Sexagesima

Sexagesima – February 23, 2025

Psalm 44; Isaiah 55:10-13; 2 Corinthians 11:19-12:9

St. Luke 8:4-15

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A seed is a wonderful thing. On its own, it shows no signs of life. It is not a stone. It is not a plant. It doesn’t grow or multiply. It can’t move. By itself, it is not alive. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone.”[1] An acorn looks like little more than a stone wearing a fancy hat. But within that acorn is the beginning of a mighty oak tree. The same is true of all seeds. They contain the power of life itself. When placed in warm, moist ground, this dormant potential is released, and the seed springs to life, becoming a plant with leaf, blossom, and fruit. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”[2]

Our Lord compares the Word of God to a seed. In a certain sense, on its own, the Word of God is inert. Whether ink on a page or sounds issuing from the lips of man, it shows no signs of life. It is living and active, but again, on its own, it can’t do much. When it finds the warm, moist soil of the heart of man, it springs forth with great life, imbuing the heart with faith, producing the wondrous works of God. It is instructive and informative and stimulates acts of piety. It takes water, bread, and wine and makes them the Holy Sacraments, delivering life and salvation. The Word of God is living and active, but it must be planted home in the hearts of man.[3]

It may be surprising to you to hear the Word of God talked about in this way. But it is important because we must understand that the Word of God is not God’s telos, His end goal. The Word of God is the means by which God effects His goal – the salvation of man. This is why we call the Word one of the means of grace. It is the means by which the Holy Spirit delivers God’s grace into the hearts of man.

This is one of the errors of those churches rightly called “Fundamentalists.” They do not recognize the Word of God as a means of grace but rather as one of the end goals of God. For them, Christ spoke the words of Scripture for the purpose of creating Scripture. Yet the bible itself says that these things were written that you might believe and by believing would have life, that is salvation, in the name of Christ.[4] As a means of grace, the purpose of the Word of God is to be planted in the soil of your soul, both bringing you life and salvation and transforming you into a son or daughter of God.

The heart, or soul, of man is soil in which the Word of God springs to life. In the parable, our Lord describes four types of soil into which the seed fell. It is important to note that in this parable, our Lord is not describing the unbelieving world. All these categories apply to those who hear the Word of God in one way or another. It does not apply to heathens. It applies to those who hear the Word. Of these hearers, there are four types.

First, there is the wayside. Although these may hear the Word with their ears or read a few words on a page, the seed of the Word finds no purchase in the soil of their hearts. It remains on the surface and is easily snatched away by Satan and his demons. This is the ‘spiritual but not religious’ crowd. This is those who press “like” on a pretty picture with a few words of Scripture on Facebook while scheduling their next tarot reading. They may even memorize a few verses of Scripture, especially those that fit with their own musings on the divine or internet assembled philosophy.

Second, there is the rocky soil. These receive the Word with joy. For a time, they are elated by the Words of Scripture and often dive into the life of the Church with both feet. They join various groups within the congregation right away and attend every bible study and event that is offered. But at the first sign of temptation, they fall away. The first time they have a late Saturday night and find waking up on Sunday difficult, they miss the Divine Service. Once becomes twice, twice becomes four times. Soon, the joy they had is shifted to a new and exciting adventure. Maybe a new job. Maybe a new hobby. Maybe a great difficulty arises, a health concern or marriage troubles, and rather than turning to the source of life they have found in the Word of God, they turn to doctors and therapists, neglecting the soil of their souls.

Third, our Lord describes the thorny soil. These hear the Word of God, and it begins to sprout and bring forth good fruit. They receive the Word of God with sincerity. They believe for a time. But then the cares of this life, riches, and pleasure steal their attention away from the Word of God. Finances become more important than faith. The world becomes a business venture where the measure of a man is not his relationship with God but his success in property, investments, profits, or collecting things.

To the thorny soil also belongs those who become caught up in pleasure, who don’t mind taking a month off of church to go on vacation without finding a church to attend near the lake. Here also belongs those who hear God’s law but value their own pleasure more highly. “God wants me to be happy, doesn’t He? So God wants me to divorce my wife and marry my mistress.” Such thoughts make light not only the Law of God but also His Gospel. Such thoughts turn God’s grace into something cheap that can so easily be applied that no matter what you do or how you live, it doesn’t matter because God forgives. So eat, drink, and be merry. Such an attitude chokes out the Word of God and withers what fruit had begun within the soul.

Finally, there is the good soil. These hear the Word with a noble and good heart. They keep and cherish the Word of God, finding in it the consolation of their souls. These turn to the Word of God in good times and in bad. These constantly examine the soil of their hearts and make sure that it continues to be a fertile ground for God’s Word, removing the weeds and stones that inevitably crop up. These pray that God’s Word would transform what stones and weeds are to be found that they would remain steadfast in the Word. They bear fruit in due season and endure the trials and temptations of the world with patience and endurance, knowing that the telos, the end goal, of this Word is their salvation.

Having heard descriptions of the various soils, lest you either despair or become prideful of the condition of your own soul, you must recognize that these soils do not primarily describe different people. They describe the condition of every soul at different times of life. You have all experienced seasons of life in which your soul matched each of the types of soil. If you haven’t, I can promise you that you will. The heart of man is fickle. There are the good seasons, when the soil of your heart is rich, warm, and moist, when the Word of God brings joy and gladness. At these times, your mind is filled with the things of God, and you turn to Him no matter the circumstance you find yourself in. Thanks be to God for these seasons. They are truly blessed times.

But the Old Adam, the sin clinging to our flesh, is very persuasive. Even the best fields will occasionally sprout thorns or turn up rocks. They must be constantly tended. If not cared for, they will quickly become wild and house all manner of thorns and crows, becoming unfit for fruitful plants. The same is true of your soul. Sin lies at the door and its desire is for you.[5] Satan stalks as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.[6]

For this reason, the soil of man must be cultivated and cared for. This begins with examination. Have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or slothful? Have you grieved any person by word or deed? Have you stolen, neglected, or wasted anything?[7] Consider your life according to the Ten Commandments. Have you been reading the Word of God? Have you prayed recently? Have you confessed to God your sins and begged His forgiveness? Are you certain you have been forgiven? Are you confident that the blood of Christ was shed not just for the whole world but for you? Have you helped your neighbor in need so that others would recognize your good efforts or in thanksgiving to the God who has given you more than you need so that you might help others?

Such examination is not for the purpose of making you feel bad. It is about being honest about the condition of your soul. Perhaps you find yourself among the rocky soil, in danger of providing shallow roots for the Word of God and fleeing from it at the first sign of temptation. It is good for you to recognize that! If you recognize that about yourself, then you know how to go about amending the soil of your soul. Devote yourself to the Word of God and the things of God, begging Him that He will sift you and remove the stones from your heart. Come to Private Confession & Absolution that you might hear the Word of God applied to you and no one else. Allow the servant of God to apply the healing balm of God’s Word directly to the wounds of your soul.

It won’t happen immediately. God sometimes takes His time, but even that is for your benefit. He allows you to struggle with sin so that you would remember it is not you who creates or sustains the good soil of faith, but it is Him, and Him alone. St. Paul struggled his entire life with a thorn in the flesh, likely a besetting sin.[8] He prayed that God would remove that thorn and yet God allowed St. Paul to struggle with it. Such suffering produces “perseverance, perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”[9]

The life of the Christian is hard. Christ has promised that those who would follow Him will bear the cross of suffering, persecution, temptation, and sin.[10] Yet this yoke is easy and the burden is light.[11] It is light and easy because we do not bear it alone. We bear it with the Word of God, with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and with the knowledge that freedom from the burdens of the world is already ours.[12] If Christ is for us, who can stand against us?[13] These words have been given to you that you would know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.[14] Take these words and plant them deeply in the soil of your heart, that they might burst forth with life and salvation.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] St. John 12:24.

[2] St. John 12:24. This paragraph is a summary of Pius Parsch, The Church’s Year of Grace, Volume 2 (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1953), 38.

[3] Hebrews 4:12.

[4] St. John 20:31.

[5] Genesis 4:7.

[6] 1 Peter 5:8.

[7] Small Catechism V.6.

[8] 2 Corinthians 12:7.

[9] Romans 5:3-5.

[10] St. Matthew 16:24.

[11] St. Matthew 11:30.

[12] St. John 8:36.

[13] Romans 8:31.

[14] St. Luke 8:10.

The Second Sunday after the Epiphany

 The Second Sunday after the Epiphany – January 19, 2025

Psalm 66; Amos 9:11-15; Romans 12:6-16a

St. John 2:1-11

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The first of our Lord’s active miracles was enacted at a wedding in Cana. It was no accident that our Lord chose a wedding as the occasion for this first and chief miracle. In the beginning, creation was not deemed ‘very good’ until Eve had been given to Adam in the first Holy Marriage. From that moment on, God has blessed the world through the union of man and woman, the one flesh union through which children are created. Precisely through this one flesh union, the Promised Seed, the Savior, was to be born. The entirety of the Old Testament can be viewed as a genealogy, tracing the lineage of the Promised Seed, and as such, it is a story bound to Holy Marriage.

What’s more, is that God has described His relationship to His people in terms of Holy Marriage. Through the prophet Hosea, He said, “I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.”[1] In the New Testament, we not only have the parables of the wedding feast and the virgins attending the wedding feast of Christ, but such explicit statements as “For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ,” and “We are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.”[2] That is to say, the Church has been betrothed to Christ, presented to Him as a chaste and righteous virgin, in purity and holiness, and we are members of His body, flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones, united in a one flesh union with Christ.

It is for these reasons that Christ highly values Holy Marriage. Our earthly marriages are a picture, an image, of this marriage between Christ and the Church. From the marriage of Adam and Eve to the last union joined before the Last Day, Holy Marriage is a depiction of Christ and the Church.

Since it is God Himself who has created marriage and has declared, “What God has joined together, let not man separate,”^[3] divorce must be of the devil. Divorce is a rending of the one flesh union, a tearing apart by man of something which has been joined together by God. Divorce must of the devil if it is a tearing apart of that which God has created.

Christ makes no exceptions where divorce is acceptable in the eyes of God. Rather, when He speaks of cases of adultery, the one who has committed adultery has already broken the one flesh union. The divorce has occurred in God’s eyes. The question is not if a signed document makes the divorce but if the spouse who committed adultery will repent and the spouse sinned against is willing to enter once again into the one flesh union with the repentant sinner.

It is also for these reasons that our marriages should be blessed by Christ and conducted in the House of God, the church. A wedding in a courthouse, presided over by a judge is just as valid as a “church wedding” because marriage has been built into creation by God. It is a part of natural law. But we, being sons and daughters of God and citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, ought to seek to have our marriages blessed by Christ, attended by the true Bridegroom. The Church is the most fitting setting for a wedding because it is the setting for the marriage between Christ and His Church.

When the wine at the wedding feast in Cana began to run dry, the Blessed Virgin said to our Lord, “They have no wine.”[4] Built into this statement is the request that He do something about it. St. Mary is motivated by a sincere sympathy for the bridegroom and the guests. If the feast ran out of wine, the bridegroom would be embarrassed and put to shame. It would indicate that he was incapable of providing for the feast to which he had invited all these guests. On behalf of the guests, if there was no wine, the feast would end. The joy and merriment would come to an early end. Wine elevates a meal into a feast. The Blessed Virgin is sincerely concerned for all involved and she looks to her Son to alleviate the potential disaster.

However, she is met with a hard response. “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” From this response, we learn a few things about Mary’s request. First, she is asking her Son to do something as the Word of God, through whom all creation was made but she is making her request from her position as His mother. That is, she is leveraging her authority as mother to make a request of her Lord. This is a misuse of her maternal authority. She has no right, as His mother, to request the Christ to make divine acts. Certainly, as a Christian, she has every right to make requests of her Lord, but in this case, she is misusing her office as mother to press Christ into acting.

Ask almost any Roman Catholic about praying to Mary and they will say something like, “We don’t pray that she would do anything but that she would ask Jesus to do it. It helps to have His mother on your side.” That is exactly the error that Mary is making in telling Jesus to do something about the wine at Cana. She is truly blessed among all women and full of grace, but she has no special access or sway with God than any other Christian. Calling her, “woman,” is not derogatory in any way, but it is our Lord’s way of reminding His dear mother that in divine matters, she holds no special office to request His actions.

Speaking of His hour holds special significance in the Gospel of St. John. It refers to the hour of His crucifixion. It indicates that the crucifixion is the culminating moment of the work of Christ. There, His work is finished. It is complete. All the miracles, all the words of Christ point forward to the hour in which all things are completed. Our faith rests on the historic event of the crucifixion and resurrection.

At the same time, because of the crucifixion, Christ may speak of His hour being present in all His actions. Here, it indicates that not only was St. Mary requesting that her Son do something about the wine, but that He do it now. The wine was beginning to run dry, and she wanted to spare the hosts and the guests the shame of knowing there was no more wine. She wanted Him to intercede before the problem was made public.

Here we see the Blessed Virgin’s second folly. She put a specific timeframe on a miracle of God. She as much as told Him, “They have no wine. Give them wine and do it now before the problem becomes an embarrassment.” Such temptation is great for all who call on the name of the Lord. We feel the passing of time. We know that yesterday is gone, and tomorrow is coming very soon. Because of that, we want what we want, and we want it now. If this holds true for a party about to run out of wine, it also holds true for what we deem to be emergencies. Your sister is dying of cancer and may not make it to tomorrow. You want God to act now, or it will be too late. Patient though he was, even Job’s patience ran out and he demanded that God act.[5]

“If our prayer to God is to be acceptable and be heard, then of course we are not to prescribe the time and manner for help, especially in bodily needs. Here we hear from Christ that He has a specific hour, that is, He has actually already in His heavenly counsel decreed when and how He will help us. We should patiently wait for that hour.”[6]

Having been reminded of the proper use of her office as mother and Christian, the Blessed Virgin also gives us a glorious example of faith. She turns to the servants and says, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”[7] Hearing the Word of her Lord, she remembers the virtue of patience and trusts that whatever her Son does, it will be for the good of those gathered at the feast. With Job, she says in her heart, ‘Your hands have molded me and made me into everything I am within and without, and even though You hide it in Your heart, I still know that you remember it.”[8] Christ our Lord may not do exactly what she wanted or when she wanted it done, but whatever He does will be better than she could imagine. And “hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”[9]

Hearing a sincere Christian prayer for those gathered at the wedding feast, our Lord performs the first, and chief, of His miracles, for the purpose of manifesting His glory.[10] In the first place, we see by this miracle, and all miracles, that Jesus is truly the Almighty God, Lord and Creator of the universe. Unlike the prophets, He does not need to call upon God to act through Him. He is the God through whom all things are made.

We also see that Christ is revealing Himself as bringing overabundance in joy and grace to those who would receive Him, sympathetic to the needs of man. The stone waterpots formerly held water used to make one ritually clean. Our Lord takes these instruments of the Law and turns them into vessels of joy and gladness, filling them with His Gospel of grace for all in attendance. He makes the understanding of the Law lovely, for that is how the Gospel interprets the Law.

The one who hears and believes the Gospel of Christ, that He has come and delivered you from your sins by means of His death and resurrection, has their heart of stone turned to a heart of flesh.[11] Hearing that the obedience owed to God, that which we cannot perfectly fulfill, has been fulfilled by Christ, our hearts are made glad. “Wine makes glad the heart of man.”[12]

In terms of overabundance of joy and grace, we hear from the master of the feast that the guests had already been well drunk and are now provided with almost 200 gallons of good, strong wine. Our Lord answered St. Mary’s prayer in a greater way than she could’ve imagined.

Not only did this miracle manifest the glory of Christ but “His disciples also believe in Him. They recognized Him as the Son of God and the promised Messiah in whom they placed their heartfelt trust. From this we learn that all miracles of Christ relate to and call for faith; God’s Word and His miracles are the two pillars and the foundation of faith. For from the Word and promises we come to know His gracious will; from the miracles we come to know His divine omnipotence upon which the trusting heart from now on must found and establish itself. May God the Lord sustain and uphold us in such a faith through Christ—the Initiator and the completing Perfector of [our] faith (Hebrews 12:2).”[13]

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] Hosea 2:19-20.

[2] 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:30.

[3] St. Matthew 19:6.

[4] St. John 2:3.

[5] Job 31.

[6] Johann Gerhard, Postilla, Volume 1, translated by Elmer M. Hohle (Malone, TX: The Center for the Study of Lutheran Orthodoxy, 2001), 161.

[7] St. John 2:5.

[8] Job 10:8, 13; paraphrased.

[9] Romans 5:5.

[10] St. John 2:11.

[11] Ezekiel 36:26.

[12] Psalm 104:15.

[13] Gerhard, Postilla, 163-164.

Sexagesima

Sexagesima – February 12, 2023

Psalm 44; Isaiah 55:10-13; 2 Corinthians 11:19-12:9

St. Luke 8:4-15

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Preachers, especially young preachers, are often admonished to be less abstract and to be more concrete. This is good advice but I fear that it is sometimes misunderstood. A word or concept is abstract when it is considered by itself, separated from the context and ideas which naturally accompany it.[1] To consider the quality of ‘whiteness’ would be an abstract thought because the quality of ‘whiteness’ is being considered without reference to a subject.

The adjective ‘concrete” literally means “united in growth.”[2]  A concrete thought is applied to a subject. To consider the whiteness of snow is a concrete thought. I’ve taken the abstract idea of ‘whiteness’ and given it a subject – snow.

It is a temptation of theologians to dive deeply into abstract topics. It is an overstatement, but illustrative, to say that the entire branch of dogmatic theology is abstract. If you open a dogmatics book, you will find sections on justification, sanctification, the two natures, sin, authority, perspicuity, and on and on. This becomes a temptation when theologians are asked to communicate with individuals. Bringing an abstract idea to bear on individuals necessarily requires a movement into the concrete. The abstract idea of sin must become the concrete idea of the sinner. The abstract idea of justification requires the concrete understanding of the substitution of the righteous Christ for the wicked sinner. The temptation of the preacher is to remain in the realm of the abstract and place the responsibility for moving into the concrete solely on his hearer.

And yet this criticism is often overemphasized. Sometimes, it is necessary to teach in the abstract before bringing this teaching into the concrete. If you are interested in anatomy, or the study of the structure of living things, you must begin with abstract concepts. Perhaps you start with the skeleton. A skeleton is not a living thing. It is part of a living thing. Once you understand the skeleton, perhaps you move onto the muscles. After learning about the muscles by themselves, you will inevitably put your knowledge of the muscles and skeleton together. In so doing, your knowledge will grow together or, become concrete.

Our Lord, Himself, taught using abstract words and concepts. Although the parables use many concrete terms, they are almost always taught in abstraction. Today, Jesus has told us about a sower going out to sow seed. Three-quarters of the seed is trampled, devoured, withered, and choked. One third grows in good soil and yields a hundred-fold. This was the entirety of the teaching as the great multitude received it. As such, this is a very abstract teaching. It is left open ended for the hearer to interpret. Jesus even concludes this teaching by saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”[3]

 Who has ears? What is he supposed to hear? What does agriculture have to do with Jesus? What does seed have to do with salvation? The answers to these questions are the necessary context to move the parable from abstract to concrete.

The seed is the Word of God. Those who are trampled, devoured, withered, or choked are unbelievers. The circumstances of these various groups are different, but they all belong to the category of unbeliever. Some disregarded the Word immediately. Others receive the Word of God with joy but fall away due to temptation. Still others endure in the faith for a while but are choked with the cares, riches, and pleasures of life. All abandon the Word of God. The final group in the parable are those who hear the Word with a noble and good heart, keep it, and bear fruit with patience. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

The one who has faith has ears. Said faith receives the abstract teaching of the parable and places it into the context of the Scriptures. The one with faithful ears hears of trampling, devouring, withering, and choking, and calls to mind the temptations of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. He knows the punishment for sin. Three-quarters of the seed ends up dead and he sees such temptation creeping into his flesh. He is aware that sin is waiting at the door and is prepared to snatch him.

This one with faithful ears also hears of the seed and immediately calls to mind the first promise of our merciful God, ‘The seed of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent.’[4] ‘The Savior of the nations shall come from the seed of David.’[5] ‘Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it cannot produce much grain.’[6] Thus the faithful ear hears that this Word of God is itself the Incarnate Christ, the Messiah. It is this Christ, this Word of God, who has crushed the head of the serpent.

This is an important point that you should not miss. The phrase, “the Word of God,” is itself an abstract concept. What is “the Word of God”? It might refer to the Bible, the written Word. It might refer to preaching, the proclaimed Word. It might refer to the Second Person of the Trinity, as St. John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”[7]

In the most fundamental sense, the Word of God must always be referring to Jesus Christ. He is the fundamental Word of God. Without Him, the words on the pages of the Bible and the words coming from my mouth will do you no good. It is only because of the Son of God, Who took on flesh to die for sin and rise again for your justification that the ink in the Bible and the words of my mouth deliver to you live and salvation. So yes, in this parable, the seed that is cast abroad is the Word of God, that is Jesus Christ, as read from the Bible, proclaimed from the pulpit, showered on the Baptized, fed from the altar, and absolved with holy words.

Now that the faithful ear has placed the abstract into concrete context, what does this Word of God have to do for you, dear hearers, in a concrete sense?

Firstly, there is no such thing as sinners in the abstract. Know that whenever a sin is condemned in Scripture or when a sin is preached against from the pulpit, the condemnation of this sin falls upon the concrete people who commit such a sin. The phrase “hate the sin, love the sinner” has a nice sentiment but it is wrong. The sentiment is to show love for the erring, that they might be won with love. It is true that we should not be cruel to people nor mean for the sake of being mean. However, to the impenitent sinner, it is God’s Law that will convict his heart, not the sweetness of the Gospel. No sin is committed apart from the person who does it. There is no distinguishing between the sin and the sinner. This is a concrete truth.

What then of you, beloved of the Lord, when you find yourself sinning? When you have uncovered a sin in your heart or in the works of your hands? What are you to do? Do you say, ‘But I am of the good soil, so I’m not worried about it’? No! You repent. You repent and you pray that Christ would remove this sin from your flesh as far as the east is from the west. You pray that while you have found stones in your soil, Christ would till the land, removes the stones, and make your heart and mind fertile ground for the receiving of Him once again.

No soil is prepared for agriculture by nature. It must be prepared in one way or another. Either the soil needs to be gathered into a tillable area, it must be cleared of stones, or invasive plants must first be destroyed. All soil requires preparation for agriculture. The same is true of human beings. You are not prepared to receive Christ and eternal life by nature. You must be prepared. You must be prepared like soil. The removal of such obstacles is painful and must necessarily disturb the soil before the soil can be planted. This painful removal of sin is called repentance in the life of the Christian. It is the process of taking an honest look at yourself and seeing just what is unfit to be presented to your God and Lord.

Then, the most painful part of the process is to remove said sins, but the frustrating part is that you cannot remove them on your own. The soil does not willfully give up the stones. But after the farmer has churned up the soil to reveal the stones, the soil is joyful to have them removed. Only the Christian, the one declared and made to be good soil is willing and joyful in the process of having stoney sins removed from his soul. The process of breaking up the soil of your heart, of examining your conscience, is still painful but the knowledge of relief after the removal of sin gives you the patience to endure.

I’ll leave it up to you to understand the differences between abstract and concrete, though I will give you a hint. I cannot describe the concrete sins to which you are tempted, enticed, or prone to. I cannot because I cannot see into your heart. But in the abstract, I can tell you that any sin to which you cling will degrade the soil of your heart. Also in the abstract, any sin which lies in your heart can also be removed by the Good Sower, who has given Himself over to death in your place, so that all crows, stones, and thorns would be removed forever. Come then, and receive the Good Sower not abstractly, through some spiritual experience, but concretely, in His Holy Body and Holy Blood.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/abstract.

[2] https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/concrete.

[3] St. Luke 8:8.

[4] Genesis 3:15.

[5] St. John 7:42.

[6] St. John 12:24.

[7] St. John 1:1, 14.