Come let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but He will heal us; He has injured us but He will bind up our wounds.

Have you heard we have a new grandson, Calvin Joseph Hesse? Calvin after Ruth’s father; Joseph because it a solid sounding name and Hesse because it is the family name. All those names will serve a practical purpose – keep him from getting mixed up with other kids – make sure his parents pick the right kid from summer camp, and stuff like that. There is one more practical use Calvin will learn - that is to gauge his parent’s mood by how much of his name they use: If he is playing and he hears, “Calvin, time for dinner,” it may mean he can play for another fifteen minutes.

“Calvin Hesse! Time to come in,” Using both names may mean you’ve still got maybe five minutes. But when the volume goes up and the tone gets that “edge” and when the middle name comes out, “Calvin Joseph Hesse!” it is time to get going or else. How many of you know what I’m talking about? Either by first hand experience or by listening to someone close to you?

In our text today we have a people in trouble. You can almost hear God standing at the kitchen door hollering, “Ephraim! Ephraim, son of Abraham! What am I going to do with you!” “I’ve told you a thousand times and still you won’t learn…and don’t you get so smug Judah you are just like that brother of yours.”

Both Ephraim (that is the people of the northern kingdom in Old Israel) and Judah (that’s the southern cousins) just aren’t listening. Called by their first, middle, and last name, and they just aren’t listening.

To get the context you need to go back into chapter one of Hosea. The prophet records that Ephraim and Judah have been chasing after false gods, giving them all their attention, trusting in them, and relying on them. They’ve ignored the repeated calls of the true God.

To make matters worse they have been failing to acknowledge that all their blessings come from one true God, who has looked after them, cared for them, rescued them, and provided for them. I can almost see it. Ephraim and Judah are bragging, “Look at all I’ve done; look at my(!) list of accomplishments; Look! Look at myyy house, myyy fields, and all myyyy possessions…look at all I’ve done.”

The reason I can almost see them is because we are often just like them. In our sinfulness we often ignore God - especially when things are going well. In the good times we begin to take credit for all that we have and all we have done. Oh, we may toss God an occasional thank you but apart from the working of the Holy Spirit we can be a prideful and arrogant people. In good times, we can be just like Ephraim and Judah, chasing after false securities, wooing the harlots of pride, and trusting in what turns out to be worthless idols…. Reading our text the prophet records God saying, I will go back to My place until they admit their guilt. To a 21st century ear it might sound like, “Oh, Ephraim, Judah, and those of you gathered here, what am I going to do with you?”

When you were little or maybe not so little, were you ever forced to apologize or you only apologized to keep your self out of trouble? How many of you know the “tell your sister your sorry or else apology? ” It sounded like, “SSSOORRRRY…” and you didn’t mean it for a moment. Hosea writes that he is living among a people whose sincerity is as fleeting as our breath on a frosty morning; Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears.

As I studied this part of the text, I pondered how often our sincerity before the Father is like morning mist or is as fleeting as our breath on a cold winter morning. Oh, we say we are sorry for our sins but before Jesus’ words of forgiveness are done ringing in our ears we are right back at it: sinning with unkind thoughts, ever ready to speak harsh, self-serving or prideful words. “Ephraim, Judah, those of you gathered here, what am I going to do with you? You don’t listen and you often aren’t really sorry?”

Who in your family, or what teacher, or coworker or significant somebody could stop you dead in your tracks with just one word, maybe accompanied by that “look”.

The prophet Hosea writes of the all-powerful God who has the ultimate “look,” the decisive “stance,” and The Words that cut us to the heart. Hosea records, Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets with the Word of God spoken through faithful preachers I cut you to the quick. I kill you with the words of My mouth; Your self-indulgent excuses and stammering self-justifications are as horse feathers before Me. My judgments flashed like lightning upon you. If you say you have not sinned you deceive yourself and the truth is not in you. (1 John 1.8)

I know you and the secrets of your heart. I know all the times you’ve taken credit for the blessings I’ve showered upon you. I know all the times you’ve trusted and lusted after the things of the world more that you’ve loved, feared and trusted in me. I know the times you nursed sinful attitudes, all the times your hearts were cold to the Word of God and all the times you’ve been insincere towards me. All this I know and more.

Now, as I was writing this sermon, I had to stop at this point. I couldn’t raise my head. It was as though Christ were standing just to my right, just over my shoulder. He knows all I’ve done, all those things no one else knows. He even knows the secret sins of my heart. I couldn’t even look at Him…with just a few words I felt cut to pieces, killed by His words, all my excuses were but vain stammerings.

But if My people will confess their sins and turn from them, I will bind up their wounds.

As I was looking down at the floor, too ashamed to look up, I was reminded of a town in Denmark where there is a statue of Christ on the cross. What is so unique about this depiction of the crucifixion, is that Jesus’ head is bowed down in such a fashion that the only way to really see the face of Christ- to look into his eyes - is come up very, very close to cross and you have to get down on your knees at His feet and then look up. Only then can see His face- only then can you look into His eyes. Hosea writes, and they will seek My face; in their misery they will earnestly seek Me.

I believe we all need to assume that position on a regular basis- drawing close to the cross, so close that we can touch it, so low to the ground we feel every pebble beneath our knees, so close that we can almost picture His blood dripping down around us, so close that we can hear Him in our mind’s ear saying with His last breath, “It is finished.”

Seeing Christ on the cross says to all of us, “This is what I did so that you’d be forgiven. This is the price sin demands. This the price I paid to redeem you- to buy you back from sin, death and damnation. This is the price I willingly paid that as the prophet wrote, that your wounds would be bound up, that your hearts would be restore, that you might look up again.

It takes the words of God to bind up, to restore, to heal, to renew and to transform. Those Words have been spoken to the people of each age and they are spoken to us, as well.

In baptism life is restored. The Holy Spirit brings us to confess our sins and by the Words of absolution we find the wounds left by our sins begin to heal; in communion there is renewal as all that is Christ takes hold of us, and it is by the hearing of God’s Word - by and through the study of that Word- that our lives are really and lastingly transformed.

It is by the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we return to the Lord. It is by the Spirit that we realize that by His timeless Law that He has torn us to pieces but it is also by His costly Gospel that He has healed us. He has injured us but by His death and resurrection He has bound up our wounds.

All around are people who are playing in the street of sin. We have been sent to share the Gospel with them - to call them, to use their middle names if necessary, to let them know that by playing in the street of sin they are in real peril, but Jesus came to rescue them and us from that peril - to keep us safe this day and all our days. God calls to them through us that one day they might hear the Father call their name, first, middle and last not to damnation but to salvation. Amen.