A QUINQUAGESIMA Hymn (for St. Luke 18. 35-43)

(but maybe it's best that Saint Bartimaeus can't "hear" this one   :)   )

 

 CAME TO PASS WHILST JESUS WALKING

 

Words: Jay Watson

Tune: Quem pastores (14th century melody)

Meter: 8,8,8,7

Modeled from TLH #90

 

 

Came to pass whilst Jesus walking

Sat there one in sadness begging

Loudly yelled His need adjuring

Sightless man of Jericho

 

 

As they passed he asked the reason

Jesus now this was His season

For our full trespassing treason

Walked to Cal’vry to atone

 

 

O Thou Son of God anointed

For my sins and guilt appointed

Thou my mercy in this dark-dread

Wash me clean Kyrie Lord

 

 

Christ, then gestured to him commanding

What the need He spoke Inquiring

For my eyes Thy help receiving

Give me back my vision whole

 

 

Jesus spoke in all His power

Eyes were opened at that hour

Rest0red image to empower

Crushing all shackles of hell

 

 

Freed from prison that oppressed him

Freed from devils that possessed him

Freed with us from sin we bless Him

Father Son and Holy Ghost

Father Jwatso: A Cartoon (of sorts)

Again hear my promise...I will be keeping my day job - -

Art: by (I believe) Malcolm Hancock (via Google Images) R.I.P. The best cartoonist
         National Review ever had.  The demon is Watson-modified clip-art.

Text:  Jay W. Watson

Dedicated to:  Mike Adair (http://mikeadair.blogspot.com/ and http://mikeadair.com/ )
                         the best cartoonist in 'da world...and my Pal!

"...That they may be made perfect in one..."

   After spending some time watching several on-line videos (debates, interviews, and sermons) from so-called “sedevacantist” Roman Catholics I am again reminded how the devil works to destroy Christ’s Church by division and isolation.  For those unfamiliar with what sedevacantism is, it is the teaching that the Papal See and throne (The Office of the Pope) is vacant and is only being occupied by a non-legitimate anti-pope.  Sedevacantists believe that the last legitimate Godly Pope was Pius XII (1939 - 1958).   They seriously and rigorously maintain that John XXIII (1958 - 1963), Paul VI (1963 - 1978), John-Paul I (1978), John-Paul II (1978 - 2005), and Benedict XVI (2005 - ) are all anti-popes. 

   Without going any further into their theology and historical reasonings, I do understand (and to a real degree--sympathize with) the ordered logic of their position as well as the passionate heart-felt betrayal they feel over the loss of pre-Vatican II Romanism and the centuries old Latin Mass.   It is tantamount, at some level, to the feelings we traditionalist Lutherans have when the Common Service (centuries old itself) is jetisoned for banal and protestant contempary worship and Arminian gimicks.

   But looking at the tragedy of these ad hominem attacks on Rome and the American Curia, not to mention the constant internecine warfare between competing sedevacantist camps, Lutheranism’s own history of breakaway micro-synods is both charming and positively cozy.  We may have our Herman Ottens, Jack Casciones, one-man parishes (for infallibly pure pastors sometimes even ex-communicate their wives for doctrinal slackness :) )  cyber bully-bloggers and chat-groups, that split and fissure so often into tinier factions that to call them sectarian is almost an insult to sectarians, but we've got nothing like some of the nut-jobs one can find over at YouTube calling Pope Benedict "rat man," heretic, and bastard. 

   One of the things that struck me most (which I already knew) was that in the arguments and attacks, almost ALL the supporting documentation and evidence comes from Roman Canon Law.  Appeals to history and tradition too are ubiquitous while appeals to Holy Scripture are slim to none.  The Church of the West in its Roman Catholic persona, even down to its own dissenters and sedevacantists, remains ever a church of Scholasticism, Aristotelianism, and monarchial corporatism.  If one thought "wading through" the CTCR and CCM opinions of the LCMS was tough sledding, try listening to two logomaticians quibbling over 500 years of arcane Romanist Canon Law.  Our synodical constitution and bylaws would be a mere prefatory paragraph in the CFR-sized (Code of Federal Regulations of the US) library of Canon Law.  Aquinas himself is almost a tad too laconic and terse when compared to the volumes and volumes Romanists take refuge in during their disputations.

    And if Rome, at least the public and official Rome of Pope Benedict XVI, can’t have peace and harmony with its own scattered groups of “traditionalists” what hope is there that an eventual rapprochement between Rome and Wittenberg could ever be accomplished.  What hope is there that even the warring camps within the LC-MS itself will ever come to true concord and consensus?  Rejecting all authority and true Biblical models of episcopal conciliarity; dividing, splitting away, and forming ever more tiny conclaves seems to be the way of nature.  And for us, that nature is “Old Adam” sinful and unclean. 

    While “small” is not bad, indeed, too large fosters the very conditions which led and bred the hydra-headed Roman medieval church.  The larger a group of believers becomes, the greater the temptation to “ape” and mimic large secular institutions, be they Constantine’s Court, the Pentagon, or the Coca Cola boardroom.

   I have no answers of my own other than the Holy Word of God and the interceding power of the Paraclete to guide us into the mind and heart of The God made flesh.  Jesus’ own high priestly prayer [Jn. 17. 1-26] is our sanctified reality when we cling to Him and Him alone for all our unity and community.  The family model of brothers and sisters in loving service to each other; gathered around the family table in obedience to the loving Father, is to be our aspiration...NOT a socio-political religious nation-state with flow charts and lawyers (always busy "incorporating" and trade-marking this or that).

   And I am truly gratified, giving thanks to God, that, our own smaller American synods (WELS, ELS, ELDoNA and others) are shining paragons of civility and charity towards both the Missourians (who they do see as “errorists”) and even the protestants when compared to the bile and vitriol exhibited by so many traditionalist Roman Catholics.

   The devil’s lie (“did God say?”) and its progeny may have been a cluster-bomb at the heart of Edenic organic unity - - forever blowing apart the total united family of faith, at least this side of the Parsousia; but The Word and the Sacrament of Christ Jesus remains now and forever the only salvific solution—the magnetic lodestone of Truth and Righteousness which pulls all of His predestined and elect Saints to the altar, pulpit, font, and Table of His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

A Short New Communion Hymn:

My latest scrivenings - -

Dear Redeemer Our Paschal Feast

Words: Jay W. Watson 2013

Music: Nikolaus Herman, 1560,

O Heilige Dreifaltigkeit

Meter: LM [TLH # 564]

 

Dear Redeemer our Paschal feast

Our atoning most Holy Priest

With bread Thy Body most divine

Serve us Thy Blood under the wine

 

On Calvary the purchase paid

The sacrifice for sinners made

This gift most sacred doth succor

All of Thy lambs unclean and poor

 

Sweet forgiveness this meal brings

With Sabaoth this parish sings

Filled with Thy Supper we depart

By Grace through Faith strengthen our heart

 

In Eucharist we recess now

To Trinity our bodies bow

Signed by the Spirit and Father

And with the Son Savior most pure

SEXAGESIMA: Homily

“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

Christ Presents CHRIST, and PURIFIES

    Though the “days of her purification” had come Our Lady was not under Moses like Miriam (Maryam) had been.  The Ever Virgin was not baptized under the cloud but was baptized by carrying God in her inviolate womb.  As The Great Law Giver had been purified from his past life and called into the Office of typological “Prophet, Priest, and King” at the burning bush of ADONAI; so too the Maiden from Nazareth had been purified by being made the burning bush -- carrying, nurturing, and feeding (all by The Lord’s Grace and Might to be sure) the ADONAI now made flesh of her flesh and blood of her blood: IMMANUEL.

    The Laws and Commands of Moses were all kept, completed, and fulfilled in Christ Jesus the Lady’s Son…and the Lady’s Savior.  In Him all the sins and depredations of our first Mother Saint Eve were healed and made whole.  Adam’s help-mate thought the Lord had “given her a man” who would be the promised Seed-Messias, but Saint Mary was the true “handmaid of the Lord” who had the God/Man given her in a way that is ontologically sui generis.  There may be only One Moses, but there were many great Prophets and Patriarchs.  There may be only One Peter, but there were other great Apostles.  There may be only One Paul, but the office of Missionary-Martyr would continue.   There is only One Blessed Virgin Mary and we thank The Lord this day for her and the Grace that shines forth in her and through her.  For Mary points always (in a Holy Sprit constrained way) to her Son: “Listen to Him, whatever He says, do it!”  Mary’s Song is like The Baptizer’s bony finger—it draws the eye’s attention to the "Lamb of God Who taketh away the Sin of the world."

   While Moses' sons opened the matrixes of their mothers, Mary remained pure virgin.  While this point of doctrine can no longer be taught in our circles for many and varied reasons, we nonetheless take comfort in our Symbols which correctly explicate the Holy Word of the Lord, to-wit:  Smalcald Article IV “et ex Maria, pura, sancta, sempervirgine…” [Triglotta p. 460];  Solid Declaration Formula of Concord Article VIII  “Mary, the most blessed virgin, did not conceive a mere, ordinary human being, but a human being who is truly the Son of the most high God, as the angel testifies. He demonstrated his divine majesty even in his mother’s womb in that he was born of a virgin without violating her virginity. Therefore she is truly the mother of God and yet remained a virgin.” [Triglotta p. 1023]

    The same reason you don’t have to bring your lamb, ram, or ox to the tent door (the doors between your narthex and nave) for the priests to slit throats and gather blood, is because Jesus has paid for your trespasses with His own bitter suffering and death on Calvary’s Cross.  Jesus is your expiation, propitiation, atonement, and purification from all sin.  The reason the Semper Virgo Mother of God did not have to bring a lamb (though she did bring a pair of turtledoves) sacrifice to the Temple on the 40^th day, is because she carried in her arms, suckling at her breasts, THE SACRIFICE HIMSELF—the Paschal Lamb her Son, Christ Jesus.

   He had exited her Womb without opening out; and thus, without violating her virginal purity she needed no ritual cleansing.  Eve’s honor and  virginal purity of being a blessed child of the Father and spotless sister of the Son was restored in Christ’s Person and Work (the twin turtledoves of justice and righteousness). 

   Thus well does Saint Mary Mother of God symbolize and typify the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.  Mary holds up the Christ, like she did to Saint Simeon, and we the Church join with her in receiving “The Light of the Gentiles and the Glory of Israel.”

   A Most Blessed Purification of Saint Mary and Presentation of Our Lord Day to one and all

 

Deo Vindice

Fr. Watson S.S.P.

Well, There's DOMino's (Pizza)

DETRITUS  EXCURSUS

   As I mentioned yesterday, LCMS parishioners will never call their pastors “Father” for any number of (bad and specious) reasons.  But what is interesting is that they have no problem calling them “Pastor.”  They will refer to their minister (a term that everyone in America likes because it also denotes, “servanthood” which everyone likes so long as the servant is the other guy) as Shepherd, which by implication makes them sheep (one of the dumbest, most inept of animals), but not by “Father” which makes them beloved children: go figure.

   But as I was re-reading Chemnitz’s Enchiridion recently I noted something that had escaped me in the past.  In the prefaces both Chemnitz and Polycarp Leyser are referred to as “Dom” Chemnitz and “Dom” Leyser. 

   I had encountered this title before with Roman Catholic monks and clergy—e.g. Dom Gueranger (he of the famed The Liturgical Year volumes) but found it fascinating to be applied to our confessional forebears.  The end notes correctly cited the word as an abbreviation for Dominus (Lord).   This is not Lord as in Adonai but as in “Lords & Ladies of England.”  Still, if it was good enough for the Second Martin, maybe our people will start to use it with us where they would be burned at the stake in Smithfield before calling us “Father.”

   Lord Watson or Dom Watson…does have a ring to it.  J