www.EbenezerLutheranChurch.com

Sermon for Sunday June 8th, 2008.

Sermon Theme: Morning Prayer

Sermon Notes: This sermon is based on Hosea 5:15-6:6. These sermons are always works in progress. Please look past any grammatical flaws or loose phrasing. We at Ebenezer hope you enjoy them in the Spirit which they were written. Peace in Christ, Pastor Joshua Haugen.

When you get up in the morning what is your routine? Most of us have a fairly normal morning ritual. We rise and take a shower or get our cup of coffee, or have a bowl of cereal, usually something to kick start our day. Often we are in such a rush to get out to work or to do whatever activity that we have planned that we barely have time to brush our teeth. Or if we don't have a busy morning then it is still easy to fall into a normal routine of watching the morning news or whatever else we enjoy. But today in our text we have an emphasis that keeps coming back to us. The emphasis is on the word "morning." The emphasis is on especially how:

Mornings are A Time to Remember The Lord.

Morning is an important idea to us Lutherans' because we have all gone through confirmation or at least had a gander at Luther's small catechism. In the small catechism Luther is quite direct. He says:

¹ In the morning, when you rise, make the sign of the cross and say, "In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen."

² Then, kneeling or standing, say the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer. Then you may say this prayer:

"I give Thee thanks, heavenly Father, through thy dear Son Jesus Christ, that Thou hast protected me through the night from all harm and danger. I beseech Thee to keep me this day, too, from all sin and evil, that in all my thoughts, words, and deeds I may please Thee. Into thy hands I commend my body and soul and all that is mine. Let thy holy angel have charge of me, that the wicked one may have no power over me. Amen."

³ ... (Then) you should go to your work joyfully.

I love that last part by Luther, "Go to your work Joyfully." Do it now. Be joyfull!!! Only a good German can make joy a command. Of course we need to remember that this is just a small suggestion by Martin Luther who after all used to spend at least 3 hours in scripture reading and prayer each and every day.

But old Martin had a very good point. Now we don't need to start each day with the exact order that Martin Luther has given us, for he is really only trying to give us a guide or an outline, but it makes us ask the question, "How often do we turn to the Lord each morning?" In our morning routine do we even have time to think about him? Granted we are thinking about Him this morning but is this morning the anomaly? I think for many of us, pastors even included, it is quite easy to get caught up in the morning worries, routines and not pause to remember the Lord.

We see this same point in Hosea. When Hosea was writing the Israelites, the Israelites were a people who were very prosperous and who did not have time in their busy routine for the Lord. They had forgotten Him each and every morning. So Hosea gives them the clear message from the Lord. "I (the Lord) will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me."

What we see in Hosea is very similar to what Luther says to us. Its good to know that Hosea is a Lutheran. What Hosea first says is that God wants to be in a place where He is gracious and loving to them. So too do we know that God wants to be gracious and loving to us. So Luther suggests starting each and every morning by the cross and the invocation, In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Because if we need to remember where God is loving and gracious to us then we simply go back to our baptisms, when the Name of God was first put upon us. Now saying this name reminds us each and every morning that the Lord is still with us and that He has made us His children.

Next, Hosea says that God wants to be gracious to the Israelites but cannot because they simply will not confess their sins and guilt. So Luther says that we are to pray, "keep me from sin and every evil." This admits that we are prone to evil. We are prone to sin. How important it is before we do anything, to simply take the piercing eye of the law and realize yep, all those commandments, they don't just apply to my co-worker, to my spouse, to my children, they apply to me. So Luther leads us to pray, "God help me today to do what is according to your will and forgive me when I fail."

Lastly, the Lord says, "and in their distress earnestly seek me." Now if you had to translate how the Israelites were to seek the Lord, then the one word, "earnestly" does just fine. But the Hebrew idea is deeper than this. The Hebrew idea is one of the hunter who gets up early in the morning, each and every morning. This hunter has to rise, wipe the sleep from his eyes, go out into the woods long before normal and sane people get up. This incessant hunter is like Indiana Jones who will not cease until he finds what he is looking for. This word is so helpful because often we have a view toward God that yep we have faith, so yep we're all good. But that is such a mediocre view of God. That is such a mediocre view of the relationship that God has established for us.

This is why, like Luther, Hosea too gives us a prayer. The Prayer that Hosea gave them and us was:

Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us 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 know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.

Hosea uses such powerful words as "torn", "heal", "struck down", "bind", "revive" and "live". The reason he uses such words is because He wants the Children of Israel to see each and every morning who is truly their Lord and God.

For so often when we arise we only wake up and see all the things that have to be done. Even as we enter into vacation - vacation is that time when we try to forget all the things that we still have to do - but always in the back of our minds we know that a large pile will be waiting for us when we return. So we hustle and bustle to get out the door to attack the never ending list of things. When we awake we may also see other things. We may see and feel the aches and pains that we wake up with. We may see who is not there. We may only see what is torn and what has been struck.

But Hosea wanted the children of Israel and us to see that our Lord who we pray to every morning is not some God who is far off from our problems. He is not a God insurance policy that we cash in on the last day so that we get to go to heaven. No, instead He is the God who has brought us into relationship with him. He is the God who loves to hear our prayers each and every morning. He is the God who loves to remind us of who we are in Him. He is the God who actually has the power to Heal us, and bind our broken hearts, and even give His holy angels charge over us. We are not in a relationship with a mediocre God who sits on the top book shelf like the house hold cat merely watching from afar. Now we are brought into an every day relationship with Him who calls us to account for our daily sins, forgives, and heals us.

So Luther and Hosea lead us back to the Lord every morning. The reason we are so sure that he can piece our lives back together is like Hosea says, "after two days he will revive us on the third day He will raise us up." So God the heavenly Father did revive and raise his Son back up after three days and so we can be sure that He will raise us up, that he will bind our wounds and heal our lives. We may wake up each and every morning and see the cross that we have to bear. But He says that as constant as the sun rises and the spring rains fall so is the constancy of Him.

The Lord bids us to look to Him every morning. Not because we have to but because He wants us to see so clearly who He truly is, for us, every morning. The point of this turning this praying to God is not to just go through the motions. Because what is important to remember is the children of Israel even when they had rejected God never stopped completely worshipping Him. They never stopped completely offering burnt sacrifices. They never completely stopped going to church. Their problem was that their love for God was like the morning dew in North Carolina on a hundred degree day. It just never lasted. They were just going through the motions. They sat their dead, knowing there was a God, but not caring.