take this moment to decide

if we meant it, if we tried

A sermon on Hosea's prophecy of God's roiling love:

You don’t have to be a Bible scholar to understand this passage. Do you? No, this passage is all too clear. In fact, unfortunately, it depicts the kind of troubled waters we all know all too well. Don’t we?

In today’s Scripture, God and God’s people are at an impasse. And it’s been a long time coming, too. God has been loving on the people their entire lives. But the more God has cared for them, the more they’ve turned from God. And now, at long last, God has decided enough’s enough. 

We all can relate to this. Can’t we? What’s more, we all can relate to both sides of this strained relationship, too. Can’t we? We have all been the jilted party. And we have all also done the jilting, too.

…Ok. Try this. Think about three relationships in your life. And for the purposes of this exercise, think of three relationships that are going well. And just to be clear, let’s keep it to human relationships, too. 

Come up with three good relationships. And when you have your examples, look me square in the eye. And to keep it concrete, I want you to picture the face of the person you’re thinking of, too. Alright. Go ahead.

And while you think, I’ll talk. I had to add the qualifier “human relationships” because of people like Amanda. I knew if I didn’t explicitly say human relationships, Amanda would think of our two dogs and some bear from the internet! I’m right! Aren’t I?

Alright, have your examples? Good. Now, I want you to think of at least one feature that’s made a relationship so good. And to give you time to think, I’ll keep talking. Go ahead and ponder. I know you think about other things during the sermon anyway!

Ok. First, the trait you choose doesn’t have to exist in all three relationships. I just asked you to think of three relationships so you would have a large pool to draw from. Plus, I’m going to ask us to share. So, I don’t want you to have to disclose something you’re uncomfortable revealing. 

Ok. Like I said, I’m going to ask us to share. And to give you more time to think in case you want to choose a different characteristic, I’ll tell you what attribute I choose.

The quality I thought of is earnestness. And that’s sort of an old-fashioned word, but it’s the one I think works best. You could, though, say sincerity. Either way, knowing where someone is coming from helps put me at ease in relationships. Make of that what you will, but it matters to me. 

Ok. Now it’s your turn! Turn and share your answer. And, as always, look around. Invite folks to play along with you. Ok? Ok! Alright. Go and share one characteristic that you think makes for a good relationship!

…Alright. Let’s bring it in. Thanks for being good sports. 

Hopefully, thinking about what matters to you in relationships can help you be a bit more intentional about them because relationships matter. Relationships are hard. And they’re as hard as they are important. And as such, we can use all the help we can get. Can’t we?

But the trouble in today’s Scripture is that it’s too late for any of that. Isn’t it? In fact, if you want to relate this exercise to today’s passage, you have to imagine a relationship devoid of those traits. Or worse, picture a relationship full of the opposite sort of characteristics. For instance, for me, it’d be a relationship full of uncertainty and even downright deception. 

It’s not very pleasant. Is it? Sadly, though, it’s also not very hard to imagine, either. Life has more dysfunctional relationships than we care to admit. And if we’re honest, we also must confess that we ourselves are the perpetrators of those dysfunctions more regularly than we wish, too. Aren’t we?

But that’s the kind of relationship Hosea describes in today’s Scripture. Hosea is depicting God and God’s people at the point when families find themselves in therapy. Or even after that. In the last moments before the relationship fizzles out for good.

…Before we proceed, I want to draw your attention to something. The temptation is to focus on the behavior. But if you listen carefully, you’ll notice that’s not exactly what Hosea is addressing. Is it? No, Hosea is describing how deep the problem goes. And it’s much deeper than mere behavior.

The real problem, says Hosea, is what makes for real problems in the rest of life, too. And it’s not behavior. No, the real problem is the cycle of it! The real issue is the recurring pattern of careless conduct! 

God’s people are stuck. They’re caught in a cycle of dysfunction. They’re trapped in a pattern of trauma. And we can all relate to that. Can’t we? We all have relationships that are under strain if not outright destruction.

It’s November now. And that means we’re about to spend the next couple of months being force-fed depiction after depiction of happy families gathering around the well-lit tables full of perfectly cooked food. And while those portrayals have an undeniable appeal, they couldn’t be further from the family life Hosea describes! Could they?

The world shows us flawless families, full of people who never misbehave, sharing meals that always come out just right. And everyone enjoys the meal in perfect moderation, too. And no one ever steps on anyone’s toes, either. And everyone is constantly smiling, to boot.

But in today’s Scripture, Hosea describes something else. In today’s passage, Hosea depicts the all-too-real repeated offenses with all their usual sorry consequences, too. However! However, it’s right at that exact moment when Hosea’s tone unexpectedly shifts! When it comes time for the hammer to drop, Hosea says something unanticipated! 

Without warning, Hosea speaks a word that breaks all the old patterns! Suddenly, Hosea speaks a word that says something new for once! And out of the clear blue, as they say, as in, out of heaven, Hosea tells us that question God won’t stop asking, “How can I give you up?” “How can I give you up?”

The world shows us that we must make our families come out right ourselves. But Hosea declares that God is for people who can’t help themselves! Hosea proclaims that God is for people stuck in dysfunctional patterns and broken relationships, too! Hosea, I’ll just say it: Hosea preaches that if you’re not really perfect, you really have a place at God’s table!

The thing about those perfect little gatherings is, seductive as they may be, they never really happen! And they never really happen because they don’t really exist! And they don’t really exist because the perfect people who put on these perfect meals aren’t really real themselves! And that’s why Hosea will have no truck with them! 

Airbrushed depictions of glamorized families savoring idealized meals are fake! God, though, God is for real people! God is for real people with real families. God is for real people who have really gone through the wringer. God is for real people who are really caught in cycles of dysfunction. And God is even for real people who really perpetuate these patterns, too!

…For me, this cycle comes out when it comes time to visit family. Amanda can tell you I’ve got this miserable anxiety when it comes to visiting family. And I don’t know why. And I can’t help it, either! It’s awful. And I’d be willing to bet it’s no different for you. 

Sure, it may not be visiting family that gets you all tied up in knots. But it can just as easily be any other thing. It might be that one particular family member. Or it might be that chair that sits empty. Or it might be that long-standing grudge that no one knows how it started, but nevertheless still casts a shadow over every gathering. 

We all have places of pressure in our family life. Don’t we? We all have broken places in our family history, too. We all have places we can’t fix. And we all have places where we’ve done the damaging ourselves.

And for us, those places are god-forsaken. They’re places to get out of as quickly as possible. But Hosea tells us those are precisely the kind of places and exactly the kind of people God shows up to every time! “The Holy One in OUR midst,” says Hosea.

Today’s passage gives us a glimpse into the very heart of God. And it’s striking just how relatable it is. Like us, God gets upset. Like us, God grieves. And yet! And yet, unlike us, God doesn’t give up! 

God won’t quit on hurtful, broken people! “How can I give you up,” God refuses to quit asking! And that, believe it or not, is really the part of Hosea’s message you can really relate to most! 

It’s not just how relatable God’s heart is. No, what’s really relatable is how sticky of a situation God determines to show up in the middle of! God has resolved to plop Thyself right into the middle of patterns that began from the beginning and haven’t let up since. I’m talking about, if you haven’t already guessed, capital-s Sin. 

…That day in Ephraim, God determined not to come in wrath. And in Jesus, we see exactly how God has determined to come instead. In Christ, God comes in mercy! What’s more, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God comes in the mercy of Jesus Christ over and over again! Including right now! 

Yes, you heard me right! You and the Holy Spirit just had a head-on collision! And you were in the wrong, too. But get a load of this: on account of Christ, your sin, your wrong-doing is all accounted for! And it’s accounted as forgiven! All sins pardoned. All debts paid in full! And all means all, by the way!

In Jesus, God takes all our ingrained habits, which is just to say Sin, and God puts it all on the cross. And on the cross, all those old patterns die once and for all! And that’s it, too! When the cycle spins out, that’s the end of it! Kaput! You got it!?!

In Christ, the cycle of Sin and Death has lost all its power for good! In Jesus, God broke the chain of brokenness! NOW, that pattern is the resplendent mosaic of redemption itself! 

On the cross, you see not only Jesus’ death! No, you witness the death of humanity at its most broken! It’s most entrenched in Sin! And that only makes what you behold three days later all the more gloriously expected! 

In Jesus’ resurrection, you get a peek at the new humanity Jesus has come to rebirth! In Jesus’ resurrection, you glimpse the undoing of our age-old rebellion! And in Jesus’ resurrection, you also behold the redoing of a new humanity reborn in the restored image of God!

But that’s not all! Not by a long shot! In your baptism, you not only contemplate this miracle. No, on account of your baptism, you, too, are reborn into this yourself! What’s more, by the everlasting power of Jesus’ great triumph, you are reborn into this over and over again! In Christ, you are a new creation right now! The old has passed away!

In baptism, you died. You and your old life died. You and all those age-old patterns died. And from that tomb arose a new creature! A new creature who lives in Christ and Christ alone! A new creature who lives by faith and faith alone! A new creature who lives in the fullness of that love and freedom, too! 

In Christ, the power of those old sins has been broken! They have no power over you anymore! + In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, you REALLY are forgiven! You REALLY are made new! You REALLY are set free!

…This passage is not just about God’s determination to love. It’s also about whom God is determined to love! And it’s not airbrushed, idealized families that don’t exist. No, it’s real people! It’s real people with real cycles of dysfunction. It’s real people who’ve really gotten themselves into it. And it’s real people who really can’t get themselves out of it, either, too.

We’ve been fed a steady diet of fabricated families gathering around fictional tables. And after a while, we start to believe that’s how it is with God and God’s table, too. Only it’s not! 

No, God’s table is full of real people! And what really holds real people around God’s table isn’t any sort of perfection we dream up. No, it’s God. It’s God’s love! It’s God’s love that refuses to give up on you! And yes, by all means, that includes you by name. And me, too. Thank God.

And one last thing, if all this makes you uneasy. If this hits too close to home. If this sounds just a little too, well, intimate. Well, I could give a rip! It’s true! It’s true. God is a lover. And you are desirable to God. And the sooner you get used to that, the better.

As God asked that day, so God has been forever calling out throughout the ages, all the way from the very foundation of the world up to this very instant; “How can I give you up?” How can I give you up, God cries. 

How can God give you up? How can God give you up, _________? And how can God give you up, ________? And you, _________! And you, _______! And you. And all of us, each one of us by name. 

And if I missed you, but you want to hear your name with your own ears, come to me after worship. God never stops asking. And God is always saying your name with a divine love that knows no end!

How can I give you up, God asks. The Good News is, God won’t! On account of Christ, God refuses to! And by the power of the Holy Spirit, God never will, either! Amen.

There’s nothing to say. Is there? No, there’s not. The only reasonable response is to swoon. You want to sing a love song? Yeah, me too. 

Great is Thy Faithfulness, ELW 733