Wedding Sermon / Aaron and Traceen Wushke / Hosea 2:18–23 - Pastor Ted Giese / Mount Olive Lutheran Church – Friday August 1st 2025

Aaron and Traceen Wushke Wedding Sermon Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Friday August 1st 2025: Season of Pentecost / Hosea 2:18–23 “Steadfast Love”

And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to Me forever. I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.

        “And in that day I will answer, declares the LORD,

               I will answer the heavens,

               and they shall answer the earth,

        and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,

               and they shall answer Jezreel,

        and I will sow her for Myself in the land.

        And I will have mercy on No Mercy,

               and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are My people’;

               and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends, Aaron and Traceen and gathered family, our reading from the Old Testament book of Hosea illustrates the beauty of second chances. These words are full of grace, they are God’s Word of reconciliation for a relationship in need of redemption and they show us that God is all about reconciliation and fresh new beginnings. For the prophet Hosea and his wife their relationship was an object lesson to the people of Israel, a chance for them to see how the LORD — who was as a husband to them — desired the restoration of what was lost between God and His people. Now analogies only go so far and in the grand scheme of things this spirit of reconciliation points to something beyond the example and illustration of a marriage restored to its former glory and as a result each and every one of us can grow to understand how this possibility of a fresh new start is daily extended to us regardless of our situation, regardless of the reason we need it, and in this way these words are not only for husbands and wives, or for the people of a nation, but are in fact also meant for individual people in their faith. Ultimately these words from the Book of Hosea were pointing to the life, death and resurrection of Christ in whom “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, [and] through whom,” Saint Paul teaches, the Lord was reconciling to Himself all things whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of His cross.[1] These words today from the Book of Hosea then are not isolated, they fit together with other words from the Bible and help to paint a picture of what God’s love is like towards us; and as such they are certainly in keeping with the nature of God presented to us elsewhere in Scripture, like in Psalm 145 which teaches us that,

        “The LORD is gracious and merciful,

               slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

        The LORD is good to all,

               and His mercy is over all that He has made.”

We as Christian’s are called therefore to take this all to heart for ourselves, to bear with one another in love and forgive each other, in fact Saint Paul reminds us of what we daily pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” when he writes the Christians of Colossae saying, “as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”[2] This is a call for forgiveness that rings out to all of us as Christians whether we are married or not.

With God, He is holy and without sin and we are the ones in need of redemption not Him, however outside of our relationship with the Lord we mostly find ourselves in need of mutual reconciliation with each other as Christians and it is a wondrous joy and miracle from God when this occurs. And yet, just because the possibility is there, just because the opportunity is there doesn’t mean that it’s always acted upon. This is why we have such joy for the two of you … that carefully, thoughtfully and with great love you two have walked through the open door of reconciliation provided for you by the Blood of Christ who is the Bridegroom of His Bride the Church,[3] you have been brought through that open door to experience the miracle of forgiveness which brings new life.

In the reading from the Book of the Revelation to Saint John which you picked for today you have the words of the Lord who says to you, “Behold, I am making all things new,”[4] and so He does, with Hosea and his wife, with the people of God and the Lord, with each of us in our Christian life and today between the two of you whom we love so dearly. Few people make their way back to each other when a marriage ends early, and while each of you worked to bring this day together the fingerprints of the Holy Spirit can be found in every godly word and gesture and kindness you showed each other to arrive here today. You’re commitment and desire to reconcile is commendable and worthy of praise.

That said, this side of eternal life we will always provide opportunities to be forgiven and husband and wife daily live their best lives with each other when they have a heart of forgiveness for each other and a willingness to live lives made new in Christ Jesus. Now we do not do this alone, not even as a couple; we need the support of God, in Christ, and of each other. What a blessing it is to have the encouragement and support of you closest family willing to stand up and witness for you and keep you in their prayers for the years to come. Jesus teaches us that we who are forgiven much love much and the one who is forgiven little loves little. [5] Today we mark a true miracle of love, a mature love washed in the Blood of Christ and forged in the refiner’s fire of reconciliation. In the Book of Hosea we see how the Lord promises us His steadfast love and in mercy, His faithfulness, and for those of us gifted the opportunity to be married, and in this case the blessed second opportunity to be married, as Husbands and Wives we seek to give this gift to each other to pledge this with all our heart to our spouse trusting in God’s unfailing love. Amen.    

Let us pray:

Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] Colossians 1:19–20
[2] Colossians 3:13
[3] Ephesians 5:25–28
[4] Revelation 21:5
[5] Luke 7:47

Photo Credit: Main photo suplied by Mount Olive Lutheran Church.