This country is in terrible shape! People do not really and truly believe in God anymore. They are disloyal to everything they have been taught. They have turned their backs on the wisdom and tradition of the generations before them. They know nothing about God. Every other word you hear out of their mouths is a blasphemy against God. They think nothing of distorting the truth or even concocting pure fabrications if they think lying will serve their own purposes. They also think nothing of killing someone with whom they disagree or who gets in their way. Rather than work for a living, they steal from the few honest people left. Ripping off the public has become a way of life. Dishonesty has even taken over their marital relationships as husbands and wives abandon their wedding vows and engage in illicit affairs with anyone they find attractive or convenient. Violence is everywhere; it is a creed and code by which the citizens live.

But it is not just the people who are in bad shape. The economy is wrecked. A recession has set in—call it a depression if you will—that won’t seem to go away. The political leaders are bewildered and confused and not just a little frightened by the most recent assassination. What’s more, the environment is suffering, too. And everyone knows the nation is in trouble, it is not what it used to be, it is in a tailspin and no one can seem to pull it out. To be sure, there are plenty of people around who say they know what can cure the nation of its ills, that all the country has to do is turn back to God and pretty soon everything will be back on track again, but it is pretty obvious that their devotion is self-serving, motivated by their own ambitions. Their piety is shallow and calculated and lasts only long enough to achieve their own petty goals. There is moral chaos everywhere, and the country is in terrible shape!

What country am I talking about? If you guessed Israel in the time of Hosea, you’re right. But if you also guessed the United States of America today, you’re right too!

In Hosea’s time, Israel was a mess. The nation was in a near-constant state of warfare with Assyria, and the wars had drained the energy of the people and the economy. Politically, things had been fairly settled for a time, but following the death of King Jeroboam II there was tremendous conflict, and within the space of fourteen years four successive kings were killed. The religious leaders had forgotten their heritage and their covenant with God and had led the all-too-willing people to adopt the customs and practices of the Baal fertility cult with its emphasis on so-called "sacred" prostitution. Socially, the climate of the times was moral disaster, dominated by human desires gone wild—stealing, swearing, murder, lying, adultery. To add an ironic twist to the whole scenario, the people’s apostasy in adopting the pagan fertility religion had resulted in poor crops and sickly herds, rather than agricultural and economic prosperity.

And what about our time, our country? Open any newspaper, attend any movie, watch any television show, and the story isn’t much different. People set off bombs that destroy buildings filled with public servants and their children. Showbiz is filled with talk of what actress revealed what body part and for how much money in the latest movie. Public leaders profess that their private moral failings have no bearing whatsoever on their public effectiveness, and what is even worse, much of the public can’t even detect the logical disconnect in that position. Students routinely cheat on examinations. Social and psychological gurus spout a philosophy that says if you believe it’s true then it must be true, or at least for you, no matter what anyone else thinks. Parents increasingly sacrifice time with their children in order to make another buck, and then wonder what went wrong with the kids. Kids take guns to school and use them, just as they’ve been taught by the mass media, and they hardly even know that killing is wrong. People who can hit a baseball a little better than anyone else are paid tens of millions of dollars a year, while people who care for our senior citizens are lucky to bring in a little more than minimum wage. Business leaders routinely report that lying and misrepresentation are part of what it takes to succeed in today’s world. Illegal drug use and the deadly war on drugs that it spawns continues unabated. And the problems are not just in our country. Ethnic groups do battle with other ethnic groups in the attempt to wipe each other out, and in a place called the Holy Land, innocent people are killed nearly every day because people simply can’t get along with each other.

There are questions we must ask! What has gone wrong? Why do we seem to find it so hard to live righteous and moral lives? Why do we seem unable even to agree what that kind of behavior is? How can we begin to discover and then practice a way of living that befits human beings created in the image of God? Is it even possible for us, personally and corporately, to turn away from the corrupt direction we are headed? Did Jack get up on the wrong side of the bed today?

I believe that in America today there is a tremendous spiritual search going on for the answers to these kinds of questions. But, sadly, much of our looking is in the wrong places. I consider it part of my calling as a pastor to be a student of the culture in which you and I live, and from much of what I read and hear and see it is clear that part of the reason for the current moral chaos is that we simply have no clue where to find reliable sources of information and inspiration for living upright, holy, moral lives.

Many people appeal to enlightened self interest in the search for moral direction and inspiration. They say that the way you can judge an action or attitude is proper is by whether or not it is good for you and for other people. Well, that way of thinking is useful, to a point, but there comes a time when what is good for me is not good for you, or a time when my own selfish desires influence my judgment, or a time when doing what is right requires more courage or self-discipline than I can muster.

Other people suggest that the secret of upright living can be found by discovering your true, inner self, that part of you that instinctively knows what is best and that will push to the surface if allowed to do so. Unfortunately, when left to our own wills and wishes, human beings are usually quite self-centered and limited in our desire to do what is right. We are more prone to do what feels good, what makes us comfortable, what takes the least amount of effort. Woody Allen, in an interview several years ago in which he tried to explain his side of the story involving his affair with the adopted daughter of Mia Farrow, said, "The heart wants what it wants." He’s right. The heart wants what it wants and very often will rationalize away any inconvenient details until the heart gets what it wants!

There are still other people who believe that proper living can be achieved only by the force of law. Now I’m not against law and order, but I am simply being realistic here. We have laws of every kind against all sorts of behavior, but rather than prevent such behavior, all the law really does is punish it. And yes, punishment contributes to prevention, but not always. For all the billions we are spending on the war on drugs, we haven't stopped drug use. And it’s no wonder. The people responsible for drug use are not the growers and sellers, it’s the users! But our society continues to deny that fact. The truism goes that "you can’t legislate behavior," and that is one truism that I think is more true than not. The simple fact is that no matter what you hear in political speeches today, the government cannot save us from ourselves!

And, finally, there are those who turn in the direction of God, but they go only as far down that path as their ideology will take them. There are those we sometimes identify as being on the "right" side of the political and religious spectrum. They counsel that if we will simply go back to reading the Bible and praying and acting like this was the 1930’s or the 1950’s everything would be all right. And then there are those on the other side, the "left" side of the fence. Their pat answer is that all we have to do is give up the old traditions, become more inclusive, more tolerant, more understanding toward other systems of belief, and everything will come out okay.

Let’s be honest with ourselves, and admit that both of those ideologies have much that is commendable in them, and you and I probably tend toward agreeing with one or the other. But let’s also admit that the moral and political and social issues of today are sometimes too complex to be solved by simple answers. Yes, we do need to read the Bible and we do need to pray, but by themselves that is not enough. Yes, we do need to be more inclusive and more tolerant, and some of our traditions are outmoded, but tolerance can degenerate into having no standards at all, and there is much in the past that is worth preserving. Too often you and I accept ideology as a substitute for theology, we accept our own nicely constructed views of the world as a substitute for a view of the world which comes only through looking at the world from God’s perspective. Of course, we defend our view as being closest to God’s view, but the judgment that stands on all of us, liberals and conservatives alike, is that we have a long way to go before we have arrived at the mind of God.

In the face of all I’ve said, in the midst of the overwhelming cultural tide toward moral chaos and the weakening of our nation, in the light of our entrenched religious views that too often shut out deeper truth and knowledge, in the light of the weakening effect all of this has on the moral fiber of our nation, is there any hope? Is there anything we can do? The answer is a resounding "yes!" For our God is a God of hope, a God of possibility, a God of resurrection. And Hosea knew that.

Hosea lays out before us in all its powerful simplicity the basic truth that the only hope for a righteous society, the only hope for individual lives of integrity and goodness, the only source of information and inspiration that can truly transform corruption into perfection, the only hope for making and keeping a nation strong, is the hope of loving and knowing God. Hosea speaks these words from God: "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings."

The road to spiritual health that also takes us to personal and social righteousness is a road that begins with repentance. Hosea echoes the words of the religious people of his day who often said, "Come, let us return to the Lord…." But apparently their repentance was insincere and short-lived, for God’s reply is, "What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early." Much of the religion of Hosea’s day was hollow, devoid of passion and commitment, a religion of social nicety rather than burning discipleship. Hosea might feel right at home in America today. Polls have shown that almost 95% of Americans profess to be Christian, yet on a given Sunday morning only half will be in church, and, what is perhaps worse, many studies show that there is no noticeable difference in the behavior of those who say they are religious and those who claim little religious fervor.

True repentance has two hallmark qualities. First, it is a deeply felt recognition that you and I don’t have the answers or the power, only God does. And, second, it is a steady, continuous refocusing on God. Once these two qualities are present, then the true believers can go on to discover the knowledge of God. And here is where the deepest secret of upright living begins to unfold. Lloyd Ogilvie has this to say about the knowledge of God: "There is nothing more important. With it life is sublime; without it there is constant stress. It is the secret of true success, the source of wisdom beyond our understanding, the strength to endure in hard times. It is our ultimate goal, life’s greatest privilege, and our most urgent need."

What is the knowledge of God that it is such a potent force? In biblical terms, knowing God implies two things. First, it is an intimate, personal, lifelong, life-consuming relationship. The best analogy we have for it, and one the Bible calls to mind with its use of the word "knowing," is the analogy of marriage. The relationship between God and believer is like that ideal of husband and wife, a relationship of total devotion, total self-revelation, total self-giving, so much so that the believer’s thoughts become like God’s thoughts, the believer’s feelings become like God’s feelings, the believer’s impulses become like God’s impulses.

But this knowing goes beyond the union of mind and heart and will. It moves also in the realm of action. First, we think and feel like God, and then, secondly, we begin to act like God. There develops a congruity between the truth we know and the truth we do. The knowing and the doing are inseparable, two sides of one whole. When we know God then we will do as God does, and when we do as God would do, then we come even closer to understanding the personality and character of God.

It all sounds like so much mystical theology until we realize that God himself has provided a very concrete means by which we can know him. And here is where you and I have an advantage over Hosea, for we can know God through his Son, Jesus Christ. To know how God thinks and acts, we have for our example God in the form of one like us. Jesus said to Thomas, "If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." (John 14:7) Knowing God through Jesus Christ is the secret to living that is upright, moral, truth-filled, even holy. Knowing God through Jesus Christ gives us both the information and the inspiration we need to turn away from our destructive patterns of behavior and begin to learn a new way of living that makes us strong, as people, and as a nation.

And so there is a great challenge and a great opportunity before us. It begins with the chance to know God. You and I need to know God, and will do so as we meet Christ, through Scripture, through prayer, through service to others, through the fellowship of the church, which is the Body of Christ. But the challenge moves beyond ourselves and our own need for Christ. It moves toward the world. For those who have met Christ and are still getting to know him, we have seen a vision of what life can be like, a life of justice and peace and love instead of moral chaos and decay. We, in turn, are called to represent that vision to the world. Who can teach the world about God? Will it be politicians and pollsters? Will it be television and movies? Will it be each person left to his or her own imagination and ambition? Or will it be the church?

Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon say this: "The most interesting, creative, political solutions we Christians have to offer our troubled society are not new laws, advice to Congress, or increased funding for social programs…. The most creative social strategy we have to offer is the church. Here we show the world a manner of life the world can never achieve through social coercion or governmental action. We serve the world by showing it something that it is not, namely, a place where God is forming a family out of strangers."

What keeps a nation strong is a strong people of God.

Amen.

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