Tomorrow Sunday August 17th 2014 at Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church of Irvine: “The Great Thing About Little Dogs” (Matthew 15:21-28)
Divine Service: 9:30 am
Bible Study and Sunday School: 11:00 am
Location: Crean Lutheran High School in Irvine: 12500 Sand Canyon Ave., Irvine, CA 92618
Directions: Exit Sand Canyon from the 405 or 5, head East towards the hills, cross Irvine Blvd., turn right on Saint’s Way (this will put you on the campus of Crean Lutheran High School…we worship in the event center/gym)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Sermon
“The Great Thing about Little Dogs” (Matthew 15:21-28)
For Your Life in Christ the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 17th, 2014
Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church of Irvine, CA (LC-MS)
Pastor Espinosa
Introduction: No matter how you cut it, this morning’s Gospel is very challenging: There is a woman in desperate need, and there is no question that she has true faith in the Lord (she calls Jesus “Lord” three times), and she is truly an example of faith, love, and humility, and yet this is a rough summary of what happened:
- It appears that Jesus completely ignored her first request. She came crying out, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” (22) And then Scripture records, “But he did not answer her a word.” (23)
- Then after Jesus’ disciples seemed to have insinuated that the Lord should just help her out and send her on her way, Jesus essentially said that he had not come for this woman (23-24). Jesus answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (24) You see the woman who was begging him was a Cannanite, a race that in the Old Testament Israel was commanded by God to exterminate because of their idol worship (Dt 20:17). The point is that the woman was seemingly rejected a second time!
- The Scriptures record what happened next: “But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’” (25) And it was to this that Jesus after seemingly ignoring her and then seemingly avoiding her, finally actually speaks to her, but notice what he actually said to her: “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”Wow! First, the woman is seemingly ignored; then, the woman is seemingly actively avoided; and then, Jesus called her a dog!
Part I: How Would You Have Reacted?
A. I will never forget the story of what happened with my dad (of blessed memory) when my parent’s first baby – my big brother who I never met – was only three days old and because of the extreme heat and his difficulty breathing, died as an infant. My parents were very young and devastated of course. My dad went out walking and went to find the local pastor. He found the pastor and told the pastor what had happened and asked the pastor if he would conduct the funeral for his baby boy. To which the pastor responded that he couldn’t because he was essentially too busy. Needless to say, that didn’t go over too well with my dad. He had recently been honorably discharged from the U.S. Marines after fighting for our country in World War II. When the pastor said this, my dad basically used some colorful language to tell the pastor what he could do. As my dad walked away, the pastor realized the seriousness of what had just transpired, and he literally went running after my dad. He did the service.
B. This true story has made a deep impression on me. People need their pastor’s to be there for them. I am humbled by my limitations, but I pray that I will always be able to serve you faithfully. If I do not respond to the real needs of my people, not only would I hurt them, but I could hurt their faith in the Lord. But what happens when it seems that THE pastor, the Shepherd of our souls, the true God, the Lord Himself is the One who does not answer us? There are times when God is silent, and there are times when we feel that we are being ignored. And it hurts and it can hurt so much that we are tempted to tell God what he can do as we walk away in anger and confusion. Does this ever happen? It happens more often than we think.
II. But Faith Looks Past Appearances:
- This Gospel is given to us this morning dear Christians so that we would learn from the Canaanite woman. She did not give up on God even though many people would reason that she should have. That’s the problem with us, we don’t want to live by faith, we want God to do exactly what we think is right when and where we say and we prove ourselves to be sinners, because we are always putting ourselves first.
- This woman in our Gospel, however, brings out the truth about God. It has been said about this account from Matthew 15 that it really wasn’t the woman who was looking for Jesus, but it was – all along – Jesus who was looking for the woman.
- What we take as ignoring her, Luther has a different take:
“Look how Christ drives her faith deep into her heart that it becomes strong and firm.”