334 SE Tecumseh Road  P.O. Box 5  Tecumseh, Kansas 66542  (785) 379-5005  Fax - (785) 379-5061

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A distraught mother Hosea 11:1-11 (it is important that you read the passage) 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. (Hosea 11:1-4, NRSV)  These are the words of a mothering God, totally distraught by the rejection of God’s own children. In spite of the warm and tender love provided, the children continue to turn away, worshiping their false idols and in so doing causing tremendous pain and suffering for their mothering Creator. My people are bent on turning away from me (11:7), God exclaims, and yet, and yet – in spite of the wrongdoing of the children of God, s/he exclaims: 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. (8-9) Those of us who are parents can identify with God’s cry of anguish. Let’s face it, our children do not always behave as they should, or make decisions which we affirm or support. They may hurt us very deeply from time to time. However, we may have to acknowledge that we ourselves may have given some pain to our parents as well, right? As a young man, there was a period during which I participated in more than my share of drinking and carousing. (I know you find this hard to believe, given the mild-mannered person I have turned out to be.) It was my mother who suffered the most, and while she did unleash her anger at me and shout out her anguish (in some rough Dutch, I might add!), not ever did she give up on me, not ever did she stop loving me. Through the prophet Hosea, our mothering God vows that, even though there is ample cause for retribution, God will not act in wrath, and will not destroy these oft wicked and foolish people. God is talking about me, and about you. God is talking about us individually, and God is talking about us as a community, as a nation, as a world. We do not have to look very far to find cause for God’s alarm, to find ways in which we (not just those “other people”, but you, and me!) are engaged in the worship of false idols, our own Baals. But then there is that great, good news, you see. There is that great good news that God has not, will not, does not give up on us! God will roar like a lion, and God’s children will tremble, and God will welcome them back with open, loving arms. And once there – oh, the good feeling of being in those arms, of coming back to God’s warm, tender mercies, of being lifted again to God’s cheeks and being fed by God’s mothering care. I will return them to their homes, says the Lord. (11) Amen, and Amen.  - Pastor Piet – August 5, 2007