Reminiscere (Lent 2)

Reminiscere (Lent 2) – February 25, 2024

Psalm 25; Genesis 32:22-32; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7

St. Matthew 15:21-28

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

“O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good, For His mercy endures forever!” The goodness of God cannot be known outside of His mercy. When the pastor speaks the first part of this verse at the end of the service, it is almost as though the congregation must quickly respond to explain what that goodness is, lest anyone should think God’s goodness exists apart from mercy.

Both Jacob and the Canaanite woman are quick to respond, “for His mercy endures forever!” The Canaanite woman is not an Israelite by blood. She is outside of the people of Israel. Her people were pagan. They worshiped demons. Her people sacrifice children on fiery altars to appease their gods. Yet she identifies Jesus as the Son of David, like Blind Bartimaeus from two Sunday’s ago. Both are beggars who recognize that Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior, the Promised Son of David come to save all people from sin, death, and the devil.

At first, she cries out with formal, liturgical language. “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely demon-possessed.” Our Lord does not respond. His lack of response is a harsh, “no” to her prayer. The disciples want him to cast the woman out because she is annoying. He also does not answer their prayer.

He turns again to the woman and says, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” This is where things get interesting. The rebuke in this response is that the woman is not an Israelite, she is a Canaanite. She is not of the people chosen to bear the promise of the Savior. It is also, likely, an indictment of her sinful life. Growing up and living outside of Israel, she has not participated in the worship of the true God nor kept his commandments in her heart.

However, what does it mean to be a lost sheep of Israel? In our Old Testament lesson, Jacob wrestles with God and God gives him a new name: Israel. For striving against God and man, and prevailing, he is given the name by which Christ would identify His people. Who then is the true Israel? It is those who have faith in Christ. It is those whose citizenship is in the Kingdom of God, not of this world. It is those whose ancestral blood is the Blood of the Lamb, not the human blood of Abraham. The Church is the sheep of Israel. You are the true Israel.

Our Lord is telling the woman that He has come for her. She is one of His sheep, but He is testing her faith. He alone knows just how far He can test her faith because by testing, her faith will be strengthened. At this point, the woman drops the formal, liturgical language. Her response is simply, “Lord, help me.” She is deflated. No longer is she searching for the proper thing to say, she simply speaks from the heart. That does not make her second prayer better or more appropriate. Spontaneous prayer from the heart is no more effective to God than prepared, repeated, liturgical formulations. But it does reveal the woman’s desperate state.

Again, the Lord pushes her. “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” While Jesus does use a diminutive form of dog, that is “little dogs” or “puppies,” dogs are never a good thing in Scripture. They were not a good thing in the ancient world. They were either dirty scavenging beasts or used for work as guards. They ate scraps, were dirty, and smelled. They were either outcast or used without pay. It could be that Jesus is accusing the woman of allowing herself to be used by others. It could also be that he is simply calling her an unclean beast.

The woman catches on to the details of God’s word. The little dogs in our Lord’s response are inside the house. They are at least near the table. So she holds Jesus accountable to his word, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” She doesn’t want the children’s bread. She wants the master’s bread. She wants the Bread which only the Lord can give. She wants the Bread of Life, salvation. And she wants it for her daughter.

Jesus has pushed her enough and now commends her great faith. Finally, the prayer is answered, and her daughter is immediately healed. “O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good, and His mercy endures forever.”

God tested both the Canaanite woman and Jacob. Both came into these situations with faith. They knew to look toward God, to pray that he would deliver them, yet after their prayers, God tested them. This is the life of the Christian. You will suffer. You will suffer physically and spiritually.

Sometimes, this suffering is allowed by God and sometimes it is caused by God. The suffering allowed by God is caused by Satan. Satan hopes you will be crushed by this suffering and despair of God. This suffering is often the result of sin though it is not a one-to-one punishment. It is the suffering whose root is evil.

The suffering caused by God is a testing and strengthening of your faith. It is suffering which seems to have no cause. From our perspective, we cannot tell the difference. Both appear the same as we experience the suffering. However, in either case, the suffering is for the purpose of strengthening your faith.

The purpose of lifting weights is to cause tiny tears in your muscles. These tears are repaired, and the muscle grows. This is the picture of God testing your faith. You will suffer so that your faith will be strengthened. One theologian called such agonizing spiritual testing “a dark night of the soul.” You experience a “dark night of the soul” when you wrestle with God through the night. “Why, O Lord, have you done this to me? Why aren’t you listening?”

The fact is, God is listening. He hears the cries of His people. Even when He is testing you, He is providing you with everything you need. Therefore, Christ depicts the dogs being present at the table. He is providing the woman with the words to catch Christ in His own promise. God desires to be held accountable and He gives us His words and promises to do just that.

When Job suffered the loss of everything, children, herds, flocks, health, and his wife, he forgot the promises of God. He eventually blamed God and justified himself saying he did not deserve such punishment. Jacob and the Canaanite woman recognize they deserve everything that has happened to them. They also recognized that God has promised to bless them. In humility, they cry out for God to have mercy. Then God pushes them, testing them further. He wrestles with Jacob and derides the woman. Yet both remain firm in the faith that God loves them and will provide for them.

In your dark night of the soul, turn to the word of God. When temptation to sin falls upon you, remember the mercy of the Lord endures forever and He has had mercy upon you. Why would you drag His mercy through the mud of the sin you are tempted to commit? Rather, cry out for faith strong enough to defeat such temptation. Then receive the forgiveness promised to you by your Heavenly Father.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

Reminiscere (The Second Sunday in Lent)

Guest Preacher: Rev. Kevin Vogts

Reminiscere (The Second Sunday in Lent) - March 5, 2023

Psalm 25; Genesis 32:22-32; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7

St. Matthew 15:21-28

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Martin Luther says about today’s Old Testament Reading, “This text is one of the most obscure in the Old Testament.”

This strange story of “Jacob at the Jabbok,” the patriarch Jacob wrestling through the night with a mysterious man on the banks of the Jabbok River, is one of the most peculiar and puzzling events in the whole Bible.

Jacob is on his way home, on the other side of the Jabbok River.  But, it is a homecoming fraught with fear and danger.  Today’s Hymn of the Day is really a like a summary of all that happens to the patriarch Jacob in today’s Old Testament Reading: “When in the hour of deepest need we know not where to look for aid . . . days and nights of anxious thought . . . sorely tried, cast down . . . perplexed by fears . . . to You, O faithful God, we cry for rescue in our misery.”

St. Paul says in today’s Epistle Reading: “No one should take advantage of and defraud his brother.”  But, Jacob’s  homecoming is fraught with fear and danger because many years before that is exactly what he had done, when he tricked his older brother Esau, depriving him of his birthright as firstborn son.  Jacob fled from his brother’s anger, to a far-away country. 

It was on that journey Jacob had a dream, a vision of a stairway reaching to heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it—what we call “Jacob’s Ladder.”

In the vision of Jacob’s ladder, the Lord promises that one of Jacob’s descendants will be the Messiah, the Savior of the world: “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your Descendant,” the Lord declares to Jacob.

That promise came true in Jesus Christ.  For, he is the promised descendant of Jacob, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, Son of God and Son of Man, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was made man.  “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your Descendant.”

All peoples on earth are blessed through him.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned.”

Your altar window beautifully portrays how by his sacrifice on the cross he suffered the punishment for the sins of the whole world.  In his body on the cross he suffered the punishment for YOUR sins.  Because of his perfect life, his sacrificial death, and his triumphant resurrection, God forgives YOU all your sins.  “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.”

In the vision of Jacob’s ladder, God also promised to be with Jacob and to bless him.  And God did bless Jacob abundantly in that far-away land to which he fled, giving Jacob great wealth and a huge family.

Now, many years later, Jacob is returning home with a enormous caravan, of flocks, and herds, servants, and family.  But, Jacob is terrified of going home to face his brother Esau, on the other side of the Jabbok.  Will Esau still hold a grudge against him?  Will he pay Jacob back for his trickery and deceit?  Will he steal away Jacob’s flocks, herds, and servants—and then vent his anger on Jacob’s family?

So, Jacob sends messengers ahead to scout the situation, and they return with worst possible news: Esau is on his way, and with him are four hundred armed men.  In great fear, Jacob cries out to the Lord, “Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau!  For, I am afraid he will come and attack me.”

To help pacify Esau, Jacob sends ahead all his flocks, herds, and servants, as gifts to his brother.  Maybe by bribing Esau this way, at least he and his family can escape with their lives. 

At the Jabbok River, in today’s Old Testament Reading, Jacob and his family stop for the night, and his family crosses the river.  The next morning Jacob will cross over to confront Esau and his army.  Like a nervous soldier the night before a big battle, Jacob is dreading the dawn of day.  “So Jacob was left alone.”  That is how “Jacob at the Jabbok” felt that night: afraid, anxious, alone.

But, Jacob was not alone.  Years before in the vision of Jacob’s ladder, the Lord promised to be with him and to bless him: “I will be with you,” he said, “and will watch over you wherever you go. . . I will not leave you,” the Lord promised.

Do YOU sometimes feel like “Jacob at the Jabbok”: afraid, anxious, alone?  Confronting your own tragedies and troubles in life, that bring you to despair, like Jacob that night?  But, like “Jacob at the Jabbok,” YOU really are not alone.  “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus says.  “Trust in God; trust also in me. . .  Surely, I am with you always.”

“Jacob at the Jabbok” needs reassurance that dreadful night, reassurance of God’s love, forgiveness, and blessing.  He needs to FEEL God’s presence in a very REAL way.  And, so, God sends him this time, not just a dreamy vision, like when he saw Jacob’s ladder, but this time God sends him a physical presence: “And a man wrestled with him till daybreak.”

Who is this mysterious man who wrestles with Jacob?  Jacob puts it this way

“I saw GOD face to face.”  In this mysterious, enigmatic event, it is God himself who appears like a man and wrestles with “Jacob at the Jabbok.”  It is a physical reassurance to Jacob that God is with him; and an unforgettable confidence builder for Jacob as he crosses the Jabbok River the next morning to face Esau and his army.

All through the night Jacob wrestles with the Lord.  “When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.”

By simply touching Jacob’s hip, the Lord shows his power.  He could easily have conquered Jacob at any time in this wrestling match.  When he simply touches his hip, it’s wrenched out of place.  But, instead the Lord allows Jacob to win the struggle, even giving him the new name Israel, which means, “to struggle with God.” 

“Then the man said, ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.’”

All of this was to reassure Jacob that God is on his side, to build up Jacob’s confidence.  For, if he is able to win THIS struggle against God himself, surely he has nothing to fear the next morning from his brother Esau.  Hebrews puts it this way: “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’  So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.  What can man do to me?’”

Like “Jacob at the Jabbok,” do YOU need confidence, reassurance of God’s love, forgiveness, and blessing?  Do you need to FEEL God’s presence in a very real way?

You see, that is why God gave us the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, and Holy Absolution.  For, in the Sacraments, and Holy Absolution, God gives YOU physical, tangible signs of his presence.

In Holy Baptism, the water with the Word washes away your sins, implanting and strengthening faith in your heart, making you “born again” as a believing child of God.  As St. Paul says in Titus: “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

In Holy Communion, your Savior comes to you physically, inviting you to actually eat and drink his body and blood, in, with, and under the bread and wine, to strengthen you in the true faith unto life everlasting.  As St. Paul says in 1st Corinthians: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”

And just as Jacob that night saw the Lord face to face in the form of a man, in Holy Absolution, God still also sends to you a man, to proclaim to you, face to face, in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ: “I forgive all your sins.”

Just as the Lord appeared to Jacob that night in the physical form of a man, in the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, and in Holy Absolution, God graciously gives you physical, tangible signs of his presence, to reassure you of his love, forgiveness, and blessing.

At the end of their wrestling match, the Lord also reassures Jacob with his WORD of blessing:  “Then the man said [to Jacob], ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’ But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’”

Jesus once told the Parable of the Persistent Widow, who despite a judge’s indifference kept coming to him with her plea: “Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not lose heart.”  Like “Jacob at the Jabbok,” like the persistent widow in the parable, like the Canaanite woman in today’s Gospel Reading who kept following Jesus and crying out for mercy, do not let go of the Lord.

Cling to him for his blessing, wrestle with him in prayer.  Jesus concludes the parable: “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.

And that’s exactly what happens for Jacob the next morning as he crosses the Jabbok River.  God answers his prayers, and all is well.  His brother Esau does not hold a grudge or seek revenge, but he welcomes Jacob and his family with joy.

When you feel like “Jacob at the Jabbok,” afraid, anxious, alone, remember how God comes to you like he did to Jacob, to reassure you of his love, forgiveness, and blessing.  Just as he appeared to Jacob physically in the form of a man, the Lord still comes to you physically in the Sacraments, in the tangible forms of water, bread, and wine. And just as the Lord appeared to Jacob face to face in the form of a man, in

Holy Absolution, God still sends to you a man, in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, to proclaim to you face to face: “I forgive all your sins.”

And finally, just as the Lord left Jacob with his WORD of blessing, he still comes and blesses you through his Word, as you read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it.

Amen.