Pain and Promise in the Heart of God
Sermon
Light in the Land of Shadows
Cycle B Sermons for Advent, Christmas, And Epiphany, First Lesson Texts
Object:
One of the amazing claims of the Judaeo-Christian heritage is that God takes on the attributes of humans. God's essence is unknown, but the Scriptures claim that God's actions are known. God experiences what humans experience. In the Old Testament God walks in the Garden of Eden. God closes the door of the ark. God smells the fragrance of sacrificed animals. God chases Moses in the wilderness.
In like manner Hosea describes God as a wronged husband who seeks to recover his wife who has gone chasing after other lovers. Hosea's own marriage to Gomer is a prophetic symbol of the pain and promise in the heart of God in the face of Israel's faithlessness. Like a brokenhearted husband, God woos back God's bride.
Like an eager and joyous young groom, God had married Israel in the wilderness. The relationship was pure and uncomplicated. Israel had relied solely on her God and God had figuratively made love to Israel in that time of few, if any, competitors for God's affections. But, alas, like a faithless spouse, Israel became a wayward people, leading to the pain of a broken relationship and subsequent divorce.
Hosea begins with a long poem of divorce in which the husband, Yahweh, casts out the fickle spouse. With the image of God as a pained, brokenhearted husband as a backdrop, the lection for today describes Hosea's vision of a resumed marriage between God and God's people. Hosea paints a picture of God's incredible desire to live with this wayward partner.
Perhaps hundreds of sermons are preached each week in our nation on the topic of Hosea and his relationship with Gomer. Unfortunately, the text easily opens itself up to the preacher's whim, allowing the preacher to define as sin whatever in his/her congregation or civilization raises the particular hackles of the moment.
To truly bring this Scripture into a word of God for us today we must cling to history. This word from God through Hosea bears a pain and a promise unlike any other. Hosea is the only prophet who preached to the Northern Kingdom of Israel who was actually born and brought up there. There is no greater pain and promise than preaching to your own people about suffering and hope. To be certain, outside intervention is often necessary to jog a recalcitrant people into action. But it is also less risky and much less intense to deal with other people. We can always tell other people how they should respond to their children and their domestic problems much more easily than we can gain a hearing in our own household.
The same is true for the church. The story is told of a preacher in Vermont who was running into some difficulty with his congregation over the strident nature of his sermons. He had lambasted the lack of racial diversity in the town, the high property taxes, the insensitivity of the merchants, and the lack of caring present in family relationships. This was too much, so an ad hoc committee was quickly assembled to meet with the young man to "set him straight." The gathering took place in the church parlor right after worship. The chair began, "Preacher, we are a little worried about the effect your preaching is having on the congregation. When you rail against materialism, the bankers and the merchants find that hard to take. And when you talk against the television preachers pursuing religion for profit, a lot of our folks send money to those people. And when you start talking about family values, why, a lot of our people are busy and commute to Boston and can't just communicate with their children like you envision. And, heck, you make us feel bad about being white and wealthy. Can't you find something else to preach about?"
Totally exasperated, the preacher asked: "Well, what do you people suggest I preach about?"
From the back of the room came a clear voice: "Why don't you preach about the communists?"
"But we don't have any communists in our town, in Vermont," he answered.
"Exactly. Preach about them!"
Hosea has avoided that easy transference. Not only is he speaking to his own people, but his oracles elaborate the theme of the relations between Israel and Yahweh in terms of those between Hosea and his wandering spouse. Hosea's acutely personal experience is used to illumine a conception of a spouse's forgiveness as indicative of Yahweh's ability to reconstitute the entire people of God.
One of the amazing features in the book of Hosea is the notion that words, even The Word, are not enough to turn pain into promise. As Hosea's life unfolds, the prophet's obedience is contrasted with Gomer's disobedience. His faith is shown over and against Gomer's unfaith.
The Old Testament story in all its concrete reality is not removed from our world of harlotry with other gods of wood, stone, and metal, our world of the pursuit of religion for profit, and the political intrigues which consume our national leaders. We must cling to history in order to see specifically that the Old Testament story of Hosea ends at a table surrounded by thirteen men, in an upper room, with one of them holding a cup and saying, "This is the new covenant." The story also ends with some women running from tomb to tomb and telling disbelieving disciples, "He is risen."1
Hosea's vision of God as an actor, who in reality turns "not my people" into "my people" again, began to wane in importance after his day. After the fall of both kingdoms and the deportation of Judah to Babylon for exile, the majestic qualities of God began to fuel the imaginations of suffering people. Israel began to place her trust in priests who stressed the unapproachable nature of God. They stressed the holiness of God rather than the activistic, approachable nature of God. They stressed dreams, temples, and angelic visions. In the priestly writings God was spoken of as "holy" or "separate," 161 times! One had to go through a professional priest to experience God, much as one today must use a lawyer to go to court or a pharmacist to secure prescription drugs.
Have you noticed our generation's recent infatuation with angels? If you go to the religion section of major bookstores you'll find that angels are making a big comeback in the world of the unapproachable tele-priests. The spoken word of the sound and stage studio has become the new temple beamed into your living room each day. And satellite religion has enabled us to become farther removed from the point of origin of the word that comes through to us. We take our faith over the cable from people we most likely will never see in person. When we cling to history we see that this is not a new phenomenon. Just as Hosea challenged the remoteness of God from God's people, so did Jesus undo the remoteness of his generation.
After long centuries of having fallen prey to an overemphasis on angelic visions and unapproachable holiness, God's humanity, indeed, God's remarriage to the world was brought back into focus in the life of Christ. The word became flesh, just as it had when Hosea's life served as the vehicle. The God of Jesus Christ walked beside humans, listened to prayers, knew the number of hairs on human heads, welcomed little children to his lap and prodigal children to the kingdom, and even referred to himself as the bridegroom come to remarry the world.
These actions of God in Christ, like God in the symbol of Hosea's marriage, are not just for individuals. So often we become duped into thinking of sin as an individual phenomenon. But the Bible, from Hosea through Jesus, doesn't always make a sharp distinction between the individual and society. We tend to sin as a group. We tend to be "not my people" as much as we are "not my person."
Hosea is right. God divorces God's people. We live on an earth where, with all its abundance, over 20 million people die of starvation each year. Over twelve million of those are children under the age of five. In addition to the 30,000 children who starve to death each day are those whom hunger does not kill. Since the brain accomplishes eighty percent of its growth in the first three years of a child's life, no amount of food later in life can repair the damage.
What if you were God and your spouse (our world) was doing that to your children? What if your rich spouse, the United States, whom you'd loved in a special way, was spending $24 million an hour on defense? Wouldn't you have a great pain in your heart and want a divorce?
Wouldn't you say "Amen" to that judgment on Golgotha where God says decisively, "You are not my people," in light of Jesus Christ illuminating our destructive, rejective ways? Hold to history, then and now, and see the pain in the heart of God.
Ah, but see the utter foolishness and passion of God from Hosea to Christ to the present in the reversal of the prophecies of doom. Yahweh forgives, Christ redeems, not just the individual, but the world God is married to. The people of God are reconstituted. That's the good news of Christ. We have received mercy. The spouse still stands by us and wants us back. We cannot know the promise of Jesus Christ apart from the proclamation of the Old Testament. We cannot know the magnitude of the reconciliation without an awareness of the divorce.
All of us are disobedient, orphaned children, who have rejected our marriage vows to God and are sure to die. And yet -- and yet! Like Gomer and ancient Israel and first century Palestine, it is not we who get what we deserve. Christ woos us with love and kindness. Like an eager lover he turns our duty into a joyful affair. All that's asked is that we respond to the promise in the heart of God. So be it!
____________
1. See Elizabeth Achtemeier, The Old Testament and the Proclamation of the Gospel (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1973), for fuller treatment.
In like manner Hosea describes God as a wronged husband who seeks to recover his wife who has gone chasing after other lovers. Hosea's own marriage to Gomer is a prophetic symbol of the pain and promise in the heart of God in the face of Israel's faithlessness. Like a brokenhearted husband, God woos back God's bride.
Like an eager and joyous young groom, God had married Israel in the wilderness. The relationship was pure and uncomplicated. Israel had relied solely on her God and God had figuratively made love to Israel in that time of few, if any, competitors for God's affections. But, alas, like a faithless spouse, Israel became a wayward people, leading to the pain of a broken relationship and subsequent divorce.
Hosea begins with a long poem of divorce in which the husband, Yahweh, casts out the fickle spouse. With the image of God as a pained, brokenhearted husband as a backdrop, the lection for today describes Hosea's vision of a resumed marriage between God and God's people. Hosea paints a picture of God's incredible desire to live with this wayward partner.
Perhaps hundreds of sermons are preached each week in our nation on the topic of Hosea and his relationship with Gomer. Unfortunately, the text easily opens itself up to the preacher's whim, allowing the preacher to define as sin whatever in his/her congregation or civilization raises the particular hackles of the moment.
To truly bring this Scripture into a word of God for us today we must cling to history. This word from God through Hosea bears a pain and a promise unlike any other. Hosea is the only prophet who preached to the Northern Kingdom of Israel who was actually born and brought up there. There is no greater pain and promise than preaching to your own people about suffering and hope. To be certain, outside intervention is often necessary to jog a recalcitrant people into action. But it is also less risky and much less intense to deal with other people. We can always tell other people how they should respond to their children and their domestic problems much more easily than we can gain a hearing in our own household.
The same is true for the church. The story is told of a preacher in Vermont who was running into some difficulty with his congregation over the strident nature of his sermons. He had lambasted the lack of racial diversity in the town, the high property taxes, the insensitivity of the merchants, and the lack of caring present in family relationships. This was too much, so an ad hoc committee was quickly assembled to meet with the young man to "set him straight." The gathering took place in the church parlor right after worship. The chair began, "Preacher, we are a little worried about the effect your preaching is having on the congregation. When you rail against materialism, the bankers and the merchants find that hard to take. And when you talk against the television preachers pursuing religion for profit, a lot of our folks send money to those people. And when you start talking about family values, why, a lot of our people are busy and commute to Boston and can't just communicate with their children like you envision. And, heck, you make us feel bad about being white and wealthy. Can't you find something else to preach about?"
Totally exasperated, the preacher asked: "Well, what do you people suggest I preach about?"
From the back of the room came a clear voice: "Why don't you preach about the communists?"
"But we don't have any communists in our town, in Vermont," he answered.
"Exactly. Preach about them!"
Hosea has avoided that easy transference. Not only is he speaking to his own people, but his oracles elaborate the theme of the relations between Israel and Yahweh in terms of those between Hosea and his wandering spouse. Hosea's acutely personal experience is used to illumine a conception of a spouse's forgiveness as indicative of Yahweh's ability to reconstitute the entire people of God.
One of the amazing features in the book of Hosea is the notion that words, even The Word, are not enough to turn pain into promise. As Hosea's life unfolds, the prophet's obedience is contrasted with Gomer's disobedience. His faith is shown over and against Gomer's unfaith.
The Old Testament story in all its concrete reality is not removed from our world of harlotry with other gods of wood, stone, and metal, our world of the pursuit of religion for profit, and the political intrigues which consume our national leaders. We must cling to history in order to see specifically that the Old Testament story of Hosea ends at a table surrounded by thirteen men, in an upper room, with one of them holding a cup and saying, "This is the new covenant." The story also ends with some women running from tomb to tomb and telling disbelieving disciples, "He is risen."1
Hosea's vision of God as an actor, who in reality turns "not my people" into "my people" again, began to wane in importance after his day. After the fall of both kingdoms and the deportation of Judah to Babylon for exile, the majestic qualities of God began to fuel the imaginations of suffering people. Israel began to place her trust in priests who stressed the unapproachable nature of God. They stressed the holiness of God rather than the activistic, approachable nature of God. They stressed dreams, temples, and angelic visions. In the priestly writings God was spoken of as "holy" or "separate," 161 times! One had to go through a professional priest to experience God, much as one today must use a lawyer to go to court or a pharmacist to secure prescription drugs.
Have you noticed our generation's recent infatuation with angels? If you go to the religion section of major bookstores you'll find that angels are making a big comeback in the world of the unapproachable tele-priests. The spoken word of the sound and stage studio has become the new temple beamed into your living room each day. And satellite religion has enabled us to become farther removed from the point of origin of the word that comes through to us. We take our faith over the cable from people we most likely will never see in person. When we cling to history we see that this is not a new phenomenon. Just as Hosea challenged the remoteness of God from God's people, so did Jesus undo the remoteness of his generation.
After long centuries of having fallen prey to an overemphasis on angelic visions and unapproachable holiness, God's humanity, indeed, God's remarriage to the world was brought back into focus in the life of Christ. The word became flesh, just as it had when Hosea's life served as the vehicle. The God of Jesus Christ walked beside humans, listened to prayers, knew the number of hairs on human heads, welcomed little children to his lap and prodigal children to the kingdom, and even referred to himself as the bridegroom come to remarry the world.
These actions of God in Christ, like God in the symbol of Hosea's marriage, are not just for individuals. So often we become duped into thinking of sin as an individual phenomenon. But the Bible, from Hosea through Jesus, doesn't always make a sharp distinction between the individual and society. We tend to sin as a group. We tend to be "not my people" as much as we are "not my person."
Hosea is right. God divorces God's people. We live on an earth where, with all its abundance, over 20 million people die of starvation each year. Over twelve million of those are children under the age of five. In addition to the 30,000 children who starve to death each day are those whom hunger does not kill. Since the brain accomplishes eighty percent of its growth in the first three years of a child's life, no amount of food later in life can repair the damage.
What if you were God and your spouse (our world) was doing that to your children? What if your rich spouse, the United States, whom you'd loved in a special way, was spending $24 million an hour on defense? Wouldn't you have a great pain in your heart and want a divorce?
Wouldn't you say "Amen" to that judgment on Golgotha where God says decisively, "You are not my people," in light of Jesus Christ illuminating our destructive, rejective ways? Hold to history, then and now, and see the pain in the heart of God.
Ah, but see the utter foolishness and passion of God from Hosea to Christ to the present in the reversal of the prophecies of doom. Yahweh forgives, Christ redeems, not just the individual, but the world God is married to. The people of God are reconstituted. That's the good news of Christ. We have received mercy. The spouse still stands by us and wants us back. We cannot know the promise of Jesus Christ apart from the proclamation of the Old Testament. We cannot know the magnitude of the reconciliation without an awareness of the divorce.
All of us are disobedient, orphaned children, who have rejected our marriage vows to God and are sure to die. And yet -- and yet! Like Gomer and ancient Israel and first century Palestine, it is not we who get what we deserve. Christ woos us with love and kindness. Like an eager lover he turns our duty into a joyful affair. All that's asked is that we respond to the promise in the heart of God. So be it!
____________
1. See Elizabeth Achtemeier, The Old Testament and the Proclamation of the Gospel (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1973), for fuller treatment.
