Luke 12:22-34; Isaiah
41:8-20
The Petitions of
the Great Litany: “Help us, Good Lord”
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
“Our God is a refuge and strength, a
very present help in times of trouble.” Thus sings the psalmist in Psalm 46. We
are right to pray “Help us, good Lord,” for our Lord and God is help and He loves to help us. But,
what does help mean? Well, help doesn’t mean that the Lord will always give you
what you want, or what you think you need, but the Lord will protect and keep
you in His grace and mercy. The Lord will see you through every temptation,
trial, and tribulation towards the end and works He has prepared for you. For,
ultimately, you are His. You are His servant whom He has called out of the
nations. He has made you to be a people, His people, who were once no people.
And, He has adopted you as His children, His own sons and daughters, through
faith in His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. The Lord is jealous over you. He’s
always got your back so long as you trust in Him and do not reject Him.
Last week you heard about the tenacious
faith of Jacob. Though the Lord wrestled with him and fought against him, even
wounding him, putting his hip out of joint, Jacob refused to let the Lord go
without a blessing. The Lord did bless Jacob, and the Lord changed Jacob’s name
to Israel, meaning, one who “struggles with the Lord and prevails.” In that
spiritual wrestling match, all of Israel was reduced to one man, Jacob. Thus,
centuries later, the Prophet Isaiah refers to the people of Israel also as
Jacob, prophesying the Word of the Lord to them saying, “But you, Israel, my
servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; […]
fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will
strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right
hand.” Indeed, this is the blessing the Lord bestowed upon Jacob following that
wrestling match. Jacob become the Lord’s servant, His chosen one, the promised
seed of Abraham, and the Lord’s personal and dear friend. The Lord blessed
Jacob with a right relationship, one of love, grace, mercy, Fatherhood, and
unchanging faithfulness. The Lord would always have Jacob’s, Israel’s, back and
would help him.
The Lord’s help often takes this form:
He will set you apart and make you holy. The Lord will sanctify and keep you.
He will make a distinction between you and unbelievers. Does this mean that all
will go well for you, that you will not suffer pain and loss and strife? No, it
does not. It means that you will persevere; you will prevail, in patience, in
time. And, as you trust in Him ever more and more, you will be content and at
peace. You will want for nothing as the psalmist sings in the 23rd
Psalm, and you will have, as Jesus promises, a peace that world cannot give.
“Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded;
those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish. You shall
seek those who contend with you, but you shall not find them; those who war
against you shall be as nothing at all.” The end of this is that, while you
will continue to have enemies and struggle, these will not ultimately prevail
over you. Indeed, there will come a time when you will search for them and will
find no trace of their existence.
Yet, beyond this, the Lord does indeed
positively help His chosen and holy people. The Lord says, “When the poor and
needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I
the LORD will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will
open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I
will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.”
This prophecy is similar to our Lord Jesus’ teaching in the Beatitudes from the
Sermon on the Mount. There is blessedness in being poor in spirit, for those in
spiritual poverty are open to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Likewise, there
is blessedness in being hungry for righteousness, for those in spiritual hunger
are open to be fed with the Word and Spirit of the Lord. Likewise does our Lord
Jesus teach His disciples that life is more than food and clothing. As the Lord
provides for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, how much more
does He provide all that we need to sustain our bodies, lives, and spirit?
We pray in the Litany, “Help us, good
Lord.” Our prayer is grounded in our belief and confession that the Lord is
indeed good, just as He has said and promised. Thus, as in last week’s homily,
once again we hold God to His Word, to what He has said and revealed about
Himself. We trust that He is gracious, just as He has said. However, more than
that, we trust in what the Lord has done in sending His Son into our human
flesh as one of us. The longest petition in the Litany ending with the prayer,
“Help us, good Lord,” is all about Jesus. In this petition we ask for the
Lord’s help on account of the Lord’s work for us in His Son: by His holy incarnation,
nativity, baptism, fasting, and temptation; by His agony and bloody sweat; by
His cross and passion, death and burial; and by His glorious resurrection and
ascension and promised sending of the Holy Spirit. These works of our Lord in
His Son are not mere words and promises – indeed the Words and promises of the
Lord are never mere anything! – but they are Words and promises that have been
kept and fulfilled. They are certain, trustworthy, dependable, and true.
Our last petition for the good Lord’s
help in the Litany is for His help “In all time of our tribulation; in all time
of our prosperity; in the hour of death; and in the day of judgment.” This
petition is as much a confession as it is a request and a plea. What we confess
is our need for the Lord’s help at every stage and every moment of our lives.
We are commending ourselves into the Lord’s gracious and merciful care and
providence. We confess our faith and trust in Him alone and completely. We
appeal to nothing in ourselves that would merit, earn, or deserve His help, but
we appeal to the Lord according to who He is, what He has promised, and what He
has done. We petition the Lord for help, and He helps, He has helped, and He
will continue to help until we will need no help because we will be with Him in
His presence and care face to face.
Our God: our help in ages past, our hope
for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast, is also our eternal home.
Help us, good Lord. Amen.
In
the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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