Cords of Human Kindness

“Cords of Human Kindness”based on Psalm 107:1-9, 43 and Hosea 11:1-11 August 3, 2025

Content note: this communion Sunday we also said goodbye to our former lay leader, youth group leader, Breakfast Coordinator, Social Worker, and sibling in Christ Sylvester as we send him off to retirement.

A lot of Bibles, and even the Lectionary page at Vanderbilt Divinity Library, label our Hosea passage “Like a mother, God loves Israel.” I can see why. The passage clearly talks about God as a nurturing and loving parent. The one who taught their son to walk, who picked him and snuggled him, who fed him and healed him.

But, when I read the passage I was struck by the fact that there isn’t anything actually maternal about those acts of care-giving. Unless, of course the Hebrew for feeding referenced nursing and I just missed it because I was reading in English. But, it doesn’t – I checked. According to the New Interpreter’s Bible, the passage refers to parental work, but doesn’t have any gendered nuances – other than the ones we project on to it.

Now, as you may know, I’m all for holistic conceptions of the Divine and push back on masculine language and imagery of God instinctively. The concept of God as a loving MOTHER can be a gift to heal wounds that some people hold, and certainly moves towards wholeness in conceiving of the Divine. But, also, the concerns I have about the ways human fathers can make the conception of a Divine father too violent can also apply to human mothers. Human parents come with a lot of failings.

In this this case though, I wonder if we want to stay with it, in part. I wonder if there is healing in thinking of The Divine as a Gentle and Compassionate FATHER and in sanctifying Gentle and Compassionate FATHERHOOD rather than in pigeonholing Gentle and Compassionate Parenting to Motherhood.

We are a church that see Gentle and Compassionate Parenting on the regular. And we are blessed to see it from people of all genders. We know, because we see it, that people of all genders love their children. We watch mothers, fathers, and parents teaching their children to walk. Well, let’s be honest, its bigger than that too. We watch parents and grandparents and friends in Gentle and Compassionate Nurturing Care. I noticed months ago that I found it hard to track where my infant son Michael was in after-worship events because he got passed around so much! Many humans have lifted him to their cheeks, and led him with cords of human kindness. This community offers this Gentle and Compassionate Nurturing Care that reflects the Divine. And it is BEAUTIFUL.

With Michael though, he would get passed around – back before he got mobile – UNTIL he got to Sly. When he got to Sly, he stayed. All of you, somehow, read the room and wouldn’t separate the two. Sly’s Gentle and Compassionate Nurturing Care and Michael’s love of it was attended to with grace.

When I was looking for Photo Show entries this Lent, and “relationship” came up, I tried to find a picture of Sly holding Michael where Sly’s face was visible and Michael’s wasn’t. I couldn’t, so I didn’t submit one. Another of you did the same. Two of you submitted stunning pictures of the two them, and got cautious emails from me letting you know that the pictures were great and we’d savor them but not put them on the internet.

As a community we have seen something sacred in the care of one man for one baby, and made space for it and celebrated it.

It makes sense to me. There are a lot of ways that Sly has acted as Gentle and Nurturing Father in this community. (He is NOT the only one, but he is the one leaving after today, so I’m naming it today.) Sly feeds us. He makes things more beautiful. He shows up, time and time again. He brings his best and uses it to care for others. He brings laughter along with him everywhere he goes. And, in his time with us, he has devoted much of his energy to the care a youth group (now grown into young adults) and showing young people how to share love in the world.

I’m not supposed to be embarrassing Sly today. (Shrug). But normally I have to worry about him getting me back, and this time he’s leaving so he can’t 😉

Friends, I think it can be healing for our souls to think about the Divine as a Gentle and Compassionate Nurturing Parent. Far too often the Divine Parent imagery is that of judger, or punisher, dominator, or some other form of “Daddy-knows-best” weirdness. In Hosea the Divine Parent gets MAD because the child is being super awful. God claimed Israel as child, and asked Israel to be a beacon and example of mutual care and compassion and Israel KEPT ON FAILING. But the key is in verse 8, “How can I give you up, Ephraim?… My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.” God is mad, but God’s love is the defining parental act. The passage says, “I loved my child to teach them love, but they failed. And I love them anyway and will take care of them anyway.” It tracks perfectly with the Psalm affirming that God’s Steadfast Love Endures Forever, and God helps people even in the most dire of situations.

Beloveds, there is sacredness in nurture, in compassion, in care, in care-giving. Our society tends to minimize the value of care-giving, but as people of faith we live by a different value system. We see the sacred work that is tender and loving care. It is work that reminds us of God, it is work that shows us God with us. When we see tender and loving care, we are reminded that God is like that. Not one who powers over us, but one who holds us with gentleness.

So, thanks be to God for all the people who show nurturing, compassion, gentleness, and care. And, while we’re at it, thanks be to God for the moment we – as individuals – pull that off! (Quite often only by the grace of God.)

And, thank you Holy One, for a community that sees the power of Love that is compassionate and nurturing rather than overpowering and dominating. We are so grateful to be able to see the sacredness of gentleness. We are so grateful to show the world the power of nurturing love! Amen

Rev. Sara E. Baron 
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady 
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 
Pronouns: she/her/hers 
http://fumcschenectady.org/ 
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

August 3, 2025