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March 8, 2009 -- Second Sunday in Lent -- Service Guide -- Bulletin

"The Audacity of Faith"

From the Old Testament of the Day: And He said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel;[a] for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed." [Genesis 32.28]

From the Holy Gospel: And she said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table." [Matthew 15.27]

Today’s weekly oasis for faith in the midst of Lent is Reminiscere, "Remember, O Lord, Thy tender mercies," as we heard and spoke it in the Introit and again in the Tract of the Day. It is a call for help. Or, more precisely put, it is a call of the helpless.

The things that we pray for are always a call for help, even if it is the simple, and rare, occasion when we need help finding appropriate words to thank God for answered prayer or even more so, thanking God for His interference in our daily life with mercy, with grace, with a miracle. So, out of need or ought to gratitude, prayer is always a call for help.

But, there are those times when we are acutely aware of the call for help. These time occur when the need is overwhelming and the normal resources of life are completely inadequate. The call for help turns into the call of the helpless. And very fact that we find ourselves making a plea to God through the call of the helpless teaches us to grow in the "Audacity of Faith," which is our sermon theme today.

I.

You hear two calls of the helpless in the texts of the day for this Reminiscere Sunday. The first is in the Old Testament, where Jacob has another special night out under the starry skies. The first is his first night on the run from the death threat of his brother Esau. He becomes utterly aware of his aloneness and his helplessness. That night God answers Jacob’s need through the vision of the ladder or staircase connecting heaven with Jacob and his hard and stubborn head lying on a rock for a pillow.

Now, in today’s Old Testament, Jacob heading back to his fatherland after years of service to his uncle, Laban, and Jacob is aware that he will meet up with Esau in the morning. So, he sends his family and his servants and his flocks in two different directions to save them, hopefully, from destruction at hands of Esau and his large band of soldiers.

So, Jacob is again alone, and again God comes to Him. And in some sense about which we can only offer conjecture, Jacob "wrestles" with God, and he will not let him go – which really means, God will continue to be present to the call of His chosen sons and daughters. In this sense, Jacob says, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

Now, what does this mean, "unless you bless me"? Is Jacob stronger than God – No, he isn’t, and neither are you. What Jacob takes hold of is the ear of God, and he will not let go until God blesses him and his family in the face of the encounter with a brother who has long ago vowed to kill him.

And bless him, God does. He gives Jacob three things. He gives Jacob a new name, "Israel," meaning "struggled with God." He gives Jacob a damaged hip, as a constant remember of who he is in relationship to his God. And, He gives Jacob peace and protection as he encounters Esau and as he re-enters the land of Canaan. Jacob indeed presents to God his call of the helpless, which is the true call of faith, the true audacity of faith. And God blesses him, not due to faith – as if faith orders God around if it’s laud enough or sustained enough – not due to faith, but in the context of faith, and THAT IS the audacity of faith.

II.

In the Holy Gospel, we see this same audacity of faith in the Canaanite Woman. In the centuries that have passed since Jacob, along with his father and step-father, made the land of Canaan their home, according to the direct promise of God, this little band of God’s chosen people moved from Canaan into Egypt in the time of the great famine. Their off-spring grew there into a nation over a period of 4 centuries, in which time the Egyptians changed their status from guests to slaves. God miraculously leads them out under the leadership of Moses, back to Canaan, which they now see in the same terms as did Abraham long before – a land flowing with milk and honey.

But, the Canaanites have grown also, both in numbers and in apostacy and rebellion against God. So, God blesses Joshua as he leads the army of the Israelites – the struggles with God people – by the audacity of faith, and they conquer the land.

By the time that we meet the Canaanite woman, God’s chosen people have gone astray, and the land is taken from them, as they are taken into captivity. God again brings them back to the promised land. They again grew in their pattern of neglecting God and his grace, and they are conquered twice more by the time that Jesus arrives on the scene, and he has this encounter with a woman who would properly be labeled the Syrophonecian woman, but it’s easier to take the more general perspective – in this Gospel, she is the Canaanite woman.

III.

Now, Dr. Luther says this about the encounter that she has with Jesus and that we have with her. "This Gospel presents to us a true example of firm and perfect faith. For this woman endures and overcomes in three great and hard battles, and teaches us in a beautiful manner the true way and virtue of faith, namely, that it is a hearty trust in the grace and goodness of God as experienced and revealed through his Word."

And how does this woman wrestle with God through "three great and hard battles"? She persists in praying the pray of the helpless. She does not twist our Lord’s wrist. She clings to Jesus in persistent – yes, even stubborn – prayer. It is the prayer of the helpless, because she has no other option.

Now, think about that – she has no other option. Oh, she could go after other medical resources, or, she can go back to her child with some home-made medicine, or she could just rise up in anger at Jesus and curse him. But none of these things will heal her child. So, by the audacity of faith, which is the audacity of persistent prayer, she clings tenaciously to Jesus’ ear, like Jacob of old, until Jesus say so her, "Woman, great is your faith!"

It is as Luther calls it, the "virtue of faith, namely, that it is a hearty trust in the grace and goodness of God as experienced and revealed through his Word." This woman comes to hear about Jesus. That’s way she chases after Him when she hears that, miracle of miracles, Jesus has left his own home territory of Galilee and is now approaching her home town. The woman with no resources, condemned to watch the slow death of her child, now hears that Jesus is nearby, and off she goes to grab Him by the ear with her prayer of the helpless.

It is easy to see how this encounter between this woman and your Savior would be a blessed event. But she couldn’t see that until after Jesus acts! The audacity of faith is not throwing temper tantrums until God gives you something you think you want. The audacity of faith is never about you and what you think, it is about helplessness before God and what He thinks, out of which faith sees God at work on the basis of God’s Word and the faithfulness of God’s care for His elect – His chosen people.

As you are now God’s elect, His chosen child: God grant you in this Lenten season the blessed experience of grabbing His ear -- of the audacity of faith in the call of the helpless!