Concordia Evangelical Lutheran Church
The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost - August 16, 2026
The M3 - Monday Morning Mail
God Finds You! (Slides)
I retold the story of playing Hide-and-Seek one time in my childhood neighborhood. I showed a Google Earth view of the neighborhood, outlining who lived where on the cul-de-sac. I remember that the game started off with all the older kids and me scattering as the "It" person counted to 10 before yelling, "Ready or not, here I come!" I had found the perfect spot! I was enjoying hearing others get found before me. I then relayed the punchline: everyone had been found and the older kids left. They were not coming to find me! I was devasted. I went home crying! They laughed in the distance!
The next image showed the Garden of Eden, with the woman leading the man out of it quickly, being whisked away by the urgency of God's banning them from His presence. Yet, we know this as the first Hide-and-Seek episode, God looking for his creatures who were hiding because of their sin. God finds them but bans them from his presence. The rest of life may be understood in terms of His finding us again on his terms!
In the gospel reading Matthew tells us that Jesus heads to Tyre and Sidon–about 100 miles from Jerusalem. He's just had a significant run-in with the Jews in Jerusalem. He is out of there and heads as far away as he can culturally and religiously as he can. I likened it to us going to a busy street in Philadelphia, lined with street shops and street wanderers. Yet, it is here that Jesus finds the woman who is looking for him.
As a Gentile she still cries out that he is the Son of David! She begs Jesus on behalf of her daughter. Jesus resists but she persists, evoking her faith through the encounter. Jesus has found her in the least likely of places.
The same is true for us, too! Jesus finds you and me, where we least expect it! In our day and age we may feel like we have been digitized away, tucked away in some etherally space of the internet. Yet, Jesus still finds you and me. He cries out for you on the cross. He claims you as his beloved through baptism. He dines with you at his table! He finds you and saves you! He does't just walk away but finds you in your best hiding place, wherever that may be!