Preparing for Worship - March 1, 2026

This Second Sunday of Lent in the One Year Series is known as Reminiscere Sunday, Remembering Sunday. We have plenty of troubles and struggles in this life, even as Christians, but we are called to remember that our Lord will bless and keep us and carry us through these difficult times with His mercy and grace in Christ and through the Holy Spirit.

The psalm is Psalm 121. The psalmist seems to be away from the land of Israel and the hills of Jerusalem. He remembers where his help comes from, though - from the Lord, who is the Creator of all things in the heavens and the earth and who can help us wherever we are and “not let our foot be moved.” That doesn’t mean that we won’t stumble and fall at times, but the Lord keeps us in His care and steadies us, as people He loves. (See other Scriptures that use this same picture image: Psalm 55:22, 66:8-9; Proverbs 3:23-26, 1 Peter 5:6-7, etc.) Six times in Psalm 121, the Lord is described as being our “keeper” and “keeping us” in all kinds of circumstances in this life and forevermore. The Lord does not slumber or sleep, but He helps give His beloved people sleep from “their anxious toil” (Psalm 127:1-2). The psalm reminds us that the Lord is our keeper, day and night. He provides shelter for us from the hot sun and sunstroke, in His wisdom. (See how He dealt with Jonah, bothered by the sun, in Jonah 4:6-11. Ancient people often believed, superstitiously, that the moon could harm them. The word “lunatic” literally means someone who is “moonstruck,” not able to think rationally. Today, we know that the moon does affect tides and that is an important issue for people near water. The Lord protects, as He knows best. Interestingly, the heavenly holy city is pictured in Revelation 21:22-23 as needing neither sun nor moon, because the Lord and His Son, the Lamb, will provide all the Light we need.) While still here on earth, Jesus teaches us to pray, “deliver us from evil,” and to ask the Lord to provide what He knows is best for our lives, now and in eternal life. We are called to live by faith in our Triune God, though there is much we do not understand, as we come and go in this life. (See other related Scriptures, like Deuteronomy 28:6 and Proverbs 3:3-5, ending with “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.” Remember also the benediction the Lord taught us to hear: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26).)

We seek to trust in our Lord, but we also know that there are times when we struggle and know that we need to be “kept” by God in faith and His gracious forgiveness. We see that in Jacob in our Old Testament lesson, Genesis 32:22-32. Jacob and his brother, Esau, were twins, and even in the womb, they struggled with each other. Esau was born first, but Jacob was grabbing his brother’s heel when he was born. The name Jacob means “a supplanter,” someone who takes the position and place of another, often by dishonesty and cheating. Esau lost his position as firstborn son by despising his birthright by selling it to Jacob for some food, when he was exhausted and hungry (Genesis 25:22-34). Over time, Esau also married wives displeasing to his parents and to God and went away from the land God had promised and away from the one true God, as well. Judgment finally came upon him and his people, the Edomites, for continued unbelief. (See Genesis 26:34-35 and 28:7-9 and eventually, Malachi 1:3-4.) Jacob was far from a perfect man, too. He helped cheat Esau out of his birthright and the blessing he should have received as the oldest son. Esau hated him, and Jacob had to flee from the land. He found a woman he wanted to marry, but was cheated himself by Laban and given another woman in marriage, before marrying the woman, Rachel, whom he wanted. He had other struggles with Laban, and finally returned home, but was fearful of his brother. In Genesis 32:24-32, he wrestles with a man, who turns out to be God in a human form. (Some think it might have been the pre-incarnate Son of God.) God had already appeared to and forgiven Jacob for his sins, and brought him renewed faith, and promised that the line of the promised Savior, who would bless all families on earth, would come through him and his descendants, the Jewish nation (Genesis 28:12-22). The Lord God could have easily defeated Jacob in the wrestling match and showed that by putting Jacob’s hip out of joint. He lets Jacob seem to win and renews His blessing to him. Jacob marvels when he realizes that he had seen God in this way, face to face, and yet lived. Much later, the Old Testament prophet Hosea wrote of Jacob in Hosea 12:3-6 and called his own people to return to the Lord by His help, as Jacob did, and hold fast to and wait continually for their God. Our Savior, Jesus, did finally come from the line of Jacob, and people did see Him face to face in human form and did receive grace upon grace from Him, above all. See John 1:14-18. That grace is ours, too, by the gift of faith in Christ.

The Gospel lesson is Matthew 15:21-28. Jesus Himself had many spiritual “wrestling matches” with the Jewish religious leaders. Just before our text, Jesus was teaching about the New Covenant, doing away with human traditions and the commandments of men, and calling people to trust in Him and His forgiveness of their sins. Jesus then withdrew to an area in far northeast Israel. A Canaanite woman must have heard about him and came to him, correctly calling Him the “Lord, Son of David,” and asking help for her daughter, severely oppressed by a demon. Jesus said nothing to her, and the disciples begged Him to send her away, for she was continually crying out to Him. Jesus finally says what was true. His primary mission was among the lost people of Israel, and His saving work, His later suffering and death, and resurrection would happen within Israel. (His work was for the benefit of the whole world, but only after He had completed His work would the sharing of Him and His salvation begin in earnest beyond Israel.) The Canaanite woman, though, did not give up. She knelt before Him and called Him Lord, which He was, and kept asking for His help. In a sense, she wrestled with Him in asking for help, even when He did not respond, at first. She did not give up, even when He said something that sounded very harsh, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” The word Jesus used for dogs, though, meant “pet dogs” who would live in a home and were loved by a family. This gave the woman the chance not to give up, but to express her faith in Jesus and in His ability to help her and her daughter. She still called Jesus “Lord” and said that, as “pet dogs” ate scraps that fell from a table at a meal, even “crumbs” from Jesus would be enough to help her daughter. Jesus then spoke of her “great faith,” even what it was tested by Him, and He healed her daughter instantly. This would have been a great surprise for Jesus’ disciples, for in the Old Covenant, Jews were to avoid and remove Canaanites, because they could lead God’s people astray to false gods, as had happened to Esau and so many others. Even as His ministry began, Jesus protected His disciples and fulfilled His Father’s plan by His focus on fellow Jews. (See Matthew 10:5-6. Notice, though, that Jesus was preparing the disciples for the fact that they would eventually “bear witness before the Gentiles,” the non-Jews (Matthew 10:18).) Jesus had earlier helped a Roman Centurion who had come to great faith in Him, greater than what many Jews had, Jews who rejected Him and would lose out on the Kingdom of God (Matthew 10:10-13). The most important thing is ultimately being brought to faith in Jesus, no matter who we are or have been or how great our faith is at any given moment. The greatness is in Christ and what he has done for us, and our hanging on to His mercy, by His grace.

It is a struggle, though, as believers, to stay in faith and grow in faith, because the world wants to pull us in very different directions, away from God’s will and what is best for us and others. Paul speaks about this in our Epistle lesson, 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7. Paul encourages us to seek to walk and please God by following the instructions given to us through the Lord Jesus in the Holy Scriptures. Paul particularly focuses on abstaining from sexual immorality. The Greek and Roman world had very weak moral standards, and people could do whatever they wanted sexually. Paul reminds the believers then (and us today) of controlling our bodies in holiness and honor, according to God’s standards, and not “the passions of lust” of those who do not love God. Paul reminds us that we can truly hurt ourselves and wrong others with an impure life in this way. If we are unsure what those standards of our Lord are, we look at the Scriptures and/or talk with those who can help us. Right after this passage, in v. 8, Paul also speaks of the importance of the Holy Spirit, who has brought us to faith and can keep us in that faith through His Word and who lives in us, along with Christ. See, for example, 1 Corinthians 6:18-20. The Lenten season is a good time to repent of these or any other sins and ask God’s strength to battle sin and follow His will more faithfully.

The alternative Epistle reading is Romans 5:1-5 and takes us right back to Christ our Savior and what He has done for us. We are not saved by overcoming all our struggles and doing everything right, though we try. We are saved by what Christ has perfectly done for us and His payment for all of our sins in His sacrifice on the cross and His victory for us in His resurrection. We have peace with God through Christ and the access to God’s grace He has provided for us, and the hope we have in Him. We are not perfect. We still have struggles and sufferings, but those challenges can teach us to endure in hope and grow in our Christian character, even through ups and downs, and to rely on God’s love shown us in Christ and poured into our hearts through the working of the Holy Spirit through His Word. In this  Lenten season, we pray with the psalmist in Psalm 25:6-7. “Remember Your mercy, O Lord, and Your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to Your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.”