Firm Foundations – Sexagesima

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in God’s excellent Word!
What more can be said than to you God hath said,
to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

Whom do you trust?

Our age is a time of distrust. Distrust in government, in corporations, and especially in the church. Those within the church and outside the church have a huge barrier of distrust. After all, we live in the age of fake news where the zeitgeist of post-modernism rejects all overarching metanarratives.

Therefore, it is worthwhile for a Christian to take up Sexagesima as a challenge to self-examine and ask yourself, how does your life reveal where your heart is? How does your life reveal who is it that you truly love? Our hearts are exposed by how we live and how we live reveals whom we trust.

Gesimatide gives us a moment to pause and self-evaluate. If we are honest with ourselves, we might find that while our Sunday School answer is “In God we trust,” our Monday through Saturday living exposes that we trust in no one but ourselves. We fight to fill up the ever-empty tank of our heart’s desires only to find ourselves desperately parched and dehydrated from the living waters of Christ Jesus.

Hence, our collect for Sexagesima reminds us that our distrust needs to be in ourselves. We must recollect that our natural heart is full of deceitful desires leading us astray into worshipping the idol of self. Therefore, take up the daily collect of the week and ask for our Father to help us truly “put not our trust in anything that we do.” (Collect of the Day). May our trust be in the One who delivers us and pours into us His Spirit for grace-filled works of love

This prayer is a call to action and a reorienting to face east and face Christ, instead of turning west and heeding the temptations and deserted desert of Satan’s domain. Praying this collect – and living it – is an invitation to hostility as the devil’s minions will challenge any believer who dares to be an effective servant of Christ. For so long as we are distracted in serving our own ends and filling up our own flesh, Satan cares not about us who claim Christ. Instead, he’ll allow the cares of the world to choke out our new life. (Luke 8:14, Gospel Lesson). But when we turn outward from our own hearts and look upon Christ, that is when all hell breaks loose. Therefore, let us pray to the Father to “Mercifully grant that by thy power we may be defended against all adversity, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” (Collect of the Day).

“Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
for I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

Distrust within the church is sadly well-earned and well-deserved in many instances. However, we are not individuals but belong to the body that is the Church. Therefore, we owe it to Christ, who instructs us to love God above all else and then to love our neighbors as ourselves, to fight the good fight of rebuking error, righting wrongs, and living harmonious lives within the church as faithful witnesses to the world. Setting our foundation firmly upon the rock of faith is how the world will see our witness as to who Christ Jesus is and what He is doing through the Holy Ghost in His Church.

The remedy for radical individualism within the church and building bonds of love is through trusting in the One who saved us for His purpose. Where can we build upon this trust? How shall we endeavor to remember the love of the One who first loved us? By building upon the firm foundation of Christ Jesus.

We must return to our true love because He has loved us from before the foundation of the world. Jesus is our foundation – and if He is not, then all else falls and fails.

Our firm foundation within the Anglican Church in North America is summarized and solidified within the Fundamental Declarations. The Fundamental Declarations are esteemed so important, that they are the ACNA Consitution’s first article and are put forth as the cornerstone document held within the aptly named “Documentary Foundations” section of the ACNA 2019 Book of Common Prayer. These seven points are straightforward, simple, and succinct in an age of obfuscation.

We confess the canonical books of the Old and New
Testaments to be the inspired Word of God, containing all
things necessary for salvation, and to be the final authority
and unchangeable standard for Christian faith and life.

– The Fundamental Declarations of the Province, Point 1, 2019 Book of Common Prayer, page 774; ACNA Constitution, Article 1, Section 1.

Do you yearn to know the words of life? Follow Christ. Do you wish to know the Father? Look upon Jesus. Do you desire to read the love letter of your Beloved? Open the Scriptures.

“When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
for I will be near thee, thy troubles to bless,
and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

The prayer book’s mission is to stir our hearts in common prayer as the Church, the body of Christ. It is a tool that unites us to our Creator, our Savior, and our Sanctifier through: the prayer of the Word, the Word of God preached, and the Word of God administered in the sacrament of His body and His blood. In the end, the Christian life epitomized by the prayer book is becoming wholly united to His body by praying His words, hearing His words, and eating and drinking the Word. We are united to Christ and His hold upon us is the hold of a father embracing his long-lost son.

This is why today’s parable should shake us who are within the church.

For Christ’s parable of the sower is one of encouragement and one of discernment.

“When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

First, let us discern the parable by looking at our hearts. Do we love by trusting in our Lord? Do we love by entrusting the hours of our day in service to His Kingdom? Do we love Him by speaking edifying words or polluting the air with a tongue that overflows from a fleshy heart? Are we patting ourselves on our backs based upon our attendance at services, regular tithes, and outward morality and deceiving not only our fellow church members and the world but also fooling ourselves whom we really trust when the doors are closed and the curtains pulled tight? In the dark quiet solitude of our souls, have we given over the dark basement in our soul to the One who purchased it?

There are cobwebs in the basement and this is the season to sweep them out, expose them to the light of Christ today so they will not be exposed on the Last Day.

Christ’s parable of the sower expresses what happens when the Gospel is preached. It is a call to faithfully cast seed, but it also is placed in this season of Pre-Lent to remind us churchgoers to let Christ grow within the soil of our soul and to make it new. Too often, we are rocky and we allow Satan to steal away the joy of our Lord. (Luke 8:13). You may scoff and say, “I’ve been a believer for far too long for this to happen, that is clearly about the new convert who quickly burns out.” But is it? Think back and remember your new faith in Christ: filled with joy, loyalty, and eagerness. Now think upon your life in Christ today. Are there perhaps cobwebs of concern? After all, the Pharisees and hearers of Christ’s parables often failed to discern that the parable was about them. Let us not do the same.

Christ Jesus’ message to the Church at Ephesus should spur us to new life in repentance, resistance to temptation, and renewal in the resurrected life: “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” (Revelation 2:4, KJV). If these words apply to us, then let us apply Christ’s words to ourselves in response, “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” (Revelation 2:5, KJV).

Perhaps we need to repent and shift through the rocky soil we inherited from the old Adam. The rocky soil fights against the seed of the Gospel, and results in “no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.” (Luke 8:13, KJV, Gospel lesson). The trial by temptation is quite real, and many saints around us are struggling – let us be encouragers and bear their burden not afar, but together as the body of Christ. For where one member is weak, all are weak. Meanwhile, for others in the Church, we are distracted to death: “that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.” (Luke 8:14, KJV). Many within the Church profess belief, yet we bear nothing to show our belief. Many say they love Christ, yet have never shown their Christian love by Christian living. Instead, far too many within the church building demonstrate our true love is trusting in the comforts of the world, the riches that belong to moths, and the pleasures that will rust away long after we are gone.

Hence we are called to face these adversities not alone, but as we pray in this week’s collect, trusting not in ourselves but in the Almighty God who mercifully defends us against every adversary – whether from outside devilish temptation to the inward deceitful idol of the heart. We must challenge ourselves by first examining ourselves. Only through a thorough examination by the Great Physician can we find the sin that must be confronted and the cancer that needs to be cut out during Holy Lent.

“The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
that soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no, never, no, never forsake.”

Earlier I mentioned how the parable of the sower not only causes Christians to pause for discernment but also should encourage us. Though we all have cobwebs in our hearts that need sweeping away this Lent, and perhaps each of us struggles at times as a fruitless fig tree, hear the Gospel and take courage Christ saved you and is working through you to bear fruit fit for the Kingdom by casting seed. Grow fruit in the Spirit and let your fruit be filled with Gospel seeds. Now, cast forth this newfound fruit of the Spirit with the seed of Christ’s Gospel across the barren fields around you.

Find encouragement in this parable because Jesus never faults the sower in the parable for the failure of the sower’s seed. Jesus does not bemoan the sower’s careless seeding of the roadside. Jesus never chastises the sower for recklessly casting precious seed onto the rocks. Nor does our Lord criticize the sower negligently sowing among the thorns. The seed is freely given to the sower, just as the Gospel is freely given to us. The one task of the sower is to keep moving, further up and further in, and keep casting the seed of the Gospel. This too is our vocation.

The Lord’s parable should encourage us because He is the one who planted His Gospel into our dead hearts and brought forth life. He is the One who causes us to grow into new life. And He is only calling us to be faithful sowers of the Gospel – not faithful growers. God shall grant the growth and we are not called to discern the soil – thanks be to God! For if we were to discern, “What is the good soil?” then we would likely misjudge rocks for topsoil and growing fields for brier patches. Therefore, during the approach of Lent, let us not waste time thinking about what we are willing to give up for Lent, but by giving up everything for Him who loves us. Let us give up ourselves for Lent and take on feasting upon the fruit of the Spirit and casting forth the seeds of the Gospel.

Christ Jesus is inviting us this Gesimatide to join Him in sowing. This is the season in which farming and gardening begin, and just as the divine Gardner breaks open the soil and plants, let us join with our Lord in casting seed. Who are we to know which souls Christ has broken open to faithfully receive His Gospel? There is black soil secretly tilled and ready to receive the sown Word. Are you willing to faithfully trust the One who saved you for this purpose? Can you lay aside your false holiness and in humility expose yourself to the adversity of casting seed in a hostile world?

If you are hesitant, then lay yourself upon the firm foundation of Christ, who first cast seed in our dark souls and provides the eternal spring to nourish us. Rest yourself upon the shakeless foundational promises of Holy Scripture, where Christ promises that some of our seed – not all, but only some shall “fell on good ground.” And though only a few seeds may fall upon the good ground, even the few shall produce a legacy, an inheritance, a family of disciples that “sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold.” (Luke 8:7, KJV). The work of a Christian is discipleship. As disciples of Christ, let us endeavor to be good ground with “an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.” (Luke 8:15, KJV).

“And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” (Luke 8:8, KJV).