THE LORD'S PRAYER

Midweek Lenten Service

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

“A Prayer That Sums It All Up” (The Lord’s Prayer)

Suppose you were commanded by God and invited by God to pray for all the needs you have and all the gifts he has to give you. Think of that! All of your needs, all of His gifts. And you have to put it all into a prayer. How long would it take you to pray for all those things? How many hours, how many thousands of words?

Well, the answer is, about 30 seconds and 70 words. 30 seconds? 70 words? How can you possibly cover all of God’s gifts and our needs in that short of a time and with those few words? But our Lord Jesus seems to think it’s possible. In fact, he even gave us a prayer that does all of that. We call it the “Lord’s Prayer” or the “Our Father.” In this short prayer, which we can pray every day, we are invited by God to come to him and call upon him, asking for all of his gifts, seeking his help in all of our needs. The Lord’s Prayer is truly “A Prayer That Sums It All Up.”

This is how it is with these texts of the Catechism, isn’t it? Short summaries that cover vast and profound things. The Ten Commandments, covering all of God’s will for our lives and showing us all of our sins where we fail to do it--all covered in just Ten Commandments of 83 words. The Apostles’ Creed, a summary of the entire New Testament, telling us who the Triune God is and how He Creates, Redeems, and Sanctifies us--all of that in only 111 words. And, now, this comprehensive prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, 70 words. What a complete and to the point explaination of the Christian faith and life we have in these parts of the Catechism! Easily memorized, ready for our recall, right there for our use, morning, noon, and night--anytime, anywhere, every day.

Tonight our focus is on this summary prayer, the Lord’s Prayer. It covers all of our needs and all of God’s gifts in one short prayer. And we are taught and invited by Christ to pray this prayer and come to our dear Father who promises to hear us. This is a prayer we can be sure of, that we can put a hearty “Amen” on, for Christ himself is the one who has given it to us. Think of what a treasure we have here in this prayer! Our only problem is that we do not pray it often enough, with thought and with faith.

The Lord’s Prayer is both a prayer that works in itself-- and it also serves as a model and a springboard for further praying. It works as a pattern for prayer. Look how each line can lead to more praying.

“Our Father, who art in heaven”: Know first who this God is who are you coming to in prayer, that he is your dear Father who loves you and cares for you. Meditate on God’s character as you have learned to know him, and put that into words.

“Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Seek first God’s kingdom and glory and honor, the things that pertain to what God is doing in the world--make them your concern. For example, “Thy kingdom come” can lead us to pray petitions related to the spread of the gospel, that God’s kingdom of grace be extended in the world through the ministry of the church. You may name particular missionaries or ministers you have on your heart. That would be using the Lord’s Prayer as a pattern for further praying.

Likewise, when we come to the petitions about daily bread and the forgiveness of sins. What are the particular needs of this body and life that you have or that your fellow Christians have? Put them into words, and bring your supplications before your Father in heaven. What are the sins you are aware of, that trouble you and for which you need forgiveness? Confess them before your gracious God, pleading the blood of Christ your Savior. Are there those who have sinned against you? Pray for a heart of forgiveness, and ask God for help to restore your relationship.

Then we come to the attacks of the devil upon us: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” God wants you to call on him in the day of trouble. When temptations fly about your head, call on God for help. When the evil one is throwing evil things your way--attacks of every sort, both physical and spiritual--pray in the name of the Mightier One, Jesus Christ, who has defeated the devil on the cross. Name the things for which you need help, and call on God for protection and deliverance. He promises to hear you and to help you.

“Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” And so we conclude our praying the way we began, by praising and glorifying God. “For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.” Sing a hymn as part of your daily prayers. I highly recommend this. Praising God in song, rejoicing in the Lord, will not only lift your spirits, it will also stimulate and spur on your faith, as you dwell on the goodness of God. “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.”

With such a prayer as the Lord’s Prayer, whether we pray it by itself or use it as a pattern for praying our own specific petitions--in any case, when we pray thus, knowing that we have a gracious and merciful God who hears us and promises to answer, then what else can we say but “Amen”? Yes, yes, it shall be so! For God has commanded us to pray, He has promised to hear us, He invites us to come to Him as His dear children, and Jesus Himself teaches us to pray these very words in this very way! If that doesn’t merit an “Amen,” I don’t know what does!

Yes, if Jesus gives us this prayer and teaches us to pray in this way, we can be certain and confident in our praying. For who is Jesus but the very Son of God, who came from heaven from the Father’s side? Who is Jesus but the one who reveals the Father to us, through whom we know the Father’s heart? We come to God and call on him as “our” Father, because we are coming in company with Jesus, the one-and-only Son of the Father, in a unique sense. Through Christ, we have gained access to God and this grace in which we now stand. For Christ has opened the way to God through His blood shed for us on the cross. Our sins stood in the way and prevented our access to the Father, but Jesus has opened the new and living way through His body. Having won forgiveness for us by His death, Christ has risen and ascended into heaven and presents that shed blood as the perfect sacrifice for our sins, that intercedes for us, that gives us access to the throne of God, where we will find help and grace when we need it. The Lord’s Prayer becomes possible because of the Lord’s Blood shed on our behalf.

And so now through Christ, joined to him in Baptism, we are brothers of Jesus, and the Father becomes our Father, too. What a great and glorious privilege we have been gifted with to call on our Father in prayer!

What a great and glorious prayer we have to do it with! The Lord’s Prayer, a prayer given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ himself, in which all of our needs and all of God’s gifts are summed up for us in one brief prayer. You can pray it every day, two or three times a day, but this is a prayer that is ever new, every time we pray it--because our needs, always changing, will always fall under its comprehensiveness. God’s gifts, which are greater than our needs--all of God’s gifts, which he pours out on us day after day--all of those countless gifts are packed into this little prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer, “A Prayer That Sums It All Up.” Only 70 words, but it will take us 70 years, 80, 90 years, to pray it--every day of our life, until the good and gracious Lord gives us a blessed end. Amen! It shall be so! Amen!

Lent 3 - Oculi

“Jesus, the Conqueror of Satan”

Luke 11:14-28
Oculi, Lent 3
March 14 – 15, 2009
Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church
Girard, Illinois

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

It is the way of the wicked to call what is good evil and what is evil good. We see that in our society today, where, for instance, those who are working to overturn the Roe v. Wade abortion decision are called extremist, closed-minded, hateful; while those who support the right to kill unborn children are called mainstream, sensible, open-minded. We see this in the church where those who insist on doctrinal faithfulness to God's saving Word, are called unloving and legalistic and rigid and behind the times; while those on the other side are called inclusive and flexible and mature and loving. In this way the wicked portray themselves as good and noble and caring, while what is truly good and noble and compassionate is portrayed as something to avoid.

We see an example of something like that in today's Gospel. Jesus is doing something good. He is casting out a demon from a man who had been made unable to speak by it, freeing him from this dark power. When the demon had gone out of the man, he was able to talk again. The crowd that saw this marveled at the wonderful thing that Jesus had done.

But there were some there who hated Jesus, who out of envy couldn't stand or accept the goodness of Jesus. So they called good evil. They said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” In other words they were saying, “The only reason Jesus can cast out demons is because He gets His power from Satan.” They tried to raise suspicions about Jesus in those who saw what He did.

By doing this, the ones who accused Jesus of being of the devil showed themselves to be of the devil. For is it not the way of the devil to plant doubt and work against faith in Jesus? And they further showed that they were in league with Satan by testing Jesus and asking for a sign from heaven; for isn't that exactly what the devil did in the wilderness when he asked Jesus to throw Himself down from the temple and let the angels catch Him? Besides, they already had a sign from Jesus in the casting out of the demon. But unbelief always wants something more and different than Jesus and what He gives.

Later Jesus would say to this same crowd that it is an evil generation, which seeks a sign, and wants to walk by sight and not by faith. A people who trusts experiences and emotions more than Christ and His Word. Jesus said the only sign that would be given them is the sign of Jonah, the sign of a man submerged three days in the belly of death but who rose from the depths to new life. The sign which faith clings to, then, is the sign of the cross, Christ crucified and risen to save us sinners.

This sign of the cross has been given to you in your baptism, etched into your very bodies by water and the Word. At the font Jesus fulfilled the words of the service, “Depart unclean spirit; make room for the Holy Spirit.” Like the mute, you are conceived and born with an evil spirit. You are by nature in the possession and the dominion of the devil. The Epistle reading said, “You were once darkness . . .” However, Jesus has shined into your darkness and washed away your sins and rescued you from the devil's domain, bringing you into His own realm of mercy and grace. So that, “you are light in the Lord.” You have been released from the devil's grip. You have been brought into the kingdom of God's beloved Son; you are possessed by His Holy Spirit. Now your mute tongues are loosed to sing the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Truly, Jesus has done good to you.

But just as was the case in the Gospel, there are people now who want to call that good evil. They label baptism and the liturgy of Christ's preaching and supper as being mere ceremony; they want signs and visual excitement, not divine service. Others attack God's Word by calling it a man-made creation. Or they berate Christians as being intellectually foolish and psychologically weak. But in the face of such demonic temptation, we remember that it is written, “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.” In a world that wants signs from heaven, we know that Jesus Himself is our sign from heaven. He is all that we need. For again it is written, “We preach Christ crucified, an offense to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

Jesus is that Stronger Man who overcomes the strong man, the devil. But our Lord shows His strength not with spectacular power or with an all out display of force as we might expect. In order to overcome the devil and rescue man, the Lord chooses to use Satan's own devices against him. Christ snares the devil with divine shrewdness and trickery and deception–but in a reverse sort of way: not evil disguised as good, but good disguised as evil. Jesus allows Himself to be hung on a cross, bloodied and beaten. He perishes as if he were an evil criminal. But in this way Jesus invades the enemy's domain of death and attacks from the inside out. From behind enemy lines He demolishes all of the devil's armor in which he trusted. Christ infiltrates the devil's kingdom and conquers him by means of the very death which the devil brought into the world. He turns the devil's weapons right back in his own face and destroys him. Man is released and set free.

It was by a tree that the devil overcame mankind, and so it is by the tree of the cross that the devil is overcome. It was by death that Satan sought to steal away man's glory; and so it is by the death of Christ that the glory of man is restored. Satan is caught in his own trap, bound and defeated. The strong man is out-strategized by the Stronger Man, Jesus. Our Lord after His death descends into hell–not to suffer, not to do battle, but to announce and proclaim his victory over sin and death and the devil. The war is over. Satan has been conquered. The devil's strongest weapon, death and all its terrors, is taken away. For we live in the sure hope of the resurrection of the body through Christ on the Last Day. Death is no longer the way Satan wins. For those who die in Jesus share in His everlasting life. That is the truth of Christ over and against the falsehood of those who call good evil. Satan is not divided against himself. But Christ has divided and conquered Satan's kingdom by the power of His holy cross.

Jesus makes it clear to the crowds and to us that there can be no sitting on the fence in this matter. Our Lord says, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” There is no stance of neutrality when it comes to Christ, no middle-of-the-road, moderate position. Either you're with Him by faith, or you're against Him through unbelief. Either you take refuge in Him who is the Stronger Man, or you refuse Him and seek other shelter that draws you back into the devil's hands. There are no third options.

And yet many people live as if there were a third option, don't they? They're not really sure about God or the teachings of the Bible, but they might go to church anyway from time to time just in case, sort of like an insurance policy. They figure it would be better to go to church even if there is no God than not go to church if there is a God. That way they're covered–or so they think. But I ask you, is that true faith or is that just hedging your bets? Is that someone who is with Christ or not? There are many people who try to live like that, somewhere in-between faith and unbelief. What they don't realize is that the in-between is unbelief. Such people are still set against Christ in their hearts and exposed to the power of Satan. For they live outside of the protection of Christ with nothing but their own wisdom and strength to shield them.

You see, even though the devil has been defeated and man's salvation has been won–fully and decisively–he still runs about making like he is strong, acting like he still controls death. He seeks to lure people away from the salvation of Christ, leading them into doubt and despair. And many fall for the trap, believing the strong man rather than trusting in the Stronger One. And so the evil spirits return to many a person from whom they were cast out. For the Holy Spirit given in baptism has been grieved and rejected. “The last state of that man is worse than the first.”

It is not enough simply for evil to be cast out. The unclean spirit must be replaced with the Holy Spirit of Christ. Otherwise, one opens himself up to subtler and deeper sin, darker and more dangerous spirits. And so our Lord urges us here to remain steadfast in the faith. He says, “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.” To keep the Word of God is simply to hold on to it, to cling to it, to treasure it and trust in its promises. Those who do so are blessed, for the Word of God is living and active and powerful to save. Ultimately, to keep the Word of God is to hold on to Christ. For He is the Word made flesh. Blessed are those who hear Jesus and cling to Him; for He is your refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Blessed are those in whom the Word of Christ dwells richly through holy absolution and preaching. Blessed are those who trust in Christ and who are filled with His true body and precious blood. Over such the devil has no power. He can't touch you. For you are in the Strongest One, the Lord over death and the devil. Let your eyes ever be toward Christ, who plucks your life out of death, who conquers your enemy, who is your sure defense.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Lenten Midweek for March 11, 2009

Midweek Lenten Service

March 11, 2009

“To Know and Believe in God” (The Creed)

Can you believe that 92% of Americans say they “believe in God or a universal spirit.” 92%! Big deal. That doesn’t really say much. Who is this God you believe in? Allah, the false god of the Muslims? Sorry, I bear witness that there is no god called Allah, and Mohammed is his false prophet. Is this “god” you believe in some “universal spirit” or “higher power”? That won’t do you any good, either. Is it “god” as you have created him in your own image? A god who winks at sin and suits your personal opinions and is impressed by your “spirituality” and essential goodness? Sorry, Oprah, that is not the God revealed in Holy Scripture.

Just the fact that you believe that one true God exists, that by itself will do you no good. On that point, you are no better than the demons. St. James says as much: “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe--and shudder!” You see, the devil and all the demons know who God is. They even know who Jesus is, “the Holy One of God.” They believe that God exists. But that is not the same as knowing and believing in God in the way that we have just confessed in the Creed.

“I believe in God.” That’s what we all have just said. But what does it mean to “believe” in him? Let’s do a little “pew” survey of our own: That long piece of wood there--and there are a bunch of them in this room--do you believe that that right there is a church pew? Do you believe that a church pew exists in that space? Yes? Well, that is not belief or faith in the biblical sense. If you truly believe in that pew, then what will you do? You will sit in it! You will entrust your life to it and place yourself in it, trusting that it will hold you and support you. That is more like the idea of “I believe” as we say it in the Creed. Not just that God exists, but that you are trusting in him for your life and salvation.

To believe that one God exists does not yet tell you who this God is or how he is disposed toward you or how you are put right with him. Luther explains it like this in the Large Catechism: “Even if all people outside Christianity--whether heathen, Turks, Jews, or false Christians and hypocrites--believe in and worship only one true God, they still do not know what His mind toward them is and cannot expect any love or blessing from Him. Therefore, they abide in eternal wrath and damnation. For they do not have the Lord Christ, and, besides, are not illumined and favored by any gifts of the Holy Spirit.”

In the Creed, therefore, we are saying much more than just “there is a God who exists.” We are saying that this God has revealed himself to us, so that we know him and believe in him, that is, trust in him. That we do know what his mind toward us is and that we can expect love and blessing from him. That is Christian faith, and it is created and nurtured by the revealed Gospel.

To begin with, we are saying that God is our kind and loving heavenly Father, who created us and provides for us and preserves and protects us. Now how would we know this, except that God has revealed himself to us as such in the Gospel? Otherwise, we might think that God is kind and loving toward us--if our crops are good, our health is good, and everything is sunshine and roses. And we might think that God is treating us well because of how good we are.

But what about those times when our finances go south or the doctor’s diagnosis is grim and the sunshine and roses have turned to gray clouds and dandelions? What about then? Well, then we might think that we have to try harder to get back into God-or-the-gods’ good favor. We might offer up sacrifices to the gods or really work on our behavior. But we would always be looking over our shoulder, and we could never be certain that we had done enough to please God and be right with him. And death would always be lurking out there as the Great Unknown.

This is where Jesus comes in. It is only through Jesus that we know a gracious God under all circumstances. Christ, the Son of God, came from the Father’s side to reveal God to us, to reveal the Father’s kind and loving heart toward us. This is what Jesus taught his disciples: “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.”

Jesus taught the love of the Father, and he put it into action--above all, by going to the cross for us. This is how we can be sure, in all circumstances, that we have a God who loves us: by looking to the cross of Christ. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” In other words, if God has shown us the greatest love of all by sending his Son to go to the cross for our justification and eternal salvation, then we can be absolutely certain that God loves us in any and every circumstance, even when things aren’t going so well. God’s love is sure. Look to the cross. See there the Father’s heart of love for you.

For this is what God has done for you in Christ: He has saved you for eternal life. Remember those Ten Commandments we talked about last week? They cannot save you. You cannot earn your way to heaven by how good you are. You do not keep those commandments of love for God and love for your neighbor. The Commandments show you that you a sinner. Nor can you make it into heaven by how soft God is. No, judging simply according to his Law, God’s punishment for sin is death. There’s no getting around that; there’s no sweeping it under the rug.

But again, this is where Jesus comes in. He comes in like a Lamb, like the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world--who takes away your sin by carrying it for you to the cross. There he dies as your perfect substitute, taking the judgment and the death you have earned. Christ alone sets us free from the eternal death that would be our lot otherwise. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

So we know the love of the Father only through the Son. This is why Jesus says, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” And this is why the Apostle John writes, “No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. . . .Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

Alright, so we know and believe in a loving heavenly Father only through his Son, Jesus Christ. But now, how do we know Christ? Now we move from the Second Article of the Creed to the Third Article and the work of the Holy Spirit. Notice how Luther begins his Explanation of the Third Article: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him.” Think of what you’re saying there! “I believe . . . that I cannot believe!” Yes, you would know nothing of Christ except that the Holy Ghost has preached him to you. And with that preaching, the Spirit has created saving faith in your heart. It is all by grace, a gift: both Christ dying for you and the Spirit giving you the faith to believe in him. All of it, the whole ball of wax, a gift.

The Holy Spirit delivers Christ to you, brings Christ to you, along with all of Christ’s blood-bought benefits of forgiveness, life, and salvation. What Jesus won for you on the cross the Spirit delivers to your doorstep, right to your address, with your name written on it.

How does the Spirit do this? Through means. Through the means of grace, the Gospel, in Word and Sacrament. In other words, through the ministry of the Church. This is why you need constantly to be in the Word, living from your Baptism, fed with the Sacrament--constantly being strengthened by the Gospel, so that your faith will remain strong to the end.

And so now we come full circle. We know a kind and loving heavenly Father, who cares for us even when it looks like he doesn’t--we know the Father only through his Son, Jesus Christ, whose cross displays the deepest divine love. And we know Christ only by the Holy Spirit bringing us to faith in him through the Gospel. Luther sums it up like this, again from the Large Catechism: “God has given to us His Son and the Holy Spirit, who brings us to Himself. For we could never grasp the knowledge of the Father’s grace and favor except through the Lord Christ. Jesus is a mirror of the fatherly heart, outside of whom we see nothing but an angry and terrible Judge. But we couldn’t know anything about Christ either, unless it had been revealed by the Holy Spirit.”

To know and believe in God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Not a vicious circle--by no means! But rather an unending, eternal circle of love and grace! In the Gospel, we come to know this God, this Holy Trinity, as he reveals himself to us. In the Creed, we gladly confess this faith for all the world to hear. Amen.

Lent 2

“Bread for the Dogs” Matthew 15:21-28 Lent II March 7 - 8, 2009

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. It’s bad enough when people turn against us and make life difficult. It’s bad enough knowing that the devil is against us and seeks to cause all sorts of harm in body and soul. But what do we do when it seems as if God is against us, when it appears as if He’s our enemy? What do we do when He doesn’t seem to care about our pain and trouble, doesn’t answer our prayers, and doesn’t help us out as we hope?

That is precisely the situation in which the Canaanite woman finds herself in today’s Gospel. The Canaanites, you recall, were the ones whom God had told the Israelites to drive out of the Promised Land. Canaanites were ancient enemies of Israel, pagans, heathen. They were not among God’s chosen people. Israelites called the Canaanites dogs.

Yet knowing that she had no right to ask, this Canaanite woman still comes to Jesus and seeks His help. For she had heard the Word of Christ. Faith came by that hearing. She calls Jesus “Lord” and “Son of David.” She believes Him to be the Messiah. So she cries out to Him and begs Him to have mercy and help her daughter who is severely demon-possessed.

“But Jesus answered her not a word.” She is thirsty ground, pleading to the heavens for rain, but Jesus is a cloudless sky. Her prayer is met with a stony silence. It is as if He doesn’t hear her. The silence of God is one way to describe what hell is like. Even in this world which is under the curse of sin and death, the Word of God still continues to give life and motion and blessing to creation, both for believers and unbelievers. But in hell, where God never speaks, there is no creative Word of His to bring any sort of life or joy or peace. There is only the emptiness and the nothingness of His silence, the utter agonizing, torturous loneliness and pain of being cut off from Him and His creating voice. That is where the Canaanite woman was.

The temptation when you find yourself in that same position is then to give up on God, to think, “Well sure God loves other people, but He doesn’t love me. It’s no use. I’m not even worthy to pray, anyway, lousy sinner that I am. Why should I keep calling upon the Lord when it’s done me no good so far?” In that way the devil wants to shatter your heart and cause you to succumb to doubt and unbelief.

Sometimes God puts us into the hell of His silence, so that our faith in Him may be exercised and strengthened, and we may drawn closer to Him and to heaven in the end. Notice that Jesus did not say “no” to the Canaanite woman’s prayer. He knows her faith, better than she knows it herself. He knows what He is eventually going to do. But for the moment He is silent, and in His silence, trust in Jesus is tested and purified. Does she trust Him when He ignores her? Do you trust Jesus when He seems to be turning His back on you?

Faith clings to Christ and His Word alone. Faith clings to Jesus’ death and resurrection alone and not to whether or not God seems to be coming through for us. Even if God never responds to a single word of our prayer in this life, even if He reserves all of His “yes’s” for the resurrection from the dead on the last day, even if all we receive in this life is suffering and silence, so be it. We still have Christ and His everlasting kingdom and His forgiveness and His Word. We have God’s “yes” even when the silence seems to say “no.”

Jesus Himself experienced the silence of God in his own ears. He prayed on the cross, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” And the Father was silent. There was no voice from heaven, no angels to bring the answer to His “why” question. Not even His disciples stood with Him. There was only the thick, awful silence of God’s judgment against us, laid on Jesus. Because Jesus suffered that hell for us, in our place, we are rescued and redeemed.

The Canaanite woman doesn’t give up. She keeps crying out. The disciples become weary of her prayers and, thinking themselves more compassionate than Jesus, join in with her prayer, asking Him to give her what she wants so that she can return home. Surely now Jesus will listen, right? If you’ve got Peter, James, John, and the other disciples praying for you; if you’ve got all your friends and neighbors and the prayer chain praying for you, then God has to respond favorably, right?

Imagine the disciples’ shock and dismay when Jesus replies, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Can this be the same Jesus who said, “Ask and it will be given you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened?” Now He seems to slam the door in her face and in the face of his disciples.

Again, Jesus hides His “yes” inside of a “no.” He doesn’t say He won’t help this poor woman. He simply reminds her that He had come first to the Jews. The Gentiles would have to wait their turn, and that would come only after His death and resurrection. Just because you get a bunch of people praying about something doesn’t mean that you’re more likely to get what you ask for, as if this were a tug of war contest with God. Prayer doesn’t work that way. There is faith to be exercised. The purpose of prayer is not to conform God’s will to our will, but to shape our will to His will and to receive everything from Him as a gift.

“I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” This is the second way in which God tests and tries our faith in order to strengthen it. He acts as if we are rejected. He deals with us as if He had not come for us, as if we have no place in His kingdom, as if we have no business seeking His help. Jesus doesn’t even speak directly to the poor woman. He speaks to His disciples and lets her overhear what He has to say. Not only does Christ appear to reject her, he rejects the prayers of his own disciples. Christ teaches us to trust in nothing but Him–not our own prayers, nor the prayers of the pious and holy, nor the saints in heaven, but only in Jesus.

That is a hard thing for us to learn. We are increasingly impatient. We are accustomed to having things our way right now. Habits years in the making we want broken in a few simple steps. When we call someone, we expect them to answer instantly, drop everything, and respond to us right then and there. We expect the same thing from God. We expect our prayers to be dealt with immediately. We don’t like to be told to wait and to hold on.

The Canaanite woman does hold on. In fact she persists even more fervently in the face of Jesus’ rejection. Now on her knees and with a much shorter, more fervent prayer. She just doesn’t give up. “Lord, help me,” she says.

How does our Lord respond? “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” How cruel and insensitive Jesus seems! He utterly humiliates her in front of his disciples. This is not the kind and gentle Jesus we learned about as children. We would never put up with such treatment. We barely tolerate a rebuke or warning from a pastor or a fellow Christian, much less be called a dog by the Lord.

And this is the third way that God exercises faith–He breaks our pride and humbles us. He puts us down with the dogs. He humbles the exalted, and He exalts the humbled. “He fills the hungry with good things, but he sends the rich away empty.” If you are resting on your achievements, your works, your piety, your good looks, your intelligence, you will be humbled. If you look down on others from your lofty position of self-importance, then be prepared. You will be humbled. And that is good and needful. Because it is on our knees, with empty hands and broken hearts and crushed spirits, that we are most ready to receive God’s gifts. Our hands must be emptied before they can be filled. Before we can live in Christ, we must die to ourselves.

So what do you do when the Lord calls you a dog? The woman could have been indignant, walked away, saved her self-esteem. Instead she receives His judgment and confesses it. “Yes, Lord, I may be a Gentile dog; but the dogs get to eat at least the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Do you see what she did there? This is the most important point of the whole Gospel. She traps Jesus by His own words and holds Him there, which is exactly what He wants. Like Jacob wrestling with God, she won’t let Him go until she receives a blessing. She has him caught by His Word, embraced in great faith. “If the Lord says I am a dog, then I’m a dog.” But dogs get the crumbs, and she knows that the crumbs that fall from Jesus’ table are rich crumbs of the Bread of Life, and her great faith will not be denied them. She is a true Israelite by faith; for she wrestles with God and man in Christ and prevails.

How the Lord loves it! He loves to be trapped in His own words! “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed that instant by the Word of Jesus. Her faith was great because she was nothing, a “dog,” and Jesus was everything for her. Faith is great that clings to a great Jesus.

Jesus is indeed great. Greater than the demon that possessed the Canaanite’s little girl. Greater than the Law which separated Jew and Gentile. Greater than your sin and your death. God’s Law calls us something far worse than “dogs.” It calls us sinners. And if God is to be righteous in his words and justified in his judgments, then all we can say is, “Yes, that’s what I am, a poor miserable sinner; but Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and so I trust in Him and will not turn my heart from Him but will cling to Him persistently for forgiveness, life and salvation.”

The fact of the matter is you have an even more sure Word to cling to than this Canaanite woman ever did. For God has put His very Name on you by water and the Spirit. God can’t vacate His name. He can’t wriggle out of what He said and did for you at the font. Even when everything seems to be coming against you as a challenge and an uncertainty, your baptism nevertheless stands sure. It is a fact which surely happened on a specific day, and God does not now take His Word back. It is always there for you to hold to. With His Word God has gladly and willingly made Himself your captive. Hold on to Him. Cling to His Word. Trusting in Christ you will not only eat the crumbs that fall under the table, you will have a place reserved for you at God’s table as one of His children. Come, receive the Bread of Life at the table of the Master, His body and blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Lent Midweek 1

March 4, 2009
“Beware of Idols”
(The Ten Commandments)

Our Lenten emphasis is catechesis, that is, instruction in the basics of the Christian faith. In the early church, the forty days of Lent would serve as the final time of instruction before the catechumens were then baptized during the Easter Vigil. And not only for new Christians do Lent and catechesis work well together. The intensity and increased devotion of this season can aid us longtime Christians in returning to and being renewed in the most basic and always relevant aspects of Christian faith and life.

Tonight we start a six-part series on “The Six Chief Parts of Lenten Catechesis.” We’ll be following the six chief parts as Luther lays them out in the Small Catechism: The Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, Confession, and the Sacrament of the Altar.

We begin tonight with the Ten Commandments, as we just read them. During this season of Lent it is fitting that we hear the Ten Commandments. For in this solemn and somber season of repentance, the Ten Commandments, God’s Law, will show us our sins and our need for God’s forgiveness, which we will then find in the blessed Gospel that God gives us here in Word and Sacrament.

The Ten Commandments: Obviously we could do a ten-part series, let alone a six-part series, simply on this first chief part of the Catechism, the Commandments. But just in our brief time here tonight, we’re going to zoom in on just one of these Ten Commandments to do the job for all the rest. For if we could keep the First Commandment, we would keep all the others as well. However, since we do not keep the First Commandment, that shows up then in all the ways we break all the other commandments.

That’s why Luther can start his explanations for all the remaining commandments with the words, “We should fear and love God so that…” That’s certainly clear for the Second and Third Commandments--how we use God’s name and how gladly and diligently we hear his word are reflections of how we are or are not fearing, loving, and trusting in God above all things. But it’s also true for the other commandments, Four through Ten, which deal with our neighbor. How we treat our neighbor--do I love my neighbor so as not to harm him or take advantage of him but rather to help him and be kind to him?--how I treat my neighbor is a sign of how I am or am not loving God. The First Commandment, then, as Luther says in the Large Catechism, “the First Commandment is the chief source and fountainhead that flows into all the rest.”

Tonight we want to get to the root of the problem, why we do not keep the First Commandment or any of the other commandments as we ought. The root problem, lying at the base of all sin, is idolatry. Idolatry is to have another god, a false god, any god other than the one true God. The commandment says, “You shall have no other gods,” and the problem is, we do. And, if we have some other god, then we are not fearing, loving, and trusting in the God who speaks to us in these commandments, the God who created us and made us his people. Idolatry, worshiping other gods, lies at the heart of all sin.

But you say, “I do not worship an idol!” Now it is true, you probably do not bow down to an image of stone or wood, like a pagan tribesman out in the jungle. No, your idols no doubt are of a more refined, not so obvious, kind. Luther helps us out here, again from the Large Catechism:
“What does it mean to have a god? Or, what is God? Answer: A god means that from which we are to expect all good and in which we are to take refuge in all distress. So, to have a God is nothing other than trusting and believing Him with the heart. . . . Whatever you set your heart on and put your trust in is truly your god.”

So things like money, success, popularity, pleasure--these are common everyday idols, false gods that people worship. They look to these things for their peace and happiness and satisfaction in life. Even people without these things can still worship these false gods. The man without money who can only think of how to get it and who envies the rich and is never content or satisfied--that man, too, is worshiping the god of Mammon. Do you see how even good gifts from God can take the place of God, so that people are worshiping the gifts rather than the Giver? Family, for example--a good gift from God--family can become an idol, when a person loves father or mother or wife or children more than he loves God. Idolatry is very common, and it can be very subtle. Whenever you are loving and trusting in something--anything--more than God, you have created an idol and are worshiping it.

So be honest and ask yourself questions like these: In what or whom do I trust above all else? In what or whom do I trust most for financial security, physical safety, or emotional support? Do I fear God’s wrath, avoiding every sin? Is my love for and trust in God evident in my daily living? Do I expect only good from God in every situation, or do I worry, doubt, complain, or feel unfairly treated when things go wrong? Do I withhold from God what is rightfully his?

Now beneath the familiar idols of money, power, pleasure and so on, which can vary from person to person, there is one idol that is common to us all. Tonight, as we’re getting to the root of the problem, I want you to become aware of an idol. An idol that is living in your house. An idol that is living in your heart. It is an idol that is common to every one of us and yet--and therefore--is different for each person. It is the idol called “I,” “me,” “myself.” This is the god everybody worships, and thus there are as many gods as there are people. Each one of us loves himself above all things, above other people, above God. That’s what it is to be a sinner, to be your own God, to serve yourself, to make your own decisions about right and wrong. “I will do what’s right for me!” That’s the nature of all sin. It started with our first parents in the Garden, and it’s been passed along to all of us, their children. This is the original sin, the root sin: to be your own God, to tune out the true God and his word. The result of that, the curse placed upon sin, we heard tonight: “Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” The wages of sin is death.

Oh, who shall rescue us from this body of sin and death? Who will save us from our idolatry? Answer: The very God against whom we have sinned. For God is so rich in his mercy and grace that he provided the Answer, the answer to all our ills, the answer and remedy for sin and death, the answer to our rebellion and commandment-breaking. The Answer is Jesus. “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ,” Paul writes to the Corinthians--“all the promises of God find their Yes in Him.” Whatever your question is, Jesus is the Answer.

What does this mean? It means that God sent his Son, Jesus Christ our Savior, to keep these commandments perfectly in our place. Jesus alone loved God and loved his neighbor the way we all ought but don’t. It means that Jesus, the sinless one, then went to the cross to take our place also there, bearing the punishment prescribed for all who break the Commandments: judgment under God’s wrath. It means that Jesus, by fulfilling the Commandments, both their keeping and their punishment, has fulfilled all righteousness and taken away the judgment and the death. Now he gives us forgiveness and life in their place: the forgiveness put in your ears in the gospel and put in your mouth in this Sacrament; the life he will show forth once again at Easter, life that rises from the dead.

Now, what’s more, he gives you a new life even now, life in the Spirit, so that now you can even begin to keep and to do the Commandments yourself. A new life of love, love for God and love for your neighbor. To be sure, you will never do the Commandments well enough to earn your salvation. You still have that old idol, the idol of self, hanging around in your heart. You will always need God’s forgiveness every day, for as many days as you live as both sinner and saint. But one day that idol will finally be cast from its throne, and you and I will forevermore worship and serve only the one true God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, together with all the saints in the joys of heaven. Amen.