Bloghardt's Reflector

 Now, hold up.  We are in the same boat as this dog-woman.  We’re Gentiles too - not children of Israel, not children of the promise.  So, what about us?

 How do you spend each day?  Do you live like a child of God receiving every gift from your heavenly Father?  Or do you basically roll out of the bed in the morning on your own - you versus the clock.  Stay out of your way ‘cause you are trying to get stuff done.   So much to do, stick to the routine.... Which may or may not include prayer.  After all, prayer doesn’t get you out the door on time.

Does your lips praise God throughout the day or are they filled with F-bombs, words about God being a beaver and damming things, and where people can place things in the parts of their anatomy that God gave them.

Shall you be a child of God and talk like that?  Shall you be a child of God and hate the people around you?  Ignoring them. Slandering them.  Gossiping.  Destroying their reputation.  Is that the way God’s people live?

Disobedience.  Hating.  Lust.  Stealing.  Yes, you steal.  You steal from your employers by not working and you steal from Caesar by not fully reporting all your income.  Is that what a sheep of Israel does?

Coveting.  Wanting what isn’t yours and taking it.  Doing things with your body that your body wasn’t made by God to do and outside the place where He gave for that to be done.  

“It’s ok,” you reason to yourself,  “after all, if you get away with all these sins, are they really sins, are they?  I mean, you love God with all your heart and you are a Lutheran.. That has to count for something.”

But, if you don’t ever even think about Him, can you really say that He’s the top thing in your heart?    If you can live part or all of your day without even considering that you are a child of God, is God supposed to remember that you are one?  Shall He remember when just because you are a Lutheran when you live worse than the pagans?

This Canaanite dog knelt before Him.  You?  What have you done?  Where are your knees?  What are you kneeling before?

Shall you call out to God? And if He ignores you, shall you call out in shame hoping for Him to answer? And if He calls you what you look like, what shall you say then?  You dog... No one wants you around.

Now you get it, don’t you?  All the things that Jesus did to this woman were done to empty her of all that she could cling to other than Him.

He’s emptying us this morning too of all that we might cling to.  We can’t rely on who we are, what we’ve done, or how much we repent.  We may try all the religion that we can muster to get forgiveness.  But, we can’t escape our unfaithfulness. We fail daily and much to live as He would have us live as children of God.  

What’s that make us in the end?  We are all simply Gentile dogs.  

“Dogs, yes, Lord, but to the dogs come the crumbs which fall from the master’s table.”  There’s faith.  Jesus faith.  

For what holds for sure is not you or me, but Jesus’ Words and promises.  His crumbs, meant for the children of Israel, falling off the table and even to dogs like you and me.

The gap between our unfaithfulness and dogness and Jesus’ love and forgiveness is the chasm between God’s Law and His Gospel.  The only bridge, the only transition, is the Cross of Christ.

 This same Jesus who pushes this woman away today is the same Jesus who will be pushed around for her on Good Friday. The same Jesus who calls her a dog will be beaten like a dog, mocked, and spit upon.  Then, He will be rejected by the children of Israel, the very people He was sent to save.  He will then be lead off to be crucified outside the town - where the unclean Gentiles are.

 He will die - for her, for you, and for me.  He will die for the children of Israel and for dog Gentiles.  He will die for all and in Him all will be saved.

 Faith.  Faith receives the Cross of Christ in His gifts.  In the Word, faith receives the forgiveness of the Cross and responds, “Amen.”  In your Baptism, faith clings to the Word of God in the water and believes that we, even we dog Gentiles, are children of God.

 And if you want crumbs that fall from the Master’s table, come and kneel before the Lord today and receive His crumbs in your mouth at His Supper.  Take eat, the Body of Christ.  Take drink, the Blood of Christ shed for you.  Be forgiven.    

 Confess your sins.  Your unfaithfulness.  Your dogness.  Leave it behind.  Stop doing it.  

 Don’t stop to be saved.  No no no no.  Stop your sins because you have been forgiven, washed, redeemed, and cleaned.  Stop because you really truly have been fed the very crumbs which fall from the Lord’s table.

Dear Saints of God, the second week of Lent is Reminiscere, the week where we pray to God with the Canaanite woman, “Remember, O Lord, your tender mercies, for they are new every morning.”

 Remember, O Lord, that you are our Lord.  Remember that you are gracious to us.  Remember that you sent your Son for us.  Remember, that your suffering counts for us.  Remember it when we pray, remember it when suffer, remember when we die.

 So that we can stand before His throne on the Last Day and say, “Remember, O Lord, Jesus... What He did for me on the Cross and all that He fed me in His Word, His Baptism, and His Supper.”

 Until, then, what is true of this Canaanite woman is true of us.  I’m a dog.  You are a dog too.  But, to the dogs, to you and me, go the crumbs which drop from the children of Israel’s table.”

 Then Jesus answered her, “O, woman, O man, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.”  Her daughter, you, and all who are fed by Christ alone are saved from that very hour.  

 Have a happy Lent!  In the name of Jesus. Amen.