Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. (Rom 1)
Who speaks to you today, saying:
And one of the “hims” sent to his father’s, and our fathers’, houses is St. John. Our Epistle from him today says, “he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God Whom he has not seen”. Likewise, I say, “he who does not love his church whom he has seen cannot love the eternal Church whom he has not seen”. Yet.
Jesus’s method of operation is sacramental, that is to use creation to work His salvation among us. We hear these words of Jesus today to point us to what is unseen in what is seen. That Jesus’s Promise of salvation is only through His Word, that is the Gospel purely preached and the sacraments administered according to it.
For, in no uncertain terms, St. John the Apostle declares that you must love God and you must love your brother. On top of that, you must love your brother whom you can see and you must love your God, Whom you cannot see.
This is the part when you run away.
For one, this is every religion’s claim. Christianity is not unique here. You can’t see God now, but you just gotta believe bro. You gotta just use your whole heart bro, your whole mind, strength, and soul must be given to the invisible sky-daddy, who’s just too shy to show up right now. Bro.
This is a part of Abraham’s complaint and maybe you can sympathize in our Old Testament reading. For Abraham, God has already appeared to him and so is not unseen, as St. John demands of us. Abraham’s complain is that God is making a promise that is invisible, unfulfilled, and in the future, which may or may not happen. Offspring are supposed to be visible, incarnate, but as of yet, not seen and Abraham’s biological clock is ticking.
But Abraham believed the Lord and that belief, that faith alone is counted as righteousness in front of God. What a powerful witness. No wonder Abraham was chosen to be a father of the Church and that God chose to show Himself, revealing to Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars.
Unfortunately, for Abraham, there were many stars, but no offspring and Abraham knows, feels, and believes this is his soul. This is why we find Abraham in chapter 16, committing adultery with his servant Hagar to force God’s hand. What was he to do? He listened to his wife, knew Hagar, and thus finally, the offspring of promise was in hand.
Then, God reveals Himself again, not to Abraham, but to Hagar. She says, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?” (16:13). Though God had blessed Abraham, He now blesses Hagar who is not the mother of Promise. With these two revelations, there appears to be no sure way to make God appear for us, for He shows Himself to the righteous and the unrighteous alike.
Repent. One, important lesson we consistently forget is what is not seen is just as important as what is seen. The things you do and say in this life affect both your body and your soul. The mantra of the LGBTQIAAP+ marriage people is: “it doesn’t affect you, why do you care?”
One, you don’t live in a bubble. Your actions and behavior affect everyone around you. And two, you destroying your eternal soul does affect me, as I love you and don’t want to see that happen. Any sin destroys faith, destroys the unseen within you: addiction, fornication, immorality and others. They may not seem to have immediate consequences, but are deadly all the same.
The Rich Man, in the Gospel today, thought like Abraham, that he had what was unseen in his hands. He was communing with success, popularity, and prosperity. He truly believed the unseen favor of God was in those things he could see. That is misplaced belief. Belief is to be in the Offspring alone, for that is the Promise.
The Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, proves the God Who is unseen, and that He wills and desires to be seen only in Jesus. As our Christmas Proper Preface goes: “in the mystery of the Word made flesh You have given us a new revelation of Your glory that, seeing You in the Person of Your Son, we may know and love those things which are not seen.”
The unseen realm is real. The Word that gave the 10 Commands to Moses, Hagar, and the Rich Man to teach Who He is; The Word Who gave the confession of faith to the same and to us, in our creeds, to teach what we are to expect and receive from God, was made man. Made to be seen.
The Word was made flesh. The unseen Promise made to Abraham, fulfilled in the Offspring of David. The seen Mercy shown to Hagar and Ishmael all converge and are seen and found in the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How is that? The Blood of Jesus covers sins. The suffering of Jesus pays for adultery, fornication, and all sin leading to death. Where Isaac, Jacob, and even David failed, the Son of God does the Will of our Father perfectly, satisfying and fulfilling the Law in their and our stead.
Though conceived in sin, Hagar and Ishmael are not forgotten, but seen. The Promise made to Abraham was to see God, in the flesh, complete His Mercy perfectly. This He does in Jesus, the Offspring, the Son of Promise. Abraham is blessed, because he was given power to believe in the unseen. That is, he will wait for God to keep His Promise in His own way. “Abrahm rejoiced to see my day”, says Jesus in St. John 8:56, “and was glad.”
Lazarus was comforted in eternity, because he dared to believe that faith is given to wait for God’s promised fulfillment in and through suffering flesh. Abraham’s doubt and the Rich Man’s unbelief stem from the logic that suffering does not produce victory. Their reason blinded them from expecting the Promised Offspring to suffer. It is unbelievable to accept that success and victory be found in a sin-riddled, broken body on a cross. Wouldn’t you agree?
Yet, Jesus still gives us His Gospel. He still stands Lazarus up in front of us, our neighbor through whom we cool our sinful tongues on Moses and the Prophets, who preach Christ Crucified. We still side with the Rich Man, desiring to cover our guilt with our works and our reason, which tell us that suffering is not very loving, which is the motto of the devil.
When St. John gives us his warning of seen and unseen. He is not contradicting Jesus’s words of, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). He is comforting his flock. You do not see God anymore, like you see your brother today. Your God has ascended to His complete and full power, uniting God and man in the flesh, unable to be seen by sinful eyes.
Your brother has need of you today. It is godly to respond to Jesus with praise and devotion, but not at the expense of your brother. He is just as worthy of forgiveness as you are, though he may be your enemy.
Jesus has come back from the dead to report that He gives peace to you. Jesus has sent His Apostles and Prophets to teach you of unseen things. Unseen, but not untouchable. And not even just your neighbors. The Gospel teaches of unmerited grace in the unseen things made to be seen.
As Jesus was the unseen made seen, so too His work in His Church. The unseen favor of God is found in His Gospel purely preached. The unseen salvation of God is seen in His baptism, ritely administered. The unseen forgiveness in the union of God and man in one Jesus Christ is seen, handled, and tasted in the Body and Blood, given and shed for you.
For the Promise was, is, and always will be in the flesh of the Son, Who has made believers out of all Who trust in and drink of His Blood. That is, the unseen promise to see God has been made manifest to His Church in faith. The stars now shrink at the magnitude of offspring the Savior of the world has now produced in His suffering.
It is because God now has a Body, that our brother becomes this important piece in loving God. Now God just might look like one of them and if I practice hate here, I will take it with me to eternity. But if I love here, Love, Jesus covers a multitude of sins and is faithful to wash them away, for all eternity.
Who speaks to you today, saying:
“Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's
house”
And one of the “hims” sent to his father’s, and our fathers’, houses is St. John. Our Epistle from him today says, “he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God Whom he has not seen”. Likewise, I say, “he who does not love his church whom he has seen cannot love the eternal Church whom he has not seen”. Yet.
Jesus’s method of operation is sacramental, that is to use creation to work His salvation among us. We hear these words of Jesus today to point us to what is unseen in what is seen. That Jesus’s Promise of salvation is only through His Word, that is the Gospel purely preached and the sacraments administered according to it.
For, in no uncertain terms, St. John the Apostle declares that you must love God and you must love your brother. On top of that, you must love your brother whom you can see and you must love your God, Whom you cannot see.
This is the part when you run away.
For one, this is every religion’s claim. Christianity is not unique here. You can’t see God now, but you just gotta believe bro. You gotta just use your whole heart bro, your whole mind, strength, and soul must be given to the invisible sky-daddy, who’s just too shy to show up right now. Bro.
This is a part of Abraham’s complaint and maybe you can sympathize in our Old Testament reading. For Abraham, God has already appeared to him and so is not unseen, as St. John demands of us. Abraham’s complain is that God is making a promise that is invisible, unfulfilled, and in the future, which may or may not happen. Offspring are supposed to be visible, incarnate, but as of yet, not seen and Abraham’s biological clock is ticking.
But Abraham believed the Lord and that belief, that faith alone is counted as righteousness in front of God. What a powerful witness. No wonder Abraham was chosen to be a father of the Church and that God chose to show Himself, revealing to Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars.
Unfortunately, for Abraham, there were many stars, but no offspring and Abraham knows, feels, and believes this is his soul. This is why we find Abraham in chapter 16, committing adultery with his servant Hagar to force God’s hand. What was he to do? He listened to his wife, knew Hagar, and thus finally, the offspring of promise was in hand.
Then, God reveals Himself again, not to Abraham, but to Hagar. She says, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?” (16:13). Though God had blessed Abraham, He now blesses Hagar who is not the mother of Promise. With these two revelations, there appears to be no sure way to make God appear for us, for He shows Himself to the righteous and the unrighteous alike.
Repent. One, important lesson we consistently forget is what is not seen is just as important as what is seen. The things you do and say in this life affect both your body and your soul. The mantra of the LGBTQIAAP+ marriage people is: “it doesn’t affect you, why do you care?”
One, you don’t live in a bubble. Your actions and behavior affect everyone around you. And two, you destroying your eternal soul does affect me, as I love you and don’t want to see that happen. Any sin destroys faith, destroys the unseen within you: addiction, fornication, immorality and others. They may not seem to have immediate consequences, but are deadly all the same.
The Rich Man, in the Gospel today, thought like Abraham, that he had what was unseen in his hands. He was communing with success, popularity, and prosperity. He truly believed the unseen favor of God was in those things he could see. That is misplaced belief. Belief is to be in the Offspring alone, for that is the Promise.
The Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, proves the God Who is unseen, and that He wills and desires to be seen only in Jesus. As our Christmas Proper Preface goes: “in the mystery of the Word made flesh You have given us a new revelation of Your glory that, seeing You in the Person of Your Son, we may know and love those things which are not seen.”
The unseen realm is real. The Word that gave the 10 Commands to Moses, Hagar, and the Rich Man to teach Who He is; The Word Who gave the confession of faith to the same and to us, in our creeds, to teach what we are to expect and receive from God, was made man. Made to be seen.
The Word was made flesh. The unseen Promise made to Abraham, fulfilled in the Offspring of David. The seen Mercy shown to Hagar and Ishmael all converge and are seen and found in the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How is that? The Blood of Jesus covers sins. The suffering of Jesus pays for adultery, fornication, and all sin leading to death. Where Isaac, Jacob, and even David failed, the Son of God does the Will of our Father perfectly, satisfying and fulfilling the Law in their and our stead.
Though conceived in sin, Hagar and Ishmael are not forgotten, but seen. The Promise made to Abraham was to see God, in the flesh, complete His Mercy perfectly. This He does in Jesus, the Offspring, the Son of Promise. Abraham is blessed, because he was given power to believe in the unseen. That is, he will wait for God to keep His Promise in His own way. “Abrahm rejoiced to see my day”, says Jesus in St. John 8:56, “and was glad.”
Lazarus was comforted in eternity, because he dared to believe that faith is given to wait for God’s promised fulfillment in and through suffering flesh. Abraham’s doubt and the Rich Man’s unbelief stem from the logic that suffering does not produce victory. Their reason blinded them from expecting the Promised Offspring to suffer. It is unbelievable to accept that success and victory be found in a sin-riddled, broken body on a cross. Wouldn’t you agree?
Yet, Jesus still gives us His Gospel. He still stands Lazarus up in front of us, our neighbor through whom we cool our sinful tongues on Moses and the Prophets, who preach Christ Crucified. We still side with the Rich Man, desiring to cover our guilt with our works and our reason, which tell us that suffering is not very loving, which is the motto of the devil.
When St. John gives us his warning of seen and unseen. He is not contradicting Jesus’s words of, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). He is comforting his flock. You do not see God anymore, like you see your brother today. Your God has ascended to His complete and full power, uniting God and man in the flesh, unable to be seen by sinful eyes.
Your brother has need of you today. It is godly to respond to Jesus with praise and devotion, but not at the expense of your brother. He is just as worthy of forgiveness as you are, though he may be your enemy.
Jesus has come back from the dead to report that He gives peace to you. Jesus has sent His Apostles and Prophets to teach you of unseen things. Unseen, but not untouchable. And not even just your neighbors. The Gospel teaches of unmerited grace in the unseen things made to be seen.
As Jesus was the unseen made seen, so too His work in His Church. The unseen favor of God is found in His Gospel purely preached. The unseen salvation of God is seen in His baptism, ritely administered. The unseen forgiveness in the union of God and man in one Jesus Christ is seen, handled, and tasted in the Body and Blood, given and shed for you.
For the Promise was, is, and always will be in the flesh of the Son, Who has made believers out of all Who trust in and drink of His Blood. That is, the unseen promise to see God has been made manifest to His Church in faith. The stars now shrink at the magnitude of offspring the Savior of the world has now produced in His suffering.
It is because God now has a Body, that our brother becomes this important piece in loving God. Now God just might look like one of them and if I practice hate here, I will take it with me to eternity. But if I love here, Love, Jesus covers a multitude of sins and is faithful to wash them away, for all eternity.
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