GARDEN OF GRACE
Homily for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity
The Rev. Marq Toombs+ Curate
The Collect. LORD of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things; Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us in the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle. Romans 6:19-23; The Gospel. Mark 8:1-9
God is a gardener and we are his plants. This is the thesis of homily today. God is a gardener and we are his plants.
The agrarian motif in the Propers got me thinking about how unskilled I am at gardening. I’m like the wannabe gardener who said, “When people ask how I keep my plants alive, I say, I don’t know — I just put them in the soil, pour some water on them, and watch them desperately fight for their lives until one of us gives up.”
But some of you are truly skilled at gardening. You have a proverbial green thumb. You know how to propagate ivy, roses, tomatoes, and peppers in your gardens. And you know how to propagate joy, peace, and love in your hearts – even friendships in your life, and so much more.
You are like Hobbits: “where your hearts truly lie is in peace, and quiet, and good tilled earth, for all Hobbits share a love of things that grow.”
Yes, you are like Hobbits. Better yet – you are like the Lord.
God is a gardener and we are his plants.
This imagery is drawn from the Collect, the Epistle, and the Gospel.
Like all Collects, this one has several parts: the Salutation – Lord of all power and might; the Adoration – who art the author and giver of all good things; the Petitions – Graft … Increase … Nourish … Keep; the Benediction – through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Let’s take a look at these parts one at a time.
SALUTATION: LORD OF ALL POWER AND MIGHT
Unlike the King of England, Jesus Christ does not have mere symbolic power or potential strength. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him by his Father. His power is not kept in reserves in case of emergencies only; it is exercised on earth as it is in heaven day and night in and through his Church.
Jesus has the authority to act, and the sovereignty to strike with strength, for his glory and the good of his people.
ADORATION: JESUS IS THE AUTHOR AND GIVER OF ALL GOOD THINGS
Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith. Our stories originate from his heart and mind and soul. They unfold one page at a time according to the purpose of his plan and pleasure. Some days are so beautiful we wish that part of the story we’re in would never end; but other days are so terrible and horrible that we wish the page would turn more quickly just to get us out of this darkness and distress.
But the Author and Giver of all good things knows what we do not; he sees what we cannot. He knows us better than we know ourselves; and he knows what we need long before we ask or imagine it; and he is doing better things for us than it appears to our naked eyes and experience.
Among the many good gifts he gives us, he has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in our hearts and sanctifies our lives, who cries “Abba, Father!”, who intercedes for us with groans too deep for words, who helps us put the misdeeds of the flesh to death, who seals and secures us for the day of redemption.
Jesus is the author of our life stories, so together with the psalmist we sing: “and in Thy book all my days were written, and they were fashioned, when as yet there were none of them. How precious are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!”
So, even in the worst and scariest parts of our stories, we are not alone or abandoned. The Author is with us even to the bittersweet end of the story — even if no one else is.
For this reason we bow our knees, open our hearts, and lift our hands before his face in prayer and praise.
PETITIONS: GRAFT, INCREASE, NOURISH, KEEP
Now, in light of the salutation and adoration, we draw near the throne of grace and make our petitions with all boldness.
+ Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name.
In context of the Epistle to the Romans, we see that we were grafted into Christ sacramentally: we were united with Christ in his death, his burial, and his resurrection by baptism.
Baptism is an outward sign of an inward grace and reality.
Once we were grafted into Christ, and now we are growing together with Christ.
As the water of baptism was poured out on our bodies, so the Spirit of love has been poured out and shed abroad in our hearts. As we flesh out our baptism, we bear the fruit of the Spirit which is love.
Before we were grafted into Christ, while we were still planted in Adam, we were like weeds that bore the fruit of wickedness and death. But now that we are united to Christ, we are like branches grafted onto the Olive Tree — and the fruit we bear is holiness and life.
Why do we do the good we do in this life? Love. Love for the Name of Jesus Christ. He is our Lord, we are his servants. As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, so our eyes look to the Lord and we lift up our hearts unto him out of love for his Name.
“Jesus, name above all names
Beautiful Savior, Glorious Lord
Emmanuel, God is with us
Blessed Redeemer, Living Word”
There is no other name given among men by which we shall be saved; and at the name of Jesus all men and angels in heaven and on earth and under the earth shall bow down, confess, and worship.
So, let us live, move, and serve in such a way that the Church and the World praise and glorify the Name of Jesus!
+ Increase in us true religion
We live in a time in which many people say they are spiritual but not religious. Or that their faith is a relationship not a religion. But that is just their version of religion.
The Spirit and Word of God call us to deepen our relationship with Jesus by becoming more religious, not less religious – truly religious, not irreligious. How? By tightening the bonds that hold us together.
Contra popular opinion, true religion is not about judgmentalism or phariseeism. That’s false religion. True religion is about doing acts of righteousness in love for the Name of Jesus, taking care of little children that need families, visiting widows in their distress, and keeping yourself unspotted from the world. True religion is deeply relational and practical and moral.
We increase in true religion by imitating Jesus Christ in our cross-bearing and by becoming truer and better servants, not wannabe sovereigns.
By increasing in true religion we cultivate a true relationship with Jesus Christ and other truly religious souls.
Unlike so many, we do not strive to become rivals or rebels. We seek to become real images and icons of Christ in the world.
So many people strive to become the captain of their fate or the master of their soul, but true freedom is found in service of the King of king and Lord of lords.
+ Nourish us with all goodness.
Every gardener knows that plants need food and water to grow. I learned by experience while living among farmers that it takes a load of manure to make a crop grow. (I’ve been told there’s a spiritual lesson in that that helps us understand why bad things happen to good people like us.)
The point is that we look to the Lord to meet all our needs. Especially when we find ourselves in deep manure. Not only our spiritual needs for mercy, forgiveness, and salvation. But our physical and material needs for strength, and health, and shelter, and comforts, and work, and income. We cast all our anxieties about these on him because he cares for us in every way.
As the Gospel reading shows us, Jesus knows our frame and frailties. He knows the limits of our tolerances and endurance, and he supplies what we need, body and soul, before we faint and fall on the way.
One of the more striking and touching parts of the Gospel reading is this:
Jesus asks us to take inventory to see what we have. Then he takes whatever we have and he transforms into what we need. He takes our little fish and bread offering and transforms it into the Big Fish and Bread we need, then he offers it back to us.
This is grace. And there is something deeply Eucharistic about this.
Yes, Jesus gives us our ordinary daily bread to nourish us physically; but he also gives us his extraordinary bread in the Eucharist to nourish us spiritually and physically, to fill us with grace and heavenly benediction, and to wash and cleanse our bodies and souls with his Body and Blood.
To be nourished with all goodness is to be nourished with nothing less than Jesus Christ himself. He is all goodness in the flesh. He is the true ICHTHUS, the Fish and Bread of Heaven, given in the Eucharist for the life of the world.
+ Keep us in the Same.
This final petition simply asks the Lord to guard, protect, keep us united to Jesus Christ and his divine love, true religion, and nourishing goodness.
In other words, “Hold me close, don’t ever let me go.”
BENEDICTION: THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD
God is a gardener and we are his plants.
By grace he grafts us into the Tree of the Cross.
By grace he grows us into the image and likeness of his Son.
By grace he gives us the Spirit and sacraments.
By grace he guards us from evil.
And this is the gospel, the good news of God’s grace.
May all these blessings be yours through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now let us prepare ourselves to partake of this Holy Communion.
