Return. Can you find your own place of rebirth?

As the spring came, we prepared for the joy of swimming. I bought all the necessary chemicals to treat, and care for, our above ground pool. Our winter cover was removed and put away. The water was tested and the levels of alkalinity and ph were balanced properly. Chlorine tablets were added and I vacuumed away the debris from the bottom of the pool. 

As the heat of summer came we enjoyed the relaxation of floating on top of our pool with the sun warming our bodies. 

For about a month, as the temperatures topped out in the upper 90s, and the heat index soared to over 100, everything seemed right in our backyard. With my sunglasses on, I would swim laps for a little bit. Then when I was done, I would pull myself onto one of our floats and relax until I was too hot to continue. Then I would retreat back into the water to cool off. 

We were all so tan and so relaxed. . . 

But a by-product of the heat was the apparent suffering of our small magnolia tree which resides near the pool, adjacent to the carport. Slowly the leaves turned and then they fell off in the middle of July. It seems that the tree is dead--I hope it is not, but we will know in the spring. 

So for the remainder of the summer, we have enjoyed swimming while simultaneously hoping the tree is alive. But this is not the only thing that has left. As the tree has lost its leaves, we have not seen any of the hummingbirds that normally come and enjoy the feeder in the backyard and rest near the magnolia tree. . . that was until yesterday. 

As Emma and I returned home from an errand, we saw one fluttering around the hopefully-not-dead-tree. Its tiny wings carrying it around our backyard looking for a snack from our red feeder. I stood there smiling, hoping, and thankful. 

I wonder if you can find a place today that seems dry, barren, and dead, and can you notice the place where life returns? 

That tree shows all the signs of death. But if I had not slowed down and took a longer look, I might have missed the little blue bird darting around. It was a gift that God showed me. A reminder. A gift that can be shared. A story of faithfulness. 

I am enough--Jeremiah 1:4-10. Sermon preached on August 24, 2025.

            One of the most popular, most regularly offered, justification that we hear is: I am not enough. 

It comes so often that I do not have the space today to list out all the instance where I recall hearing it recently. As I am sure that you could add to any list that I create. For you know places, instance, and people who would join the choir of others who respond to the stress, the wounds, and the dailyness of life by saying: I too am not enough.

            And while we are quick to grab our Bibles, or find and squeeze a cross in our pockets, or a look to the little Jesus sitting in a places of prominence around our lives, and hold that up and say, ‘yeah, but Jesus makes me enough,’ tomorrow the refrain will come and someone’s actions or their words, or their lack of actions and words, will cause you to say once again, and this time, perhaps, with a tear in your heart, “I am not enough.”

            In that place, we find a prophet who lived in difficult times and among difficult people. A prophet whose message was devalued and not listened to. He felt the same way, I think. The weeping prophet who no one wanted to follow. A prophet whose message was discounted to detriment of society and the church that God sent him into. 

Jeremiah’s perspective is familiar to us for just because we have the Word of the Lord before us, and just because Christ abides in our hearts, the refrain, erroneous as it is, will still eat away at us. So, the call of Jeremiah from this first chapter of his book, with it is familiarity, and its hints to the words of David in Psalm 139—it needs our attention. 

For in these words, God speaks to His servant, and to His Church. . . not a word of chastisement or rebuke, and not a word of prodding them to action among a difficult cultural context or a blind society as a whole. 

Instead in this passage I hear something different. And as we consider these few verses, I wonder if you will join me in hearing and responding to the message in the life of this church—both personally and corporately? For as Jeremiah’s call teaches us: we are enough. 

Move 1- Time.

            While our text begins formally in verse 4, I want to draw you into verse 5. And I want to ask a question as we think about what the Word of the Lord to Jeremiah meant. . .

            Let’s hear verse 5 again: 

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

And before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”[1]

 

            Theologically verse 5 is an important verse to consider. It is the substance of Jeremiah’s call. These are the words that he will go back to when he feels threatened and pushed by the people who do not listen to him; people who devalue him. Additionally, verse 5 contains some foundational themes to wrestle with for the church. Themes like: God’s immenseness. God’s presence throughout all our time as Christians. God’s power. God’s will in the life of His people. Just to list a few. It is all there in just one verse. 

            In 26 English words, or 12 Hebrew ones, we have such depth being given by God to someone who defines themself as too young to be called by God. Oh, and Jeremiah never defines what makes him young either. Young in age. . . Young in faith. 

I imagine that this verse took some time for the prophet to consider. If Jeremiah was sitting with the Session of this church, and we were Dwelling in the Word together on this whole text, I would like to think that his attention would rest in on this one verse for a while. 

            God forming him in the womb. . . that is the reference to psalm 139.

            God present in his life and setting him apart for service before the prophet even took his first breath. . .

            God calling him to be a prophet when he, the young prophet who could not yet articulate his sense of belonging in the church or his sense of call and did not think he was either qualified or called to be a leader. 

            Like I said, this is a heavy weight to feel and to try and express faithfully. 

            As I have told you before, I heard the voice of the Lord call me when I was Jr. High school and I still am learning what that means to me today—and I am no Jeremiah. Imagine hearing God and attempting to make sense of what he heard. 

            And here is my question: Why are we in a such hurry with God when Jeremiah would likely have to sit with this message and meditate on the implications of what God was saying in his life? 

For when we feel like we are not enough, when we feel like we do not measure up to others, we must return to the truth that holds this passage, and this call together… God formed us, Church Family. God called us, Bethesda. God provides the gifts. God sets us up for success, here! 

Even when the world around us says that this is an impossibility and points at our flaws—corporately and personally. We are enough. We are always enough to thrive.

If God was present the entire time, even before the prophet was aware of this fact, then should Jeremiah not trust in the revelation of God in his life that calls him to be different? 

Should we also work to trust God in the same manner and fashion in our life and in the life of the work we do in His name and for His glory? 

Move 2- pushback.

            Now I wish that was enough—for Jeremiah and for us. The affirmation that God calls us, that God provides for us, that we can trust the Lord and know that we are enough because Christ is in us, and that God’s care and support changes our identity as we push on toward the high calling in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:14)—this is foundational.

But not even Jeremiah does any of this.

            And that truth is also important for us as we consider the prophet’s call story. Because just an affirmation, and the confessional moment that call story this brings forth in each of us will not totally remind us that we are indeed enough in Christ Jesus. It should, but the whispers still come. There is still push back.

For in verse 6, the prophet will again press against God and try to wriggle out of the call of God. He will try and push away from being faithful—just like we do. For as the saying goes, “old habits, die hard.”

            And just about the time that we expect God to smack the prophet for not having enough faith, for the world would smack us if we dared to be vulnerable to them and to each other, God reminds us: Do not be afraid in verse 8. 

We will push back on God, but God will not let us go. God’s call and God’s mission still calls each of us toward faithfulness. And this is not just a general sense of fear that we are dealing with either but a sense of terror and dread. 

Why, are we not to fear? 

The Lord answers quickly! 

Because God is going to deliver us. And more than just deliver us, God will abide close to us in those moments when we feel that we are not enough—even when we confess with both actions and words that we are not enough on a regular basis. And as we push back on God’s call and mission in our lives, God says, “you may believe this, and you may confess it when pushed, but I have made you different. And because of this, you are enough in my eyes. You are always enough.”

Move 3—the call

            And so, Jeremiah, like you and me, is called to great things. The word of the Lord has been placed in the prophet—and in us. God has touched the mouth of his called children and sent them forth to prosper and share the gospel. 

And we will see a great many things taking place right before us. These images are vivid, and they are listed in verse 10. Plucking up and breaking down. Destroying and overthrowing. Building and planting. We will see them all as Jeremiah is told that he too will see them as he serves the Lord. 

            While they come with a sense of judgement? 

We are never told which way the judgment falls. We might create that sense, or offer that judgment, but Jeremiah is never told who is suffering and who is being blessed.

            Instead, he is to stand before the world, his community, and even the church and faithfully share what God is doing and what God is saying to him knowing that some will listen and some will not. And that is without the commentary that is so tempting to add to the mix. 

            And it is that commentary that helps us tell each other that ‘we are not enough.’ But when the word of the Lord comes into our hearts and lives, we are enough because Christ dwells with us and in us and God’s word.

Conclusion

            Jeremiah took time I believe to consider the word of the Lord. And after considering it, we know that he suffered still. Yet God was always with him—as God is with us. 

            I hope that as you leave our time in worship and begin to share God’s message, and as you hear others confess with actions, and sometimes with words, that they are not enough, maybe you will remind them of the truth—in God we are enough. And you will further help them turn to Christ who will help transform their lives and make them whole. 

DM

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[1] Jeremiah 1:5 NRSV.

Do we notice what is right before us?

This week has been a welcome change of pace at Bethesda. Rally Day, the beginning of our new cycle of Christian Education, is this week. We will have a light breakfast together. We will talk about the variety of educational offerings that Bethesda has to offer families. 

Then we will finish our time with some fun. 

On Monday morning my phone vibrated on my desk startling me. Our Christian Education director was checking in to see if I was willing to fill my customary role at Rally Day (besides praying for the food)? Would I create our annual scavenger hunt for anyone who comes to Rally Day to complete? 

For the last couple of years I have challenged our church family to count both the number of hymnals in the sanctuary and the lights in the Family Life Center. I asked them what hymn is on page 123 and to notice how many bookmarks are in Bible on the pulpit? 

Our DCE wondered: would I do this again? 

Of course I would! I love doing it. Plus: there will be prizes for anyone who completes the puzzle! 

Grabbing my notebook, I began the slow walk around the property searching for material for the hunt. Now I won't spoil any of the questions, but I will say, this year's hunt is challenging. 

Breathing in deeply as I walked into familiar every space I scanned the rooms looking around. The sanctuary with its familiar reverence. The quietness of the Christian Education building. The buzz of children in the Family Life Center. I experienced it all in just a few minutes and appreciated what each room brings to Bethesda. 

There is so much to notice here. 

Yet I wondered, do we stop and truly notice what is right before our eyes each day? Can we spot the hidden details that God has placed before us? And by spotting them, can we see God at work as well? 

The Vineyard--Isaiah 5:1-7. Sermon preached on August 17, 2025

 What does it take to forget God? To forget God’s mission and message? How long does it take to let that mission and message go before we no longer hear it and respond to what God asks each of us to do and become? 

            Today text is a poetic love song. Told from God to his beloved people—Israel. The song begins with an image of abundance and provision as the Lord purchases a vineyard, and he tends to it. 

This vineyard is a gift that the Lord offers to his covenanted people. Yet by the end of the song both the vineyard and the relationship have turned sour. God’s gift is met with ingratitude. Good is given; evil is returned. The initiatives of love, care and support have every reason to expect a reciprocal response, but they are met with contempt.[1]

            This prompts me to wonder about our lives as God’s people. . . Do we meet the provision and grace of God in a similar way? 

            For we can testify to the places and the instances where God has blessed and cared for us, and rather than pass that provision on to others, we have kept the blessing to ourselves. We have met the blessing of God with the response of contempt. 

            This poetic love song is filled with images that capture the mind, but let’s meet those images as the prophet presents them. 

Move 1- Grapes

            The most vivid image in this text comes in the form of the grapes. Occurring in two places (verse 2 & 4), Isaiah contrasts the two types of fruit that God sees growing in his vineyard. Let’s consider them one at a time. . .  

            First the Lord sees, good grapes, growing in this vineyard. Grapes are one of the seven species mentioned in Deuteronomy 8:8 that signify the fruitfulness which will be found in the Promised Land for the faithful children of the Lord. 

These good grapes are the result of careful pruning and attention by the owner of the vineyard. They require a terracing approach to grow and they will need time to flourish—likely 2 years to see a full harvest. The abundance that God wants to see happen only does so because of time. Like us as we consider our discipleship, it takes time to grow into the people that God wishes us to become. Yet we do not grow by ourselves. 

The harvest reaches it potential because of all the other items that God has put into place around the vineyard that will assist in the growth. Items of security; items of protection. Fences. Watchtowers. God puts these into place to help the grapes grow. The wine vat which the owner places in the vineyard also, this will help in the production of the sacramental by-product: wine. Each item is put into place by the one who oversees and begins the work. 

God values this work, and God hopes for a good harvest to come. 

            Then there are the wild grapes. They come second. These wild grapes are contrasted by the previous good fruit which God’s children have a clear understanding of. 

Only occurring in these two verses in the scriptures, these wild fruits are more than the opposite of the good fruit. They are poisonous. Toxic. A fruit that turns acrid. A fruit that appears promising when it starts growing but the longer that it grows, it quickly becomes inedible. Nothing of value is left here. As a seed these ‘wild grapes’ began to grow outwardly in a promising way but inwardly they are morally rotten, and that rot works its way all the way down to the core. These ‘wild grapes’ possess a stench that alerts others to its very nature. They smell the rot, and others will avoid it completely. 

            Now God wanted good fruit only to grow in this vineyard, and all the fruit began in this way. It all came from the same seed. God did not buy some good seed and some bad seed. But before long, rotten, wild fruit took joined the good fruit on the vine (somehow). And as the story ends, we are left to wonder, why? 

Move 2- why and how

            The question that this parable, love-song, leaves us to consider is: 

How did good fruit, fruit that God planted properly, become acrid and wild? 

            Because once God decides that this fruit is bad, the Lord acts in the second half of our text aggressively against the ‘wild grapes.’ The fruit that God determines is of no value, God acts against it. 

God removes the hedges. He breaks down the walls. Ceasing the care for the fields themselves. It almost reads like God is letting the entire vineyard that He cared for before, go fallow because the ‘wild grapes’ have been found in and among the good fruit that the Lord planted. God makes it so that no more rain falls from the sky, God, in verse 5-6, acts aggressively against the vineyard—a vineyard, again where some good fruit is growing.

            Yet again, I wonder, why?  

            And if we look to the end of our text, I believe the answer lies in how our text ends. 

The last verse, verse 7, tells us that people of the Lord have forgotten what it means to be in relationship with God. They have forgotten what it means to serve their community, care for each other. And while Isaiah uses theological language and traditional prophetical formulation to get there, it’s clear. They forget who they were called, who they were made, to be. 

For as God planted them, nurtured them from seedlings and protected them. The Lord was pleased by what he was seeing—a reference in verse 7 to the Genesis creation story. 

            Yet when God returned and surveyed the fruit that he left growing in one way, fruit that is us ,historic and present, God saw only bloodshed which is a sign of division. The Lord heard cries—and not of righteousness and evangelism, but cries of judgment and separation. Cries of division and isolation.

            For the people of Isaiah, and by extension, anyone who finds the story of the vineyard and considers their placement in the story, we are in danger of forgetting the total nature of God who seeks relationship with us and wants us to seek relationship with others in a manner consistent with God and the church. 

            We can be in danger of forgetting how much care and work God put into us as God discipled us and asked each of us to disciple one another, to care for the church, and to care for our community just as God cared for us. This care is not a one-off moment, but as God has repeatedly cared for us, invested time and resources in our betterment, God asks us to follow that example as we are for the church and the community. 

            The vineyard is not producing the fruit that God intended and so God, as the text concludes, has given up on the good work that He began when he bought the vineyard and created a vision of how this vineyard would look. 

If you read further in Isaiah chapters 6-10 you will see that the prophet speaks about invading nations who will come and destroy God’s people and carry them away—and the picture is rough for God’s people. In this care, there is nothing left that God can do in the lives of his people. For the children of Israel, and perhaps the Church, are only producing ‘wild fruit’ and not the ‘good fruit’ which the Lord began in each of us. 

Move 3- 

            Yet, as I have said, that is not what God desires from us as his church. This was not the plan. And there is still time for God’s church to care and support the mission and message of the gospel. 

            We must remember our calling, our mission, and God’s message. We must carry that message out from this place and into the community around. 

Conclusion

            So, as we move about this week and as live out our calling as the Body of Christ, we have to consider and reflect on the fruit that we are bearing and producing. Is it the good fruit, the fruit that is consistent with the will of the Lord? 

            Or have we begun to travel towards the ‘wild fruit’ and towards fruit that acrid and rotten? These are reflections and considerations between the individual and God, but as you spend time asking God about this, he will show you how to align yourself more and more with his will and that will help your fruit grow deeper and richer each day. 

 

DM

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[1] Anna Case-Winters. 

 

Reflecting on a hard week. . . Because sometimes you have to do that.

Several years ago an opportunity presented itself to me--an opportunity that none of us relished. Covid-19 locked us all down. We were told to socially distance ourselves. Stay inside, or at the very least, away from others. Essential workers, like Jennifer, who worked at a pediatric office, had to navigate how to do their job while remaining safe. But I had a different experience entirely. 

I could still work and serve the Lord. I was able to do that work at a safe distance. In this case, I did most of my work from my home office. I could go to the church when I needed to and retrieve any book that I needed. Then I returned home and worked. I could even stay in the office if I wanted. No one was there.

But the opportunity that this post with was: I began to walk. A lot.

Our German Shepherd, Luna, and I began talking daily walks of around 3 miles every day. 

We rarely saw anyone. Living on the edge of Cranberry Township near forests and hiking trails, we often walked in the cool mornings when the sky was remarkably blue and the air crisp. Car traffic was at a minimum. 

Even with my AirPods firmly in my ears, I could hear cars coming down the roads and she came to me and sat by my feet every time. Some days we would walk five miles. Others closer to three. I always let Luna tell me how far we would walk and I learned how to read her body language so that I could tell when it was time to turn around so that she would make the very long climb back up to the house with just enough energy left. Climbing back up Plains Church road was hard.  

Then she would settle in after a long drink of water and rest by my feet while I worked the rest of the day away. It was a wonderful existence and a wonderful opportunity to learn from the Lord. 

This week has been hard. We said good-bye to Luna. The most horrible word in the English language, cancer, came to us. 

Now all the wonderful memories of Luna are all we have left. And they are all indeed wonderful. But none more than walking down Plains Church Road, Turning right onto Hope Road. Then left onto Morningside Drive. From there a whole lot of choice presented themselves and Luna was game for them all. We walked down the middle of the street so no one would get made if we walked in their yard or got too close to their homes. 

But on each walk, with each blue sky, our constant companion was the Lord of all Creation. 

Sometimes we forget that God goes with us. We are quick to see the Lord in the immediately, and necessary, moments. Certainly our family felt God was there on the day after Luna left us. But now, four days later, I still notice God walking with me. Of course the pain is not as harsh, but it does not matter. God is with me. And God will always be with me. 

As I am sure others have the same experience when we ask God to come for an immediate, emergent, need and felt the Lord come close in that moment. 

Yet I wonder, are we as quick to see God when the need is not as need is not as urgent? For God never leaves or forsakes. God is exactly what we need in every moment of every day. Let that comfort and secure you as it has us this week. 

Missing the Mark--Isaiah 1:10-20. Sermon for August 10, 2025

How do we handle a crisis? And I do not mean practically for there are plenty of practical models available, but personally, how do we as a church and as Christians address a crisis moment?

 

            When something that we label as a crisis takes place there is a common response that helps ease the suffering—but only at a surface level.

            The popular justification that people often use to explain trauma or crisis away is: “well, at least that’s not happening here.” Now this may not be vocalized, but we can see the internal fruits if we are discerning. 

We are troubled by what we see on the news, or read about on social media, but at some point, but we can turn those outlets off. And by turning them off, the affirmation happens: This is not happening here. 

 

Sadly, that is how many people solve the hard problems of our world, they say that it is someone else’s problem and thereby ridding themselves of the burden. Until one of those events happens here, with us. 

            Sadly, that choice of “at least it isn’t here” does not solve anything but defers the action, and the need to care and support, to a later date. 

            This attitude of deference is how the people who heard Isaiah’s message responded when the conviction from chapter 1 came into their house—they pointed to a place where it was worse and, in their case, they said, “hey at least we are not Sodom or Gomorrah.” 

 

            But in the text today, that justification is taken away by God. For like Sodom and Gomorrah, who suffered because sin was very present with them, a sin they would not address or confess, sin and suffering are also in our community. Our challenge as we come to text such as this is to allow the sting of a text like this land with us and wonder together if what God said back then, applies to us, right now also? 

            And in the case of this text, the sting from the text causes us to ask: is our worship helping us grow closer to God, or is our worship driving us away from God and away from faithfulness in our calling? 

 

Move 1- The audience

            Isaiah’s [audience] are people held in the present moment who have used Sodom and Gomorrah as a collective consolation [and that’s a strange choice isn’t it]. 

            Going back earlier in Isaiah, they say we have been battered (Isaiah 1:5-6) but we are not obliterated. Our earth has been scorched (Isaiah 1:7), but life prosperity and blessing still it takes root here. We are not as bad as those folks back then. 

            When God brought judgment on those two ancient cities, none of them survived. But some of us are still standing, so at least we are not like them because, again, none of them survived (Isaiah 1:9). It is a problem over there not here. Back then. The trauma is someone else’s issue, with that person, or that family, or in that church and community. . . it’s not ours and so we do not have to deal with it or confront it.

 

            But I wonder if God makes the same distinction and/or justification as we do when poor choices are made by the Church? When we come into worship, and we are asked by God to be faithful, does that same rationale hold us? 

 

            While the people hearing the message of Isaiah 1 were ‘grading on a scale,’ I wonder if God does the same thing when poor choices and sinful actions happen? 

            The prophet cuts through the self-rationalization that has failed to reckon with the seriousness of Judah and Jerusalem’s lack of faithfulness. Isaiah counters their self-deceptive logic with an unexpected statement: you can stop consoling yourselves by comparing yourself to others. For in verse 10 he tells them straight out: You are Sodom. You are Gomorrah. God makes no distinction when sin is committed. 

            And by identifying all the people as guilty, everyone who finds this passage later, everyone who suffers from their own crisis, and remembers the story of this passage, we are all equally as guilty of sinning in God’s eyes. We all fall short. 

            We are all in this together. . . And we all are guilty, together. It’s not the problem of the scriptures only, it’s not their problem, it is ours. 

            And so, we must ask, guilty of what? What is the sin that the hearer of Isaiah is guilty of? What is God so upset about here? 

 

Move 2- The sin

            Last week I said that Hosea lists out 44 sins for us to consider. They are varied and they are diverse. Well, Isaiah is bit clearer in his wording. The sin (or sins) of this passage revolves around the same central idea or theme. And this theme informs much of what we do, and do not do, moving forward as the church. It comes to a head in verse 15. It is all about how we come before God and worship.  

            Hear the words again and notice the dichotomy that illustrates the sin of this passage as we come before God: 

 

“When you stretch out your hands,
   

I will hide my eyes from you;


even though you make many prayers,
   

I will not listen;
   

your hands are full of blood.”

 

            Let’s pick this verse apart and see why what God is accusing the church of is so painful. 

We start with ’Stretching out the hands’. . . This is an act of worship that God states that the people are practicing. And it is a good thing or practice to engage it. The children of Israel have been taught it as early as their time with Moses and Aaron to stretch out their hands to God in worship.  

            Lifting holy hands. Blessing as in a benediction at the conclusion of a time of worship. God says, ‘when you do this, when you engage in worshipful acts such as these, I am not watching. I am not participating with you.’ 

            Because as we follow Isaiah’s words in 15, when you lift your hands in worship, when you pray, when you bless, when you do acts of Christian service, they are full of blood.

            Blood in this verse carries with it the sense of animal sacrifice. It is not just blood like you get when you skin you knee or get a bloody nose. This is blood that is spilled for a sacrifice that is not pleasing to God. 

We get covered in this blood as well. This is not just something accidentally done either. Imagine dunking your hands in red paint. . . 

 

When I read this phrase, I am imaging standing before God, hands lifted in worship, in prayer, in intercession, and ‘the blood,’ the sin, that which separates us from God, dripping off them onto the ground and the person attempting to worship God does not realize how sinful they are acting or living daily. . . To go back to the beginning, it’s not your problem, its theirs. But that is false isn’t it. This is not pleasing to God. 

 

            This is a visceral image for us. With this image, God is saying that the acts of our faith, are drenched in that which does not please God, and so our worship is ineffective. In these moments it is not life changing. It is not transformational.

And because we are not changed as we worship God, because we are not regularly re-examining our lives before God, we miss the mark at becoming the Christians God calls us to be. And so, our service, our care, our stewardship, it is all done from false motivations and selfish places not a God-place. 

That is the sin that is behind that drives this passage. 

 

Move 3- hope

Yet in spite of our worship being practiced from false motivations and in spite of being accused of being just like Sodom and Gomorrah, God is willing to reunify us to himself. If, as verse 19 the prophet tells, we are willing and if we are obedient to the Lord’s call then God will return to us. 

While God is under no requirement to sit with us and ‘reason it out’ with us as verse 18 states so well, God wants to be with us in this way. 

And this overall passage is an invitation to take the trauma and stressors of life and bring them to the Lord in the context of worship. True worship. Faithful worship. Worship grounded and held in the person of God. 

The choice is ours to come back to God and find healing, wholeness, grounding, and restoration. The choice is ours to take the trauma, stress, and pain that we see each day and stop applying it cynically to the people around us, but bring it home to God, into this place, and let God change our worship, our mindset, and wash us again. 

We might miss the mark often. But in worship as we remember the faithfulness of God, the Lord restores us. 

Conclusion

            Easier said than done though. For as soon as we think we have a handle on any of this, we click off the feed, the tv, or whatever and we the problem someone else’s again. 

            But I wonder if this passage can remind us to worship the Lord properly again??

            For all miss the mark. We all forget the transformational power of being with God. So the next time that life gets out in front of you, and you are tempted to think that the problems of this life are someone else’s take it to the Lord in true, authentic worship and see what the Lord has to say in that space. . . 

 

Dm

13 inches and the opportunity that it brought.

Over the past week the extreme South Carolina heat has given way to a deluge of rain. And, as the title suggests, 13 inches of rain have come. The wall of heat that we experienced that drove the heat index over 100 degrees consistently has been replaced. Every day a new form of rain seems to present itself to us. 

Torrential. Consistent. Drizzle. Soaking. Horizontal. Doesn't matter. The rain has come and it has cooled off this area. 

Yet an interesting by-product of the rain (besides all the flooding and downed tree branches that we are dealing with) has been a sense of distraction and a general malaise. 

I know a great many people who like to say that rainy days make for two things: great reading weather and great sleeping weather. But neither is terribly helpful when the list of things to do grows and we are told to be more productive--even in the rain. 

For instance, the power was out at the church for half of the morning on Tuesday and so sitting in the office and reading was not only irresponsible, but also impossible as the rain beat down on us. As a family we are getting ready for the wedding shower for JonMark and Autumn on Saturday so rather than sit in my chair in the evening and reading my book, I need to help Emma and Jennifer as they finishing preparing and transporting items over to the church.

We might want to do one thing, but life has imposed something entirely different onto our perfectly crafted schedules.  

Those 13 inches of rain interrupted our lives. But did it really??

Did the rain actually make me stop drawing close to the Lord? Did the rain cause me to stop looking out into my community and engaging them in sacred conversations? When I stood outside under an umbrella with the dogs, did the rain stop me from speaking with the Lord who brought the rain into our world? 

Perhaps something like an inconvenient rainy week can become an invitation to make time to be with the God? For even when it seems inconvenient, I wonder if God is inviting us to come close again and discover the mystery of God being with us? 

God Remembers--Hosea 11:1-11. Sermon for August 3, 2025

            A letter to Israel and the Church today, which begins with the naming of three children in ways seemingly inconsistent with God’s person and presence, as God is angry, ends with God unwilling to give up on His children. 

As Hosea begins God was angry; God could still be angry, but now God is not.

            Even as this passage comes to its high point in verse 7, where God wonders if His people are going to permanently give up on God, this passage ends with us in unity before God. We are God’s people, and we are cared for.

            As Hosea brought Gomer home repeatedly to care for her in ways consistent with their union, and because Hosea committed to do so, God is now preparing to do the same for His church at end of this book. 

These words form the framework for that Family picture, that new vision, and this picture must not be taken lightly for the wonderful nature of this message speaks volumes. 

 

            Hosea is a challenging book to consider. It begins with a list of 44 sins listed out over just a few chapters. It is intense to read. Those sins are so terrible, and so egregious, that the church begins to wonder if God will ever offer us mercy. Will the list of sins ever stop… 

Yet the book shifts and it ends on a high note with God’s unwillingness to let go us permanently. For God remembers.

We may have rejected his knowledge, we may have broken the commandments regularly, and we are accused of “no faithfulness, no love” (words from 4:1) but God does not stay mad forever. His wrath will not hold us forever. It is because of God’s unwillingness to stay mad forever that space is created for us to move forward as the church.

 

Move 1- we cannot remember

            So, we come to chapter 11 which feels out of place after reading such a detailed account of those 44 sins that I mentioned before. 

Imagine Hosea 11 like family photos that God can reflect upon hung in the home’s hallway. Their purpose is to help remember who we were previously. Each picture tells a story that God alone remembers in its entirety. We might know part of the story, but knows every detail, every facet, every motivation. 

In this passage there is a perfect picture moment, a perfect history being retold if we will listen. It sounds something like this:

 

            God knew the nation of Israel, and you and I, when we were children. Not children like I speak with during our children’s message or a Sunday School class, or even VBS that we led this summer, but God knew us as infants, as newborns. The implication of this image is that when we could not care for ourselves in any manner at all, God took steps to care for us.

God remembers His newborn children who do not remember the first time their Creator starred back at them in affection and laid the plans for our lives out. 

God remembered his children walking with Him in the coolness of the garden in the evenings. God remembers how he taught them to walk, to speak so they could name the animals. God remembers how they professed love to each other as they did it to Him on those walks. God remembers teaching them to pray, to worship, and to give to Him. This is referenced in verses 3-4 as God taught Ephraim to walk. 

            Even in their sin, as they tasted the forbidden fruit from the center of the garden, He taught them about his grace and mercy, his long-suffering-ness. They would be gone from the garden forever but not gone from Him- Jesus would come. Even in their sins God was beginning a plan to bring them home. 

            This picture takes shape in verse 5—the reference to Egypt and the land of bondage and having Assyria rule over them. 

 

Like Gomer with Hosea, God would bring them home when they went away. He adored them calling their father, Abram, to leave his land. King David protected the young nation from outside armies and before David, Moses taught them the rules to live by.

 

Down the hall they walk remembering with God…

 

            The pictures of their history continue. Like I said, God protected them in Egypt when they were slaves to many things- some by choice and some by birth. He rescued them in ways they could not dream of, but in Him all things are dream-able. It was He who “led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love” (again verse 4). It was also He who lifted us to his cheek in a display of love. The point of this prolonged illustration is this: 

 

While “[We] will not remember this, [God] will.”[1]

 

            And this memory is the overall point the of chapter 11. A book that began with the horrible names of Hosea and Gomer’s children, and then detailed such great sins, ends with God remembering us. 

God remembers when we cannot or when we will not. When we are stubborn and we forget the faithfulness of God, the Lord does not forget us. 

 

Move 2- He remembers

            How could God turn His back to us for all time? This is the question of verse 8? How could God hand his beloved children over when we deserve it? God looks at those memories that He has with and of us and God answers the question himself. 

 

As the Body of Christ, we sin so frequently, as Hosea sternly reminds us, and deserve such condemnation and separation based only on those past sins. How could God forgive this behavior when it will happen repeatedly? How can God hold us together as the text indicates with “cords of love” when so many work to break those cords apart? The simple answer is in the text if we look. 

 

God just does.

            

“How can I give you up? How could I hand you over? [God asks] ... My heart recoils within me; compassion grows warm and tender” (verse 8 NRSV). God could, but God does not.

 

            “This is not the story of the “prodigal” son who, having struggled with his own bad choices, finally turns and comes home. This is the story of a prodigal God who- in anguish, heartbreak, and the fiercest love- comes seeking out [His] children who have strayed. The last picture [in our text] will be this one: God, like a lion, roars; the children come home.”[2] Perhaps the children finally realize how deeply God remembers them. 

            Those historical pictures lining the symbolic hallway remind God, and us, of how our relationship evolved with God, they now point to the final conclusion- we come home to our God who remembers us.

 

Move 3- Memory to Action

            So, what does that mean to you? What does it mean to YOU personally, that God will not give up on you when we as the church give up on God and stop trusting in God so often? 

Physical sins, sins of omission, sins of doubt in God, it does not matter, God will not give up on you.

 

In your minds, do not run too quickly to words affirming God’s mercy to you while you were dead in you sins and separated from God. Dwell with that feeling, with those emotions of acceptance and forgiveness, and that choice from God, for a moment. What does this mean to you that God remembers you; that God holds on tightly to you?

            What does it mean that when you lived as Gomer lived, and choose to live consistently like this before? 

            The answer to that question should motivate all that you do as the Body of Christ. As we serve in this church, as we care for each other, as we practice being the church and are stewardly of what God has given us, those choices should all revolve around how God has been remembered and been faithful to you. 

 

Conclusion

            Think about Hosea for a bit in your lives as you leave this church service and venture back into the mission field. 

            But now, seeing that God cannot give up on you, he cannot turn away, what is God calling you toward in your life outside of this place? What does following God mean for you moving forward with this story framing your life?

 

 

DM

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[1] Feasting on the Word. Year C, Volume 3, 294.

[2] Stacey Simpson Duke.