Proper 5A, 2026

Hosea 5:14-6:6

St. Matthew’s Lutheran, Cornwall

SC: Confession & Absolution (Office of Keys?)

Friends, is God’s love conditional?

Is God like one of us, who live in relation to others, only as they deserve? Making our love, our covenant, our promises, and our PRESENCE in their lives, conditioned on their behavior? To say, - Becuase you did ... this thing , and crossed the line, I'm out of here? Or, - beucase YOU DIDNT do that thing that you knew meant SO MUCH TO ME, - that I cant be with you?

We all know how this goes. And we all have these lines ourselves. Like it or not, for better or for worse, OUR LOVE as people living here down in this world - is conditional.

But... is God's ? See , this is the question.

We know that WE live this way, - regardless of whether or not WE SHOULD. - we do. There are lines that the people in our lives can cross which , - if they did cross them, - then we would not love them anymore . Maybe that line is adultery in our marriages. Maybe that line is some sort of physical abuse done to us or our family members, - maybe that line is some sort of SEVERE criminality done to other people in society. Or maybe, its far less than all of that . But the point is - we all... have these lines.

But... does God? Some think yes. That God DOES have these lines of conditionality to His love.

That those who, do not BELEIVE IN HIM, either at all or no longer, are no longer loved by Him. Or that those who, do not walk with Him, slipping up into, as our confession stated, are no longer blessed by HIm. That there is some kind of combination here of both FAITH AND WORKS, - hope AND LOVE, that are needed by God for Him to love you, to keep covenant with you, - and yes, even, be present with you.

That, while God loves Christians, - HE DOES NOT LOVE the unbelievers. And that if we just make one slip, one wrong turn, - OR EVEN LETS SAY, - a big one, *that we He will no longer be ours to call upon.

and they find these idea, (or so they think) in these texts that we have today, - in our church's confession of repentance, - and the Spirit departing from those given into sin , of the Spirit departing from Saul, and God's withdrawing of His anointing from him , of Israel's failure to cross the desert, moses failure to enter in, - of David's punishment for the sin against Uriah with Bathsheba - and yes, even of our text today in Hosea 5 and 6 (and the many others like it).: I will return again to My place Till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.” Or, as many of us are prone to hearing this Word: - I wont play with you unless you follow my rules. OR. - becuase of what you've done, I will no longer be with you, - I'm going home, and im not coming back until you feel bad for what you've done, - and suffered for it.

Friends - this is how so many of us hear this Word of God

They think of repentance, - and they think of feeling bad, - asking for forgiveness out of fear, to a God that they think DOESNT WANT TO FORGIVE THEM

at least, not unless… well. unless SOEMTHING FIRST. Something that either enables Him to love us, or MOVES HIM to forgive us. As though God's disposition was not open to us but closed. Not offered up, but wrenched out from Him. By our faith, or our actions, or our desires. As though His love, and forgiveness, and mercy, were not HIS choice, but somehting that was CAUSED or MOVED by us and our will. That God’s love is not a guarantee that flows out of WHO AND WHAT HE IS. Of what and WHERE He has promised it. But is DRAGGED AND PULLED OUT OF HIM by our groveling, asking, our deserving - as though it were a thing held back closely to His chest.

But is that what Hosea 5:15 means? That God, becuase He doesnt like how we act, is going back home and will deal with us no longer until we apologize and smarten up?

No. Of course not.

For though WE operate this way. God is not like us. Holding back His love, close to His chest. But rather, He is the one who reaching into it, and pulls His heart out to hand it to us in His flesh and blood, that we might eat it and drink it, - though we do not deserve it.

And this is what it means: - I desire mercy, and not sacrifice. It does not mean, I wont dwell with you any longer BECUASE you are not merciful enough to others and no amount of sacrifices will change my mind.

But rather, it means, I do not desire your attempts to be GOOD ENOUGH to earn, to deserve, or to be worthy of my love: whether through your half baked attempts at obedience to the Law, - or by your sacrifices and burnt offerings of the blood of bulls and goats. No. - but rather, I WILL TO HAVE HAVE MERCY on whom I will have mercy (as He says in Exodus 33:19)

and this exactly how God Himself interprets this text for us in Hebrews 10, is it not? Saying, - that the Law, which was only ever a shadow of the things to come in CHrist, could never itself accomplish anything for us, nor perfect us from the stain of sin, nor repair our broken relationship with the Father. Therefore Paul writes: when Christ entered into this world HE said: (quoting Psalm 40): Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. 6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. 7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come— In the volume of the book it is written of Me— To do Your will, O God.’ ” For “Sacrifices the and offering of bulls and goats, You did not desire - BUT A BODY, you have prepared for me. “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” And By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And how? Not by sacrifices of the blood of bulls or goats, which never could in all their years take away sins. Not by our striving to be good enough, or deserving enough, or sorry enough, either according to the Law of God or of our own hearts or our opinions . No , - BUT BY THE OFFERING OF THE BODY OF JESUS CHRIST, and the pouring out of His precious blood, God has bought us back from ourselves, that we might be HIS forever .

For in this , St. John the beloved says, - God has shown His love for us, in that Christ died for us while we were yet still busy sinning against Him. and of course, there is no love greater than this, Jesus says , that a man lay His life down for His freinds . - which He calls us, while we were yet, as Paul says; trying our best to make ourselves to be His enemies.

So then, - when God says He desires mercy, not sacrifice, we arent to take this as though He is saying I desire GOOD BEHAVIOR, rather than to forgive sin, but rather, it is as though God is here saying) that He wills, not to be a God who FINDS that which already pleases Him, but a God who CREATES that which is pleasing to Him. Not to have a church that is already worthy, but to PERFECT HER THROUGH HIS LOVE, at the cost of His own most precious blood.

AS Paul says in ephesians 5: Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

And what does this mean of Christ’s love for the church? That HE has, was, and Is LOVING HER, NOT BECUASE OF WHAT SHE WAS. (good enough, beautiful enouygh, strong enough, kind enough, … no. ) . But loving her, INTO what He willed for her to become.

Perfect, - whole, spotless, and blameless. Perfected by HIS LOVE. and this is the whole point of the book of Hosea too, by the way. For what is that story ? do you know it?

it goers like this:

Israel had been unfaithful to the Lord. and so the Lord said to His prophet Hosea to become His sermon prop. To go and to marry a woman of harloty, - who would be unfaithful to him. And bear children of harloty. Children who, may or may not truly be his own. And this goes just how you think it might. She cheats on him. He forgives her. She cheats on him agian, he forgives her again. She gets tired of his mercy and she leaves him for a STRONGER man (As she thinks). For other lovers who did not care for her. And yet, all the while, Hosea, as a picture of God, waiting for us, - waits for her, to care for her, to chase and peruse after her. - until she gets tired of his chasing her, - and she sells herself into slavery to escape his love .- only for him to buy her back in the end.

And what is this story a picture of ? This is the story of God's love or you. . It is the sotry of the God we hear of when we confess in the Small Catechism of each of the petitions in the Lord’s Prayer. Saying: THIS HE DOES AND GIVES WITHOUT OUR PRAYER, even without our asking, and even to all evil people. This is the God who is God to all, even without our asking. Who is God, even to all evil people. The God, who is the God of love, who is love, - and who LOVES all people, - even to those who do not pray, and do not ask, and do not deserve it.

and this is the point of the text before us this morning. Though some may not immediately be able to see it. For Hosea 5 does not begin with V. 15, - but with the whole of this story. With Israel's unfaithfulness in the light of God's unconditional love. And of Israel's continued unrepetnance. For which, God speaks, - a punishment is coming. and is already here. - in sin itself, and in death itself, and in the Hell which follows. Isreal will suffer, be crushed be destroyed. And so we read this and think: - AHA, - I told you, the love of God IS conditional. and those who slip up, dont get kindness, BUT WRATH. Right?

But behold the text before you this morning, It gives away the Gospel TWIST at the end rights from before the begining.

Who takes that punishment? hear V. 14 , - will be like a lion to Ephraim, And like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them and go away; and 6:1 : - He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has stricken us, but He will bind us up. 2 And after two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight.

I ask - WHO HAS HE TORN?

Hear Psalm 22: - as it reads in the Hebrew: My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me,

The New King James Version Psalm 22

Many bulls have surrounded Me;

Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me.

13 They gape at Me with their mouths,

Like a raging and roaring lion.

14 I am poured out like water,

And all My bones are out of joint;

My heart is like wax;

It has melted within Me.

15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,

And My tongue clings to My jaws;

You have brought Me to the dust of death.

16 For dogs have surrounded Me;

The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.

Friends - WHO IS THIS TEXT ABOUT? Think of Hosea 11: - quoted in the Gospel texts for Advent and Christmas who identifies this Israel for us. - OUT OF EGPYT I HAVE CALLED MY SON. Friuends, - who is Isreal? - the true Isreal? - it is Jesus Christ, the LAMB OF GOD ENFLESHED FOR YOU. And in these texts He goes down low, unconditioanlly, down to death, to the grave, and IN THE DEPTHS OF SIN AND DESPAIR FOR YOU. For so the text has procalimed of Him: -

God has torn Israel. And God has healed Israel. He stricken, smitten, and afflicted Israel. - But He will again bind Him up, and revive Him. It PLEASED GOD , to Crush Him, - BUT ON THE THIRD DAY... GOD DID RAISE HIM UP. Freinds... God has bought back His bride from slavery into sin, and to death, at the cost of Himself. Though not as Hosea did his wayward wife... with gold and silver. No,but but with something FAR MORE COSTLY. - with the price of His own most precious blood, - wiht His innocent suffering and death.

And why? becuase this is what He said: - I DESIRE MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE

For God's will for you, - IS NOT THAT YOU MAKE SACRIFICE... - BUT THAT HE, IN HIS MERCY, will be YOUR sacrifice. For He desires not your STRIFE... but He desires YOU. And His desire is that By HIS stripes, THAT YOU WILL BE HEALED.

So then, why? Why does God hide from the unrepentant in Hosea 5? Why does He hide from those who do not confess their sins? Well - He doesn't. They are merely looking for Him in the wrong place. As He says - "until they acknowledge their sin... I will return again to my place". and where is that place? - that place where God is found? It is the place He has opened Himself up for the world at the point of a spear, on the cross of Jesus Christ. It is the baptismal font and the altar of His body and blood. It is in the Word preached and in the sins forgiven, it is in confession. And it is found through repentance.

This is the place He has always been. - WIATING FOR YOU, to return back home, as the unconditionally loving father, waiting for His prodigal son to come back Home.

For while we search for Him out there in every lake and steam and rock and bush - He speaks back to us, as Jesus did to Mary when she thought she'd lost Him: - WHY DO YOU SEEK FOR ME AS THOUGH YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE I AM? DIDNT YOU KNOW THAT I MUST BE IN MY FATHERS HOUSE?

Freinds, - the world is searching for God in the place of their own self justification. The Jews searched for Him and His love in the blood of bulls and goats. some of us we search for Him in our attempts at becoming better and better people every day, or EARNING OR DESERVING or being worthy of God's love and mercy by asking for forgiveness or feeling sorry enough OR WHATEVER IT IS THAT WE THINK WILL WORK.

and yet, - God has never once promised to be there in THOSE THINGS of our own invention for us or for our salvation. NO. For He does not desire OUR EFFORT, but HIS.

For so Isaiah says: He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for sinners. - And by his knowledge shall many be JUSTIFIED, and he shall bear their iniquities.

It is for HIS sake, - that Hosea writes of Him - Let us know HIM (that by KNOWING HIM we may be justified), Let us pursue the knowledge of the unconditionally loving LORD. For He desires mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of His unconditional love poured out in Christ’s blood on the cross for you more than a thousand burnt offerings or apologies or bargains. - for God wills to have MERCY ON YOU.

So what then do we bank our hope on? Not our sacrifice but His mercy. Not our WILL, but His mercy. Not our goodness but HIS DIVINE GRACE. So where then, Has He willed to be found? In the dealt and in the resurrection of His Son, the true Isreal. Who was torn open for us, that by His stripes WE might be healed. Who was BRUISED AND BROKEN for us, that we might be BOUND UP with the strips of flesh ripped off His back, and who was DRIVEN by death into the grave for us, - that on the third day, - we might rise in Him, to new and eternal life.

You say, and where does God hide from the unrepentant and unbelieving? - He hides in His revelation. He hides in His Word. He hides in His promise. HE hides in His Son. He hides in the crucifixion of His incarnate Christ nailed for you and for all upon the cross.

He hides in His Word hope spoken

the word which is , I FORGIVE YOU ALL OF YOURS SINS.