Devotion 6.3.26

Hosea 5:15 - 6:6

15 I will return again to my place,

  until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,

  and in their distress earnestly seek me.

Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant

1 “Come, let us return to the Lord;

  for he has torn us, that he may heal us;

  he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.

2 After two days he will revive us;

  on the third day he will raise us up,

  that we may live before him.

3 Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;

  his going out is sure as the dawn;

he will come to us as the showers,

  as the spring rains that water the earth.”

4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?

  What shall I do with you, O Judah?

Your love is like a morning cloud,

  like the dew that goes early away.

5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;

  I have slain them by the words of my mouth,

  and my judgment goes forth as the light.

6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,

  the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

God desires Israel's repentance (return to me) and allows suffering or uses judgement to bring them back to him.

Our pastor has two "go-to" illustrations he uses routinely. One is the Chinese buffet. If you've ever been with him at the all-you-can-eat buffet, it is a moment of true Zen mastery. The other is his time in Baton Rouge as a vicar during the time of Hurricane Katrina. Both are used for serious purposes, but one is more lighthearted while the other is during serious consideration.

 I believe this passage today would evoke memories from him (and me - a former resident of the coast) of Katrina, a storm which found itself in a low category (3) but intense in rain. The rain forced a rupture in a critical levy which sent Lake Pontchartrain into New Orleans, flooding it and killing many and changing the city through today.

Naturally, our inclination is to say, "Sin City had it coming. God exhibited his wrath and judgement on them for their sin." Our pastor would use the example of his time there and respond with, "Maybe he did; maybe he didn't." We don't know if God allowed a natural occurrence of a hurricane in our sin-filled world to hit there, or any other location along a coast to bring people to repent, or if God sent the hurricane there as punishment for the sin that exists there to bring about repentance. We just don't know. 

To that end, our pastor has another phrase he uses often:

1. God is God;

2. I am not God; and, 

3. Let God be God.

Our role as people of God is to love him with all our heart, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. As his church, natural disasters (or unnatural ones like 9/11) are ministry moments where we pour the love of God into the heart of the pain and suffering to share God's Word and minister to people at Ground Zero and work our way out from there.

Our confession says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." That is taken from 1 John 1. It doesn't say, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, but God, I haven't sinned like that poor guy down in New Orleans...." That puts us squarely into the circle with the pharisee in Luke's recording of the "pharisee and the tax collector," the parable found in Luke 18.

God wants us all to repent. God loves us to the point that his desire is to be fulfilled in the covenant of his steadfast love (Christ dying on the cross for our sin). To that end, his desire is for us to return to him often (daily or more), to confess our sin, to be with him in prayer and through His Word, to be baptized children of God, and to come to his Table often.

Pray we use opportunities given to us to share God's Word to the world to return people to him and his covenant love with us. Pray for forgiveness and pray that others return to God and learn of the joy of life everlasting through his Son, Jesus Christ.

Hope Men's Ministry is a ministry in service to Hope Lutheran Church and School. Our purpose is to grow, unite, and share God's Word to all men through meaningful activities. These activities center on fellowship, service, conversation, prayer, study and devotion as we seek to become men of God as He created us to be.