June 13, 2023

 All 4 readings direct us from sacrifice to mercy and that is a rare thing that all 4 line up like that.  When we follow Jesus and serve God it isn’t about what we give up or sacrifice, but about what we take on which is love and mercy.

In the Hosea reading, the writer is sacrificing or putting aside pride, self-importance, life or the illusion of control of their lives.  They let go, not so they can brag about it or look good, but so they can be ready to receive.  Instead, that sacrifice makes them prepared to watch for signs of God’s presence.  That sacrifice prepares them to be refreshed and revived.  God is frustrated in this reading.  Maybe the people give up their pride for only a moment and forget to look for God.  The people consistently kill the prophets bringing God’s message.  God is frustrated.  The people are frustrated.  So God tells them plainly that God does not desire sacrifices, but steadfast love.

We all make sacrifices and they can be good for us.  Sacrifice can make room for something else.  Sacrifice can help us change from being selfish and entitled, to appreciate more what we have.  Voluntary sacrifice is good practice for the inevitable giving things up that we won’t get to choose—it teaches us to let go.

But sacrifice doesn’t especially please God, all by itself.  Sacrifice is for us, not God.  God is not hungry for our money or hungry for the food we might place in the Zarephath basket.  It used to be in ancient Israel that all the sacrifices were burned on the altar.  How you all would gasp if I set the offering plate on fire!  And then we’d still have the bills to pay and the poor to feed.  So eventually the sacrifice started to be given to the poor and the poor priest.  But the sacrifice alone isn’t what God wants or needs.  God wants our attention.  God wants our lives to be changed.  God doesn’t need us to go through the motions.  God does not need us to be hypocrites, showing our devotion one day and the next cheating our neighbor or in some way being unfaithful or unloving.

Again the Psalm takes on the topic of sacrifices.  God doesn’t need animal sacrifices, or food.  God doesn’t need us to cook for God.  Our neighbor might, though.  God wants us to listen, to follow, to have compassion, love, and mercy.

God doesn’t need our actions alone, God needs us to love, our neighbor needs us to love and love is not just a feeling, but an action.  Sacrifice can become an action only if the spirit of love is not attached to it.  Love can become a feeling only without the action attached to it.  But in the Hebrew Scripture and for Jesus, love is an action.  Love and mercy are actions in relationship with other people.  Love is a drawing near.

For the Hebrew people, God was at different times far and near.  Moses had been near to his people and then far as he was put in the rushes to be rescued from Pharoah’s plot against the baby boys.  He felt close to his family as Pharaoh’s daughter gave him back to his mother to nurse and raise.  He felt far from his people as he went to live in Pharaoh’s household.  He felt close to his people when he defended an Israelite from an Egyptian slave master, and killed that Egyptian.  He felt far from his people when he was forced to flee or face the consequences.  Moses was a person who felt far from family when he saw the burning bush and God called him near to send him back to free his people.  In that moment, Moses took off his sandles, because he stood on holy ground, and he felt the closeness of a merciful God who made him who he was and gave him a mission of mercy.

As the people wandered in the wilderness God was right there in their midst, leading them by a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night.  Everyone could see God’s presence.  When Moses went up to receive the commandments, God was far away on the mountain and as God drew near to Moses, God showed Moses only God’s backside to keep from blinding him.  God was too much to be near.

As David and Solomon built a temple with the Holy of Holies, only certain people could come near, those with proper family standing and those who had made proper sacrifices.  Sacrifices opened doors for people to come closer to God—for men to come closer to God.  Women were definitely kept at a distance.

So here is this woman with a hemorrhage kept even further away from God, from community, because of fear she would spread disease, because of rules about what was clean and unclean.  Now she draws near to Jesus and even touches him and she is healed.  Jesus is God with us, right here, very near, within reach.

Matthew was a tax collector.  He felt far from God.  He was in the wrong profession.  He was not allowed in the temple.  He was not allowed to be in the worshiping assembly there.  And yet, here Jesus comes near and calls him to follow.  He takes Matthew as his disciple and Matthew remembers and records the stories of Jesus in our Bible that we read today.

Little girls are not allowed near God, even one belonging to the leader of the synagogue.  People of God do not touch dead people or even go into the same room as them.  It makes them ritually unclean.  But this leader who has been with his daughter comes to Jesus and begs for his help and Jesus comes near, takes her hand, and raises her to new life, long before he raises Lazarus.

Jesus gets questioned by those who are concerned about ritual purity and staying clean.  Distance is their protection.  But Jesus isn’t having any of it.  He cannot be contaminated or kept away from those who need him.  Life and religion is not about contamination, and ritual and laws and keeping separate.  Those things will only drive people away from each other.  Life and religion is about relationship, love, and mercy, about drawing near.  For those that live by laws, they don’t need Jesus, they don’t want Jesus.  If you can do it yourself and be clean and be righteous, why would you need Jesus?  We do need Jesus.  Just sometimes, some of us recognize it and approach Jesus and ask for his healing and admit our own needs.  He always turns to those who need him as he does these folks today and invites us closer for healing and relationship.

We may sometimes feel that God is far away.  We may sometimes feel like we should be able to handle things ourselves.  We may sometimes feel like we’re strong enough, capable enough.  And then life throws us curveballs—an illness, a close call, a humbling moment and we suddenly see what a fool we’ve been.  We find God has always been close by.

I recently saw the cutest little 2 year old walking down Powell blvd with his mom and sister.  This little kid absolutely refused to hold his mom’s hand.  I was driving but I was keeping an eye out because you never know when he might dart out in the street.  His mom tried to take his hand 4 or 5 times and he just wrenched away, determined to do it himself.  I had to think of how often I treat God like that.  Here God is reaching out trying to guide us and help us and we just want “to do it myself!”  If only we could get through being toddlers.  God is there with us, near to us, trying to hold our hand.  The community is here trying to hold our hand.  In our more gracious moments, may we reach out and take that hand and walk together and experience relationship, love, and hope.