St Peter Lutheran Church Wisconsin Synod

09/07/2026

Pentecost 15
Text: Jeremiah 15:15-21
Theme: Welcoming Reproach

15 Lord, you understand; remember me and care for me. Avenge me on my persecutors. You are long-suffering—do not take me away; think of how I suffer reproach for your sake. 16 When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, Lord God Almighty. 17 I never sat in the company of revelers, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation. 18 Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? You are to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails. 19 Therefore this is what the Lord says: “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them. 20 I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you,” declares the Lord. 21 “I will save you from the hands of the wicked and deliver you from the grasp of the cruel.”

WELCOMING REPROACH

King Solomon once wrote, “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.” (Proverbs 27:6) Sometimes, the words we need to hear the most are the ones that cut us the deepest. When someone shares these words with us, we know we should be grateful, but maybe our raw emotions get the better of us in the moment. That’s when we take that necessary step back to really take in our friend’s words, and we recognize that, not only did our friend mean well, they also weren’t wrong when they said what they said. I’m the one who screwed up, and they’re the one trying to bring me back to my senses. We come to understand that our loved one loved us enough to tell us that we were wrong, and we appreciate them for it. We also admit that, in general, it’s good when the people we love and trust tell us to get back on track. It can be harder to recognize this goodness, though, when those same loved ones tells us we were never on the right track to begin with.

Today, we catch up with the prophet Jeremiah, who is, perhaps characteristically, not having a great time. He is deep in prayer, and his prayer sounds a bit like what we’ve been talking about these last few weeks. Jeremiah remembered that God made the promise to him: “Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose; surely I will make your enemies plead with you in times of disaster and times of distress.” (Jer 15:11) Now, Jeremiah planned to hold God to that promise. He wrestled with God, boldly proclaiming, “Lord, you understand; remember me and care for me. Avenge me on my persecutors. You are long-suffering—do not take me away; think of how I suffer reproach for your sake.” (Jeremiah 15:15) This is what you said you’d do, Lord, so do it, because I’m hurting here! And why was Jeremiah hurting so much? What drove him to his fervent prayer-wrestle? It’s no mystery. Jeremiah was tasked by God to prophesy to impenitent, exile-era Judah. He got to tell the Judahites day-in and day-out that Jerusalem would be destroyed and that the people only had themselves to blame for it. And of course, as Jeremiah preached against the spiritual corruption of “God’s chosen people,” he got to watch as they did absolutely nothing in response. Well, that’s not quite true. They didn’t change their ways, but they did start to rally against Jeremiah. Other prophets say the exile will end! Other prophets tell us we’re perfectly fine and reassure us with beautiful, beautiful words. Why do you insist on doing the opposite, Jeremiah, and why do you insist that God told you to? And all the while, God’s just wrath is continuing to burn, and he keeps giving Jeremiah messages to share, and it all wears Jeremiah down.

As you read this account, doesn’t it amaze you how some people can still claim that the Bible is irrelevant and outdated? Here’s a righteous man of God, grown weary from the moral corruption of the world! Relatable, isn’t it? But when Jeremiah shares what’s weighing on his heart with the Lord, God responds with, “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me.” (Jeremiah 15:19) Ahh, a call to repentance! So, Jeremiah was in the wrong! It appeared to us at first like Jeremiah was trying to hold God to his promises, but God saw into Jeremiah’s heart. God knew that Jeremiah’s prayer was coming from a place of doubt! It was less, “God, you said you’d do this, so do it when and how you see fit,” and more “God, you haven’t done this yet, so are you going to do it at all?” And therein lies our lesson. We identify with Jeremiah. We identify with Jeremiah’s pain and moral outrage. God shows us that we must also identify with Jeremiah’s sin and repent ourselves, to let go of our doubts and to press on in faith! To trust that God will work his good and perfect will out according to his good and perfect schedule. And that seems thematically consistent enough with the lessons we’ve been learning these last few weeks so…job well done? Not quite. Oh, sure, we’d like to see ourselves in Jeremiah, weary from our righteous anger, perhaps on the right track for a while but that pesky doubt creeps in, and God lovingly swoops in to course correct us. But what if we’re not Jeremiah? What if, instead, we’re those men and women who made Jeremiah feel so weary in the first place? Could it be that, instead of temporarily falling off track, we were never on the right track to begin with?

Well now, this certainly feels like a weighty accusation, so what’s meant by it? Who were those men and women Jeremiah preached to? They were God’s chosen people. Admittedly, we gave them this title a bit facetiously earlier, but that’s who they were. And as God’s chosen people, they were expected to remain faithful to their God, and they weren’t. They weren’t living according to the identity God gave them. Again, that’s why Jeremiah was sent to preach to them. And in reference to them, Jeremiah said, “I never sat in the company of revelers, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation.” (Jeremiah 15:17) Jeremiah was filled with righteous indignation because people weren’t listening to his message—to God’s message—and this is how we’d like to see ourselves. We like to believe our indignation is also righteous, and we righteously rage against this sinful world where right is wrong and wrong is right and “progressivism” seems to just be another code word for progressing away from God. And we’re secure in our moral standing, because we don’t fall for any of that nonsense. We pride ourselves on doing the right thing and listening to the right people...sort of like the Judahites. But do we listen when Jeremiah himself comes along? Do we listen to the words calling for self-reflection and the words condemning self-assurance? Do we recognize that we, too, can be guilty of placing our confidence in the works of men and in man-made institutions? Or do we think our own Jerusalem could never fall?

You know, the Judahites believed their indignation was righteous, too. They listened to men who presented themselves as moral and upright, men who assured them that their time in exile would be over before they knew it. And when this Jeremiah came along, preaching a message contrary to the one they had been welcoming, they resented him for it, and they believed they were right to do so. They believed that Jeremiah was being needlessly harsh and cruel, they considered his message to be godless fearmongering, and they went after him. He was in the wrong, he was standing against God, he needed to be punished. And from our perspective, this behavior is obviously foolish and dangerously misguided. We know the comforting idolatry of the Judahites was wrong. We know the disquieting prophesies of Jeremiah were right. But we can’t act as though this knowledge is proof that we would never make similar spiritual mistakes. We are not immune to false doctrine. We are not invulnerable to spiritual deception. We should feel secure, yes, but secure in the grace of God, not in the toughness of our own faith. Didn’t we just say last week that every soul in hell had their sins forgiven? And did that not show us that God will never fail us, but we are more than capable of failing him? We are appalled by the bullheadedness of the Judahites, of God’s chosen people, but if we scoff at the possibility of falling into the same temptations they did, we need to stop and ask ourselves where that certainty is coming from, because it certainly doesn’t come from God.

You know what does come from God, though? Restoration. God promised he would restore Jeremiah and use him as his spokesman once more. God also promised restoration for his wayward chosen people. But of course, before restoration, God calls for repentance—from Jeremiah, from the Judahites, from us. We are to recognize our weaknesses and vulnerabilities. We are to be honest about the times we have not placed our trust in God as well as the times we have placed our trust in false gods. We are to confess that we are sinful and in need of forgiveness, and we are also to trust that such forgiveness is ours through Jesus Christ. And again, speaking of last week and speaking of The Unforgivable Sin, you may have wondered why anyone would ever want to reject the forgiveness and restoration God freely provides. Oftentimes, it’s rejected because the sinner doesn’t think he needs it. He doesn’t want to be open about his weakness and his aptness to stray. He doesn’t want to admit that he can be prone to spiritual propaganda and fall for the teachings of false prophets. It’s embarrassing, it’s shameful, it’s pathetic, to admit that you hadn’t merely fallen off the right track, but that you had been riding on the wrong track this whole time. But it’s far more pathetic to double-down on your wrongness, to rage against your Jeremiah, to reject forgiveness, simply to keep your ego intact. Don’t let this be you, my brothers and sisters, but hold on to those precious words God shared with Jeremiah: “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me.”

Ultimately, the vast majority of Judahites did not listen to Jeremiah, and Jerusalem was destroyed. For a time, repentance came, but then the Judahites, along with their Israelite brothers and sisters, kept falling back into the same old unfaithfulness, even going so far as rejecting the Messiah when he finally came. And so, they did not get the land of Israel back, the loss of their physical home serving as a stark reminder of their rejection of their spiritual home with Christ. They forfeited their identity as God’s chosen people and they forfeited the restoration God promised them. Because of all of this, they are a harrowing group to identify with, but our similarities with God’s former chosen people don’t have to continue. The bullheaded, impenitent idolater who refused to listen to Jeremiah’s words? That’s not actually who you are. That’s not who Jesus shed his blood to enable you to be. That is not your God-given identity, and the identity he has given you isn’t worth throwing away for the sake of worldly pride and undamaged egos. You are all God’s chosen people, and that means you heed God’s call to repentance, and you welcome his restoration with open arms. Amen.

09/06/2026

08/31/2026

Well folks, we've got a few events coming up this Fall, and we'd love for you to be a part of them!

Saturday, September 5th: Men's & Women's Classes at 10:00am

Friday, September 11th: Church movie night at 6:00pm

Sunday, September 13: Sunday School begins at 10:30am

Sunday, September 20: Adult Bible Class begins at 10:30am

And if you aren't able to attend these events in person but would still like study materials for home use, we're more than happy to provide them! We also offer our study packet on the Creation account, which we went over at this past Friday's Family Bible Class. A quick note on that one though--it may be tweaked a bit so it's easier to follow for home use. But if you'd like a copy of our Genesis study in its current form, just ask and we'll make sure you get one.

God bless the rest of your summer, and we'll see you in the fall!

08/31/2026

Pentecost 14
Text: Revelation 7:1-4
Theme: Sealed in Grace

After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: 3 “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” 4 Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.

SEALED IN GRACE
“Lord, help me!” “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Has your praying gotten bolder since last week? Have you been clinging to God’s promises, refusing to give up on them, come what may? I hope so. Of course, there are some promises we’ll be clinging to for a while yet. It doesn’t mean they won’t be fulfilled; it’s just that we won’t necessarily have them right now. Take, for instance, heaven. It is ours. It’s been promised to us. We have a place prepared there for all of us. But we aren’t there yet, so we wait. We wait, and we cling, and all this waiting and clinging gives us a lot of time to think. Our minds scan over the swaths of time we’ve waited for prayers to be answered before. We think about past wrongdoings and past regrets. Questions start burning in the backs of our minds, but we do our best not to pay any attention to them…but they persist. And as the trials continue and the grappling keeps going, those questions get louder and louder. This is going on for a while now, isn’t it? Why hasn’t he done something yet? Has he forgotten me? Has he forgiven me? Have I done something wrong? That last one’s a scary thought, isn’t it? Have you done something wrong? Have you, during all this time you’ve spent waiting for heaven, done something that would “disqualify” you from receiving that particular gift? Think about it. God’s promises are for his faithful children. You haven’t always been faithful, have you? No, you’ve begrudged your testing. You’ve gone lax in your prayer-grappling. You’ve gotten fed up with the whole business because you’re hurting, and God himself is taking too long to do something about it! Okay, these are all just…frustrated thoughts that you walk yourself back from. You blow off your steam, then you pray for forgiveness, and then you get back on track…maybe. You’re not an unbeliever, but you did act like an unbeliever for a bit there. And unbelievers don’t get to go to heaven, do they?

Different branches of Christianity tackle this question in different ways. The Presbyterian and Baptist churches, for example, base their doctrine on the teachings of man named John Calvin, whose approach essentially boiled down to, “Once saved, always saved.” This means if you’re a believer, you can never fall out of faith, and you can never run the risk of loosing the heaven that awaits you. God has locked you in, and you are predestined for eternal life. This also means that if, outwardly, it appears as though you have fallen away from faith, it’s just visible evidence that you were never really a believer in the first place. You were an unbeliever, you are an unbeliever, you will always be an unbeliever, and you’re predestined for eternal damnation. We take several issues with this approach, because the Bible itself takes several issues with this approach. The writer to the Hebrews states: “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.” “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left.” (Heb 6:4-6 and Heb 10:26) These passages make it abundantly clear that someone can have genuine faith in Christ’s sacrifice for a time, only to reject the blessings that come from his sacrifice later. This, by the way, is what we recognize as “The Unforgivable Sin,” to fully receive the Gospel message and then to throw it away. To deliberately, consciously turn away from Christ, all while knowing that he is your Savior from sin. The Unforgivable Sin is the act of treating forgiveness itself with contempt, which makes a great deal of sense if you think about it. A man cannot welcome something and turn it away at the same time. A man cannot be forgiven when he rejects forgiveness.

With all this in mind, let’s consider the Apostle Peter. You remember the great confession Peter gave. It was the climax of today’s Gospel lesson. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Matt 16:16) Peter knew who Jesus was. Peter knew what Jesus came to do. But in that one courtyard, while Jesus’ trial was going on, Peter insisted he had nothing to do with Jesus, even though he was one of The Twelve, Jesus’ innermost circle of followers. So, because Peter knew who Jesus was and consciously distanced himself from him, does that mean Peter committed The Unforgivable Sin? Did Peter forfeit the promise of heaven? Based on all the evidence we have from Scripture, we can say, conclusively, the answer is “No.” Remember that after Peter denied Jesus three times, he went out and wept bitterly, recognizing the evil of his actions. Remember also that, after Jesus rose from the grave, he came and spoke with Peter, one-on-one. He asked Peter if Peter loved him. Peter said yes. Jesus told him, “Feed my sheep,” and Peter did. On Pentecost, he stood before a great crowd and publicly proclaimed, once more, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. In other words, Jesus forgave Peter, and Peter repented.

Oh, but what of that fact that Peter denied Jesus not once, but three times? He deliberately kept on sinning, even with full knowledge of the truth! Well, let’s do a bit of basic math now. Peter once asked Jesus if he ought to forgive a brother’s sins seven whole times. Peter thought he was being generous with this number, and it’s even more than twice the number of times he denied Jesus. But Jesus replied, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matt 18:22) And Jesus wasn’t being literal here. That seventy-eighth sin gets forgiven, too. The point that Jesus was teaching and later demonstrating to Peter was that God’s grace is greater than our sins, and we can’t sin more than God can forgive. In fact, there’s even forgiveness for The Unforgivable Sin. It’s just that, again, that forgiveness is rejected. If heaven is forfeit for anyone, if anyone finds themselves in hell, it’s not because God didn’t want to or wasn’t able to forgive them. We would even go so far as to say that everyone in hell had their sins forgiven, but those souls turned away from what could have rescued them and claimed damnation for themselves instead. What about us, then? For all the times we’ve questioned God, gotten impatient with his salvation, forgotten or even doubted that he will come through for us, have we, also, turned away from our rescuing? Have we claimed damnation for ourselves, too? This is a troubling question indeed.

I should say though, the very fact that this question is troubling already says a lot. I can’t read into your hearts, but if the idea of rejecting forgiveness sounds unappealing to you, that’s a good sign! Granted, this can also mean there’s a lack of trust in this area—Peter glancing away from Jesus as he’s walking on the water—but this doubt, too, is a sin Jesus forgives! And Jesus keeps forgiving—seventy-eight, seventy-nine, eighty—and you won’t be able to sin more than Jesus can forgive! This means your salvation is secure. Your soul is sealed by God’s grace. And we see further proof of this in John’s Revelation. John writes of a time where all the world groans under the effects of sin, all four corners of the earth. That time, clearly, is now. And yet, God makes the proclamation that he will preserve his faithful servants through it all. The number 144,000 is mentioned, and just like Jesus’ seventy-seven times, this number is not meant to be taken literally. Again, some basic math. Just like the number four is often used to represent the whole earth (its four corners) and three is used to in reference to The Triune God, the number twelve, pulling from the twelve tribes Israelites, the descendants of Jacob, is typically used to depict the spiritual descendants of Jacob, that is, the Christian church. Twelve twelves, which is 144, is supposed to point us to the entire Christian church, all believers, from all time-the Church of all Churches. And poetically speaking, multiplying a symbolic number by ten magnifies the concept that number is meant to be symbolic of, and in this case, that 144 is multiplied three times. The 144,000 shows us how thorough God is with his grace, that he won’t let even a single believer slip through the cracks. That means that you never need to fear that you will miss out on God’s grace, either by sin, or by negligence, or by some wretched technicality. As the popular hymn, In Christ Alone puts it: No power of hell, no scheme of man, shall ever pluck you from his hand, ‘til he returns, or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.

Sin and its ills may still grieve you, and God himself will continue to wrestle with you. But through it all, you must remember that God is still God, and that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, and that means no threat that comes your way will ever be able to put your final salvation in jeopardy. And knowing this puts us on a rock-solid middle ground. We will not fear, though the earth give way, and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, because the God of Jacob is still our fortress and our salvation. But we also will not put God to the test. We won’t keep sinning so that he keeps forgiving us, keep endangering ourselves so he keeps saving us, no. His grace abounds, but his call to repentance still stands, too. So, we go forth, repentant, sure of God’s forgiveness, and we live as God’s servants, sealed in his grace. Amen.

08/25/2026

We had such a great time at this year's Vacation Bible School! At St. Peter, we are always happy to share God's Word with everyone, young and old. That's why we have VBS, and that's why we have events like this Friday's Family Bible Class!

Come Friday, August 28th, for a free potluck dinner at 5:30. Bring a dish to pass if you'd like but we're happy to have you join us either way! Then stick around for our 6:30 Bible classes on the Creation account!

We've got a lot of classes and events starting up this season, and Family Bible Class is the kick off! See you there!

08/25/2026

08/24/2026

Pentecost 13
Text: Genesis 32:22-32
Theme: Grappling With God

22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. 28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” 29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” 31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.

GRAPPLING WITH GOD

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” Last week, we dug into what James meant with these words, and I pray that in the time since, you’ve taken this message to heart. Armed with a godly, Gospel-based perspective, we really can rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance. We cling, tighter and tighter, to our Savior God, because no matter how painful our trials are, God promises to use them to strengthen us and bring us closer to him. But what are we supposed to do when it feels like our prayers are going unanswered, and the issues we’re praying about start getting worse? What happens when we call upon God in the day of trouble, and he sends us away? When the one we lean on in times of adversity takes a decidedly adversarial stance against us? Oh, God would never do that! Wouldn’t he, though? How else would you describe Jesus shunning the poor Canaanite woman who came to him for help? Or, what do you think of God coming down to physically grapple with Jacob when Jacob turned to God in prayer? These are strange occurrences, and they seem to give the impression that sometimes, God enjoys making things harder for us, but that doesn’t fit the image of God we have in our heads so…what’s going on here?

We’ll start with Jacob, “The Heel Grabber.” That’s what his name means, and it’s a name that suits him well. When Jacob and Esau were both born, Jacob literally grabbed his twin brother’s heel, but that didn’t stop Esau from being born first. And since Esau was born first, he received the rights, privileges, and blessings of a firstborn instead of Jacob. As Jacob grew older, he continued to be a heel-grabber, but in a more figurative way. He persuaded his brother to trade away his birthright for a bowl of stew, and then he tricked his father, Isaac, into conferring his blessing upon him. (Mind you, Isaac was quite blind at the time, and Jacob was dressed up like Esau.) Jacob was opportunistic, deceitful, and absolutely determined to take whatever he considered to be rightfully his by any means necessary. More than anything else, though, Jacob was a fool. All the time and effort he spent deceiving his family was pointless, because before Jacob and Esau were even born, God himself said to their mother, Rebekah, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” (Gen 25:23) Imagine if Jacob had been a more successful heel-grabber from the beginning. He might’ve been the older, serving the younger, but that wasn’t God’s intention for him. God wanted Jacob to receive the blessings of a firstborn, so by his grace, Jacob was born second. And now, we join Jacob as he’s preparing to see his brother for the first time in years, and he’s scared. His manipulative ways drove Esau into a murderous rage, which is why Jacob fled from him. Now, Jacob was bracing himself to return home, but instead of devising some cunning plan, or plotting to catch Esau off guard, Jacob turned to the Lord for help. In response, God decided to take this tender moment of faith and…turn it into a wrestling match.

All night, Jacob grappled with God. It was as if God were taunting Jacob, telling him, “Here, I’ve got a heel for you to grab!” And amazingly, Jacob did. “When the man (that is, God, taking human form) saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” (Gen 32:25-26) For years, Jacob clawed and schemed and snatched away from the hands of his fellow man. It was dishonest work for dishonest gain. But this was something different. Jacob wouldn’t be able to “con” the Almighty God out of a blessing, but God did want to bless Jacob. His proclamation to Rebekah still stood—but did Jacob believe it? Did he trust in God’s words, that “the older will serve the younger?” Evidently, yes. “I will not let you go unless you bless me!” God, this is what you said you would do, and I’m going to hold you to your word! Instead of relying on his wits and cunning, Jacob was putting his hope entirely in God’s promises, which was exactly what God wanted. This entire wrestling match was a test of Jacob’s faith, the δοκιμιον that produces the υπομονην that we discussed last week. To this end, God took on a more antagonistic role to give Jacob the push he needed. And when all was said and done, God did bless Jacob, but he also changed his name, to serve as a lasting reminder of the critical lesson he learned this decisive night: “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” (Gen 32:28) A heel-grabber no longer, Israel’s confidence would be in the Lord!

Jacob’s encounter with God may seem bizarre at first glance, but it should in no way be exceptional. Prayer is a grappling with God, a demanding that he be no less than the gracious, loving Father he’s always promised he’d be. We cannot let go of this promise, and we cannot let go of him. Prayer shouldn’t be timid. It shouldn’t be hesitant. It’s bold; it takes nerve! And we see this nerve again with the Canaanite woman, whose encounter with the Lord was decidedly less physical, but was all the same another grapple for God’s promises. “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!” She cried to Jesus. “My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” (Matt 15:22) Notice how she addresses Jesus. She recognizes him as the long-awaited Messiah, the shoot of Jesse, the branch of David. Already, she has God’s promises in mind! This woman was different from the usual crowd that followed Jesus. She wasn’t greedy, or opportunistic, or looking for a show. She saw Jesus as her Lord and Savior and treated him accordingly! And in response, Jesus took on that now-familiar adversarial stance. At first, he didn’t even acknowledge her. After all, she was a Gentile woman, and a Canaanite at that! He was a revered Jewish man, someone many looked up to as a rabbi. What business did she have, anyway, daring to speak to him? One would expect a proper Jewish man not to address a Canaanite woman, so that is the role that Jesus takes on here. Would this woman’s faith succumb to the pressures of social taboos, or would she persist, in spite of the shame?

She persisted. And it came to a point where even Jesus’ disciples pleaded with him to deal with her and send her away, they became so fed up with her. Jesus responded—to the disciples, not to the woman—with the very true statement that his ministry was to the Jews, almost like how my ministry is to St. Peter in Brodhead, so you wouldn’t necessarily expect me to do regular pastoring work in Janesville. But this, also, failed to deter the woman. The grappling continued! Finally, Jesus did speak to the woman, but his words seemed rather harsh: “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” (Matt 15:26) Your only source of help has finally acknowledged you, and he called you a dog. What do you do? To this woman, the answer was obvious: Keep grappling. Keep demanding that Jesus be Jesus. Keep looking for the hidden “Yes” underneath the “No.” And she found it. “’Yes it is, Lord,’ she said. ‘Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.’” (Matt 15:27) See, Jesus’ “insult” contained a loophole. The type of dog Jesus referred to was not the mangy stray people treated with contempt. Jesus used the term for a beloved family pet, the kind the house’s children would dote upon and, yes, share their food with. The Canaanite woman seized upon this and essentially used Jesus’ own words against him. Fine, call me the family pet, and give me the scraps that are rightfully mine! This is the very nature of a prayer, to ask something of God not because we deserve to have it, but because he said he’d give it. God will never work against his own will, so how could our prayers not be answered when the substance of our prayer is, “Thy will be done”? And was Jesus offended by the nerve of this woman? Absolutely not! “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted,” Jesus said. “And her daughter was healed at that moment.” (Matt 15:28)

Prayer is an act of faith, and faith should be tested, and we consider it pure joy when this testing takes place. But you will not always see the answers to your prayers right away, and you won’t always get exactly what you’re asking for. But God has promised to bless you and work all things out for your spiritual good, and because God has promised this, you are completely in your right to demand it. Not for your own sake, though. Not because you’ve earned or deserve the things God promises. We pray for God’s own name’s sake, that he not “break character” by breaking his promise. God would not be God if he failed to follow through on his promise that Esau and his family would serve Jacob and his family, and Jesus would be a poor excuse for a Savior if he refused to save the Canaanite woman’s daughter. So, we grapple with God with the understanding that God should be God, that God wants to be God, and that it’s entirely in our own best interest that God remain God. This is what we’re fighting for, this is the prize for which we wrestle, and this is how our God wants us to pray.

A god who breaks his promises is not one we should worship or depend on. Thankfully, this is not the God of our prayers, but sometimes we forget this. Our prayers become timid and uncertain, reserved and even reluctant, as if our prayers could possibly be in vain. Is the one we pray to unwilling to answer us? Is he incapable of answering us? Is he inconsistent, or inconsiderate, or in any way inadequate? Or perhaps the better question to ask is, does the way we pray give this sort of impression? When you pray, treat God like God. Pray fiercely. Grapple with The Almighty. Demand that he be who he said he’d be. And rejoice! Because you will not walk away from the experience disappointed. His will be done, and he wills to bless you. Amen.