"The God Who Cares"

sermon by Pastor David Layman

August 1, 2004

Hosea 11:1-11 Mark 4:35-39

A couple of weeks ago, we considered the passage from Luke 10 where Martha is laboring alone in the kitchen, while sister Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to his teaching. Martha in aggravation comes up to Jesus and asks "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?" I know God to be filled with deep compassion, the source of all empathy and sympathy. It's amazing to me that someone could be so audacious as to approach the son of God and say "Lord, don't you care?" Yet when the disciples were on the Sea of Galilee, caught up in a sudden storm, and Jesus remained peacefully asleep in the boat, the frightened disciples awakened Jesus with the same question: "Teacher, don't you care that we are perishing?" (Mark 4: 38)

"Lord, don't you care?", our world asks when babies die, when the innocent suffer. A couple of weeks back, there was a tragic scene at Reid Hospital: a 9 month old baby had drowned. The Sheriff's department was looking for a pastor, and eventually came upon me. When I got to the emergency room, I saw one of the saddest sights I'd ever seen: A young mother cradling her deceased infant in her arms. At a time like that, what words can anyone say? Nothing could bring the child's life back. I usually just sit, suffer and listen, but no one was talking. So I did say something, not in an effort to change what was unchangeable, but to limit the collateral damage of such tragedies. I said "Some people may come up to you and say "Well, it must have been God's will", or "God must have needed a little angel up in heaven." But I don't believe that. I don't believe this was God's will. When your baby died, God's heart was the first heart to break."

How dare we ask God at a time of hardship or tragedy, "Lord, don't you care?" Who do we think we are, to presume that we are more caring than God? Who is humankind to accuse God of a lack of compassion? We, who daily pass by those wounded on the road to Jericho? We, who choose to live in pleasant places and ignore those who can't? Our generation, which desires churches without crosses and confessions of sin? How dare we accuse God of not caring, when we remove the very crosses which remind us how much God does care!

The prophet Hosea is one of my favorites. For Hosea portrays the suffering heart of God. Hosea was married to a woman named Gomer, who was unfaithful to him. Perhaps this is one reason very few name their daughters "Gomer" nowadays! Just as the people of Israel were unfaithful to God, Hosea's wife was unfaithful to him. And just like God forgives his sinful people and tries to woo them back, Hosea forgave his unfaithful wife.

Hosea goes on with the family imagery of the love of a suffering God in chapter 11, where God portrays himself as a loving father, and the people of Israel are unfaithful, wayward children. Listen to Hosea voicing God's words:

"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 [my child] 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."

We don't deserve it, but God calls upon us to be part of his fellowship, part of his family, the church. That's one of the 5 purposes of the Christian life: to be part of God's family. Some people act like they're doing God a favor when they show up for worship! But God is the one who's done us the favor as accepting us sinful folks as part of his family. Jesus is the head of the body of Christ, the church.

This table proclaims to us that God cares, and that God calls us to be part of His family! Some churches call it an "altar". But presbyterians believe the sacrifice of Christ put an end to altars, which is where lambs and oxen were sacrificed in ancient days. Families don't eat meals around altars, but they do come together and eat around tables! This communion table is the place where we come together in fellowship, at Christ's invitation. Jesus invites us to this table, which none of us deserves to come to. But he made that possible by giving his body and blood for us. That's how much He cares for us!