i'm coming for everyone

& coming on strong

A sermon from Hosea 11:1-9

...Can you say dysfunctional???

And no, I’m not talking about our congregational meetings. …Although. ;-)

…No, what I’m talking about is the relationship described here in today’s scripture; the relationship between God and God’s people…

The thing about this relationship is, it’s less than ideal. 

It’s November now, and that means we’re about to spend the next couple months being force fed depiction and depiction of happy families, gleefully gathering around the softly-lit tables, full of perfectly cooked food.

And while those depictions have a certain appeal, they couldn’t be further from the family-life Hosea describes! 

Hosea describes the relationship between God and God’s people as at the point where families find themselves in therapy. Or, even after that. At the last moments before the relationship fizzles out…

God has been like a loving parent, Hosea says. Teaching the people to walk. Picking them up them when they fall. And bandaging their wounds when they scrape their knee. 

BUT, for all that, God’s love has only been met with ingratitude! With rejection, even!

More troubling, though, is the more God loves the people, the more they turn away!

And tragically; this isn’t new behavior, either! It’s been going on for a while. It started when the people were young, AND it hasn’t shown signs of stopping since…

Can you say dysfunctional???

The temptation today to focus on the behavior. BUT, Hosea has been sent to reveal just how deep the problems goes, and it’s much deeper than mere behavior…

No, the real problem, Hosea tells us, is what makes for real problems in the rest of life, too. Not behavior, but the cycle of it! The pattern of it! 

God’s people are broken. Stuck in patterns of dysfunction.

…And we can relate to that, can’t we?

The world tells us to perfect our family-lives. To fill them with little gatherings where everyone behaves. And no one ever steps on anyone’s toes. And the meal always comes out just right. And the family can’t stop smiling.

And. And. And…

The thing about these perfect little gatherings, though, is they almost never happen! They never happen because the perfect people who gather around those perfect meals, don’t exisit! 

Which is why Hosea will have no truck with those airbrushed depictions of perfect families! Because they’re not real. And God is for real people! 

Real people from real families. Real people who have really gone through the wringer. Real people who are really caught in cycles of dysfunction. Real people who really perpetuate these patterns themselves.

…We all have broken places in our lives. Don’t we? Places we can’t fix. And, for us, they are god-forsaken. They are places to get out of as quickly as possible.

But today Hosea comes to shows us these are exactly the kind of places, and exactly the kind of people God shows up to, every time! 

“The Holy One IN our midst,” as Hosea tells us.

…Before Hosea gets to that point, though, he describes the people’s repeated offenses and all their usual consequences. And then Hosea’s tone shifts. He speaks an unexpected word!
A word that breaks into all those old patterns with something new! Hosea tells us the question God won’t stop asking, “How can I give you up?”

“How can I give you up,” God asks.

The world tell us to make our families come out alight. But Hosea declares God is for people who can’t help themselves! People stuck in dysfunctional patterns and broken relationships!

…Amanda can tell you, the biggest stressor in my life is visiting family. I have this rotten anxiety about it. I can’t help it. And it’s terrible.

And I suspect, it’s no different for you, either. 

While, it may not be visiting family that gets you in a bind; it can just as easily be one particular family member. Or, a chair that sits empty every year. Or, a long-standing grudge that no one remembers how it started, but still casts a shadow over every family gathering. 

We all have places of strain in our family-lives. Don’t we?

And the trouble isn’t the behavior, per se. It’s the cycle of it. The pattern of it. Our inability to do anything about it.

On this side of heaven, we all bear this. The mark of dysfunction. A sort of birthmark. A blemish we all wear from birth to death…

And while the world tells us to airbrush these blemishes out of sight, God doesn’t! God refuses to! God won’t!

Perfectly altered images, aren’t real. And God is for real people! Real people who really bear the mark of their dysfunction.

This passage gives us a glimpse into God’s very heart. And it’s striking how relatable God is. Like us, God gets angry over hurtful words and deeds. Like us, God is heartbroken over broken relationships. 

And yet! And yet UN-like us, God can’t give up on hurtful, broken people like us! 

“How can I give you up,” God can’t stop asking. 

Which is the part of Hosea’s message you can relate to most! 

It’s not just how relatable God’s heart it is, it’s how sticky the situation God shows up into the middle of is!

Into the middle of a pattern began from the beginning, and hasn’t been able to stop it since. 

And we can relate to that. Can’t we? Because we, too, can’t stop. We, too, are stuck.

…Which is exactly what makes us God’s people!

We’ve been fed a steady a diet of fabricated families, gathering around fabricated 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!

God’s table is full of broken people! Broken people who can’t fix themselves. Broken people who are stuck in dysfunction. 

In other words, God is for real people! All people! And what holds people like us around God’s table isn’t any sort of perfection we can cobble together. It’s God’s love! God’s love that’s not too pure to get mixed up in our messy lives!

…That day in Ephraim, God determined not to come in wrath. And in Jesus Christ we see how God comes to us instead. In mercy!

In Jesus, God takes all our ingrained habits, which are Sin, and puts them on the cross. And on the cross, all those old patterns die! They die!

On the cross, we see not only Jesus’ death, but the death of humanity at its worst! At its most broken! And at its most entrenched in sin!

…Which only makes what we see three days later all the more glorious! 

In Jesus’ resurrection we get a glimpse of the new humanity Jesus has come to bring! In Jesus’ resurrection we see the UN-doing of our age-old rebellion!

…And, in your baptism you not only see this new humanity, you are given it!

In baptism you died. You and your old life, with all its age-old patterns, it died. And from that tomb, a new creature has been raised! A new creature who lives in love and freedom! A new creature who lives in Christ! And Christ, alone!

In Jesus, God transformed the blemish of your dysfunction, into the birthmark of your salvation! The sign whereby God marks you as one of God’s own forever!

The blemish of your dysfunction is covered, actually. But it’s covered with the sign of God’s determination to suffer our dysfunction; the cross!

Now, the sign of dysfunction no longer points to age-old patterns. Now, it points to the One who comes to bring God’s mercies anew EVERY morning! 

Including this one:

If you’re like me, it’s in family-life where some of your most entrenched sins show up. 

Well, that’s where God shows up to you, too! 

The power of those old sins has been broken! They have no place in the resurrection Jesus comes to give YOU! 

+ In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit you REALLY are forgiven! You  REALLY are made new! You REALLY are set free!

This passage isn’t just about God’s determination to love. It’s about who God is determined to love! And it’s not airbrushed, idealized families that don’t exist. It’s real people! 

Real people really caught in cycles of dysfunction. Real people who really can’t get themselves out of these patterns.

In other words, us!

God is for you and me!

And nothing can change that! 

As God asked that one day, God still asks today, “How can I give you up.” 

And the Good News is, God can’t! In Jesus God won’t! And in the Holy Spirit God never will!

That, and that alone, is what makes you a part of the holy family! A child of the heavenly father forever!