Pentecost 12, Year A (2026)

Isaiah 56: 1, 8-10 / Psalm 67 / Romans 11: 1–2a, 29–32 / Matthew 15: 10-28

 

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, August 16, 2026 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“FAITH: AN ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR GOD’S WILL AND GOD’S WORK TO BE DONE”

(Homily text: Matthew 15: 10-28)

 

Ever think of just how critical faith is? Many times in the Gospel accounts, we read Jesus’ words which say (in one way or another) “Your faith has made you well”.

This morning, in our Gospel reading, Jesus tells the Canaanite woman, “Woman, great is your faith!”.

In some essential, but perhaps mysterious way, having faith is a key part of our relating to God. Somehow, having faith that God can do something, or fix something, or bring healing and wholeness (either to relationships, or to health, or to other things) is a part of allowing things to happen.

Put another way, faith is our part, our work, in doing God’s will, or in allowing God’s will to be done and in allowing God’s ways to be known.

We might think of having faith as a tool, which allows things to happen. More on that in a moment.

First, though, let’s look at our Gospel text for this morning…

We might notice that there are two choices in what to actually read this morning. One choice is to read verses ten through twenty-eight. The other choice is to read only verses twenty-one through twenty-eight. If we read only the latter verses, we hear only Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman. If we read all of the verses, then we hear Jesus’ condemnation of the ways and the behaviors of the Pharisees. I believe that, if we read all of the passage, we see a marked difference where the matter of faith is considered.

Now then, with this background in view, let’s look at the passage in its entirety.

Notice that Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for the simple reason that they are concentrating on the wrong things…they are concerned with outward actions, outward appearances. It is in verse twenty that we hear Lord identify the specific practices that were so important to the Pharisees: Washing of hands prior to eating.[1]

The Pharisees’ neglect of the disposition of the heart also has to do with a lack of faith in what God is able to do. Therein lies the contrast with the Canaanite woman, whose encounter with Jesus forms the second part of our reading this morning.

The contrast between the Pharisees, who were proud of their heritage as children of Abraham, contrasts with the identity and heritage of the Canaanite woman, who is a descendent of the peoples who lived in the Holy Land prior to the coming of the Israelites under the leadership of Joshua, some 1,500 years prior to Jesus’ earthly ministry. Put another way, it is the Pharisees who should have known about faith, and who should have known how important having faith is in the equation between God’s ability to act and our human ability to believe in God’s power. It is the Canaanite woman who offers us a surprise where the exercise of faith is concerned.

As the encounter between Jesus and this Gentile woman unfolds, we find that the disciples are asking Jesus to tell the woman to go away. But this woman is determined to see the Lord, and she has faith that He can grant her request.

But there’s a test of her faith involved in the encounter, or – at least I think so.

At the first, Jesus says that He was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.[2]

Then He adds that it isn’t right to throw the children’s food to the dogs.

If we consider the attitudes of God’s chosen people 2,000 years ago, we can better understand the implications of this statement: To the Jews, dogs were unclean animals (perhaps because of their eating habits). Jews, at that time, often insulted Gentiles by calling them “dogs”. So Jesus’ comment seems – at least on the surface – to be a put down of the Canaanite woman. He is essentially saying that she is unclean. But the term that Jesus uses is different than “dog’. He tells her that it isn’t right to throw the children’s food to the puppy dogs[3], animals of the sort that might be part of a human household.

But the Canaanite woman is determined. She is also quick on her feet and in her response: She turns the Lord’s comment into a truth (based on the idea of a puppy dog being part of a household[4]), and she says that even the puppy dogs look to eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.[5]

Now then, let’s return to a comparison of the attitudes of the Pharisees, contrasted with that of the Canaanite woman.

The Pharisees were a barren bunch, unable to produce food for the kingdom of God. Why? Because they had no faith. They had faith only in the outward actions of people. The Canaanite woman had faith that the Lord could help her, and she had it in abundance.

Perhaps we’re on firm ground if we believe that, absent a declaration of faith in the Lord’s ability to help the Canaanite woman, there would have been no deliverance for her daughter.

We come then, to the conclusion that faith is a tool that God gives us, a tool He expects us to make use of. God has the ability to answer our needs and our requests (but, notice: God’s will and God’s wisdom far outshine our own abilities to see what is best for us!), But we have work to do, and part of that work consists of our faith, our belief in God’s ability to act, to create, to re-create, to bring healing and wholeness where there is a lack of these things.

Somehow, when we pick up the tool of faith, good things – God things – happen.

AMEN.

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[1]   Perhaps the Lord’s point here isn’t the hygienic reasons for washing one’s hands prior to eating (which is a good idea), but rather, the concern for outward actions, to the neglect of the inner disposition of the heart.

[2]  Here we come to a mystery concerning the Lord’s identity as being fully human, and yet fully divine, neither aspect of His identity being confused with the other, and neither identity being separated from the other, at the same time...talk about a mystery! Anyway, some scholars believe that the Lord’s human aspect grew in its awareness and maturity, just as any human being would. If this is so, then perhaps – this line of thinking goes – the encounter with the Canaanite woman may have been a significant event in Jesus’ growing awareness of the ministry and the mission that God had sent Him to accomplish. I’ll let you live with that mystery.

[3]   The Greek word is kynarion, meaning, literally, “little dog”.

[4]   My thought, anyway.

[5]   A question to ponder: Did the saying about “Crumbs falling from the master’s table” circulate in the ancient world? We also hear this same phrase in Jesus’ Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (see Luke 16: 19–31). Another mystery to ponder.

Pentecost 11, Year A (2026)

I Kings 19: 9–18 / Psalm 85: 8–13 / Romans 10: 5–15 / Matthew 14: 22–33  

 

 

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, August 9, 2026, by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.  

 

           

“SHOWING US WHERE THE ROCKS ARE”

(Homily text: Matthew 14: 22-33)

 

Let’s begin this morning with a bit of humor…

There were three ministers in a community who were very good friends and also were very good colleagues in ministry together. One day, one of the three proposed to the other two that it might be nice if they would rent a boat and go fishing together. Since they all had Mondays off, they chose a date and headed off to the country club.

The weather was quite nice for the occasion, and the three began their quest for fish. But the fish weren’t cooperating very well, and by midday, the sun was beating down on the three pretty hard.

So one of them said he was going to go into the club and get something to drink. Over the side of the boat he went, whereupon he seemed to walk along the top of the water. Sitting under the awning at the club, he began to enjoy his libation.

Not long afterward, the second of the three also said he was thirsty, and over the side of the boat he went. He, too, seemed to walk along over the top of the water. Reaching the club, he joined the first one.

The lone occupant of the boat, now seeing the other two in under the awning, enjoying some refreshment, determined that if the other two could manage to leave the boat and make their way to the shore, then he, too, could manage the same. So over the side of the boat he went. But immediately, he began to flounder in the water. The first one, seeing this unfold, calmly put his drink down and said to his colleague at the table, “Do you think we ought to show him where the rocks are?”

This bit of humor fits well with this morning’s Gospel reading. For in it, we read that Jesus walked on the water as the stormy seas were churning in the Sea of Galilee. If we consider the theological point of the account, we come to the conclusion that it is meant to tell us something about the powers that were at work in Jesus, powers that God alone possesses, powers over the created order. Recalling our Gospel reading from last week, the account of the feeding of the crowd of some 5,000 people, the basic theological truth is the same: Jesus has power over the creation.

Now, hold onto that thought as I offer a memory from an event that took place earlier this week …

Earlier this week, I conducted a memorial service for a former director of the U.S. Army Chorus, a group that I was a member of, at the Old Post Chapel on Ft. Myer, Virginia, which is adjacent to Arlington Cemetery. The former director’s two daughters were there, and they reminded me of a concert I had done with their father, many years before. I recalled the concert quite well, and shared a humorous aspect of what happened when we sang together, something I don’t think they knew about their dad.

Sharing that memory with them, sent my mind back to those days in my life. They weren’t entirely good memories. There was much turmoil and uncertainty back then.

But from the perspective of many years now, I can see that the Lord was present and was active in those troubling years. I didn’t know it at the time, but those difficult times didn’t have the final say in the direction of my life. No, God was at work, and one-by-one, one difficulty after another was overcome.

Looking back, I can say that, absent God’s presence and God’s ability to guide, to support, to create, to deal with a challenge, and then to work out the details of the next one, I’m not sure I would have made it through those trying times.

Now then, perhaps each of us could ask a question of ourselves, as we look back over the years of our lives: “When was it that the Lord showed us where the rocks were?”.

For surely, we all have need of the Lord’s support at various times as life unfolds.

Perhaps the Lord shows up when we don’t know what will happen next, or how we will face the events that seem to be headed our way

Perhaps deep loss comes our way.

Perhaps we seem to face so many challenges and so many difficult choices that we are paralyzed by the multitude of problems that seem to lie in our path.

Perhaps other ideas arise in our minds, and perhaps they are our own personal experiences and challenges.

It’s been said that we Christians are a “resurrection people”. That is to say, we worship, love and adore a God who creates, a God who brings order out of disorder, a God who is a God of new beginnings.

Perhaps it’d be helpful to remember those wonderful qualities that God possesses, and which He makes available to us, often at times when we can’t see His hand at work in the things that surround or beset us.

For, as St. Paul reminds us in chapter eight of his letter to the early churches in Rome, “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus”. (Romans 8:39)

Thanks be to God.

AMEN. 

Pentecost 10, Year A (2026)

Isaiah 55: 1–5 / Psalm 145: 8–9, 14–21 / Romans 9: 1–5 / Matthew 14: 13–21

 

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, August 2, 2026 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

 

“MIRACLES AND MYSTERIES”

(Homily text: Matthew 14: 13–21)

This morning, we hear the account of one of our Lord’s most well-known miracles, the feeding of a very large crowd of people (the Gospel writers tell us that it was composed of about 5,000 men, not counting women and children).

This miracle must have[1] been very important to the early Church, for all four Gospel writers relate this incident to us. In addition, Matthew records yet another miraculous feeding of a crowd of about 4,000 in chapter 15: 32–39.[2]

People over time have struggled to understand this event. Some can’t grasp the idea that Jesus did, just as the Gospel writers tell us that He did, actually multiply the loaves and the fishes so that all in the crowd were fed. The account tells us that the Lord’s work was so generous that twelve baskets of leftover food was gathered up. Some who cannot believe the account as it is presented to us maintain that people actually brought food for themselves, which they produced once the five loaves and two fish were presented. Other ideas for the actual events that unfolded have also been presented.

However, the importance of the account isn’t just the feeding of the crowd. The deeper meaning has to do with telling us something about Jesus’ identity as Son of God. The multiplication of the loaves and fishes is meant to steer us to the reality that Jesus has at His disposal all the creative abilities of God. Recall that, in the creation account in Genesis, God spoke and something came into being, something that didn’t exist beforehand. The miraculous feeding of that many people is of the same sort of stuff: The Lord created something out of almost nothing.

Now, just for the record, I accept as truth the accounts as they appear before us. I believe (and see through the eyes of faith) that Jesus actually did make use of those loaves and fish to feed a very large crowd of people.

That said, I also understand that this is a miracle, something that stands outside of our normal, everyday experience. In addition, it is also a mystery (at least to some degree) as to how the Lord actually multiplied the food.

If we think about it, much of our experience of God is the stuff of miracles. It is also the stuff of mysteries. For the purposes of this sermon, I am defining a mystery as something that we know works, we just don’t know how exactly.)

Let’s survey some of our experiences of God, looking for the miraculous aspects of it, and looking for the aspects that defy explanation.

We could begin with the starting point of our walk of faith with God. Why is it that it begins with our own self-emptying? What I mean is this: If we do not get to the point of saying something like, “Lord, help me, for I cannot help myself”, then the journey has gotten off on the wrong foot. For the requirement to begin from a point of utter helplessness, only to lead to a productive and wonderful walk with God that brings with it such meaning and depth is a mystery. Why should it begin that way? We don’t know. But what we do know is that the most wonderful and meaningful life in God begins this way. A mystery, but also a miracle.

As I reflect on this previous point, I am reminded that a complete self-emptying is the essential meaning of baptism. And, we ought to acknowledge, that as life unfolds, we will face continuing occasions in which we will have to admit our own helplessness. Another mystery, and also a miracle that God works in such a way as this.

Why is it that faith is so often a component in bringing God’s will into being? Think of the many times that the Lord told someone, “Your faith has made you well”. Faith is our response to God’s moving. But faith, if we, ourselves, try to make it happen, is usually just a counterfeit version of the real thing. For faith to arise within us, it seems as though the Holy Spirit will have to enter our hearts and minds in order to stir up the soil of our hearts and our minds so that faith can take root. Another miracle, that it happens at all, and a mystery as to why is works this way. But it often does, or – should I say – it happens this way more often than not.

We might back up a bit and wonder just why it is that God is willing to relate to us human beings at all. After all, if we’re honest about ourselves and the nature of the human race, we’re often cantankerous, often fickle, often undependable…think of the heroes in the Bible: Most of them have “clay feet” of some sort or another. Almost all of them had pimples. Almost all of them had warts. But God chose to relate to these sorts of people, and even chose to work through (and sometimes around) them. Another miracle, another mystery.

Then we could talk about God’s generosity. Why is it that God is so generous with us human beings? We surely don’t deserve it, but God’s nature, it seems, is to be generous. And not only that, God is also loving. Another mystery, and a miracle that blesses us throughout life.

One final example we might cite is the way in which God enters into a situation. Sometimes, He simply shows up. At other times, He barges in as He did with St. Paul on the road to Damascus. At still other times, He patiently waits (I think of the verse from the Book of Revelation, which reads, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to them and eat with them, and they with me”[3]).

Perhaps, as we reflect on our life’s journey, and our walk with God, we can see other examples of God’s working, in miraculous and mysterious ways, ways we can’t fully understand, oftentimes, but ways that we know actually work.

For the God we love, worship, obey and walk with throughout life is a God of miracles, and a God who often works in mysterious ways.

Thanks be to God.

AMEN.

 

 

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[1]   In biblical times, it was common to count only the men. Today, of course, we would include the women and children.

[2]   Mark also records the feeding of the 4,000, while Luke and John do not.

[3]   Revelation 3:20