Life cannot flourish under these conditions. It is like trying to fertilize plants with weedkiller. Second, and even more serious, is that it puts human beings at the center of everything. Sin right in the middle. Now, think how that changes the picture.
Love gets to be there love, mercy, forgiveness, life.
All at the center. That is not to deny that God judges us, but the judgment is born of great love, not of great censure. In the passage from Hosea this morning, we glimpse exactly that. God is judging Israel not from anger but from the anguish of God s love for his faithless, sinful, people. The grief of a love that resolves to withdraw from the people until they decide to return to their Lord in love.