April 3, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
Even if you are not a fan of bicycling, I’m sure you’ve heard the name, Lance Armstrong. After all, he is the one who started the LiveStrong Foundation fighting to improve the lives of people who have been affected by cancer. He is the cyclist who rode in the Tour de France, the biggest and most exciting bike race, until he was diagnosed with brain, lung and testicular cancer. He is the one who returned to bicycling in 1999 after a three year absence due to cancer, only to win his first Tour de France. Each year after that he continued to return to France only to with the Tour again and again until in 2003 he joined a very elite group of riders who have won the tour 5 times. In 2004 he returned again to win an unprecedented 6th time. Then, in 2005, the very year he planned to retire from bicycling regardless of the outcome of the Tour, he returned to France and won his 7th tour in 7 years. He had done what no other cyclist had done before. He had returned year after year only to continue winning one of the toughest events in bicycle racing. Yet this is not the end of his story, because in 2009 after nearly 4 years of retirement, Lance Armstrong returned to France with a new team. Though he didn’t win the tour 2009, if I remember correctly, he placed in the top 15; an incredible performance returning to the Tour after nearly 4 years off. Well, in the same way that Lance Armstrong continually returned to France each year, in our lesson today, we will hear the Prophet Hosea speaking to us about returning. He won’t be urging us to return to a bicycling event, rather, he will be calling on each and every one of us to return to the Lord our God. He will be encouraging us to come with him and return to the Lord.
Now, when Hosea spoke these very words to the Israelites, the Israelites had all but completely turned away from the Lord, their God. In fact, for the last 200 years, the kings and leaders of the Northern Kingdom had encouraged their people to worship gods like Baal and Ashtaroth. They had been urged to forget about the true God, avoid his temple, ignore his Word, and simply stop listening to his prophets. It was because of this that the Lord finally said, “I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me.” (Hosea 5:15)
Though the Lord had continued to send them prophets, the nation simply didn’t listen. Though he had sent them wars and destruction, they still had not turned to him. Though he had sent them hunger and famine, the simply refused to acknowledge him, so finally, he left the ball in their court. He went back to his place and left it up to his people to seek him out.
Sadly, this is the very thing that the Lord has begun to do to our great nation. Though he may not have completely returned to his place to see if we will come to seek him out, it can be truly said that the Lord is thinking about it. For the truth is, our nation is no different today than the Northern Kingdom of Israel was nearly 3000 years ago. For we, as a nation, have set up our own false gods to take the place of the Lord. Though our great nation did once look to the Lord for wisdom and justice, today she looks to her own wisdom and her own ideas of justice. Today, the god of money and the goddess of possessions have taken the true God’s place in the hearts of many Americans. Today, the god of TV and the goddess of personal or leisure time have become more important that the true God’s Word and his worship. Today, the god of power and the goddess of wisdom, the god of relativity and the goddess of personal choice have so enveloped our society that we as Americans hardly have the time to hear the true God speaking: truth, judgement, absolute right, and absolute wrong.
This is why Hosea is calling on our great nation, just as called on the great nation of the Israelites, to return to the Lord and to seek his face. He is calling on us to return to the Lord and to seek his face because we, as a nation, have greatly sinned against the Lord our God. He is calling on us to return to the Lord and seek his face, because even we as Christians are in danger of doing the same thing. Yes, even we, as Christians, are in grave danger of turning our backs on the Lord, because each and every one of us has a sinful nature. Each and every one of us has been pulled in by the god of money and the goddess of possessions at one time or another. Each and every one of us has dreamed about having more money than we could ever need and more possessions than we would know what to do with. In fact, how many times haven’t we played the financing game and gotten burned? How many times haven’t we over extended ourselves with credit cards because we just had to have that particular thing and we just didn’t have the money for it at the time? How many times haven’t we had to re balance our over extended budgets by reducing what we give to the Lord, or simply stop giving to him at all?
But that is just one set of our American gods, and the next is just as deadly to our Christian selves. For we too have worshiped at the altar of the TV god. We too have spent far too much time in front of the TV watching all those shoes that come at us from a humanistic point of view, and we have been affected by it more than we can imagine. For from the god of TV we have come to know the goddess of personal and leisure time, and we have worshiped her by believing that our personal time is sacred. We have worshiped her by believing that our personal time should not be taken up by such mundane things as reading God’s Word, or making time for worship every single week. From the TV god, we have come to know the god of relativity and have started to believe his teachings: that there is no absolute truth, that what might be right for one person may not necessarily be right for another person, and his most destructive teaching that no one should be able to judge the lifestyle I have chosen. Sadly, once we have meet him, the goddess of our own wisdom, the goddess of our own personal choice, the god of rights without responsibility and a whole bunch of others come swarming into our lives, assuring us that we are in the right and the True God is in the wrong.
This is the danger that we as Christians face, each and every day, and that is why Hosea is calling on us to return to the Lord and seek his face. He is calling on us to do that very thing, because we have so often turned our backs on the Lord and done what is evil in his sight. He is calling on us to turn away from those false gods and idols that so clearly speak to our sinful nature and seek out the face of the Lord our God. He is calling on us to return to the Lord and trust that he will heal us.
If you are like most people, when you get sick with something you simply cannot cure at home, you go to see a doctor. Though sometimes it might take quite a bit of prodding and persisting on the part of our husbands or wives, we go to see the doctor, because we know that he is the one who has experience in diagnosing our particular illness and prescribing the proper medication that will heal us. This is why Hosea is prodding, poking, and insisting that each and every one of us return to the Lord today, because Hosea knows that when we return to the Lord, it is the Lord who will heal us. For it is Hosea who cries out in our text, “Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” (Hosea 6:1-3)
When Hosea spoke these words to the Israelites, he knew that it didn’t matter how sinful they might have been or how far away from the Lord they had traveled. Because he knew that if they simply returned to the Lord in faith and trust, the Lord would heal them with his forgiveness and his grace.
Well, the same thing is true for you and me today, and that is why Hosea is urging us to return to the Lord! He is urging us to return to the Lord because he knows that when we do, the Lord will heal us. Even though we may have turned our backs on the Lord to trust in the false gods of money and possessions, when we return to the Lord he does forgive us. Though we may have fallen in with the gods of TV and personal time, or even those of relativity, our own wisdom, rights without responsibility, and all those who tried to make us believe they were right and our own God was wrong; when we return to the Lord he will heal us.
What greater comfort can there be than the comfort that comes from the healing that our God provides! For this healing cannot be found at any pharmacy. It cannot be found at any of the world’s most exclusive spas. It can’t even be found in the waters of the Dead Sea itself, or the pool of Siloam. Rather this healing can only be found in Christ! For when we turn away from our sins and return to the Lord, it is the Lord who heals us by washing us in the waters of Jesus’ blood. It is the Lord who heals us by applying the slave of Jesus’ mercy and grace to all of our open wounds. It is the Lord who heals us by opening our bruised and beaten hearts to our Savior’s love for us, and it is our Savior’s love that assures us that our sins have been forgiven.
This is why Hosea is calling on each and every one of us to return to the Lord so that the Lord might heal us, because when we do return to him he does heal us. So drop whatever you are doing right now, and return to the Lord with me. Whatever sins you might be carrying around with you lay them at Jesus’ feet. Whatever sins might have you trapped even now, confess them to your Savior, and pray that he would give you the strength to turn from them, avoid them, and keep from falling into them again. In fact, I invite you to do this with me right now. Join with me in confessing your sins to the Lord…
Merciful Father in heaven, I am altogether sinful from birth. In countless ways I have sinned against you and do not deserve to be called your child. But trusting in Jesus, my Savior, I pray: Have mercy on me according to your unfailing love. Cleans me from my sin, and take away my guilt.
God, our heavenly Father, has forgiven all your sins. By the perfect life and innocent death of our Lord Jesus Christ, he has removed your guilt forever. You are his own dear child. May God give you strength to live according to his will.
What greater healing could there be for us who have returned to the Lord, than the healing than comes with the forgiveness of sins! There is nothing greater! It is greater by far than returning to France to claim the Yellow Jersey year after year. For now that we have returned to the Lord we have received the healing that comes from the forgiveness of sins, and we are ready to continually seek the face of the Lord our God.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
