In today’s Gospel lesson, the religious authorities criticize Jesus for the company he keeps; he eats with tax collectors and sinners.  Jesus responds to their criticism by saying, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’  For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”  That is one of my favorite verses of Scripture.  For me it is not only an almost perfect summary of the Gospel, it is also a guide to how to live.  A portion of that verse – I desire mercy, not sacrifice – is a direct quote from the prophet Hosea.

The New Testament word for mercy translates the Hebrew word hesed.  Hesed means mercy, but it also means a lot more than that.  It means faithfulness, loyalty, and, most importantly, steadfast love.  Hosea made his life a living demonstration of God’s steadfast love.  He lived in the northern Kingdom of Israel during 8th century before Christ and was a contemporary of the prophet Amos.  The 8th century was a time of great turmoil and uncertainty.  The kingdom of Assyria, Israel’s northern neighbor, threatened Israel’s existence and eventually destroyed it.  So tumultuous were the times that six kings reigned in Israel during twenty-three years, and four of them were assassinated.   Hosea attributed Israel’s internal and external troubles to the fact that the nation had strayed away from its relationship to God.  Hosea says that Israel’s love is like a morning cloud or like dew that melts away in the heat of the day.  The Lord doesn’t’ want some kind of fickle love; he wants steadfast love, and he calls on Hosea to demonstrate what he means.

God commands Hosea to demonstrate God’s steadfast love by marrying a prostitute.  He marries a woman named Gomer and they have three children, although it is unclear if the children are Hosea’s.   Gomer leaves Hosea and returns to her former life, but Hosea rescues her, buys her back, and restores her as his wife.  This is, of course, a living metaphor for God’s steadfast love towards Israel.  Despite Israel’s unfaithfulness, God still loves her and will do anything, pay any price, to win her back.

Scripture makes plain that the nature of God is to show steadfast love by calling people into relationship.  This morning we hear no less than five stories about God calling people into relationship.  In Genesis we hear how God called Abram to a new land and promised that he would be the father of many nations.  In the Gospel we hear three call stories:  We hear how Jesus called Matthew to be one of his disciples.  We hear how Jesus called a woman from illness into health.  And we hear how Jesus called a girl from death to life.  In the Epistle lesson, St. Paul says that God calls the whole world into relationship through faith in Jesus Christ. From Abraham to Gomer, to Matthew, to the woman with a hemorrhage, to the a twelve year-old girl, to the whole world, we find that this is the sacred paradigm:  God shows his mercy, his steadfast love, by calling people into relationship.

Do you notice a common thread that unities all of these people?  Do you see what they have in common? These people are just pitiful – p-i-t-i-f-u-l, pitiful.  A more unpromising bunch you can’t imagine.  Let’s begin at the beginning.  God calls Abram to be the father of many nations and yet he is 75 years old and his wife, presumably around the same age, is unable to have children.  Next comes Matthew.  Jesus calls him to be one of his apostles, one of the inner circle of twelve, and yet as a tax collector he is despised as a thief and a collaborator with the Roman oppressors.  Then there is the woman with the twelve year hemorrhage.  Her illness makes her ritually impure and separates her from society.  Nice people don’t touch women like her.  Next comes the little girl.  Because she is dead she is also ritually impure.  When Jesus takes her by the hand, he becomes impure as well.  Finally, in the In the Letter to the Romans, Paul says that God calls not only the Jews but also the Gentiles, who are outside of the law.  Jesus says, “’Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.’”  God calls those who are sick in body and spirit.

The thing is, God doesn’t just tolerate the aged, the outcast, the sick, the sinful, and the dead, God actively seeks them out.  And that’s good news, very good news, for you and for me.  With steadfast love, the Lord is calling to each of us.  He wants to have a relationship with each of us.  He is willing to pay any price, even the price of his life.  He is calling each of us out of sin, out of sickness, out of death into a new land – a land of life and health. Amen.