God Loves Us
Even If…
November 10, 2019 – Pentecost + 22
Hosea
“I Love You Even If” Book that we read to the kids
Different young animals
and their mamas…
· Mama, do you love me even when I misbehave?
Yes,
precious one. No matter what you do… I still love you?
· Do you love me even when I…
o Jump, jump, jump on the bed?
o Nibble, nibble, nibble all the treats?
o Spill, spill, spill my food on the floor?
o Scribble, scribble, scribble on the wall?
· Constant refrain from the mamas – No matter what you
do… I still love you
· All pretty minor infractions; even though a parent can
get irritated and angry (“Markers are for paper, not the wall!; You need to ask
before taking candy!”) – not the type of thing to break a relationship
Israel, on the other hand, has done some seriously
rebellious things
· First part of the book of Hosea talks about the nation
and people of ancient Israel, not as a rebellious child, but as an adulterous
spouse – cheating on God with other gods/idols
o Falling into the lure of worshiping the gods of the
surrounding cultures, esp. the Canaanite fertility gods, in hopes of securing
productive crops and livestock and families
· Falling away from trust in the God who had led them
out of slavery into freedom
· Geo-politically, have pledged loyalty to the Assyrian
power to the east – and then when that wasn’t working out so well, going to
Egypt to ask for help; trusting in military powers rather than God, who has
always longed for and asked for the Israelites to live into the covenant God
offered to their long-ago ancestors – toe be their god and for them to be God’s
people
· Chapter 11 this emotional, poetic description of who
God reacts
o Lamenting, mourning the loss of all God had once hoped
for
§ God as mother to Israel, God’s child
§ All of the hope and promise of the early days –
holding their arms as they learned to walk, kissing their boo-boos when they
fell down, snuggling them close, feeding them so tenderly
· We can imagine too well the anguish and pain God feels
when the child grows up and turns away, rebels, goes down a different path
o If you haven’t been the parent or the child, you know
someone who has struggled through this kind of brokenness: parent and child
estranged, and the desperation and helplessness of a parent who can’t force their
child to make good decisions
o Watching as they go down a path you know will end in
heartache
· We feel God’s pain and sorrow in all of this
· And we understand when God says, Fine! You made your
bed, now lie in it – go back to Egypt. Let Assyria be your king, if you won’t
listen to me. Don’t come running to me when it all goes south!
· If Israel had said, “God, do you love me even if…?” at
this point in the story, you don’t expect to hear God say, “No matter what you
do, I still love you.”
o These offenses are too great, the pain too immense
· We can kind of relate to Israel too – maybe not
rebellion on the same scale
o But knowing that there are times when we choose our
own path instead of what God desires for us
o Times when we fall away or neglect our relationship
with God, where we are lured away to give our trust and loyalty to other things
– work, money, family, to whatever we think can give us security and
satisfaction
o Times when we too have had to learn the hard way
· And wondering, from time to time, “God, do you love me
even if…?”, suspecting that maybe God can’t or won’t, wrestling with guilt,
wondering if there is the possibility of redemption, if forgiveness might exist
for the things we keep repenting of over and over again
One of the things I love about the kids book is the
illustrations (sorry I don’t have it
here to show you) – but for each page turn, for each of the various
misbehaviors, as the mama says, “No matter what you do, I still love you” – the
pictures show the mamas teaching and modeling a different way
· So, jumping on a trampoline together, instead of a bed
· Putting the treats away where they belong, together
· Sweeping up the food from the floor and putting it in
the trash can, together
· Washing the scribbles off the walls, together
Because the love that
exists and the forgiveness that is available doesn’t mean that the bad choice
or behavior never happened
· The child gets to be a part of making it right again
· There are logical consequences to the choices they
make
And we see that in the story
from Hosea too
· There will be consequences for the nation of Israel
for sacrificing to the Baals and offering incense to idols
· There is a consequence to trusting foreign military
powers instead of God
· But the consequence doesn’t last forever – and the
people don’t go through it alone
Because God says, “Yes,
precious one. No matter what you do, I still love you!”
· Though God is tempted to give up on the people and
give them over to those who would ultimately harm them, God makes a different
choice.
o “How can I give you up, Ephraim? (another name for
Israel) How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How
can I treat you like Zeboiim? (2 cities that God destroyed, like Sodom and
Gomorrah)
· No, as soon as God thinks about that, God says, “My
heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not
again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath.”
We would get it if God
chose to abandon God’s people. That’s what we might do
But God is God, and not like us.
· God chooses another way – the way of forgiveness. The
way of mercy. The way of love.
· God helps us when we need to clean up the messes – but
no matter what you do, God still loves you.
· Thanks be to God!
· Amen.
