“TRINITY 10 2024”
Saint Luke 19: 41-48
10th Sunday after Trinity: August 4 Anno Domini 2024
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
“And when He was come near…” Ah, there is that indescribable Gospel that man, that you, either fail to hear and believe (as you should), or simply take for granted in a heart over-weighed with mammon and the cares of the world. Transcendence, yes. But also, immanence—presence. It is also why the protestant sects, much of Romanism, and sadly, even far too many Lutherans do not truly grasp the Sacramental presence of God in His Body and Blood. Say “is means is” all you want, but better to tremble and be in awe of it as you eat and drink!
As Christ The Word came to Jeremias, so He comes to me. And through my voice He speaks also to you—who “sit in the gate of The Lord’s house.”
“Amend your ways and your doings…trust ye not in lying words.” The things you trust in: health, financial security, family & friends, jobs, acceptance and popularity, self-satisfaction, and the list of mammon goes on and on and on…
Even being in The Lord’s house, or not; absenting yourself from The Mass due to illegitimate reasons is a sinful thing and not merely an oversight. Do you not believe That God is here…for you…and that you truly need Him? Jesus weeps when you are not here.
Do you not know that in these last and dark days “the things which belong unto thy peace?” It is Satan who hides them from your eyes, and the world, and your own sinful self.
The baals, molochs, and false gods of Assyria, Babylon, and all the other near Eastern peoples were transcendent—thought to be powerful, though distant and unapproachable, except through druidic and shamanistic priest. The pantheon of the Greeks and Romans also were ascribed great and wonderful powers. But they were capricious, venal, and quite frankly, aloof. Ceremony and custom and tradition to be sure; but no warm embrace of mercy and comfort—no peace.
That old world forever ended in the cave—the Bethlehem stable when God became man. Not just generic man but an actual real man—a helpless baby—with flesh like yours; with blood like yours.
A God that could suck milk from His mother. A God that could be picked up and held and nuzzled. A God Who would grow and mature that He might “come near” to behold your city—to behold you!
And while you do not sell doves and sheep here in the nave, or in our micro hall way and kitchen, you are still warned severely not to make this Holy house a den of thieves. And yet, we are all thieves, and gossips, and ungrateful children. We are all liars, murderers, and idolaters.
Like the women in the streets of Jerusalem on Good Friday, on the via Dolorosa, you do weep over “poor Jesus” as a man of sorrows. But He wants you to weep over your sins; over your sin.
Transcendence (omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence) to be sure. God is Divine. You confessed that in The Creed. But immanence—the actual, literal, ‘right-now’ presence in your very midst…the humanity of God in an actual historical Man. That is all the difference in the world.
For Father Jeremias (and Fr. Jay) speak Jesus: “if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings (but do you? No); if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; (do you?) if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, (nope)…neither walk after other gods to your hurt: (just re-read the 1st Commandment and the Reformer’s withering explanation).
And that is why: JESUS. His name is savior and He saves you from your hurt and your damnation. But He also rescues you from your pain, despair, sicknesses, losses, loneliness, homelessness, and from your tears.
He obeys in your place for you. He suffers and dies in your place for you. He weeps in your place. He weeps for your sins; He weeps to wash you and refresh you even as the woman wept tears of joyful faith onto His feet as He sat at meet. She wept tears for her sins had been forgiven. Christ weeps for love of His Father and for all of you because He sets all things right. He is The Visitation in The Flesh.
Hannah wept for she was barren. The weeping Lord visited her and she bore the great Prophet Samuel. David wept sore over his sin declared by faithful Nathan. The weeping Lord forgave the King and gave Him Peace—Solomon the great. Christ wept over Jerusalem, his people in their fullness of time and space, but He also wept at the heartbreak of Mary and Martha at the death of Lazarus. He visited them with The Way, The Truth, and The Life—resurrection of their brother.
That is immanence. That is the humanity of God in the person of Jesus—The God/Man! That is mercy and grace so real, present, alive, and corporeal that it flows from God’s eyes, off of his face and beard right unto your burning forehead with cool release and peace. It flows from Jesus’ sacred eyes into the + Font, and into The Chalice.
Jesus drank down the dregs from the cup of sin and wrath, and in that sacrifice, He drank the bitter tears of all your enemies, of all your trespasses. And now, He visits you to feed and quench your hunger, thirst, and hurt. The waters of God are both still, and moving. And now, “all the people [are] very attentive to hear Him.” Well did Esaias prophecy:
“He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces” [Esaias 25.8] Your visitation is today.
For that which had been hidden is revealed: “For The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” [Rev. 7.17].
In The Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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