August 3, 2025: What do we really need?

Old Testament Reading: Hosea 11: 1-11
The Gospel: Luke 12: 13-21  

Last week, we discussed the prayer that Jesus taught us, The Lord’s Prayer that begins with “Our Father”. While some think that Jesus was the first to speak of God as a parent and to invite us to do so as well, that is not the case. As Biblical Scholar N.T. Wright reminds us, “The first occurrence in the Hebrew Bible of the idea of God as the father comes when Moses marches in boldly to stand before the Pharaoh, and says “Thus says YHWH: Israel is my son, my firstborn: let my people go, that they may serve me” (Exodus 4: 22-23).

The image of God as parent continues in our Hosea scripture today. In fact, it is the image of a frustrated parent whose children continue not to listen despite the love shown to them. Sound familiar?

The scripture refers to Israel as a child, a son whom God loved, fed, and taught to walk. Later God sent Moses to lead Israel by human kindness and bands of heavenly love as God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt. However, the child Israel grew up and forgot about what God did for them. They began sacrificing to idols and following other rulers. God, as a parent, had a right to be frustrated. 

This image of God as a parent is so compelling. Can’t all of us who are parents relate to it? We work hard to take care of our children, nurture them with love, teach them right from wrong, and sometimes, when they are young, the “cords of human kindness” might even be a literal cord, connecting a wandering toddler to her mother or father to keep her safe. For the child it will feel limiting and frustrating, but to a parent it is a way to keep the child close and safe from all the hazards in the world that they do not yet understand.

Although most of us would admit to being imperfect parents, we try our best to set boundaries that are both safe and fair and to help our children learn and grow. Yet, it still seems that at one point or another while children are growing they push against those boundaries. They might refuse to do a chore, stay out past a curfew, make unhealthy choices or hang out somewhere or with someone we parents may not feel is safe. They might choose a different path in life than we might hope for them, but through all of this, we parents still love our children, even through moments where we might not like their actions or attitudes.

And you don’t even have to be someone’s parent to love and care for them, even when they go astray. Dr. Gulbransen is a pediatrician in New York who uses what little spare time he has to help some people living on the streets. He regularly checked in with Red and some of his friends, bringing them socks, taking them out for breakfast or helping as he could. He encouraged them to get treatment for their addictions and was there to drive them to rehab when they were ready. And when they made excuses and did not make it, he was still there to help. (The New Yorker, July 21, 2025)

Now imagine being God who has led the Israelites out of enslavement to their own fertile land and within a mere 700 years, they have forgotten all of that and started worshipping idols. While 700 years may seem long to us, it is the blink of an eye to God. And God’s initial reaction, like ours as parents, is to be frustrated and angry. And we know what God can do when God is angry - think flood, famine, war etc. But God, like a good parent, can also focus on the love, “How can I give you up Ephraim?” (note that Ephraim was the largest tribe in the Northern Kingdom of Israel) “How can I hand you over Israel?...my heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger” God proclaims through the Prophet Hosea. 

So instead God, like any good parent, plays the long game. God will wait for the Israelites to come around and it will take a long time including the assasination of many rulers, attacks by Assyria, futile alliances with Syria and Egypt and much struggle, but they did come around. And when they did, God, like a loving parent, was waiting to welcome them home much like the Prodigal father. 

The long game worked for Dr. Gulbransen as well.  One day he got a voicemail from Red saying, “Hey, G, it’s Red. Just wanted to tell you, I’m calling from rehab. I finally made it –I’ve landed. I am currently clean. I just wanted you to know where I was. I’ll call back again to try and get in touch with you. I just didn’t want you to worry.”
Parents and caring people lead with love. 

God’s first instinct towards us is love, even when we are distracted, selfish, greedy, mean, or angry. And while it would be nice to think that God’s love will solve all of our problems - that’s not how parenting works is it? Parents are there to love and support their children through their struggles because the reality is that struggle cannot be avoided. God is with us through it all, suffering with us when we are sick or hurt or sad, as a loving parental presence to sustain us through it but not there to arbitrate all of life’s challenges just a parents cannot arbitrate all challenges for their children. 

So when the man in the crowd asked Jesus to make his brother fork over his half of the family’s inheritance, Jesus answered kindly, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” This was not a matter for God to weigh in on; there are judges for that. Jesus further emphasized this point with a parable of a rich farmer who wished to store his wealth so that he could then sit back and relax but then finds out that he will die that night. Here Jesus is emphasizing that life is not all about stuff. 

Now this does not mean that people do not have the right to work hard and enjoy the comforts that come with that. It was a matter of where this man’s priorities were as Jesus says, “So it is for those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” The key is in the “but”. The man was selfish, he was not showing love for God by sharing his wealth with those in need. 
So what do we as humans really need? Well, the Beatles were right when they said it, “All you need is love.” And the good news is we already have it! God is an adoring parent who loves us through our selfishness, our sadness, our sickness, our wandering and our mistakes. God, like a loving parent, will always welcome us home. 

But God, like any parent, also wants the best for us. God wants us to learn and grow, to work hard, to share, to lead with kindness, to inspire, to help and to hope always. He gave us a model of how to do this in his son Jesus. By following God and Jesus’ model in leading with love, we will be rich towards God and humanity. We will truly show that we are God’s children.

Pastor Michelle Fountain

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