Psalm 86,3-5.11; 86,9. 17. Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Psalm 86,3-5.11; Psalm 86,9  5017

17. Sonntag nach Trinitatis  062 

Pelagia, penitent of Antioch, Turkey, 5^th c.

8. Oktober 2017 

1. О Lord Jesus Christ, Thou who brings into His Church from all nations, send us forth to proclaim Your gospel, so that our neighbors will also be chosen and Your heritage.  Amen. (Gradual) 

2. O Lord, all the nations You have made will go and worship before You, and will glorify Your Name. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to You do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of Your servant, for to You, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon You. Teach me Your way, O Lord, so that I may walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your Name. 

  3. It is the Lord’s desire for all men and women to acknowledge and worship Him. In fact, the Psalmist proclaims that this will indeed happen: »O Lord, all, the nations You have made will go and worship before You, and will glorify Your Name.« The Prophet Micah proclaimed the same 700 years later: »It shall happen in the latter days that many nations will go to Mt. Zion, and say: „Arise, let us go up to Mt. Zion so that the Lord may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths.“« (Micah 4,1.2). The Apostle Peter proclaimed at Pentecost: »In the last days God will pour out His Spirit on all the nations« (Joel 2,28; Acts 2,17). And also the Apostle James declared: »Peter has related how God first visited the nations to take from them a people for His Name« (Acts 15,14). 

  4. Today’s Gospel pericope highlights God’s mercy to the Gentiles: He healed the daughter of a Canaanite woman (Matthew 15,22.28). Jesus is Israel’s Messiah but He is also gracious to the nations. In fact, Jesus confirms that even Gentiles can have faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Matthew 15,28). This is quite a powerful statement given the historic animosity between Jews and Canaanites. The Canaanites were living in Palestine, the Promised Land, when Joshua lead the Israelites in to the land promised to Abraham’s descendants. The Canaanites at that time were wicked and depraved: they practiced a heinous form of idolatry: sacrificing their children to Moloch by burning them (Deuteronomy 18,10-11). The Canaanites in Jesus’ day still bore that stigma among many Jews: clearly Canaanites cannot have faith in our God and the fact that this girl is possessed clearly shows the Jews that her mother must practice the vile idolatry of her ancestors. 

5. Yet, Jesus shows that He is gracious to those who cry to Him for help, whether they be Jew or Gentile. Jesus shows this same grace to people, to us, today. The Psalmist comforts us with these words: »The Lord is good and forgiving; He abounds in steadfast love to all who call upon Him.« When His people needed deliverance from their enemies, the Lord sent them judges and kings; when they sinfully strayed from His Word, He sent them prophets. Finally, they Epistle to the Hebrews tells us: »Long ago God spoke to our fathers in many and various ways by the Prophets, and now in these last days He has spoken to us by a Son« (Hebrews 1,1-2). This Son is the promised Christ; Jesus called the people back to the Scriptures, told them to repent of their sin and He then forgave them. In Jesus, the mercy of His Father is physically manifested in flesh and blood, for the angels sang at His birth: »To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with who He is pleased« (Luke 2,11.14). Again, the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us: »And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him« (Hebrews 11,6). Faith in Jesus is pleasing to God the Father, and this Jesus is gracious to us for as His Father is pleased with Him then so He is pleased with us. 

6. The Psalmist prays: »O Lord, teach me Your Way, so thatI may walk in Your Truth.« Jesus is the fulfillment of this verse, for He says: »I am the Way, the Truth and the Life« (John 14,6). The Canaanites woman’s faith was great because her faith was in Jesus. Yes, all nations will confess Jesus to be the Christ, and our little church is a microcosm of different nations who share a common faith in Jesus. The Holy Spirit creates similar Christian microcosms throughout our State, our nation and even the world. The gospel has no national or cultural boundaries, for it is able to create faith in all who hear the Truth of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. 

7. This gospel is to be shared with our neighbors. Jesus tells us: »You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but rather puts it on the lampstand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let you light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven« (Matthew 5,13-16). Yes, let others see your faith, let them bear witness to your good works, so that in seeing and hearing the love and mercy of Jesus in your lives they may also believe in Him too.  Amen. 

8. Let us pray. O Heavenly Father, whose  steadfast love endures forever; guide the words of our lips and the deeds of our hands so that we may encourage and build the faith of others.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, Vol. 4. © 1963 Henry Regnery Co. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.