Father Steve’s sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (Year C), July 28, 2019.
So, there are times when a preacher picks up the lectionary to look at the readings and thinks, “Wow! This will fit in perfectly with what's going on at church today!” After picking up the lectionary last week, I realized that this was definitely NOT one of those times. And it's certainly not every day that someone in church utters the word “whoredom,” not once but three times.
And when it happens at a time where there may be guests in your church, you might decide to just ignore the uncomfortable reading altogether and rush over to the Gospel reading with the nice, familiar Lord's Prayer. But the book of Hosea is what it is, and there's really no way to avoid it.
Here's the deal with Hosea. God has about had it with the people of Israel. Freeing them from slavery in Egypt just wasn't good enough. Keeping them alive in the Wilderness while they prepared to enter the Promised land wasn't good enough. Making them a great and powerful nation wasn't good enough.
They always wanted more, and better, and different. Look at those people over there – they have a pretty cool society. Let's be like that. Sure they mistreat the poor, but what's a little abuse as long as I get mine? Sure they discriminate against those who are different, those who are foreign. But actually, that's really not such a bad thing. We gotta stick together to, right? And their gods seem to have things pretty much in hand. I mean they have war gods and food gods and money gods and fertility gods. All the fun things. Our God just wants us to follow a bunch of stodgy old rules. Let's check these other gods out.
And God's people abandon God. In fact, that's not really how God sees it. They pay lip service to the relationship, but they step out on God. They have affairs with the other gods of power and riches and selfishness. Gods of corruption and hatred, gods that encourage marginalization and xenophobia and fear.
And God, our God, is feeling jilted and humiliated.
That's what Hosea is about. The whole thing about marrying someone, someone who pretends to be a good spouse but is cheating on Hosea – it's symbolic for how Israel is treating God.
And it would be easy to sit here and shake our heads and cluck our tongues about how bad that is – if it just weren't so darned familiar.
Look around you. Those ancient gods are still among us. And we are still sidling up to them. Flirting with them. Even having affairs with them. Emotionally attaching ourselves with those who claim to represent those gods and can make us part of the in crowd. As long as we don't care who we hurt in the meantime, who we squash in the meantime. And not caring about who we are humiliating in the meantime.
I wonder if God looks at the world today and wonders if the relationship is worth it?
And like Amos last week, we get the feeling that there is just no hope. And I for one wonder why we can't just ignore it and get right on to the Gospel.
But, you see, there's more to the Book of Hosea – it doesn't end there. Because, Hosea follows his spouse around like a love-sick puppy, begging her to come back, begging her to bring her children back to him. Just like God with all creation and the people made by God. Willing to endure anything, any slight, any humiliation if only God's people would return to that loving embrace.
We, as Christians, know this story. While we may not be familiar with Hosea, we know that story. The story of a God who loves us so much that he is willing to die for us and because of us, and still welcomes us.
And before he dies, Jesus teaches us. Not facts this time. Not parables this time. No, he teaches us to pray the very prayer from his very heart. A way to keep us connected, a way to bring us back. The Lord's Prayer. Not our prayer, but Jesus'. He's shared with us words he shares with the Father. Bringing us back to God. Teaching us what really matters in life: God's kingdom, God's will, God's bounty, and God's forgiveness.
But Jesus teaches us so much more today. “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” I have to admit, I used to struggle with this verse. I have so often heard it used by TV hucksters who would use it to get folks to send them money. “God will give you anything you ask for,” they would say, “if you only show you have enough faith. And you can do that for the low-low price of...” and off they would go.
But when I finally opened my ears to Hosea...when I finally saw that this reading today wasn't embarassing but critical for my soul...the words of Jesus took on a whole new meaning:
Ask . . . ask God for forgiveness – and it will be given for you.
Search . . . search for a path back to God – and you will find it.
Knock . . . And God will throw open the doors to the Kingdom – welcoming you into his loving embrace as if you never ever left.
Because, what Hosea shows us, what Jesus shows us, is this simple fact: God loves us – period.
We stray, we abandon, we serve other gods, but this fact remains. God loves us – period.
And we are allowed back in time after time after time. Because God loves us – period.
How did we ever get this fortunate?
Amen.