St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church Watertown, WI

The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany 6 February13,2000

Text: Hosea 1:2-9, 3:1-2 Pastor Michael Jensen

Introduction

I’m sure most of you have remembered that tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. But, what is Valentine’s Day about? It’s a day of love and stories of love. Love stories like . . . well, you know typical Valentine’s Day love story: Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall madly in love. Boy marries girl and they both live happily ever after.

And you know, the other day I picked up a book and was reading a true love story. But, while this love story was true, it wasn’t your typical Boy meets girl love story. It was a story about a young man named Josh and a girl named Amy.

I. Josh & Amy

Now Josh was an out-of-this world kind of guy, the kind of guy any of us would be proud to have as a son. No one could knock him. He was descent and honest. He was respectful to his parents. He was good looking. And yes, he was kind to children and animals.

But, then there was Amy. Amy was the absolute opposite of Josh. And that was really no surprise. After all, you just had to look at her family. It was a troubled family. Her parents were selfish and self-centered. And Amy . . . well, let’s just say that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Everything about her was rough: her manners, her personality, her appearance.

Eventually, Amy ran away and at a young age soon found out what this dark, cold world has to offer. She found herself alone out on the street in the bad part of town. And like many runaways, when she hit rock bottom, she began walking the streets at night, selling herself. Now that’s really bad. But when I read this love story, what really got me was that somehow Amy thought that this good. For while the love she pursued was sick, and really no love at all, she mistook it for love.

Amy’s life on the streets went on for a while, but then one day Josh saw her. And believe it or not, Josh said that it was love at first sight. So, Josh reached out to her and tried to win her over, but, it was easy. At first Amy didn’t want to have anything to do with Josh. She thought, “Why would I want to have anything to do with a no fun, clean-cut guy like that.” But, eventually Amy was won over as Josh spoke to her of his love and told her how he wanted to take her from the cruel streets and make a home with her.

Lots of people tried to figure out what could possibly be the attraction, because Amy didn’t have natural beauty and her time on the street had taken its toll on her appearance as well. Nor wasn’t her gentle disposition; there was nothing gentle about her. In fact there was nothing attractive about her; she didn’t have one redeeming quality. So, how could a guy like Josh be attracted to someone like Amy? When asked, Josh just said, “I just love her.”

Finally, the day of their wedding came and Amy came down the aisle in the most beautiful wedding dress which Josh had picked out and bought for her. At first, Amy had protested wearing this beautiful wedding gown. She knew she didn’t deserve to wear white. But, Josh insisted, “No. All that is in the past. Gone forever. We’re together. I bought this gown for you. I want you to wear it. You’ll look just beautiful in it.” And he was right; she did look beautiful, so beautiful that everyone wondered how this could be the same girl from the streets.

So Josh and Amy were married and together they did something very special. About a year later they had a child. So right about now, you’re probably expecting the story to end with, “And they lived happily ever after.” But, that’s not exactly how it went. You see, Josh had taken Amy off the street, but the streets were still part of Amy. Amy still longed for her previous life. So she ran back to her old life on the street and soon found herself expecting a child which didn’t belong to Josh.

Needless to say, Josh was furious and rightly so. After everything he had done for her, how could she do this to him! He had taken her off the streets, given her a home and his name! How could she do this!?! Why would she want to be with others instead of with him? But even in the midst of his anger, Josh’s love for Amy was steadfast. He still loved her. So he went after her, found her and beg her to come home with him. He again told her all would be forgiven, all would be forgotten. And, you know, Josh’s fervent pleading worked. He won her back all over again and Amy came home.

And, then did they live happily ever after? No. There were still more rough times ahead. Amy would again return to the streets. She would again become pregnant by another. Finally she got arrested. But, again Josh came to the rescue. He bailed her out. He reassured her of his continuing love and again, he took her home.

Now isn’t that an amazing story of love on the part of that young man, Josh?! I know in some ways it sounds like some bad, made-for-T.V. movie, but it’s really a true love story I was reading the other day. Where did I hear it? I read it in a best-selling book. In fact, I read in a book that’s been on the best-selling list for some time now. I read it in the best-selling book of all time, the Bible. You see this story about Josh and Amy is really God’s true love story.

II. Hosea & Gomer

Let’s take a look at this story of God’s love. Please open your pew Bibles to page 1395 of your pew Bibles. There we find the beginning of the book of the prophet Hosea. Now Hosea lived about the same time as the prophet Isaiah, roughly 750 before the birth of Christ. It was the time of the divided kingdom. King David and King Solomon’s united kingdom had been ripped apart by civil war, so that by the time of Hosea you had the nation of Israel in the north and the smaller nation of Judah in the south. It was a time of great economic prosperity. But, while things were good with the pocketbooks of most people, the hearts of most people were another matter. Spiritually things weren’t good. Actually it was quite bad, especially in the northern kingdom of Israel.

It is at that time and under those circumstances that we read about Josh and Amy, or should I say, Hosea and Gomer. You see, all of what we said about Josh and Amy, that happened with the prophet Hosea and his wife, Gomer. We start in chapter one, verse two:

When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, "Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD." So he married Gomer, daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. We note that later in the book of Hosea, Gomer is called a prostitute, most likely a prostitute who worked at one of the pagan temples. But, Hosea took her away from that terrible life, married her and started a family with her.

Then the LORD said to Hosea, "Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. In that day I will break Israel's bow in the Valley of Jezreel." Note that God essentially names Hosea’s son “Punishment,” because God was not happy with the northern kingdom and its leadership.

“Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter.” Note here that it doesn’t say that Gomer bore the prophet a daughter. When you read the entire first three chapters of Hosea, it becomes quite clear that this wasn’t Hosea’s child. “Then the LORD said to Hosea, `Call her Lo‑Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them. Yet I will show love to the house of Judah; and I will save them‑‑not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the LORD their God.’ ” Again the name the LORD gives to this daughter, “Not Loved,” expresses how He viewed the people because of their unfaithfulness to Him.

“After she had weaned Lo‑Ruhamah, Gomer had another son.” Again, it does not say that this is the prophet’s child. “Then the LORD said, "Call him Lo‑Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.” Again, the child’s name, “Not My People,” shows God’s displeasure and the result of the people’s sin.

So Hosea had taken Gomer “off of the streets.” He had given her his name and a legitimate, respectable life and standing in the community. But, Gomer ran back to former life of sin time and time again. But, still in chapter 3 verses 1 and following we read: The LORD said to me [Hosea], "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes." So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. [Gomer had sold herself to someone and needed to be bought back.] Then I told her, "You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you."

Now the first thing your probably wondering is, “Did this really happen?” Yes, it did. God had decided to make Hosea and his marriage and his family a walking, talking object lesson to vividly describe the Israelites’ relationship with the LORD.

In the Old Testament, the LORD God had pictured Himself as the faithful husband to His people Israel. And He was a faithful husband to them. He always had their best interest in mind. He always provided for them. He always protected them. But, like Amy, or Gomer, the people continually despised the love of LORD and turned away from Him to chase after other lovers, other gods. And this picture of spiritual adultery would have really hit home for those unfaithful people, because the worship of those false gods involved the most grievous sexual sins.

Now by making Hosea a walking, talking object lesson, the LORD wanted to make something perfectly clear to His Old Testament people. He didn’t like being two-timed! The LORD who demands that people love Him above all anyone and anything, demands absolute faithfulness. But, God kept telling Hosea to take Gomer back, He even told him to buy her back. He had Hosea do this, because God also wanted the people to know that He was the LORD, the God who loves the unlovable, the God who is faithful to the unfaithful, and the God who forgives what we consider unforgivable.

III. Our Josh & His Ammi

And that’s what the LORD wants you and me to know today. Because the story of Josh and Amy is not just the true story of Hosea and Gomer or the true story of God and His Old Testament people. It is God’s true love story for you and for me. For that out-of-this world young man named Josh, that’s Joshua, which is Hebrew for Jesus. And Amy, or Ammi, that’s God’s Hebrew name for us. That’s Hebrew for “My people.”

Now none of us like to think that we’re like Amy or Gomer. But, we are, because when God looks down on us sinners, that’s what He sees. He sees people who walk the dark streets of sin, selling ourselves to sin.

Remember Amy’s bad family situation? That’s really our bad family situation. That’s the situation of our human family. That’s the bad situation of each of our individual families. We each had sinful parents who passed onto us their selfish sinful natures. And how do we look to our Josh, our Jesus? Like Amy we have no natural beauty. What about great personalities? We don’t have great personalities; we have sinful personalities. Like Amy, our family situation drives us to the dark streets of this world, ready to sell ourselves for perceived gain and false happiness. And just like Hosea had to buy Gomer back, when we had sold ourselves to sin, our Josh, our Jesus bought us back. He bought us back by paying the price for our sins on the cross.

That’s how our Josh sees us. He sees us as unlovable. He sees us as people with no redeeming qualities, no qualities that make us worthy of redeeming. Just as there was no reason for Josh to love Amy, there is absolutely no reason for our Josh, our Jesus to love us. But, still He does. Ask Him why . . . search the Bible thoroughly for the answer . . . and every time the answer will come back: He loves us simply because He loves us.

And, what’s more, our Josh has also taken us as His bride. At the baptismal font He married us by making us part of His bride the church. Through that precious sacrament He cleaned us up by washing away our sins and He dressed us in the most beautiful wedding gown of His righteousness and holiness. Sure, we didn’t deserve to be dressed in white, but He insists on it. He bought that gown for us and He wants us to wear it. And this marriage with our bridegroom Jesus is fruitful and togther we give birth to what is legitimate: lives which serve and please the LORD.

Still, we have not reached the “happily ever after” in our story. Our bridegroom has taken us off the sinful streets, but part of the sinful streets still lives in us. We still have our sinful nature and therefore, like Amy and Gomer, we continually run to the dark streets of this world eager to sell ourselves over to sin. You would think we’d know better. You would think we’d never want to leave our loving Joshua, but for some sick and perverse reason we think that we will find some kind of happiness and fulfillment in the arms of other loves. And like Gomer and Amy, everything these affairs produce even if it seems good, is only illegitimate. Ultimately, those false loves only disappoint. The false love of money and things leaves us longing for fulfillment. The false love of others leaves us lonely. The false love of sex leaves us dirty. The false love of “self” only leaves us empty and without true purpose for life.

To be sure our husband Savior is furious with our continual unfaithfulness. He doesn’t like to be two-timed. But, each time His love and forgiveness triumph. Each time our Josh, our Jesus searches us out, speaks tender words of love to our heart. He begs us to leave the streets of sin and to come home to His safe, loving embrace. Yes, our Josh, our Jesus loves us. He loves the unlovable. He is faithful to us, even when we are unfaithful. Our husband forgives us, even when what we have done seems unforgivable. And, that’s God’s true love story.

Conclusion

Sometimes you’ll have someone look at a married couple that is truly happy and say, “There’s a marriage made in heaven.” People say that when they think a marriage is just perfect. Well, if we’re all honest, we know that every marriage has its struggles and problem. We know that no marriage is made in heaven . . . that is, no marriage except our marriage to Jesus.

Our marriage to our Josh is a marriage that was truly made in heaven. Our bridegroom came down from heaven. All the love and all the motivation for this marriage to work had to come from heaven. All the faithfulness and forgiveness needed to sustain this marriage comes from heaven. And, one day, this marriage that was made in heaven will be fully enjoyed in heaven as we take our place by Jesus’ side at that great wedding banquet. Amen.