Loving God, your love for us is so strong that you have never given up on your children.  Help us to know how deeply we are loved and teach us to trust in you, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.  Amen.

            A recent online reflection goes something like this:

Loving someone who is misusing/abusing drugs daily/regularly is hell.

Loving someone in the grips of mental unhealth to the point of self-sabotage and self-destruction is hell.

Loving someone who is throwing/has thrown away relationships with those who love them, including their child, is hell.

Loving someone who is unreachable despite your best efforts, despite your love for them…someone who persistently refuses to find a rock bottom – that’s hell.

(RevGalBlogPals)

        Only those who have been in these situations can tell us if this is true.  However, I have talked to enough people to believe that it probably is true.  It is also not that far off from God’s experience in loving a wayward and rebellious people.  So what do you do when you are in a hell like this?

         There is no missing the lament and the tenderness in today’s reading from Hosea.  God is depicted as a loving parent who is dealing with a wayward child.  God taught Israel how to walk, fed them, held them when needed, and even healed them.  Yet, Israel has continually turned away from God.  They seem to ignore all that God has done for them.  They block out God’s call to them in order to worship other gods.  They even go to other gods for help when their cities are inundated with violence, and they seem bent on self-destruction.  They have strayed far away from the life that God intended for them.

         Yet, Israel is not the only one who has strayed.  We do not need to look very far in today’s world to see how far people have strayed from God’s way.  Drugs; violence; murder; theft; lying; destructive behavior – we are hearing more and more of these things on a daily basis.  And while some might claim that these are not people of faith who are doing these things, it seems more likely that they are simply worshiping other gods.  At the same time, there continue to be wars in the world, and the need for peacekeepers – something that we are acutely aware of as Remembrance Day approaches.

         It might be good to ask, though, if we, too, have strayed from God’s way of love.  We might not be involved in drug rings or murder, but sometimes there are more insidious things that draw us away from God.  Greed, for example, is one of the most common of these things.  It doesn’t seem to take much for our lives to start revolving around the almighty dollar.  We start treating every single dollar as if it belongs to us and not to God.  We start making all of our decisions based on how much we can get rather than on how much we can give.  And, we become much more comfortable worrying about money than we are trusting and thanking God.  So what is God to do with us?

         In fact, what is God to do with any of the people who have strayed so far away from God’s intention for our lives?  In Hosea, God is contemplating punishment.  God is contemplating sending Israel back into slavery – perhaps in Egypt, and perhaps in Assyria.  God is even contemplating the destruction of their land, just like Admah and Zeboiim, which were totally destroyed.

         However, God continues to have love and compassion for God’s people – a love that is stronger than God’s anger.  In spite of the hell that the people are putting God through, God refuses to give up on them.  God cannot bear to see them destroyed or enslaved again.

         This is the same love of God that we encounter in the New Testament in places such as Romans 8:

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor 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 in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38-39).

This is true for us, too, even when we have strayed from God’s way.  Ultimately, God’s answer to all those who have strayed (and not just Israel) was to send Jesus, who is the fullest expression of God’s love – that all those who believe in him might have eternal life.

         The thing is that God’s love and compassion have not disappeared.  Even in the midst of all that is happening around us, God’s love is still visible, particularly through God’s people.  For example, some of you share God’s love in the volunteer work that you do.  Some of you share God’s love at the food bank, and at Trinity Food Pantry, and at Winnipeg Harvest.  Some of you share God’s love as you volunteer at care homes.  Some of you have filled We Care bags and Shoeboxes with signs of God’s love, and have given offerings to pay for shipping costs.  Some of you share God’s love by visiting and phoning those who are sick or can’t get out.  Some of you share God’s love by offering a ride to those who need it.  And some of you share God’s love by knitting warm clothes or providing wool.

         This is just a small sample of the many ways that God’s love is made known through you.  And perhaps you could let me know if you have seen any signs of God’s love out in the surrounding community lately.  It is painfully easy for us to notice everything that is wrong and sad in our world.  However, perhaps it takes some practice for us to see the signs of God’s love when we encounter them.

         We began today with a reflection on the hell that people go through who love somebody who is an addict or self-destructive or unreachable.  The good news is that even in the midst of that hell, Jesus is with you.  And while God is never going to give up on us, sometimes human beings reach the limit of what they can do, and need to hand everything over to God.  Ultimately, though, whatever situation we are in, absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Pentecost 22 (NL 2)                        Hosea 11:1-9

November 10, 2019

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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