Texts I wish never made it into the Lectionary
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
July 28, 2019
Hosea 1:2-10
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
And the Lord said to him, “Name him Jezreel; for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.”
She conceived again and bore a daughter. Then the Lord said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them. But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God; I will not save them by bow, or by sword, or by war, or by horses and horsemen but I, the Lord their God, will save them.”
When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people and I am not your God.”
Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered; and in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”
Sermon
If I were to give a name to this sermon it would be “texts that I wished never made it into the lectionary.” I just want to let you know that the lessons we read each week in church are prescribed for particular Sundays by a lectionary commission, and, Episcopal Churches are meant to have the prescribed readings, unless we ask permission from the bishop to change them. We can however remove a reading or two – which I might have done today if I had caught this reading from Hosea in time. But here we are, and as much as I would prefer to preach about prayer, I think it is necessary to address this reading from Hosea because it is both baffling and disturbing.
Let me get to the baffling part first. And that starts with a history lesson. Once there was a United Kingdom of Israel – which was the case under the great King David, and his son King Solomon. After Solomon died, in about 931 BCE, his son Rehoboam became king. And his subjects asked very nicely if King Rehoboam would lift the tax burden that his father, Solomon, had imposed on his subjects. And after Rehoboam thought about it over about three days, he said no way and not only will I not lighten it, I will make it more crushing. So 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel (except Judah and Benjamin) refused to accept Rehoboam as the successor of Solomon – so they created that Northern Kingdom and Jeroboam became their king. No more United Monarchy. Think of the northern territory like tax-free New Hampshire and the Southern Kingdom as Taxachusetts. The Northern Kingdom was called Israel – or Samaria, the Southern Kingdom was called Judah – which is where Jerusalem was.
So fast forward a many years later. The Northern Kingdom during the life of Hosea was reigned by Jeroboam II and after him Menahem, and then a whole host of other kings who were assassinated in great succession and in the Southern Kingdom – well they changed as frequently as you change your toothbrush – so we will just leave that alone. And at this point in time Syria, or Assyria as it was called was always a threat. So Judah, in the south, stayed relatively stable at this time. But the northern kingdom, did not fare well at all. And eventually accepted over-lordship from Assyria – and that was the beginning of the end.
In comes the collection of prophecies of Hosea -the 14 chapter book is a collection of Hosea’s prophecies. And here we get the first one this morning. Hosea was from the Northern Kingdom.
So this somewhat simple yet perplexing story is on the surface as story about Hosea, the sensitive and kindly prophet, who is forced to take on this unfaithful wife. So some people take this as a literal story of a man who has this horrible wife, and who names his children terrible names. But I agree with many biblical scholars who say this is a metaphorical story. The commentaries generally point to the use of the word harlot or whoredom as a term that points out not so much infidelity in a marriage, but infidelity to God. So what that would mean is that instead of worshipping Yahweh, the God of Israel, Gomer, Hosea’s wife, was worshipping foreign Gods called Baal, or the Baals. Gomer, functions as an important metaphor for Israel – for the Northern Kingdom who was unfaithful to God’s covenant – worshipping other Gods and behaving in ways contrary to the prescribed code of conduct and moral behavior expected of God’s chosen people.
And then we see this metaphor expanded by the three names of the children – names that no one in their right mind would choose. The first is named Jezreel – which is the name of a place of a massacre. It would be like naming your child Gettysburg or Antietam. Then the next two children Lo-ruhamah – meaning “I (meaning God) will no longer have pity”, and then Lo-ammi meaning ‘You are not my people and I am not your God.”
Again – this story serves as a story of how God is so fed up, that God threatens to turn away entirely from the Northern Kingdom.
So where is the good news in this story? Is there good news in this story? Well there is – and it is in the very last line of the lection this morning.
10 *The people of Israel will become like the sand of the sea, more than can be counted or measured. Now God says to them, “You are not my people,” but the day is coming when he will say to them, “You are the children of the living God!”
The message is this: although you make me so angry – worshipping other Gods and behaving in loathsome ways, I will always love you. This is a story of Yahweh’s loving kindness and people’s gross failing.(The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, 1990 p.218) Just like a parent losing patience, despairing of a child’s behavior, beliefs, conduct and failings, the love of a parent never ends, and neither does God’s love for any of us. No exceptions.
And so what does this mean for us? I think there are two contemporary lessons that derive from our Hosea reading this morning.
First, it means that God’s love for us will never leave us. I am sure that God looks at our world and just despairs – at hatred that is being engendered in our country and in our world from different factions, at children held in detention centers on our border, for those who suffer from racism, prejudice, oppression, hunger, and poverty. And while God desperately wants us to do our part to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth – where all are loved – God will not abandon us.
The second lesson is for us to think about where we have put our trust in things other than God. What are our idols? What are our Baals? The problem is that modern idolatry it is not as straightforward as worshipping statues. We have to think hard about where we mistakenly place our trust when we should be placing it on God. Is it misplaced hope in a person? Material goods? Status? Control? Is it misplaced hope in ourselves in the form of destructive self-reliance and perfection?
And what do we do once we find out the answer to that question?
I think the beginning of the work is something I learned from Anne Lamott’s book Almost Everything. She suggests the following: “I think an excellent morning prayer is, ‘Whatever,’ and a good night time prayer is, ‘Oh, well.’”
“Whatever” sounds a lot like our Gospel lesson today – thy will be done.
And “Oh, well” –sounds a lot like “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Whatever … Oh well.
Although I wish that this text was not in our service today – I have to admit once you get beneath the details that make us recoil and make us hope no one is in church this morning for the first time, the reading is nevertheless a powerful reminder that the nature of God is always loving, always calling out to us to return to God – not just for own sake so that we feel loved enough to be the people God called us to be, but also for the sake of the world that needs a whole lot of love and healing. And in fact you don’t have to scratch the surface of most of our scripture readings to find this message at its heart.
Amen
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