“CHRIST’S BODY GATHERS HIS EAGLES”
Saint Matthew 24: 15-28
Third Last Sunday: 9 November Anno Domini 2014
Father Jay Watson SSP
The abomination of which The Lord speaks about is an abomination—that which should not be! It is desolation which is the opposite of fullness. Its greatest affront is in its destruction of holiness—that which God has selected and sealed with His Name.
Jesus is interpreting and unpacking a difficult prophecy from Daniel. It is the very same Word which Christ caused Daniel to write some 500 years earlier by the Holy Ghost (“spake by the Prophets” as you testified in The Creed). Jesus is telling you this morning that the work of this abominable perversion is more than just the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in the year 70 AD. He is instructing you that this tribulation includes more than the Eschaton—the final Advent and end of all corruption.
The will of the angel now known as Satan caused his rebellion from God—from good. The abominable serpent tempted Eve and the woman chose to rebel. She and her husband, who refused to be a godly head and instead proved to be the worst pastor of all time (save for the rest of us), she became abominable in sin and attempted regicide.
To be sure, all that The Lord spoke of that day came to fruition in 70 by having the last bit, last ounce, last drop, of fruitfulness squeezed dry out of God’s once holy city by sword, rubble, blood, and utter destruction met out by Rome’s pagan army. But you sin in ignorance and lack of holding the Word if you assume that only the Imperial Roman Eagle and representations of Caesar standing on the debris of Solomon’s portico is the abomination. You sin in arrogance and lukewarm complacency if you only crow triumphalistic against the crescent of Islam, the idols of Hinduism, the menorah of those who miss Christ’s identity; and the rainbow flag of radical homosexuality and all that is atheistic.
The devil is an abominable fallen angel; the world is a decaying and corrupt mistress—a whore of Babylon; the Office of the Papacy, insofar as it presumes a power Christ has never given it and still officially condemns the Rule of Faith (Justification by Grace alone) is abominable…yes, yes, and yes! But your “old Adam” traitorous collaborator is also abominable. Repent!
“What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are Gods.” [1 Cor. 6. 19-20]
Every time you sin you let the contained and captured old nature spew out more foul and abominable filth into that which Jesus died for. Fight with the Word of God and your Holy + Washing the lustful thoughts and desires which seek to turn your Holy Nave into a brothel of shame. Run the race of prayerful obedience that the Apostle sets before you, In the Word, and avoid words of hate and actions of thievery and control. Submit by the Christ in you to your real identity as a child of The Father and a lamb of The Paschal Lamb!
And when you don’t, repent and cling to the only One Who rescues you and restores you “seventy times seven”. [Mt. 18.22]
Those who were in Judaea were not to flee to the Temple or synagogue or their false understanding of the Old Testament, but to the mountains, to all areas where the Apostles were carrying The Word of Christ Crucified and Risen for forgiveness of sins!
You are to flee to the mountain of Holiness which is found only in Jesus’ blood and righteousness. This safety and peace is no longer found on Mount Calvary but on the mount of His New Testament pulpits and altars. Flee not back into your mammon filled houses of self-will and self-justification but to the house of Jesus’ Father—the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of the Living God!
You are always driven and constrained by the Holy Ghost to flee to Christ for Christ never fled from you, your sins, or your penalties. Jesus obediently and passively marched to the Tree to be your replacement in His purity and sacrifice.
Eschew and avoid putting the things of man ahead of Christ’s gifts for you. Suckling the children that may be with you is the vocation of mothers. Protecting your family is the vocations of fathers, but it is Jesus Who nourishes and feeds all His flock at His + font and at His communion rail. The Church gives suck in these last and dangerous days; the Church gives the robes of Jesus’ righteousness in these days of wintery tribulation—always and only through Jesus—His absolving peace and His Body and Blood by His Word!
While others sadly still look for a god of their own making and desire in false Messiahs and false prophets: Popes, Osteen’s, dispensationalist lunacies, insane delusions of Mohamed’s hoaxes, and humanism’s baal-like worshipping of science…the only joy and peace and everlasting solace comes from the wounds, the Blood, the Body of the pierced God/Man!
“Behold, I have told you before” He says!
He’s here right now for you poor and lonely. He tabernacles today for you the frightened, hurting, angry and diseased. Jesus: not in the desert of man-made works and not in the secret chambers of your black hearts, but in the Cup of Blessing, in the Bread of Life. For where His Body is, there His body the Church will gather like the Eagles of Saint John’s Evangel.
In Christ you are no longer an abomination. In Christ you are neither desolate or in desolation. In Christ the tribulation can be endured. In Christ the light of His lightning (“Light of Light”) shineth in you as the Son of Man comes this day!
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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