August 20, 2023       Text:  Matthew 15:21-28

Dear Friends in Christ,

Prayerfully we all have fond memories of the church we grew up in.  I was blessed by Pilgrim Lutheran in Decatur.  One of the features of my home congregation was the wooden kneelers below our pews.  We knelt at prayer time, we knelt after Holy Communion, and we knelt with the lights down low at the end of the service.  Our Pastors had no kneelers.  I can still picture our Senior Pastor, Pastor Beiderweden, known as Pastor B, kneeling on the stone steps that led up to our altar, bringing the microphone from the altar down to that level and leading the congregation in the Prayer of the Church.  Impressive.  Impactful.  God Blessed.

Today in our text we have a woman with a demon-possessed child who comes to the Lord.  She needs help.  She takes a position of mercy on her knees.  What can we learn by observing . . . 

“KNEELING FOR HELP”

Our text begins, “Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.  And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.’” (vs. 21-22)

Tyre, Sidon, and a Canaanite woman all signal that Jesus is in pagan lands, and these places have the connotation of everything dangerous to those of Israel.  Jesus is definitely in foreign territory.  In v. 22, the woman’s call to Jesus as Lord and from the royal line of David borders on worship.  When she names the enemy as demonic possession, she pits Jesus against Satan in a preview of the cross and resurrection.

Look at what happens next . . . “But he did not answer her a word.  And his disciples came and begged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she is crying out after us.’  He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’  But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’  And he answered, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” (vs. 23-26)

You are a little disturbed by this, aren’t you?  Jesus is out of character.  Dare we say mean and uncaring.  The disciples are no better.  They just want to get rid of her.  At this point how many of you would walk away?  Not this lady.  She takes a position that makes a difference, she kneels before Jesus.  Then she says words that make an impression, “Lord, help me.”  

Ever been in this position before your Lord?  Have you ever intoned the words, “Lord, help me.”  When was that?  What caused your knees to hit the ground?  A sick child, a marriage going bad, a financial downfall you saw no way out of, the stress level of your job.  

Jesus’ answer has always been puzzling to us.  Taking children’s bread and throwing it to the dogs.  What does he mean here?  The dogs are house dogs.  Near enough to the table for scraps.  Dogs were lowly and contemptible, and thus the boundary between Jew and Gentile is maintained.  If we were standing there, we would be the dogs.  It’s a begging moment.   Don’t we cry to Jesus, “Do something.  Do anything.  Just don’t leave me in this dark moment.”

The close of our text, “She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’  Then Jesus answered her, ‘O woman, great is your faith!  Be it done for you as you desire.’  And her daughter was healed instantly.” (vs. 27-28)

The Lord is testing her faith.  It brings about kneeling for help.  This test shows an unshakeable faith.  It is not “You have good faith.”  It’s “Great is your faith.”  She is an example for the disciples who had the privilege to travel with Jesus but often missed the point.  She becomes an example to us who travel with Jesus in His Word – but often miss the point.

William Thomas Kelvin, known as Lord Kelvin – the man who devised the absolute temperature scale – made this observation:  “When you are face to face with a difficulty, you are up against a discovery.”  A good point to reflect on, don’t you think?

It is true that the Lord does allow bad things to enter our lives.  He uses them to test, to chasten, to remind us of what this world is and to prepare us for eternal life.  Christ said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”  If His kingdom is not of this world, then neither is yours nor mine nor anyone else who holds on to Christ.

The Christ whose blood covers our sin – the Christ who overcame death and hell for us – does not set out to torment us in life.  In these moments His Word draws us to real life – forgiveness and heaven.  Jesus isn’t loving us less when we struggle and suffer.  He always loves us.  The struggles and sufferings are the things He uses to give shape and substance to our faith and prepare us for eternity.

Kneeling for help.  We will take the position for Holy Communion.  We humbly ask for His blessings, though we do not deserve them.  A wafer in the mouth, wine touching the tongue, Jesus’ body and blood present.  These are not leftover scraps.  It is forgiveness unto life everlasting.  What a blessing.  For the Canaanite woman and her daughter and for us . . . when kneeling for help.

Amen.   

August 13, 2023     Text:  Job 38:4-18

Dear Friends in Christ,

One of our great weaknesses is our understanding of God.  When we misunderstand Him, we also confuse His Word.  As an example, the Christmas story.  We have heard it our whole life and figure we pretty much know everything.  Do you now?  How many wise men?  Wrong.  The Bible doesn’t say.  We assume three because they brought three gifts.  Where did the wise men greet Jesus and family?  Not in a manger.  In a house.  The shepherds went to the manger.  Which gospel writers wrote of this penultimate event in the life of the world?  Nope, incorrect.  Only Matthew and Luke were scribes of the Christmas story.  Go home today and read Matthew 1 and 2 and Luke chapter 2 and see if you don’t go, “Huh?”

Today God is going to talk directly to Job, and he still is not going to comprehend.  We are in the same place before God as we lack a clear understanding.  God talks to Job and to you and I and is asking . . .

“WHO ARE YOU?”

Years ago, Woody Allen made a movie called “Sleeper.”  In the movie he wakes up in the future saying, “Where are my friends?  They’re dead.  How could they be?  They ate organic rice.”  You know how it is.  Just when you think you can avoid all of life’s negatives, you can’t.  Even if you eat organic rice.  Or, as someone once noted, “Living is like licking honey off a thorn.”  We have the goodies of life and the pain.

Job went through life’s negatives.  Talk about licking honey off a thorn.  Job did have it all:  wealth, health, family, and most important, a strong faith.  Then the evil one took it all away.  His flocks were stolen, his children died in a freak storm, his body became covered in sores.  Job’s wife’s answer was to curse God for his suffering.  His friends came by not to console him, but they wanted him to admit God was punishing him for some hidden sin.

For a while, Job kept the strong faith, but then he began to waver.  He begins to challenge God.  Right before our text God says in verse 2 about Job, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge.”  Job is speaking about things he knows nothing about.  God is basically saying to Job, “Who are you, why are you telling me about my creation?”  Job had no understanding of what God had created.  The vast dimensions.  The intimate details for the seas.  Job thought he understood good and evil, but the poor guy was in the dark.

Job’s sin was that he was confusing his relationship with God.  He was basing his relationship with God on his own knowledge about who God is and what He has done.  Job was placing his intellect over his trust and faith in God.

You say, “Sometimes I feel like Job?”  Now, when was that?  We live more on our knowledge than our faith.  We place our trust in what we know or think rather than on the One who is the source of our knowledge.  We are skewed because we think of ourselves as better than we are.  As science discovers more about creation, we miss the questions that still come up.  I still love Isaiah’s words, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.”  Knowledge is important.  The reason we go to Sunday School and Bible study and listen to the sermon.  We expand our knowledge of God and creation.  But our knowledge is far from complete and even at times faulty, like with our Christmas quiz.

God speaks to you and I:  “Who are you?”  Our Lord can be a little sarcastic, I love that, don’t you?  “You think you got it all figured out.  You think you can trust in your knowledge and be like me.  Who are you?”

Why, we are forgiven sinners, of faith no stronger than Job but forgiven no less than every other sinner.  This forgiveness does not come from our knowledge of God, but as a gift from the creator of the world.  He even commands the winds and the waves as we heard in our Gospel for today.

We cannot fully understand God’s plan to save mankind, which would lead God’s own Son to die on a cross.  We cannot comprehend how this Son of God, Jesus, would rise from the dead, conquering sin, death, and the evil one once for all time.  We cannot reason in our minds that water poured over a child “included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word” would create faith in the promises of our Savior, Jesus.

What God has done goes against all logical explanation, yet this is most certainly true!  We believe the promise that because Jesus’ death on the cross, our sins are forgiven.  We trust that because of Jesus’ resurrection, we have the promise of life forever with Him.  We simply have faith that in our Baptism, we are His.

We believe that if God asked, “Who are you?” we could honestly answer, “We are sinners, forgiven and set free by Jesus’ death on the cross.”  Trust in Him and lean not on your own understanding.

Amen.        

August 6, 2023               Text:  Romans 9:1-5

Dear Friends in Christ,

In our society we celebrate upward mobility.  Something we call the “American Way”.  You can be a success even coming from modest means.  But there are also stories of downward mobility.  The rich kid given everything who wastes it all.  In the days of the Depression, former millionaires were selling apples off the street or jumping off of buildings to end it all.  

Today’s Epistle is a downward mobility story.  St. Paul is grieving over his own people, Israel.  Look at everything they had been given.  Adoption as sons, heirs of the covenants, the glory of the Lord, worship life in the temple in Jerusalem, the heritage of the patriarchs, and then the promise given to them came in the flesh, Christ Jesus, the Lord and Savior.

How many advantages could one nation have?  But Paul as a member of this family is hurting because his kinsmen are rejecting their Messiah.  Some of you know this hurt.  Family members turning their back on their Lord and their faith.  Given many of the same advantages as the Israelites they wander off in the wrong direction.  Let’s get some encouragement here today . . . 

“DOWNWARD MOBILITY HELP”

It has been a trend for a while now to trace your ancestry.  A detailed genetic analysis of your connection to the past.  What part of your background is German, or Norwegian, or Spanish, or Indian?  Anybody ever find out a part of you is an Israelite?  The Israelites of Paul’s day took pride in being blood descendants of Abraham.  Abraham though had two sons – Ishmael and Isaac.  Only one was an Israelite.  Isaac had twin sons – Jacob and Esau – but only one was the forerunner of Jesus and the son of the promise.

In God’s eyes, a true Israelite, a true child of Abraham, is not one by natural birth but by faith in the promise of Christ.  You can’t prove that with a genetic test.  You can only trust your Baptism, which tells you who your spiritual Daddy is.

This is why Paul was grieved for his people.  They had broken God’s covenant, torn down His altars, and murdered his prophets.  Jesus wasn’t even welcome among his own relatives or in his hometown.  They had thrown away all of their advantages.

Being human we should expect more downward mobility than upward.  Sinners will throw away their blessings more than they will treasure them.  Christians can be tempted by a theology of glory.  This preaching tells you that Christ is a winner, and you can be a winner too.  Accept Jesus they say, and you can overcome all your bad habits, have a great romantic marriage, and have children who are respectful and won’t dye their hair or pierce something you don’t think should be pierced.  Winning with Jesus gets you promoted at work and your softball team never loses.  This win with Jesus religion is always a letdown.  You struggle with bills and have to work at your marriage and your kids might be a little strange or leave the faith of their youth.  How can I accept Christ and still be a loser?  

Then a well-meaning friend steps in and tells you, “You just need more faith!”  Right.  So, you dig down deep inside yourself and try to whomp up some more faith – and it just won’t whomp.

In our Gospel today, the crowds are experiencing a little downward mobility, a food shortage.  It wasn’t the faith of the people that changed the outcome, it was the Savior of all mankind.  Faith doesn’t save.  Jesus saves.  The crowd experienced upward mobility as they were fed in abundance.

Ours is the Gospel of salvation in Christ, for on the cross, He earned it for us.  Ours is the washing of Holy Baptism, where we were buried into that death of Christ, all our sins were washed away, and we were brought to faith in Him.  Ours is the Holy Communion, where Christ comes to live within us.  In Baptism we are made one with Christ.  In the Lord’s Supper Christ becomes one with us.  Ours is the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

All of this is our downward mobility help.  Paul was distressed and literally wanted to die for his people.  Noble, but not practical.  What he could do was to share God’s Word with them.  He could encourage them.  He could pray for them.  He could leave it in God’s hands.  Be reminded again – Jesus saves.  Those in a downward mobility spiral have to be lifted up by Him.  Live the faith.  Partake of the Sacraments.  Strengthen your walk with Jesus.  Where does my help come from?  It comes from the Lord.

Amen.