Hosea 1:1-2:1; Colossians 2:6-19; Luke 11:1-13
Rev. Kenneth M. Locke; Interim Pastor
Orchard Park Presbyterian Church; Carmel, IN
July 27, 2025; Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
It’s tempting for us today, reading our Bibles, to look down our noses at those who came before us. How could they be so silly? Worshiping on hilltops? Bowing down to golden calves and sacred poles? What were they thinking, being led astray by philosophical wrangling? Crazy talk about dietary laws and when to worship. Why were they listening to stories of angels and visions of the afterlife? What was their problem? What were they thinking? Sometimes we’re tempted to read those stories and dismiss them.
But these stories are important. They tell us in every age and period of history there have been forces pulling us away from the path. From Adam and Eve to the birth of Jesus; from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance and all the way up to the post-modern world, forces have been trying to lure us away from God.
And what about today? Are there forces out there trying to turn us away from God? Yes. You bet. Pluralism tells us one religion is just as good as another. All our busyness tells us we don’t have time to think about God, much less pausing for prayer. Our televisions tell us money is not a gift from God but something we earned ourselves and we should do what we want with it. More and more, it’s perfectly OK to have no beliefs at all.
The week after Easter, I was taking a class at my local gym, when out of the blue someone said, “I don’t do church. But for those of you who do, thank you for the Easter leftovers.” I don’t do church but thank you for the leftovers. No shame, no embarrassment, just straight up out there. No belief at all is perfectly fine, and thanks for the leftovers.
What do we do when we feel those forces pulling us? What do we do when we find money takes more energy than worship, when Sunday is more about catching up from the week than about God? When no one around us seems to cares about God, why should we?
Golden calves and sacred poles are not really an issue today. Arguments over when to worship and what to eat are pretty much past. But still, there are forces at work trying to lead us away from
God. How do we respond when we feel them tugging on our sleeve, whispering in our ear, gently leading us down the wrong path?
One answer when we feel those forces working on us, is to go back to the basics. Go back to the building blocks of faith.
Talk to God. Pray. Ask God for enough to get by: enough food, security, love. Ask God to help us forgive each other. God, you know how easily we’re tempted. Put us on the path leading away from temptation. God, help us live like your Kingdom is as real on earth as it is in heaven.
When the seducer comes, let’s go back to basics. Back to the building blocks of faith. When someone needs food they need help finding the nearest food pantry, not a stone cold, ‘Get a job!’ When someone needs to pour their heart out, we need to offer a listening ear, not a stinging rebuke.
God wants us to have good things. God wants us living together in love. Not separated from each other. Go back to those last few verses in Hosea. “The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together; they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.”
Take another look at Colossians. “God made you alive in Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us.” God wants us living together in peace. God wants us living in loving relationships with God and each other.
Beloved, God hears us when we come to God praying humbly, earnestly. Not arrogantly or from a sense of entitlement. God hears us when we pray, not for power or fame or wealth, but for the basics, the building blocks of faith. When we pray as Jesus taught us, God hears us.
God hears us. God doesn’t have an answering machine. “Hello, you have reached God Almighty. Go away! I’m sound asleep and have no desire to get up and help you.” No. That’s not God.
Beloved, we are all being ridden, ridden hard, by the forces of culture. We are no more immune than the people of Samaria or Colossae. When those forces start pulling us away, let’s go back to the basics. Let’s ask God to renew us with the building blocks of faith.
And God will, because this is how much God loves us. Thanks be to God! Amen.
