Cords of Kindness (Prophet Margins – Part V)

Sermon Title: Cords of Kindness

Good News Statement: God restores us through kindness and compassion

Preached: Sunday, August 14, 2022 at Dogwood Prairie UMC & Seed Chapel UMC

Pastor Daniel G. Skelton, M.Div.

 

Scripture (NRSV): Hosea 11:1-11 Today’s scripture reading comes from the minor Prophet Hosea chapter eleven verses one thru eleven. Listen to the words of a minor, obedient, prophet…

God’s Compassion Despite Israel’s Ingratitude

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

2 The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and offering incense to idols.

3 Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up in my arms, but they did not know that I healed them. 4 I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them.

5 They shall return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. 6 The sword rages in their cities; it consumes their oracle priests and devours because of their schemes. 7 My people are bent on turning away from me. To the Most High they call, but he does not raise them up at all.

8 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. 9 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.

10 They shall go after the Lord, who roars like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west. 11 They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria,  and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.

 

This is the Word of God for the People of God; And all God’s people said, “Thanks be to God.”

 

Introduction:

A fourth grader celebrated his birthday on crutches, so he couldn’t carry the cupcakes into school without help. His sixth-grade brother, Noah, was asked to help his brother carry them in. “I could,” he said, “but I’d prefer not to.” Spotting a teaching moment, Noah’s father asked him, “What would Jesus do?” Noah answered, “Jesus would heal him so he could carry his own cupcakes.”  

[Last week we were introduced to a minor prophet who was just living his best life on the margins. Without any warning, God showed up and told this prophet that he was going to marry a prostitute—someone who is unfaithful, unrighteous, impure, and most-likely underserving of divine love. This prostitute’s name is Gomer which means someone who is beyond the point of recovery; and this minor prophet is named Hosea. Although this wasn’t the life that Hosea saw for himself, marrying an impure woman, he trusted in God’s plan. Hosea, son of Beeri, in the days of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah, and in the days of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel (Hosea 1:1), writing during the same time period as Amos, trusted God’s plan for his life.

Something that many of us struggle to do on a daily basis, trust in God’s plan, Hosea did an instant, without regrets or pushback against God. And because he accepted God’s plan, the troubled people of Israel were once again called “Children of the living God” (Hosea 1:9) and Gomer began to experience a sense of love that brought her hope, completeness, and made her whole. Simply by trusting and obeying God, Hosea saved a nation and brought love to a broken and lost heart.]

Today, the love that Hosea received from God to save the Israel people and to recover Gomer from the darkness of life, is further put into action. However, Hosea isn’t the one struggling with showing love: God, the parent, is struggling to bring love back to his children. This concluding message from Hosea has four brief sections. First, the prophet describes God’s past loving care for his and Israel’s rebellion (11:1-4). Second, the prophet describes God’s decision to punish His people (11:5-7). Third, God’s loving lament prevents Israel from being totally destroyed (11:8-9). And fourth, God, through His love and compassion, brings salvation to his children (11:10-11). From today’s encounter of Hosea, we will learn that God will not give up on the people He loves: His love is steadfastly loyal to those who receive His kindness and compassion. Are you someone who God loves; and do you love God in return?

Opening Prayer:

            Let us pray… God of Compassion, today, remind us of what really matters. Often, we show up for worship with heavy hearts and thinking about a million things to do. But today, O God, help us focus on your kindness, love, and doing what you need us to do in this world. May my words fall to the ground as your words settle in the hearts of all those before me. In Your name we pray, Amen.

Body:

How many of you have ever done something by which you thought God was going to despise, scorn, or even look down upon you for? That God was all of sudden going to leave your life, abandon you, and make you figure things out on your own? Maybe you felt this way as you left a restaurant and didn’t leave the proper tip; or maybe you cut in front of someone as they were distracted by someone else; or maybe your promised God that you were going to do something but then you didn’t do it. Most of us have probably felt, at some moment, at some intersection of our life, that God was going to punish us and abandon us because we didn’t do what Jesus would have done in a particular situation.

At the end of the day, however, we learn that God never lost hope in us: He never stopped loving us even though we may have made a mistake. He never stopped providing us with kindness and compassion. The same God that hasn’t given up on us, is the same God that, although struggled with His children, still found the courage to still love them. God never stopped loving those who walked away from Him. Do you know of anyone who has lost sight of God in their life and needs to be reminded that God still loves them?

Some of you here today are parents to your children and others of you are and have been parents to someone else’s children. You probably know what God is going through in our Scripture reading today. God raised the children of Israel, protected them, fed them, and gave them strength to set foot in the Promised Land, but yet they have chosen to do the complete opposite of what they were raised to do. As a loving parent, God is reflecting in Hosea 11. He is remembering what it was like to love them only to see them fall to a non-existent god, Baal. Using the imagination of a parent, He is recalling those days of teaching His people, guiding them, blessing them, and loving them. Yet, He had to be in the role that no parent really enjoys. God had to punish His children for not doing what they were taught. I’m sure none of you have ever been punished before! I’m sure all of you were perfect children; always doing to others what you would have done to you! God’s children have not been perfect, however. In fact they choices are leading them to destruction and exile.

But, even here, we see God not wanting this. We see God struggling with this. We see God not able to just leave his children, Ephraim. As Hosea sought to secure his wife from bondage and to reestablish their relationship, similarly God does this to Ephraim and Judah. Here’s the challenge: Ephraim continued to resist and reject his parent. Ephraim continued in the way of sin. But God had a vision and a promise. He’d restore them with the power of His love and kindness, but until then, God endures the heartbreaking experiences of watching the people He loved dig themselves a deep spiritual hole of sin.

Hosea begins this chapter with these words: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and offering incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up in my arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them” (11:1-4). At the beginning of God’s parental struggle, He is reflecting on the ways that He supported His children, but yet they still rebelled against Him. The son, Ephraim—a name given to one of the twelve tribes that became the people of Israel—rejected his father’s love and foolishly sacrificed to Baal and to various other idols. Although these gods never loved them or miraculously delivered them from slavery, the ungrateful son went his own way. But God did not immediately give up on Ephraim.

The final line in 11:4 describes God’s tender care and provisions for his people. The text tells us that God “bent down” gently to feed them, He walked with them, He took them in His arms, and provided with cords of human kindness and bands of love. Although the people of Israel rebelled against God, God did not give up on His children. When we rebel against God because God didn’t answer our prayers or we didn’t win the lottery or get a hole-in-one or we didn’t get a good grade on an assignment that we worked so hard on or one of our tractors keeps breaking down, God will not give up on us. He will continue to feed us, walk with us, wrap His arms around us, lift us up when we fall, and grant us cords of human kindness and bands of love. God will always be the ever-loving parent in our life that will always find a way to be there for us.

Hosea goes on to write, “They shall return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. The sword rages in their cities; it consumes their oracle priests and devours because of their schemes. My people are bent on turning away from me. To the Most High they call, but he does not raise them up at all” (11:5-7). “One would expect,” according to Biblical Scholar Gary V. Smith, “that a people receiving this kind of love and care would naturally follow God and enjoy the blessings of living in the Promised Land God gave them.” Instead, Israel will end up losing their land and going back in bondage to Egypt and Assyria (11:5). Swords will be drawn, war will break out, and God will destroy the boasting of the proud people. Israel’s plans for greatness will vanish and its nation will fall apart and crumble to pieces. God, as parent, is ready to turn His back on His children, to let them struggle.

But notice what the text says: “To the Most High they call, but he does not raise them up at all” (11:7). Growing up my father would often say whenever us kids got in trouble, “Well, they have to learn some time.” I remember learning how to walk and my siblings would throw pillows at my feet to see if I could keep my balance…and then I would fall…and my dad would say, “How else is he going to learn to walk!” God, like my father, may not be directly involved in our faults and mistakes and He may not reach down right away to raise us up again, but that doesn’t mean that He can’t hear us when we call out for help. God hears His children calling for help, but He is letting them learn from their mistakes: seeing the swords drawn, wars breaking out, and devastation creating ruin upon ruin in their life. But God can still hear them because He hasn’t stopped loving them. God will always hear you when you fall: He may not act right away, but He is still present in your life.

There is an old hymn that says, “Lord, listen to your children praying. Lord, send your spirit in the place. Lord, listen to your children praying; send us love, send us power, and send us grace.” God can hear our prayers even when we have done something wrong. God can hear you because He loves you, so don’t be afraid to call upon God when you need help.

After hearing His children praying and calling out for help, God begins to lament and show compassion for Israel. “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” (11:8-9). I don’t about you, but there are times when I find myself in fear and trembling knowing how great the wrath of God can be. The people of Israel must be rejoicing knowing that God, after being convicted of worshipping false gods, has chosen to restrain himself from bringing wrath upon the people. (If you did something wrong today, you can breathe that God has not brought the wrath upon you!) Instead, God is lamenting with you and bringing you compassion.

This decision to judge the people God loved was not a cold and heartless act. To make it more understandable to us God is pictured as a father who has tried everything but has found that nothing works. God struggles with his decision and laments having to punish His people so severely. He cries out in anguish of love: “How can I do this?” According to Smith, “These words do not suggest God is confused or does not know what to do. Rather, they simply express the emotional intensity of God’s love.” In compassion God declares that He cannot totally give up on His people; He cannot totally annihilate Israel as He did to the obscure cities of Zeboiim and Admah. God gives His hurting people compassion instead of punishment.

This moment reminds me of every other parent on Social Media. It seems like every day I read something that says, “Any advice how to keep my kid from coloring on the walls?” “How do you make a teenager listen to you?” and my favorite one, “If I punish my child and take away their car keys, then I am going to have to take a day off work just to get them to all of their activities: that’s more of a punishment than me taking away the car keys. How do I not give in to their misbehaving?” Every day we find ourselves asking “How can I do this…” Don’t feel bad because God is asking the same question as He looks down upon His misbehaving children: “How can I help them….How can I save them?” But at the end of the day, God chooses to grant the people forgiveness: God chooses to show them compassion. Maybe we are asking the wrong question…Maybe instead of asking “How can I do this…” maybe we should be asking that old phrase from the 90’s, “What would Jesus do?” or “What would God do?” If God can avoid wrath and provide compassion instead, then maybe I can do the same thing?

Hosea closes with these words of restoration and promise, “They shall go after the Lord, who roars like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west. They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord” (11:10-11). God has not given up on His children! God’s sovereign plan includes restoration for his people. Thus, at some point in the future He will act like a lion and roar, calling His people to follow him and to return from the land of captivity. God’s love will accomplish His plan; human sinfulness will not triumph over His compassion. This is His promise. As the Apostle Paul would note at this point, “neither death, nor life, not angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God…”(Romans 8:38-39). God has promised to be there for us. Even when we fall short of fulfilling His commandments, God will be there. Even when we falter and sin, God will be there. And even when we get frustrated with the ones that we love and teach and advise on a regular basis, God will be there. Not only will God be there, but He will never stop loving you.

Nehemiah 8:10 shares, “Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” The Psalmist wrote, “The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing” (Psalm 23:1). Paul wrote to the people of Rome, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9). The love of God is our strength that gives us joy, provides us with all that we need, and conquers the evil in our life. God will never forsake you or abandon you. You are a living child of God’s love, grace, and kindness. So rest assured knowing that God is always going to be with you!

Conclusion:

Although I have witnessed the rolling of my parents’ eyes on multiple occasions and have watched them scratch their head in confusion and disappointment, they have never stopped loving me. I’m sure that there are people in your life, maybe your own kids, which have done something to upset you, to make you roll your eyes, to make you scratch your head and ask “Why?,” but I bet you’ve never stopped loving them and showing them kindness. The kindness that God gave to His children, after they rebelled against Him in inscrutable ways, is a kindness that stems from the Greek word meaning “grace.” God gave His children grace because He knew that this was just a phase in their life. God gave them grace to let them know that He was still listening to them. God gave them grace to extend His never ending love to them in times of despair and ruin. God gave them grace and kindness because the people of Israel will forever be His children. If God can love people, who are unfaithful, rude, boastful, and disrespectful, then shouldn’t we be able to do the same thing?

God chose to love certain people and called them to be members of His covenant family. God’s love is expressed in His teaching and leading. God’s love is shown in healing and delivering from trouble. God’s love will not give up on people when they fail. God’s love will fulfill His promises. And God’s love will never run dry. Now it’s our turn to share God’s love with those in our life. “The day is surely coming,” says the LORD, when love will truly conquer hate and kindness will rescue the spirit. If God can love His misbehaving children, then shouldn’t we be able to do the same in our own life with those who also misbehave? Remember, God will never stop loving you! That brings a smile to my face! What about you? Love can change the world, so what are you doing to bring God’s love to His children?

Benediction:

As you go about your week, I pray that God bless you with his love and that he remind you that he will always love you: tears, sins, and smiles, God will always love you and show you kindness and compassion because you are his child. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit go transforming lives as you live well and wisely in God’s world. Amen. Amen. Amen.

 

Prayer of Confession/ Prayer of the People

God of Healing,

As you spoke through the prophet, Hosea,

Lead us with cords of human kindness; Lead us with bands of love

Yet what does it mean to be led with cords of human kindness and bands of love?

Remind us of the connection our souls have to you, O God.

You tug at our cords to remind us that we also need the kindness of other humans.

You pluck at our heartstrings to remind us of the love you’ve placed within each of us.

But we still become distracted.

We get lost in our aggravations, disappointments, and deep-seated longings.

Sometimes, it seems as though the negativity and sadness will swallow us whole.

How are we to turn this pain into love and kindness?

God, you know these feelings all too well; oftentimes, as a result of human action or inaction.

The story, repeated over and over again in our sacred texts, tells of your incredible love for us.

You, O God, choose love, despite the pain.

May we do the same, trusting that the Holy One is in our midst.

Amen.