Loving God, your love and compassion shine through, even when we have gone our own way and have rejected you.  Help us to be able to see your arms open to us this day, as you wait for us to turn to you and live; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

    You may have heard, somewhere along the line, that the God of the Old Testament is a God of law and vengeance, whereas the God of the New Testament is a God of grace and love.  As it happens, today’s reading from Hosea blows this theory right out of the water.  The God who shows up in Hosea is tender and compassionate, loving and merciful.  This God longs for the people to turn away from their rebellion and to have life - including a life-giving relationship with God.  This God refuses to come in wrath because that is quite simply not God’s nature (Hos. 11:9).

    However, those of you who are parents will be able to understand quite readily why God might get angry now and then.  This whole reading from Hosea describes how God was like a mother or a father to Israel.  When Israel was still a young nation, God called him out of Egypt.  Using sometimes singular and sometimes plural, God taught Israel how to walk.  God says, “I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them” (Hos. 11:3).  “I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks.  I bent down to them and fed them” (Hos. 11:4).

    All of the images are of things that any loving parent would do for a little child.  And so, as a parent, you bring up your child.  You hold them in your arms and you feed them and you teach them to walk.  And then your child turns away from you and rebels against you.  Your child says to you, “You’re not my mother!  You’re not my father!”  And aren’t you going to feel at least a little bit of anger in your heart?  And hiding underneath that anger is the fact that you have been hurt.  You gave to your child all that you knew how to give them, and now they won’t even acknowledge you.

    This is the position that God is in as Hosea describes it.  In spite of the fact that God brought them out of slavery and formed them into a nation, they have continued to turn away from God and go off to worship the Baals.  They have sacrificed to idols and have continued to ignore all that God has taught them.  Because of this, they have suffered some consequences.

    War has been raging among them, sometimes fighting with Syria, or Judah, or Assyria.  The threat is there that soon they will be slaves again because they continue to refuse to acknowledge or to trust in God.  Many of their prayers are seemingly unanswered, as they continue to pray with a divided heart.  And yet, God refuses to act in anger or to destroy Israel.

    In the midst of all of this angst and turmoil in the text, we hear about these strange places called Admah and Zeboiim.  Have any of you ever heard of Admah or Zeboiim?... [probably not] To some extent, that’s the point.  Most people have never heard of Admah and Zeboiim.  These are the smaller places that were close to Sodom and Gomorrah.  And so, when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, Admah and Zeboiim disappeared as well.  So they were not only destroyed, but forgotten.  This is what God vows will not happen to Israel.

    And so, in spite of having really good reasons to be angry and ready to punish, God quite simply can’t do it.

How can I give you up, Ephraim?  How can I hand you over, O Israel?  How can I make you like Admah?  How can I treat you like Zeboiim?  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 (Hos. 11:8-9).

    What would your attitude be, as a parent, if your child ignored you and refused to acknowledge you?  Would you be full of anger or full of compassion if your child continued to reject everything that you stand for?...  My suspicion is that even for those of you who would be angry, you would not want to see your child destroyed.  And as for God’s attitude towards us? – There’s a line in the hymn “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” - “sorrow and love flow mingled down” - That’s God’s attitude towards us!

    The same God who had compassion for Israel has compassion for us.  The same God who nurtured Israel from childhood welcomes us as precious children through Jesus Christ.  The same God who longed for Israel to turn around, and repent, and live, longs for us to turn to God and live.  And so, now, we are in the place of the child with God as the parent.

    In fact, in the gospel passage that we heard today from Mark, the verse that follows talks about receiving the kingdom of God as a little child (Mk. 10:15).  At least one of the ways to think about this is in terms of our attitude toward God.  If we approach God like a little child, we look to God for all that we need, just as a child looks to their mother and father.  If we approach God like a little child, we are open to learning, ready to imitate God in love and mercy and compassion.  If we approach God like a little child, we are trusting and eager to be embraced, ready to give and to receive love.

    Our God, as it turns out, is not the God of wrath and judgment that many have imagined, but the God who always comes down in love and compassion.  Our God is capable of the same sorts of emotions that we feel - even anger - but compassion and mercy win out in the end.  Our God absorbed the judgment that Israel deserved in God’s own self in Hosea (11:8), just as Jesus absorbed the judgment that we all deserved in his own self.

    And so, today we are invited to allow God to hold us and to heal us and to feed us.  Today we are invited to approach God like little children, looking to God for all that is needed and ready to imitate God in love and mercy.  Today we are invited to allow Jesus to bless us and to allow the little children to come to him.  For he came in love and compassion for all of us, inviting us to turn to God and to live.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Pentecost 25 (NL 2)                            Hosea 11:1-9
November 15, 2015                            Mark 10:13-14
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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