Return to the LORD

In the name of Jesus; amen.,

The prophet Hosea writes: “Come let us return to the LORD; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.” Hosea 6:1-2

There is a theme that centers our worship today. It is the theme of healing. In just a few minutes those who wish it will be invited to come forward for a ritual of healing: the laying on of hands and anointing with oil. The hymns and the prayers were all chosen because the readings today seemed to shout out a need to recognize our need for healing and God’s power to heal. Not all of you may wish to come forward, and that’s ok, but all of you are welcome and encouraged to ask for God’s healing during this time together.

In many ways all worship is meant to carry a theme of healing. We gather together to call upon God to be present with us and then we begin with confession and forgiveness in order to be healed of the hurt of sin. We pray for God’s mercy and we ask for God’s peace to bring healing to our community and our world. We listen to the word of God to hear a message of hope and wholeness. We give of our offerings in order that God might make ministry and healing possible through our gifts. We share the peace of Christ with one another. We go to the table of God and eat the body of Christ in order to receive tangible evidence of Christ’s healing presence with us. And then we are sent out into the world to carry the blessing of God’s salvation to others.

The prophet Hosea writes: “Come let us return to the LORD; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.” Hosea 6:1-2

Hosea’s message to the people of his time was to return to God and to worshipping God fully. Sure, they made sacrifices, but they didn’t love God with full hearts… they didn’t give him their devotion and in the process they lost touch with the one who had created them and sustained them throughout their history.

Hosea’s message is one of worship and healing and recognizing how the two connected. Giving of one’s time and love to God is healing and the Israelites were becoming sick from their lack of steadfast love for God.

I wonder how many of us know people just like this today. I meet people all the time who are going through life sick because they have lost their connection to God. They know that they are missing something, but most of them can’t put their finger on just what it is. I hear them say things like: “I guess I believe in God, but I’m not really into church.” Or “I went to church as a kid, but I stopped going a long time ago because it just wasn’t for me.”

Some of the people I know like this are well aware that they have lost their sense of love for God because a conflict or a fight or an abuse they suffered or a profound sense of guilt over something they did made them walk out of the doors of a church never to return.

And sometimes the ones who have lost their connection still go to church. They are the ones who go through the motions, but don’t feel anything about it anymore. It has become an empty expression of faith for them. And I have sat with people who are on the brink of leaving because they say that they “just don’t feel spiritually fulfilled anymore”; they just don’t get anything out of church.

I don’t know about you, but I feel a profound sadness when I meet one of these people, when I hear their story, whatever it is because there is a healing that comes from worshipping God that does not come from any other source.

In the cottage meetings which finished not long ago I asked the question: “What is your favorite thing about Salem?” The two most popular answers in all the meetings were: 1. the people and 2. the sense of peace that came from being in worship.

When we gather together in community to worship something happens to us: we become not just individuals trying to get something out of God, but a corporate community who turns to God for the purpose of giving to God our praise and our thanks and our vulnerabilities and our weaknesses and our gifts. And it is in that process, in the process of giving to God, that we are made whole and find healing.

How strange it is, that when we operate as individuals with individual goals we loose the opportunity to experience God’s healing, but when we allow ourselves to be only a part of a larger whole, who’s express purpose is to focus on God we actually put ourselves in the care of the one who binds up our wounds and heals us.

Hosea writes: “Come let us return to the LORD; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.”

Let us return to the LORD, the one who knows how to cut into us to heal our wounds, the one who knows how to set our brokenness and bind us up.

Let us return to the LORD, the one who does not want empty sacrifices or shallow offerings, but love… because this is the God who will forgive us, feed us, bring us peace and send us out with newness.

Let us return to the LORD in our worship with our whole selves: with all of our wounds and our vulnerabilities and our hopes for healing so that we might be made whole.

Amen.