4th Sunday after Pentecost (June 8, 2008)

“What Shall I Render to the Lord?”
Hosea 6:6

INI

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sometimes in our liturgy we sing the words, “What shall I render to the Lord?” Stop and think about that question this for a second this morning: in other words, it says, “What can I give to God?” As God’s people, chosen to serve him and follow him, what do you and I give to him? The Old Testament is full of people who gave things to God. Abel gave God the best of his flocks of sheep. The people of Israel regularly sacrificed animals to God: bulls and goats, lambs and birds. Hannah, the woman who prayed to God fervently for a child, gave God her son…Samuel. She brought him to the temple to be raised there as a priest in God’s house. David, the great king of Israel, penned numerous songs and psalms in praise to God. You and I follow their lead when we place our offering envelopes in the plate…when we volunteer to serve in church offices… when we carry out our vocations faithfully…then we are what Paul refers to in Romans 12 as “living sacrifices”…we give ourselves to God in offerings of gifts and service.

The Old Testament lesson for today casts this discussion in a different light. Instead of asking the question, “What can I give to God?”, ask yourself, “What does God want from me?” Well, the text actually makes that quite clear. Hosea 6:6 says, “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” What does God want from his chosen people? God wants steadfast love. God wants love that is committed and does not shake. He says to keep your sacrifices and give him your undying love. Don’t think that God requires a certain amount in the plate to keep him happy…he wants your love. He wants you to be “steadfast” in that love, committed to him through all things. The word that we translate as “steadfast love” in our Bibles is the word that is usually used to refer to how God loves his people. He loves them with an “undying love”…he loves them without ever failing. Here that is what he asks of his people. No problem, right?

The prophet Hosea may be one of the most unique characters in the entire Bible. In the beginning of the book, he is commanded by God to marry a prostitute named Gomer. That probably sounds like the most outrageous request God could give one of his prophets—but the point of the marriage was that Hosea’s marriage to an unfaithful woman would serve as an illustration of God’s “marriage” to unfaithful Israel. In that marriage, God would lead Hosea to remain faithful to Gomer, just as God remained faithful to unfaithful Israel. It was over and over that Israel had “cheated on God” by worshiping false gods…forgetting the covenant relationship God had made with them…practicing the pagan religions of the surrounding nations. They were an unfaithful spouse to God who had always…without failure…been faithful to them. That is “steadfast love”…love that is unshakable and doesn’t change or fade away.

So…have you offered that sort of love to our God in heaven? Have you loved God with a “steadfast love?” I’m sure there are times when you and I have actually convinced ourselves that you have been steadfast…that your love for God has not failed. That’s what the Pharisees in Jesus’ day were guilty of doing. They defined the Law of God in such a narrow way that they actually made themselves believe they had kept it perfectly. When God’s Law says, “You shall not murder,” they thought to themselves, “Well, I’ve never killed another person. I’ve kept that part of the Law.” When God’s Law says, “You shall not commit adultery,” they thought to themselves, “Well, I’ve never slept with someone I’m not married to. I’ve kept that part of the Law.” Then Jesus comes and totally redefines the Law for the Pharisees. He describes it in such broad sweeping terms that everyone is guilty of breaking it. He says things like, “I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.” He says things like, “Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” He says to the people, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven!”

Have you loved God with a “steadfast love?” Don’t kid yourself…not one of us has. Maybe you love him from time to time…maybe you even love him more often than not…but any time that you and I fall away we are like an unfaithful spouse. Maybe you think you’re faithful to God 99.9% of the time. Try that one on your spouse…“Honey, I’ve been faithful to you 99.9% of the time!” None of us is anywhere near being that close to faithful with God. The words that God used to describe Israel could just as soon be used to describe you and me. “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.” The love of Israel was fleeting. Clouds are here one minute and gone the next. The morning dew on the grass dries up as soon as the sun comes out. So too our love for God…obey him and treasure him one minute…disobey and rebel the next. Devoted to him in the Word one minute…focused on ourselves the next.

That sure poses a problem for us…doesn’t it? God on the one hand desires our “steadfast love”…our faithfulness and devotion to the covenant he’s made with us. And yet on the other hand, we have no steadfast love to give him. The only thing we have to lay before God are the sins and failings of our every day lives. The devotion of a spouse who has been unfaithful is really no devotion at all, is it? To Israel, God said through Hosea, “Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth.” That’s what the Law of God does to every single one of us…it “slays” us. It puts us to death. It shows us as what our confession called us this morning: “poor, miserable sinners.” If you look at God’s Law and say, “It’s hopeless…I can’t do this,” then the Law has done its job. The words of the prophets, which are truly words from God’s own mouth speak to us and tell us God’s expectation of “steadfast love,” and what they reveal is our spiritual adultery.

What the Law of God does is transform us from being like the Pharisees that criticized Jesus in today’s Gospel…and it reveals that we are much more like the people he was criticized for being with. It wasn’t that the Pharisees were really any better than the “tax collectors and sinners.” They were all sinners…the whole lot of them! Sure…maybe their outward acts were different. As far as anyone could tell by looking at them, the Pharisees were much better people than the rest. Maybe the same could be said for you. Maybe outwardly, your life looks much better than others. But God sees the heart…and every heart is sick with sin and death. And Jesus, as our Gospel today reminds us is the Physician who comes to heal that sin-sick heart within each and every one of us.

Throughout the sermon today, we’ve been “casting things in a different light”…looking at them differently than perhaps we normally would. Jesus does that again for us today in the Gospel from Matthew 9. He knows the thoughts of the Pharisees…and to them he quotes Hosea 6, but it sounds a little bit different. “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” If you don’t see yourself as a sinner, then Jesus doesn’t have anything to offer you. But to you and I who hear God’s Word and know that we have failed to show him the steadfast love he desires…you and I are the ones that could just as well be sitting in Matthew’s house that day. To the sinners…God desires mercy. God wants to forgive. God wants to restore. God wants to keep his end of the covenant that he’s always kept. He wants to be the forgiving spouse that always welcomes back the unfaithful.

Can any of you picture such a spouse? Could any of you be married to someone who cheats on you repeatedly every day? The odds are that none of us would last in such a marriage. God desires steadfast love. And when his people fail to show him steadfast love, he desires mercy. He desires that they repent and hear the wonderful news of forgiveness. Look at Hosea 6:1 for a second…it’s there that the people of Israel say, “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.” It hurts to be confronted with the reality that we are God’s unfaithful spouse…that we are plagued with sin and wickedness. That’s a hard word for any person to hear. But God tears us with the Law so that he may heal us…he strikes us down so that he can bind us up. He shows us our sin so that he can show us his salvation in Jesus Christ’s death on the cross.

What shall you and I render to the Lord this day? Our offerings and services are done in response to God’s love…not as a payment or requirement…but as a token of our thankfulness. What does God desire of you? He desires steadfast love—lived out in perfection for us by our Lord Jesus Christ…who loved his Father and loved us all the way to his bloody death on Calvary. God desires mercy. He desires to forgive you and restore you and heal you. What shall you and I render to the Lord today? We give him our sins and failings…our broken lives lived short of his expectations…and he responds by filling us with his love and forgiveness that lead us to love him in return. In Jesus’ name…Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.