Homily For Sexagesima 2026
O LORD God, who seest that we do not put our trust in any thing that we do: Mercifully grant that by thy power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
What a prayer! We direct our prayers, which are in their essence an admission of need - of dependance - to the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth, the only and true God. The Lord sees that we do not put our trust in anything we do. This is the confession of the faithful Christian. The reality for the Christian is that God is not calling us to work harder, to “gin up” strength from within ourselves. We should never put our trust in any human - ourselves included. As the Psalmist says, “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God.”
Other versions translate this verse as “some boast in chariots and some in horses, but we will boast in the name of the Lord our God.” Boasting and trusting not in anything we do, but in the Lord completely.
As we consider our Epistle for today, we could conclude that St. Paul could have very easily written a prayer of similar conviction. For we see in the Epistle, his fundamental trust in Jesus rather than in any of his spiritual accolades. Truly, he gloried in his weakness, his affliction. He put no confidence in his abilities but rested completely in what Christ had done on his behalf.
St. Paul is confronted with a group of spiritual elites in Corinth who have told the Church that St. Paul was a “has been”, that his apostleship was suspect; He asks, in response, if these spiritual elites are Hebrews, are they Israelites, are they descendants of the proper line? He says that he has the same credentials.
Moreover, they may be ministers of Christ, but he is more. One may have expected St. Paul here to give his objective credentials like he does in Philippians Chapter 3: Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” All these things would make for a better argument for reliability and authority in a worldly sense. Instead, St Paul turns to his suffering in ministry to be a greater proof, a better apologetic of being a true minister of our Lord. Loss of control, self direction, being a minister at the beckon command of His Lord. Bereft of circumstances and prestige in which to trust. Look at the categories of suffering endured by St. Paul.
He was afflicted by men - imprisoned, brought near to death through punishments from the Jews - 40 stripes minus one to conform to the Law. The punishment was meted out against Jewish teachers who were deemed worthy of a ban from the synagogue and for fraternizing with Gentiles. He was brought near to death from the beating with rods - a particularly Roman punishment. He was subject to mob violence through stoning - in which he cheated death.
Not only did he endure the abuse of men, St. Paul here tells of his frequent travels and all the perils that came with his journeys. Shipwreck, bobbing around in the sea waiting for rescue, danger from robbers along the roads. He was victimized by Gentiles who hated the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he suffered at the hands of the Jews because he loved Jesus. Danger in cities and in rural areas. The Apostle endured the abuse of false brethren who betrayed him.
St. Paul then mentions all the exhaustion of laboring in these conditions - sleeplessness, hunger, thirst, nakedness and physical exhaustion. If this weren’t burdensome enough, notice his burdens as an apostle, as a proto-bishop, Paul is weighed down with the needs of the churches. It’s one thing to endure suffering, to cheat death as St Paul had done. It’s another category of affliction to be preoccupied with the ongoing conflict and needs of the churches that he had planted. Indeed, pastoral care in Paul’s context would be enough when the congregations appreciated his loving sacrifice but his suffering was mocked, his credentials challenged by those who should have been his greatest advocates. Instead, the Corinthian Church lauded so-called spiritual elites who claimed great intellectual gifts and manifestations of the spirit but who despised the suffering and service of St. Paul’s ministry - one of trust in God at the expense of all things. Yet, St. Paul in all of this redirects toward what is really at issue, what is of eternal consequence.
All he cares about, all that really matters is the glory of suffering in service to Jesus Christ - to put no trust in his actions but be solely focused on pleasing the Lord who redeemed Him. Boasting, glorying in what makes him more dependant, that which deepens his trust in the Lord’s sufficiency.
St. Luke gives us the account of Jesus’ parable of the soils. In this parable, Our Lord speaks to the varied soils into which the seed of the Gospel is placed. The dependence, the complete trust of St. Paul would be typical of the soil that yields 30, 60, 100 fold in our Gospel reading for today.
Let us take these soils in order. The first type of soil is hardbaked by the sun and there is no opportunity for the seed to take root because of the hardness of the soil and instead it becomes food for the birds.
The second soil is the thinnest of topsoils atop an impenetrable rock. The seed sprouts but withers because its root system is stifled by rock and it cannot go deep to sustain the plant when drought comes. It therefore withers for lack of moisture. The third type of soil is fertile but contains competing plants to the good seed. The good seed comes up and grows but it dies because it is choked by the adjacent thorns in the soil. Finally, the fourth soil is very fruitful and yields a great harvest of a 100 fold.
After the crowds disperse, Jesus tells his disciples the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of God and the birds typify Satan who seeks to steal, kill and destroy. The perfect seed fails in the first three types of soil through what we can consider versions of trusting in oneself. Jesus tells of the first soil that has the seed snatched away before it can take root; this sort of person trusts that he or she will always have the opportunity to believe, to trust in Jesus.
Rather than taking hold of the word today, do we say to ourselves, “I’ll take time for that tomorrow?” Be sure that Satan is ready to distract you and clear that good intention from your mind, lest the good word of God bear fruit in your heart.
The second soil can be considered partial trust, as in “I trust, until…” Trust in God takes root but then meets adversity. They want to trust but the circumstances, the pressures of life become the focus and they soon wither because of the hardships that are supposed to drive us deeper into discipleship. There is no moisture, there is no depth and they soon turn away. They trust in themselves and their inability to control their circumstances causes them to despair of the love and care of God - because they do not rely upon his ultimate trustworthiness.
Next we have a case of “Trust and…” or “Trust plus…” - the danger in the third soil is not the soil itself. Apparently, it is fruitful so that the seed grows but the problem is that the seed is never brought to perfection. It never multiplies, it never reaches that stage of fruitfulness. The reason for this is there are competing trusts. It isn’t adversity - it isn’t despair that causes the seed in this soil to fail - it is the abundance of things competing for the energy, the water within the soil. The cares and concerns, the pleasures of life. Gifts of God in of themselves become distractions, they become idols in which people trust. Over time, they compete and choke out trust in God. I am afraid that this is the most dangerous of conditions - one in which many of us are prone to live. It’s not just a sin of the rich, the temptation of the Elon Musks of the world. It is common to be turned aside from God by our blessings and pleasures. It is insidious and we must avoid this error at all costs. That is why Jesus tells us in another place that we can’t serve both God and mammon.
That we can’t trust in God completely and then seek security in any other created thing.
Finally, we have the good soil that brings forth a harvest of fruitfulness. It multiplies that which it has received. This typifies the single-minded trust and reliance of St. Paul in the Epistle. It does not rest in the faithfulness of one’s ancestors, it makes one’s faith a matter of constant trust in God in the present. It embraces the hardships in life converting them into marks of living sacrifice unto God as St. Paul did in the varied afflictions of his ministry. This type of soil makes proper use of the good things in life and yet is content to be without comfort, without security, if these things compete in any way with complete surrender to Christ. It prunes away all competing affections, all competing trusts so that Christ is proclaimed with a singular integrity that draws men into the kingdom of God.
Have you ever thought about the kindness of God in his making you dependent on Him? What would happen if we could control every aspect of our lives? What need would we have for Him? A Nigerian Archbishop by the name of Ben Kwashi made this point once in a lecture on evangelism. He marvelled that people in the rural areas of Nigeria who refused to believe the Gospel - they were without electricity, they were on the brink of starvation, their ancient gods had failed them, yet they refused to trust in the Lord God of Heaven, they were unwilling to submit to Jesus Christ as Lord. Kwashi at that point in his lecture said that he could understand how the prosperity of the West would cause many people to say that they didn’t need Jesus - that they could figure out life’s conundrums just fine on their own. In effect, he admitted that self-trust, self-reliance in an ungodly sense would keep God at a distance. God has a way of presenting us with riddles we can’t solve, confounding us with circumstances that are well beyond our control.
We are invited to embrace these uncertainties and stop grappling for control but banish the thought of putting any trust in anything that we do. We are to stop relying on our own strength and seek the God who provides peace amidst the perplexities that no amount of rumination and scheming can make right. In effect, as we near Lent, let us determine in heart and mind to put no ultimate trust in ourselves and rest completely in God’s good purposes toward us. Let us join our voices with St. Paul in the Epistle as he glories in His reliance on the grace of God known through his weakness, his infirmities. He embraced them because trust in God, and distrust in self is the true glory of the Christian, for in it God gives mercy, grace, peace. St. Paul’s reliance in the Epistle - looking to Christ in all circumstances whether good or bad, is the spirit of the fruitful seed that yields 100 fold in our Gospel. Absolute trust in God is the essence of the good soil - the good and honest heart knows that it needs divine help. It receives the truth of God, it receives the Gospel, because it does not trust in anything that it does.
It is patient in all circumstances because it delights in the God who provides through weakness, Who turns the storms of life into the rain which provides for it; it accepts with patience the heat, the sun, the wind and all these things work fruitfulness in the seed and a bountiful harvest unto the heavenly sower. Amen.
