After reading our Old Testament reading
for today, I am even more sympathetic to the role of parenting. Parenting, which can be a very rewarding and
joyful endeavor, can also be a real pain in the backside!
How many times do parents give wise advice
to their children only to discover that their experienced words simply fall on
deaf ears? Often, it isn’t until years
later that the child, after suffering the consequences of not listening to
their parents in the first place, realizes that mom and dad were actually right.
It’s difficult for parents to bite their
tongue hold back the words, “I told you
so!” at such moments of revelation.
The old Mark Twain time-tested quote comes
to mind in which he said, “When I was a boy
of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man
around. But when I got to twenty-one, I
was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.”
Our Hosea scripture reading is
almost too painful for us to read because you can’t help but to sense the
anguish of God as he reminds the people of Israel of how he has cared for them
as a loving parent, and yet they have forgotten what he has done for them.
Living hundreds of years after their
infant and toddler years, God reminds Israel that without him, they would never
have escaped being slaves in Egypt under the rule of Pharaoh. It was God who provided them a way of escape
through the Red Sea, through the wilderness, and into the Promised Land.
I love the imagery that is used here. God is using baby language by saying how it
was he who took Israel in his arms and held her up to his cheek when he
delivered them from Egyptian oppression.
Maybe the prophet Hosea, who is speaking
on God’s behalf in our scripture reading, has in mind the rescue of baby Moses
by Pharaoh’s daughter and how she had saved Moses from certain death by
rescuing him from the river. In the same
way, it was God who saved Israel from slavery and led them into freedom.
And we think of the whole wilderness
journey in which God had fed Israel with manna from heaven. Without that heavenly bread, they would never
have survived.
God says to these people of God
descendents, “I was the one who bent down
and fed you.”
I have always kept a mental
snapshot from several years ago when one of our kids was just a baby and
because Penny was commuting as a student to Ohio Wesleyan University, a lot of
the parenting during that time was up to me.
It seems like it was just yesterday. I can vividly remember sitting with a friend
at my kitchen table feeding our less than one year old child this grotesque
looking baby food from a jar and then watching the food coming back out of the
mouth, onto the bib and getting on everything.
As I sat there with my friend who happened
to be another United Methodist pastor, I said to him, “I am making a vow with you and God as my witness, that I will never
ever forget how difficult it is to raise a baby.”
“None of this romanticized memory for me,” I said to myself.
No. I’m going to look back on
this moment and be able to say, “That was
one of the most demanding times of my life.
But it was also the first time in my life in which I realized what real
love is all about.”
By being a parent, I came to appreciate
more of what my parents did for me.
And it’s not just about those early years
of baby food. As you read this passage
from Hosea, can you sense God’s anguish as he speaks to a people who centuries
later, still do not realize just how much God loves them and all that he has
done for them?
What a fascinating picture of God. Think of a parent pacing back and forth in
the middle of the night wondering why their son or daughter hasn’t come home
yet.
Think of a mom worried to no end about a
daughter who has been spending way too much time with the wrong crowd.
Think of a father calling his son from a
business trip, sick over the fact that he had to miss one of his sporting
events.
Hosea is saying, “This is how much God loves you.
And even more so!”
Today is our family meal. We usually have this meal on the first Sunday
of the month but it just seemed appropriate to move it up a week early to this
Sunday.
Today, we are invited to come to the table
and receive some bread and wine.
Ok. It’s really grape juice, not
wine.
We have this meal once a month, to remind
us of our great deliverance from oppression and slavery. On one level, this meal reminds us of
Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and how God rescued his people and led them
through the wilderness and into the Promised Land.
But on another level, this meal reminds us
of another kind of deliverance, the deliverance that God has provided from sin
and death. Instead of Moses, this time
it was Jesus, who took upon himself the sins and the pain of the whole world
2,000 years ago by dying on a cross and rising to new life.
This meal reminds us of what God, our
loving parent has done for us in Jesus, which is why we often call this meal,
“The Eucharist,” the word, “eucharist meaning, “thanksgiving.” When we eat this meal together, we are giving
thanks for what our parent God has done for us.
We even say a prayer together called “the Great Thanksgiving” to help us
gratefully remember how God has taken us in his arms and lifted us to his cheek
by doing what we could not do ourselves.
God the loving parent sends his own Son,
to suffer and die for you and for me and for the whole world. This is why we receive this holy meal with thanksgiving
in our hearts.
A pastor of a church told me about one of
the most meaningful Holy Communion meals he has ever experienced in his
ministry. He had taken a singing group
from his church to offer the love of Jesus Christ through their singing
ministry at a casino as well as a homeless shelter in Atlantic City.
He said that he celebrated the Sacrament
of Holy Communion with them one morning.
But before they received the Sacrament, he did something very creative. A couple of people in the group prepared
breakfast that morning by setting up a circle of chairs along with a table for
donuts and juice.
He tells the group as they arrive in the
room, to find a seat and that this breakfast will be served in an unusual
fashion. So he asks a member of the
group if she would like a donut. She
answered, “Yes, I’d like a donut.”
This pastor then turns to one
of the leaders in the group, “Jim, in
order for Sarah to have this donut, would you do five push ups? Jim nods his head and does the five push-ups.
Unknown to the group, Jim has been
preparing for this special donut breakfast the past several months by doing
push-ups every day and strengthening his upper-body.
Then the pastor asks another member of the
group, “Tom, would you like a
donut?” Tom is pretty hungry, so of
course he answers, “Yes.” The pastor turns to Jim and asks him, “In order for Tom to have his donut this morning,
would you do five push-ups right now?” Jim
does five more push-ups.
This goes on for the next several
people. Each person wants a donut
because it’s breakfast time and they’re hungry, and this guy, Jim has to keep
doing these five push-ups each time just so that each person in the group can
have a donut. During the first series of
push-ups, the people in the group couldn’t help but laugh because they thought
it was some kind of early morning joke.
Poor Jim has to do a few push-ups, or so everyone assumed.
The nervous laughter continued for the
next couple of people who said they would like a donut. When it got to about
the 7th person around the circle, she decides to not have a donut to save Jim
from doing more push-ups. She can tell that Jim was beginning to really
struggle with these push-ups and with about 35 people left in the group, decides
to end this fun little experiment.
But even though this person refuses to eat
a donut, the people in the group are surprised when the pastor asks Jim to do
five more push-ups anyway.
Suddenly, the people in the group weren’t
laughing anymore, because this was getting serious. Jim is doing five push ups for each person in
that group whether they want a donut or not.
As this continues on, Jim begins to really
struggle as he does the push ups. His
arms are shaking and his breathing is getting more and more labored. Sweat is
falling from his forehead to the floor.
The group, instead of laughing at Jim are
now cheering for him, because they realize that Jim is doing this for the
benefit of each person in the group. A
few members in the group begin to get emotional, some start to cry, as they
watch helplessly, as Jim struggles to do more and more push-ups. As it gets closer and closer to the last
person in the room, Jim can barely do another push up, but somehow he makes it.
When Jim finished the last push-up for the
last person in the group, that’s when this pastor brought out the bread and the
wine for Holy Communion. And he
explained to the group,
“The
love that Jim just shared with each of you by doing push-ups on your behalf is
just a small expression of what Jesus did for each of us by dying on the
cross. Whether you wanted God’s love or
not, Jesus still died on the cross for you.
And as we receive this holy meal, I want you to know just how much God
loves you and what Jesus was willing to do for you.”
This pastor said that there
was not a dry eye on that room and he said that the members of that group will
probably never think about Holy Communion in the same way again.
Can you sense the anguish of God as he
tries to remind the people of just how much he loves them? Parents, can you relate to this?
“When
you were a child, I loved you. I was the
one who taught you to walk. I took you
up in my arms and healed you. I lifted
you to my cheek and fed you.”
This Hosea passage ends with this
tremendous word of hope. God the parent
says, “I want you to come back to
me. I want you to come home.”
Even though God had rescued
his people from slavery in Egypt and led them to the Promised Land, the people
had forgotten what God had done for them and they followed after other
gods. And now, centuries later, they
were facing exile from the Promised Land.
And God, like a loving parent, not wanting to give up on the people he
loves, is saying,
“I want
you to come home to me. I want you to
know just how much I love you. You don’t remember this, but before you were
even born, I sent my Son to die in your place and rise to new life so that you
might have forgiveness from your sins and newness of life. My heart breaks whenever you turn your back
on me and follow after other gods. No
one loves you more than I do. Return to
me and come home to where you belong.”
If you’re wondering where you
belong, God is reminding us on this morning that we receive Holy Commnion, that
it’s right here at the family table, the table with the bread and the wine, a
table that has been prepared by a loving God who loves you more than you can
EVER imagine.
Bread, Wine, & Donuts
Small Group Questions
Hosea 11:1-11
July 31, 2016
The Bible often refers to God's love for us like the love of a loving parent toward a child. Listen again to this verse from our Hosea scripture reading this past Sunday: "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt, I called my son."
Share a time when you experienced God as a loving parent toward you.
Pastor Robert shared the donuts and Holy Communion story in his sermon. The point of this story is to show just how much Jesus showed his love for us when he died on a cross.
What does the Sacrament of Holy Communion mean to you? How does this holy meal help you to see God as your loving parent and a God who offers you unconditional love?
No comments:
Post a Comment