”
is God’s measure of forgiveness and oneness which is “running over…into your bosom.” The Blood of The Lamb is gushing
out of His pierced bosom into yours, into your now eternally beating and
vivified hearts of Grace. You are a constantly bubbling, gurgling, spewing
forth fountains of faith not because of “your”
faith, but because of The Faith—The
Grace—The Christ Who is all in all. As lush and succulent green branches
connected to The Vine of Life and Light, you naturally give “good measure” and “ye mete withal” to all you come into contact with.
Not condemning…God’s Law will work its way
without your Sanhedrin voting; but
showing mercy…it’s what those who have been shown and given Mercy do.
In The Name of
The Father and of The + Son and of The Holy Ghost
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