Category: Lent 2

Wrestling God and Prevailing

3/8/2023

Eugène_Delacroix, Jakob ringt mit dem Engel Österreichische Galerie Belvedere. Public Domain.

Reminiscere Sunday (Lent 2)
Genesis 32:22-32 (Matthew 15:21-28)
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church

The story of Jacob wrestling God and the Canaanite woman pleading with Jesus are parallel stories. They seem disturbing to us, because it’s hard to understand why God can be so mean! Yet, if you are a Christian, you are likely familiar with this side of God. God wrestles with His children. To the untrained eye, it seems cruel. But it is absolutely necessary. And if you are to get through this life with your faith intact, you need to learn how to wrestle with God!
You know the story of Jacob, how he cheated his older brother Esau out of his blessing, and how Esau vowed to kill him, so Jacob had to flee to his uncle Laban’s house. And God richly blessed Jacob. Jacob married Laban’s two daughters and God granted him (at this point) eleven sons by them. He gave Jacob flocks and herds and servants. Jacob left with nothing and he was returning a rich man! Even more, God sent angels to greet Jacob on his journey, reminding Jacob of the promise God gave to him at Bethel, when he promised to make his offspring like the dust of the earth and to grant them the land of Canaan as a possession, and to bless all families of the earth through his offspring, and how God said, “I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised.” (Genesis 28:15) Indeed, Jacob had good reason to be confident in the Lord!
Yet, as quickly as dark clouds can block out a bright sunny day, so Jacob’s situation seemed to change. Messengers returned to Jacob and told him that his brother Esau was coming with four hundred men. Jacob was certain that Esau intended to kill him, his wives and his children, and plunder all his possessions. So, Jacob divided his family and possessions, in hopes that if one camp were attacked, the other would survive, and he sent convoys of livestock ahead of him as gifts to Esau in an attempt to appease his wrath. And Jacob bowed down to pray to God, appealing to His mercy and promise.
Yet, God answered Jacob’s prayer by appearing to him as a man and wrestling him throughout the night. It seems that God is being cruel to Jacob. Yet, remarkably, Jacob continues to wrestle. It’s a match that can’t be won! How can a man defeat God in a wrestling match! Yet, Jacob holds on, even more, he appears to be winning! So, God knocks Jacob’s hip out of joint! Yet, Jacob continues to hold on. So, God tells Jacob to let go. Jacob is certain that this man is sent by God, so he says, “I will not let go until you bless me.” So, God blesses him. He changes his name from Jacob to Israel, saying, “You have striven with God and with man, and have prevailed.”
There has been much arguing over the meaning of the name of Israel over the millennia. In the name Israel, you can find the Hebrew words for to see and God, so some say it means seeing God. However, you can also find the word for contend or persevere, so Israel might mean God will contend. Either way, it is clear that Jacob did see God face to face, and he did contend with him, and he did prevail. Although weeping tarried through the night, joy met him in the morning (Psalm 30:5). God blessed Jacob.
Moreover, when Esau met Jacob, he embraced him and kissed him. He had forgotten his anger and forgiven Jacob, a reminder to us that we should not fear to talk to those we are at odds with, but seek to be reconciled.
Yet, how did Jacob win against God? He clung to God’s word and promise. God promised Jacob that He would give him and his descendants the land, that He would make his descendants as numerous as the dust of the earth, that He would bless all nations through his offspring, and that He would not leave him until He had accomplished what He had promised him. This is what Jacob reminded God in his prayer that night. And this is the reason he held on and strove through the sweat and the dust and the blood, even through dislocated limb.
So, Jacob teaches us how to pray, persevere, and wrestle with God by clinging to God’s Word and not letting go. Next, the Canaanite woman does the same thing. She cries to Jesus for help, because her daughter is severely oppressed by a demon. Yet, Jesus ignores her, because she is a Canaanite woman. She is not a descendant of Israel. Jesus has only come for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Furthermore, he calls her a dog, saying it would not be right to take the children’s bread, that is the blessings of the Israelites, and give it to the dogs, that is, this Canaanite woman.
But there the faithful lady finds her Word and she clings to it for dear life, just as Jacob held fast to God. She exclaims, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” And with these words, she proves herself to be a true daughter of Israel. For Israel was given that name, because of his faith. By faith he strove with God and won, clinging to His promise. And so, this woman is given a seat at the table of Israel. She is a true daughter through faith.
She could have been offended at the words Jesus spoke to her. When Jesus implied that she was a dog, she could have said, “Okay, fine, I’ll find another savior.” But rather, she humbled herself and clung to Jesus’ Word. And she found her salvation in Him. “You call me a dog? Then I’m a dog. Yet, even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
And so, it is with us. We confess at church that we are poor miserable sinners, who deserve God’s temporal and eternal punishment. We do this, because holy Scripture clearly teaches that we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Hearing this, we could get offended and say, “If that’s the way it is, I’ll find another god to worship who will be more polite to me.” But rather, we confess our sins and acknowledge that God is right. We are poor miserable sinners. But we have a word from Scripture. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners! (1 Timothy 1:15) So, we gladly confess that we are sinners, so that we may receive salvation as a gift.
And this is how you go through the trials in your life, when you don’t know what tomorrow brings, when you are anxious about the needs of your body or your family, when your conscience is stricken, when it seems that God is absent or when it seems that God is pressing you hard so that you cannot breathe, you have a word from God.
Are you anxious about food, clothing, health, or other things of the body? Jesus says, “Do not be anxious, your heavenly Father knows that you need these things.” (Matthew 6:32) God promises to care for you. “Ask, and it will be given to you,” he says. (Matthew 7:7)
Are you afraid of your sins? Of death? Of hell? Christ Jesus has granted you many words to comfort you. He has given you Baptism, to which he gives the promise of the forgiveness of sins, salvation, and the Holy Spirit. He promises you that when His minister declares that your sins are forgiven, it is as valid and certain even in heaven as if He spoke the words Himself. (Matthew 18:18; John 20:23) Christ has given you His body and blood with a pledge of forgiveness and Communion with Him to all who believe. When you are going through hell here on earth, Christ gives you words of promise to cling to, so that you can get out of hell.
Jacob’s hip was put out of joint when he wrestled with God, foreshadowing that his offspring Jesus Christ would have all his limbs pulled out of joint on the cross (Psalm 22:14), so that all families of the earth may be blessed through Him. And it is in Jesus that we see the most important wrestling match with God. Jesus is Himself true God, the only begotten Son of the Father from eternity. Yet, He became a man. And in human flesh, He wrestled with God. In the garden, as His soul was in anguish to the point of death and great drops of blood dropped from His pours like sweat, He prayed to His heavenly Father that this cup of woe and judgment be taken away from Him. Yet, He prayed not His will, but His Father’s will be done. Jesus wrestled with His Father. And although He did exactly what His Father directed Him to do, He did not lose His wrestling match. He won, because He clung to His Father’s will and promise, and so the Father raised Him from the dead. By winning His wrestling match, Jesus won for us eternal life by paying for our sins on the cross.
So, in Jesus’ wrestling match, we learn also to pray, “Thy will be done.” We don’t know exactly what God has planned for us in this life. But we do know that He willed for His Son to suffer and die for us, so that we could inherit eternal life as a gift. If God so loved us to offer His Son for our salvation, how much more will He graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32) How much more should we believe that all things will work out together for good for those of us who love God and trust in His plan. (Romans 8:28)
We are not abused children when we trust in our Savior in this way. Rather, we are well trained and well reared children. Our natural sinful inclination is to flee from God and to seek our own pleasure. The world eggs us on in this desire. And the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he will devour, that is, whose faith he will destroy. If God were to leave us to our own devises, we would be destroyed. He would be a negligent father. Yet, Scripture tells us, “The Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.” (Hebrews 12:6)
So, God wrestles with us to make us stronger in the faith, to make us let go of our fears and cast our anxieties on Him who cares, to bring us to true repentance of our sins and to make us confident in His Salvation and love for us.
In Jacob, the Canaanite woman, and Jesus we see that God wrestles with those whom He loves and intends to bless. So, when trials meet you, do not despair. Do not flee from God’s Word and preaching or neglect your prayers. Look to God’s promises to you in Christ Jesus. Cling to these promises. Receive them in faith. And pray fervently according to the promises which God gives you through Christ. And God will most certainly bless you. Amen.

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Wrestling with God

3/16/2022

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Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, Cristoforo Roncalli, early 1620s. Italian. Public Domain.

Reminiscere (Lent 2) Sunday
Genesis 32:26
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
March 13, 2022

“Then [God ] said, ‘Let me go, for the day has broken.’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’” Genesis 32:26

Last week we learned how to strive with Satan and win through faith in Christ. Today we learn how to wrestle with God. If Satan seems like an intimidating opponent, how much more God! Why is it that God lays such heavy crosses on those he loves? And doesn’t it seem like God fights dirty? He knocks Jacob’s hip out of joint. That certainly isn’t a legal move in the rules of wrestling. Why does God hide his face from us in trials? Why does God wrestle with us? The answer is simple: because a person is saved through faith alone. You are not saved by your own good works. You do not earn your salvation. You are saved solely through trusting the promise of forgiveness and salvation for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Now, how does that make sense? Why then the trial? Because faith that does not go through trials grows faint and weak and dies. God must put faith to the test in order to keep it alive and focus the faith on the promise, which alone gives life.

We learned about this a few weeks ago in Jesus’ parable about the sower and the seed. The seed that fell among the thorns and was choked out were those who heard the word of God, but the cares, riches, and pleasures of this life choked the word, so that the fruit failed to mature. Now think of it; the thorns are cares, riches, and pleasures in life. They don’t seem like thorns in real life, although they are! They seem like a busy and even productive life. We chase after our cares. We pursue riches. We strive after pleasures. And we enjoy it all. We call them good gifts from God as a pretense for our idolatry, but we fail to give God thanks and praise for them. Meanwhile, the thorns grow ever thicker, choking and strangling until the Gospel is squeezed out of our hearts to make room for the transient pleasures of life.

God sees this, and he rushes to rescue us, as a parent rushes to save his child from drowning. And he rips the thorns off of us in order to save our souls! Yet, we don’t see it that way. We liked the thorns. We thought we needed them. We thought they were proof that God loved us. So, when the thorns are ripped out, we assume that God must hate us; he’s turned his back on us. We wonder whether God will ever give us a good thing again.

Yet, it was the thorns that were killing us. God certainly knows what we need and will eagerly provide it for us. But by laying a burden on us, or by taking something we like away, he is actually directing our attention to his promise in order to save our faith from destruction. God knows how much to give and how much to take away for your own good, as the Proverb goes, “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.” (Proverbs 30:8-9)

Jacob certainly has reached the extremes of that prayer. He crossed the Jordan with nothing and now he goes back with two camps. God has made him rich and has promised him even more, to make him a great nation and to bless all nations of the earth through his seed. Yet, here again, Jacob is brought low. He is in danger of losing everything. His brother Esau, whom he had cheated twice, now comes to meet him with 400 men. Jacob fears he will lose his wives, his children, his servants, and his flocks and herds. It appears that God is taking away everything that he had given him, and worse, that God was revoking his promise to make him a great nation and to bless the world through the Christ, who would be born from him.

This is what this wrestling match is about. The man, whom Jacob wrestles through the night is none other than the pre-incarnate Christ, God himself before he has become man. Christ has taken the form of a man and wrestled with Jacob through the night as if to say, “The promise is lost. You’re done. God has forsaken you.” Yet, despite God knocking Jacob’s hip out of joint, Jacob still holds on. He causes God to plead with Jacob to let him go, but Jacob won’t let go until God blesses him. Why? Is Jacob just a stubborn old man? No. rather because when Jacob is on the verge of losing everything, the only thing he can hold onto is the promise.

God promised Jacob to make him a great nation. God promised to bless the whole earth through Jacob, meaning that the Christ would be born from his lineage. And moreover, God promised that he would not leave Jacob or forsake him until he had done what he had promised. (Genesis 28:13-15). Jacob believed the promise (Genesis 32:12). So, he clings to the promise. As he clung to the body of the man he wrestled even as his hip sat out of joint, so his heart clung to the words of his Savior even though it felt like it would break. Jacob may have been limping at the end of his match, but his faith was never stronger.

And so, Jacob teaches us to cling to the promise. There is nothing that you are worried about that Jacob did not worry about in his struggle with God. Are you worried about your property, your children, your spouse, your eternal salvation? Jacob was set to lose everything he owned, to watch his children murdered and his wives taken as slaves, to see the Gospel itself snuffed out in front of him. Yet, he endured. Follow Jacob’s example. Cling to the promise!

And has God given you a promise to cling to? Has he ever! Are you worried about the needs of your body and of your children? Listen to these words from our Lord Jesus, “Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, owe you of little faith.” (Luke 12:27-28) Put these words to memory. Imprint them on your heart. And when you worry, say them back to Jesus. Tell him what he said. And don’t stop telling him until he gives you what he promised.

Do you fear that God will not answer your prayer? That he has hidden his face from you? Learn these words of our Lord Jesus, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8) Learn this saying of Jesus by heart. Remind yourself of it whenever it looks like God has forgotten you. Hold on to this promise and don’t let go.

Are you afraid of your enemies? Hear the words of Saint Paul, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will ne not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:31) Say that to your doubt. Confess this when your enemies come for you.

Do you have a guilty conscience? Are you afraid of being condemned to hell? Commit these words of Scripture to memory, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) You don’t need to memorize the entire Bible. But there are many passages you can easily put to memory that will strengthen your faith, drive you to prayer, and comfort you in trial.

God renamed Jacob after their match saying, “No longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel”. The meaning of the name Israel has confused many Bible scholars throughout the centuries. Some have suggested that it means, “Man who sees God.” Ish is Hebrew for man. Raah is Hebrew for sees. And El is Hebrew for God. Ish-raah-El. That sounds nice, but that isn’t what God said. God said, “for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” A better translation would be, “He who rules God.” Sar in Hebrew means chief or prince. Sarah means to rule as a prince. So, the name Yi-Sra-El would mean, “Ruler of God.” Yet, this seems almost blasphemous. How can we say that a man can rule over God? But it is not that God is conquered against his will! No, God wants to be ruled, so to say, in this particular sense. He wants to be ruled by his promise, because that means that he has our complete trust.

If a thug holds a loaded gun to my chest, I would willingly hand over my wallet and the keys to my car to save my life. In that sense, I’ve been mastered. The thief has the upper hand. But God certainly cannot be caught in that way. Yet, I will gladly give much more than the contents of my wallet or my car to my child throughout my life, even though my children are weaker and smaller than me and can’t force me to do anything. Yet, their trust in me and my love for them drives me to empty myself for their sake. This is how God is ruled by us, when we trust solely in him from the heart. No good thing can he deny us.

This is what Israel means. This is why the Canaanite woman with the demon oppressed daughter was truly a daughter of Israel. She caught Jesus in his words and clung to his promise, even if his promise called her a dog. And her great faith received much more than help from a demon. She received eternal life!

God does not wrestle with us to be cruel to us. He wrestles with us, because he loves us. He wants us to trust solely in him. God has sent his Son to die for us, so that our salvation is purchased with God’s own blood. He promises that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved and to seek first his kingdom and righteousness and all the rest will be added unto you. In so many simple and clear words that you can carry around in your pocket or in your heart, God has promised forgiveness, protection, and eternal salvation to you. God wants you to learn these promises and cling to them, so that when he tests you, you have something to hold on to, so that you may overcome and be victorious.

So often we neglect prayer, because we don’t know what to pray for, or we think it won’t do any good. But when you cling to God’s promise, you find strength to pray, and you find that your prayer has power to bend God down to earth to hear you and answer you. And that is exactly what God wants to do. Amen.

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Nothing on Earth Can Cancel God’s Promise to You

3/1/2021

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Tony Melena, Jacob Wrestling the Angel, Public Domain

Reminiscere Sunday (Lent 2)
Genesis 32:22-32
February 28, 2021

In our Old Testament lesson, we meet Jacob at the climax of his struggle with God and men. In order to understand the significance of this wrestling match, we must go back a few chapters to when Jacob first fled his family home. Jacob left his father and mother, because his brother Esau vowed to kill him, because Jacob deceived their father Isaac so that he gave Jacob Esau’s blessing. In his flight, God visited Jacob in a dream and said, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” (Genesis 28:13-15)
And after God blessed Jacob, and made him rich, and gave him eleven sons and a daughter, God again appeared to Jacob and said, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” (Genesis 31:3). So, Jacob arose and took his family and his livestock and traveled back to the land which God promised to give to his descendants. And on the way, Jacob again met angels of the Lord to encourage him that God would carry out what he had promised to him.
But then, Jacob’s attitude changed. The messengers he sent ahead of him returned. His brother Esau was coming with four hundred men. Esau, the brother who had vowed to kill Jacob, now was equipped with more than enough men to kill him, his wives and children, and take all his flocks and servants. Now Jacob is afraid. He sends massive gifts of livestock ahead of him in droves to try to appease Esau’s wrath. He divides his family into two camps, thinking that if Esau raids the one camp, the other could flee and escape. Jacob is terrified.
Why is Jacob terrified? What has changed? What has happened to make one believe that God will not keep his promise to Jacob? God said that he would multiply Jacob’s family, that he would give them the land of Canaan as a possession, that he would bless all families through his offspring, and moreover, that he would not leave him until he had accomplished what he promised. So, what has happened to make Jacob doubt that God would do as he said? Has God appeared to tell Jacob that he has changed his mind? No. Jacob’s brother, who wants him dead, is coming with four hundred men. Jacob fears Esau will kill him, with the women and children. But that would mean that God’s promise would not come true! But what are four hundred men to God’s promise? It could be four hundred thousand men with chariots of steel, and that would not change God’s promise. Nothing has changed in regards to God’s promise. Yet, though the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. Believing God’s promise when it looks like the promise will fail is too much for the sinful human nature, even if you dearly want to believe it.
So, what does Jacob do? He does as any Christian should do. He prays. Yet, pay careful attention to how Jacob prays. He says, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’” (Genesis 32:9-13)
Notice how Jacob prayed? He did not claim his own righteousness. He didn’t claim that he deserved anything from God at all, but that he was in fact unworthy of all that God had already given him. Yet, he clung to the promise. “But you said” That is the key to prayer: Faith in the promise. God only hears prayers said in faith. And Jesus promises, “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:24) Yet, how can you have faith that God will give you what you ask? You have to ask according to God’s promise. Jacob’s faith clings to God’s promise. In order to pray, you must have faith. And in order to have faith, you must have a promise to hold on to.
Yet, even after Jacob prays this wonderful prayer of faith, God doesn’t immediately answer him! Rather, God appears to Jacob as a man and wrestles with him all through the night! How is this an answer to Jacob’s prayer? Now, after pouring out his heart to the Lord, he must pour out his sweat and blood and endure extreme pain. Yet, even in the wrestling match, Jacob insists on God’s promise. When the Lord knocked his hip out of joint, Jacob clung on and refused to let him go until the Lord blessed him. This is the same as saying, “No, you promised. I won’t let go until you do as you promise!” And Jacob’s prayer was answered. God blessed Jacob. And the next morning, when Jacob arose Esau came to him, embraced him, kissed him, and wept. Jacob’s family was not in danger. Esau had forgiven Jacob. Jacob had passed the test and God kept true to his word.
So, what has God promised you? “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:16) These words from our Lord mean that your sins were washed away in your baptism and through faith you receive salvation as a gift. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) Again, Jesus promises us that through faith we will receive eternal life! Holy Scripture declares, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13; Joel 2:32). How can your salvation be in doubt? Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). St. Paul reasons, “If God is for us, who can be against us? 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?” (Romans 8:31-32). Indeed, we should have confidence to pray as God bids us in Psalm 50, “Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you, and you will glorify me.”
So many and so clear are the promises of God to you! He promises to forgive your sins! He promises to give you eternal life. He promises to protect you from every danger! He promises a good resolve of every trouble you encounter, as St. Paul says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) I dare say, we have more clear and plentiful promises from God to do us good than Jacob did, who himself saw God.
Life is difficult. There is a reason why the most beloved Psalm of so many is Psalm 23, in which we recite, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” We suffer from sickness, death of loved ones, and our own impending death. We deal with regret, temptation, and our own lack of faith. We fear for the future, we’re ashamed of our past, we feel suffocated in the present. Pain, sorrow, shame, fear, these are all trials we must bear any given year. And this past year has been rough for a number of reasons. For most of us, our routines have been drastically changed. We all have people we care about, whom we now rarely or never see. Many of us are dealing with isolation ourselves. And this unnatural isolation has harmed the health of our minds, bodies, and souls. Many of us are struggling with anxiety, strife with those we want to love, but find it difficult, fear, anger, frustration, loneliness, listlessness; and all this heaped upon struggles we may already have been facing.
Yet, how do any of these trials cancel the promises God has made to you? How do any of these trials undo what God has done? They don’t. They can’t. Just as Esau and his four hundred men could not cancel God’s promise to Jacob, so neither can any trial you face in this life cancel the promises God has made to you. St. Paul writes in Romans 8, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (vss. 38-39)
“Nor anything else in all creation...” That means you can fill in this statement of faith in God’s love with anything that seems to be separating you from God’s love. Neither death nor life, nor anxiety nor cancer, nor unemployment nor addiction, nor sin nor temptation, nor regret, nor sickness, nor betrayal, nor anything else you may be troubled with right now nor will be in the future will be able to separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus your Lord! Whatever your trial, cling to God’s promise! Know that nothing in all creation is able to undo what God has done for you in Christ Jesus your Lord.
Yet, often we do the very opposite of what we should do. Our trials lead us to flee from God’s promise, to avoid God’s word and instruction, to avoid receiving the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, which forgives our sins, strengthens our faith, and increases our love toward one another. We avoid prayer and dwell on the problems that are threatening our happiness and security, or even worse, many try to drown their sorrows with medication, drugs, and alcohol, further harming their relationships and adding on shame and depression. Yet, these are not the solutions to life’s trials.
Taking a break from God’s Word will never help your faith grow. Delaying prayer will not prepare you to pray better later. Do not wait until you feel better to look to God’s promises for encouragement, as if God’s love is only for those who are without sin. No, while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Listen to God’s promise to forgive you and save you when you feel unworthy and utterly sinful. Do not wait to pray until you feel worthy. Pray when you feel unworthy, as Jacob did, who deserved none of the loving kindness God showed to him. Pray not according to your worthiness, but according to God’s promise, which cannot be taken away by anything in this creation, whether it is four hundred armed men or your foolishness and sin.
The only thing that will separate you from God’s love in Christ Jesus is if you refuse to repent of your sins and refuse to cling to God’s promise to forgive and save you for Christ’s sake. Yet, when you hold on to God’s promises to you in Christ, you are equipped to pray with confidence and to endure trials. It is by focusing on God’s promises to us in Christ that we learn to rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance character, and character hope, and hope does not put to shame (Romans 5:3-4). Then we learn that God sends us these trials, so that we may learn that God does not cancel his promises to us. Amen.

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What is a great faith?

3/9/2020

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The Woman of Canaan by Michael Angelo Immenraet, 17th century, Public Domain

Reminiscere (Lent 2)
Matthew 15:21-28
March 8, 2020

“O woman, great is your faith!” What a compliment our Lord gave this Canaanite woman, who proved herself to be a daughter of Abraham through faith. Wouldn’t we all love to have so great a faith as this woman. But what does it mean to have a great faith?
One of my favorite illustrations to teach what faith is, is the story about two different men on two different lakes in the winter. The first man needs to get across the lake, but he fears that the ice is too thin to hold him up. He decides to crawl across the ice, spreading out his weight so as not to crack the ice. He does this until he sees a great big pickup truck drive across the ice without any problem. He realizes that the ice is three feet thick and he has no need to fear it breaking open beneath him.
The second man on a different lake has no such fear. He is positive that the ice on this lake will hold his weight. He needs to get across to the other side, so he confidently marches onto the ice. Almost immediately the ice breaks from under him. It was only a centimeter thick. The man’s confidence was misplaced.
Which man had a stronger faith? Well, certainly the second man. He was confident the ice would hold him. But he was wrong. His faith was wrong. The first man had the better faith, even though he feared and trembled like a bruised reed in the wind.
And this teaches us that the greatness of a faith is not measured in the confidence a person has alone. A sinner who has doubts, but who does trust in Jesus has saving faith. A person may have much stronger faith in something false, but that doesn’t make his faith true. The object of your faith is much more important than the strength of your faith. The object of our faith is Jesus. Faith receives Jesus and all the blessings he gives us. If Jesus is not the object of your faith, you will not receive his blessings.
The two people we learned about in our Old Testament and Gospel lesson struggled a lot with God. God seemed to be mean to them. God wrestled with Jacob all night long, even knocking his hip out of joint, so that he limped for the rest of his life. And that poor Canaanite woman! All she wanted was for her daughter to be rescued from the demon that oppressed her. Yet, Jesus ignored her, treated her like an outsider, and finally insulted her, calling her a dog.
Now, why did God treat these two individuals so harshly? He was testing them, in order to strengthen their faith. But I thought even a weak faith can receive salvation! Why does Jesus test this woman’s faith? Because losing your faith is a real danger. Jesus knows that those who follow him will bear their own crosses. A few weeks ago, we heard the parable about the sower. The seed he sowed was the word of God. Those planted on the rocks were those who heard the word of God and believed it with joy, but when the sun came out, that is, when tribulation and persecution arrived, the plants withered, because they had no depth to their roots. They indeed had true saving faith! But they fell away, because their faith was weak and unable to withstand the cross.
Jesus knows that those who follow him will be attacked by the devil, persecuted by the world, and that even their own sinful hearts will betray them to turn them away from Jesus. And so, our God tests us. He wrestles with us. He permits us to suffer, so that we will gain endurance, character, and hope that will not put to shame.
Little Bayla, who was just baptized into Christ a few moments ago, is a Christian. God has washed away all her sins in the washing of rebirth that joins her to Jesus’ death and resurrection. The Holy Spirit dwells in her. She has a simple, yet real infant faith in her Lord Jesus Christ. As she grows, she will learn more about her Savior Jesus. Her parents will teach her how Jesus, who is both God and man, died on the cross and rose from the dead to save her from her sins. She will learn that when she dies, she will go to heaven. The instruction will be simply and childlike. Yet, as she gets older and wiser, the devil’s tricks will become more sophisticated in order to trick her growing intellect. Her parents will not be able to control her environment, but the world will grow bigger and bigger around her, and so will its influence. And as her body grows and matures, so will her sinful flesh, which fights against the Spirit of God, who dwells inside her.
So, just as her parent feed her only milk now and do not discipline her at all, yet as she grows she will eat more complex foods, be given more responsibilities, and will be disciplined along the way, so also, her spiritual food will become more complex. She will be taught the faith in greater depth. She will learn arguments to fight against the devil’s lies and to withstand the pressure of the world and win the struggle against the sinful flesh. And God will permit her to suffer along the way too, as he does for all of us. This is how we grow in faith. This is who our faith grows stronger, so that we can bear the crosses of this life with patience.
Both Jacob and this Canaanite woman wrestled with God. And both Jacob and this Canaanite woman won. Jacob stubbornly held onto God, who was in the form of a man, until he blessed him. He wouldn’t even let go when his hip was knocked out of joint. Why did Jacob refuse to let go? Why did he insist on being blessed? Because God promised to bless him! God promised to be with Jacob wherever he went and that he would protect his family and make his offspring like the dust of the ground. God promised Jacob that he would not leave him until he had done as he promised (Gen. 28:13-15). Yet, in our Old Testament lesson, it looks like the opposite was happening. It looked like Jacob’s brother Esau was going to kill him and his wives and children and take all that he had. What Jacob saw looked like the opposite of what God promised. So, what did Jacob do? He prayed to God and held him at his word. Before his wrestling match with God, he said in a prayer, “But you said, ‘I will surely do you good.’” Jacob held on to God’s promise, just as he held onto the man he wrestled. And he won.
The Canaanite woman won in the same way. She called Jesus the Son of David, which means that she believed Jesus to be the Christ, God’s anointed Savior. And she believed the promise of Scripture that the Christ would save not only the people of Israel, but also the nations of the whole world. So, she called out to Jesus, the Son of David, for mercy.
But Jesus ignored her. When she continues to cry out, he said that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, that is, he was sent only to Jews. This woman is not a Jew, not a descendent of Israel. What Jesus says is true on two counts. He was sent first to proclaim the Gospel only to Israel. This is why he told his disciples to stay in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. This is also why St. Paul writes in Romans chapter 1, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” So, technically yes, Jesus’ ministry at that time was directed at the Jewish people. Jesus’ statement was also true, because everyone who believes in him, both Jews and non-Jews, are grafted into the one House of Israel. We are members of the House of Israel through faith.
It sounds like Jesus is rejecting her, but the woman continues to ask for help. Jesus says that it is not right to take the children’s bread and give it to the dogs. Here, Jesus is calling the Jews children and the Gentiles dogs. He’s calling her a dog. Will she give up? Will she walk away from Jesus and seek help elsewhere? No. She agrees with Jesus. She acknowledges that she is a dog. That is, she acknowledges that she doesn’t deserve anything from Jesus. But she knows what has been promised. She clings to the promise.
This is why Jesus says she has a great faith. She has a great faith, not only because she trusts in Jesus, but because she clings to Jesus even when it seems like he is rejecting her. She has a great faith, because she clings to Jesus’ word and promise.
A great faith clings to God’s promise, even when it seems like God is delaying, even through suffering and hardship. In fact, this suffering, hardship, and waiting strengthens the faith, which clings to the promise.
Many people measure their faith based on their feelings. When they feel good, they think their faith is strong. Others measure their faith based on their perceived power: how good they are at being a Christian. Some even measure their faith on whether they can speak in tongues or prophesy, or heal sick people. But these are false ways of measuring faith. You might feel good and strong, but that does not mean that you have a strong faith. And you might feel miserable and weak, but that doesn’t mean you have a weak faith. Rather, the true measurement of faith is Jesus Christ and the promise of forgiveness and salvation he offers in his word. If you hold onto Jesus and his promise, your faith is great. Your feelings will change. If you base your faith on your feelings, then your faith is founded on sinking sand. When your feelings change, when you get depressed or feel under attack, then your faith will crumble. But if your faith is grounded on Jesus and his promises, then whether you are sick or healthy, happy or depressed, weak or strong, your faith remains strong.
When I was in high school, I was on the wrestling team. Someone put up a poster in the wrestling room that said, “Pain is weakness leaving the body.” At the end of a grueling practice, when my clothes were drenched in sweat and my arms and legs felt like rubber, our coach would make us run sprints, do push-ups, and other exercises. They called it conditioning. In one exercise we would sit against the wall as if there were a chair underneath, with only our legs holding us up. As the strength was running out of me and my legs were burning and as the clock on the wall seemed to stop, I would look at that poster and read, “Pain is weakness leaving the body.” And I hated that poster.
When you’re in pain, when you’re suffering, you don’t like being told that your pain is good. When things are going well, it’s easy to quotes scripture and say, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28). But when you’re suffering, you don’t want to hear it. You just want your suffering to go away. But it would still be foolish to say the suffering did no good, or to give up Christ in an attempt to escape the suffering.
It is good that God lets us suffer here on earth, so that we cling closer to him and his promises. God has promised in our Baptism that we are his own children. He has promised that through Christ he will answer all our prayers. He has promised to forgive all our sins for the sake of Christ’s death and resurrection. He has promised to give us eternal life, to raise us from the dead. God has promised that our suffering is only temporary and that it is better to lose our life here on earth for Christ’s sake, than gain the whole world. God always keeps his promises.
The suffering we experience in this life is an exercise God gives us to strengthen our faith. As we suffer, we cling closer to the promises God gives us through Jesus in his Word. As we suffer, we fall out of love with our bodies, which cause us so much pain. We fall out of love with the world, which leaves us behind. We fall out of love with ourselves, and claim to be nothing. And Jesus becomes everything. It is as the Psalmist says in Psalm 73, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (vss. 25-26)
When this world, its cares and troubles, our pride and power, and everything else becomes nothing, and Christ is our everything, then our faith is great. Scripture promises that the suffering of this present time is not worth comparing with the glory to be revealed to us in Jesus. God grant us the faith to believe that. Amen.

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March 18th, 2019

3/18/2019

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Genesis 32:22-32
Matthew 15:22-28
March 17, 2019

Jacob’s anxiety levels are so high, he’s having trouble breathing. His brother Esau is coming to meet him with four hundred men; Esau, who swore that he would kill Jacob. Jacob thinks that he is going to lose everything that God gave him: his flocks and servants, his wives and children. And then a man from God comes to wrestle him all through the night, as if to taunt him saying, “God will not bless you. You will die with your family. Your name will die with you.”
A mother’s overcome with anguish only a mother worried for her child can know. Her daughter is badly oppressed by a demon. St. Matthew doesn’t tell us from what exact ailment this little girl suffers, but from other accounts of demonic oppression from the Gospels, we can come up with a number of likely possibilities: Deafness, muteness, seizers, paralysis, extreme pain, the loss of her mental faculties, torture of the mind. Regardless of the exact nature of this particular demon, her daughter suffers and this mother feels helpless.
She’s a Canaanite, a descendent of pagans, whom God commanded Israel to drive out of the land. Yet, she believes in Jesus. She calls him her Lord. She calls him the Son of David, which means the Christ. She pleads for him to have mercy on her daughter, believing that God is merciful as Scripture promises. But Jesus doesn’t answer. Then he says he was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel, which clearly excludes Canaanites. And finally, Jesus calls her a dog.
This Canaanite woman and Jacob both had faith in the one true God. They heard the promises God made through his word and they believed God. Why then is God so mean to them? Why can’t he just give them a break? Why must he push them away, insult them, and pour salt in their wounds? These two stories sound strange, yet Scripture is filled with examples of God’s people crying out to a seemingly disinterested or even vindictive God.
Psalm 10:1, “Why, O LORD, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” Psalm 13, “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?” Psalm 44, “In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever. But you have rejected us and disgraced us and have not gone out with our armies. You have made us turn back from the foe, and those who hate us have gotten spoil. … All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face at the sound of the taunter and reviler, at the sight of the enemy and the avenger. All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way; yet you have broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death. If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart. Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever! Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?”
Why does God let his Christians suffer? He still does, doesn’t he? Don’t we Christians still suffer? And I’m not just talking about physical pain and the anxieties of day to day life, which even the unbelievers must endure. I’m talking about suffering that attacks your very soul; Physical suffering that makes you wonder whether God loves you; Betrayal from those, who you thought loved you. I’m talking about a suffering that certainly includes physical, emotional, and mental pain, but goes much deeper than that; suffering, which assaults your faith in God. Why, oh why does God permit such suffering to happen to his children?
It’s not because God hates his children. God didn’t hate Jacob. Jesus didn’t hate the Canaanite woman or her daughter. And he doesn’t hate you. Rather, God permits his dear Christians to suffer in order to strengthen their faith in him.
Martin Luther explains how this works when he writes on how to become a theologian. A theologian is someone who studies God’s Word. We should all seek to be theologians. Luther says that a theologian must go through three stages: oratio, meditatio, tentatio.
Oratio refers to prayer. Luther teaches that the Holy Scriptures are not like any other book. The Bible is the Word of God. It teaches spiritual things, which cannot be understood by natural man, but only by those who are Spiritual (1 Corinthians 2). That is why you must always begin with prayer. You need the Holy Spirit to understand the words of God. This is also why we pray before we listen to a sermon. God is always the teacher of his word.
Meditatio is what it sounds like, meditation. Yet, the meditation Luther refers to here is not what you might think of with Buddhist monks meditating with their eyes closed, trying to reach a state of nothingness. No, Christian meditation does not happen apart from God’s word. Meditating on God’s Word means to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest God’s Word. This is different than reading any other book. When you read any other book you make constant judgments as to whether what the author says is true, whether it makes sense to you, whether it is acceptable to your school of reasoning. Not so with Scripture. When you read Scripture, you must submit yourself to it. It is God’s Word. God must teach you.
Meditating on God’s word is how your faith in Christ grows. Faith of course comes from hearing the words of Christ. Scripture is the word of Christ. Yet, as you grow in understanding and conviction in the promises found in God’s Word the third stage happens: tentatio.
Tentatio refers to spiritual assault. This is when the devil attacks you. This sounds terrifying and strange, but this is exactly what will happen if you believe the words of Christ. Satan hates Jesus. He doesn’t want anyone to follow him. He wants all Jesus’ Christians to fall away and go to hell. So, he violently attacks Christians, you, me, and little Canaanite girls.
God permits these attacks. Not because he’s cruel or reckless, but in order to strengthen your faith. “No pain, no gain,” is a cliché, but it is true. If you have a traumatic accident and can’t walk and must go through physical therapy, you must learn to work through some pain in order to walk again. This is the same thing with faith in Christ. This is why Jesus says, “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciples.” Your faith comes with a cross. If you are not willing to bear the cross, then you will lose your faith as well.
God uses Satan’s attacks to strengthen your faith; Satan clearly has a different goal. He desires to kill your faith. He does this by trying to make the cross you must bear for Christ too heavy, so that you throw out your faith in order to escape the cross. Satan is in a mad furry to kill your faith, but he is also cleverer than you know and well versed in his craft.
Yet, what foils these attacks of the devil is his own attack. What do Christians do when they are spiritually assaulted? What should you do when Satan attacks you? Pray to God and go to Scripture. Take refuge in the promises of God. This is how you foil the devil’s attacks. And this is how you defeat God in a wrestling match. The devil wants you to despair of God’s promises. God intends you to cling to his promises even if you lose everything else.
This is what Jacob did. Jacob wrestled God himself. Yet, he would not let go until God blessed him. Why did he say this? Because God promised to bless him. Even with a dislocated hip Jacob clung to God’s promise. He would die clinging to it. God said to Jacob in Genesis 28, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you.”
God promised Jacob, “in you and in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” Jacob clung to this promise. So did the Canaanite woman. She believed that she would be blessed through Jesus Christ, the offspring of Jacob. When Jesus ignored her, she clung to the promise. When Jesus said he was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel, she clung to the promise. When Jesus took away her pride and humiliated her, she clung to Jesus’ words. She called herself a dog and Jesus raised her up to sit at the table.
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” We heard Jesus say these words last week when he defeated Satan. So, it seems strange that Jesus would not help this woman, whose daughter is oppressed by a minion of the devil. Yet, Jesus is teaching the woman these very words, which thwarted Satan’s plans. Through this trial Jesus taught this woman to value nothing, not her strength, not her intelligence or pride, nothing, but the word of God. And Jesus teaches us the same thing in our lives.
The trials we face, the suffering we endure, God uses them to teach us to trust solely in him. We sang last week, “Take they our lives, goods, fame, child, and wife, though these all be gone, our vict’ry has been won; the Kingdom ours remaineth.” Let these all be gone. If I have but God’s word, his promise, then I have everything I need.
It is important for our faith to mature to such a trust that we can lose everything and yet still be satisfied with Christ. Because, our lives will change. We will lose what we love. That’s part of life. When you have everything you think you need, you feel like God is with you. But it would be a terrifying thing if God were only with you when you felt that he was with you. Because you will not always feel that way. Things may not always go as you’d like them to. You may feel like God is far away. But if you cling to the promises God makes to you in his word, you know that he is near, with you every day.
It seems brutal that Jesus would permit us to suffer so. But Jesus himself had to wrestle with God. In the garden he suffered anguish on account of God’s word. Yet, he trusted in his heavenly Father even as he gave him the cup of woe to drink, the bitter cup of guilt and condemnation of all people. He trusted in the promise of Scripture that he would be raised from the dead, even as he cried to God in dereliction from the cross. Jesus knows more than any human being in the world what it feels like to have his faith tested by God. And he endured it for our sake. He went to the cross confident that his Father would raise him from the grave.
When Jesus willingly bore the guilt of the whole world and died on the cross for sinners, he confessed his confidence in the word of God. And his resurrection from the dead proved God keeps his promises. God permits you to suffer. And sometimes God himself pushes you. He does this so that you will pray to him even more fervently and so that you will look to his promises in Scripture with even greater hope. Satan would have you escape God’s hand and find solace in some earthly, temporal pleasure. Don’t do that. Rather, when affliction oppresses you turn to God. Cling to his promise and remind God of the promise he made to you. Find your comfort in the fact that God sent Jesus to die for you to save you from your sins. God is pleased with you. He loves you and wants to give you all things as a free gift. Let the trials God sends you be an opportunity to cast off all distractions and rest in God’s grace alone. God accepts you for the sake of Jesus’ suffering and death. He forgives your sins on account of Christ. There is no greater comfort you can find in this life than the comfort of God’s love for you revealed in Scripture. And Scripture promises that the sufferings you now endure are not even worth comparing to the glory to be revealed to you. God loves you. And there is nothing on this earth or in heaven or hell or in your past or future that can change that.   Amen.

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"For faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." ~ Romans 10:17

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Nothing on Earth Can Cancel God’s Promise to You

What is a great faith?

March 18th, 2019

Rev. James Preus

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