PROPERS: PROPER 12, YEAR C
TEXT: HOSEA 1:2-10
PREACHED AT ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL, MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, ON SUNDAY, JULY 24, 2022.
ONE SENTENCE: Prophecy may, in fact, be “the canary in the coal mine” – if we listen.
One of the seldom-mentioned fathers of the early church lived in Carthage – in Africa, across a narrow Mediterranean strait from Sicily. His name was Tertullian, and his works are studied by early church scholars. He lived during the second and third Christian centuries.
He is remembered today for his writings and his engagement with an early church heresy called “the New Prophecy” or Montanism. But today I mention him because of a question he posed that raises a question for us today: “What hath Athens to do with Jerusalem?”
There are many layers to that question, and many reasons for it. For our purpose today, though, I raise it for this reason: “What has the prophet Hosea to do with us today?”
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A good question for various reasons.
What does a minor Jewish prophet from 3,000 years ago and half a world away have to say to us today?
What does a prophet who lived in a marriage of infidelity have to tell us?
Hosea is remembered in our Christian Bible as the first among the minor prophets – as opposed to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. He is known as one of the 12.
He lived and prophesied in the Northern Kingdom, Israel, after that kingdom parted ways with the Southern Kingdom, Judah. He came after the heady days of the united monarchy, under David and Solomon.
Israel -- as a separate kingdom -- was walking on thin ice. Their royalty was folks like Ahab and Jezebel, whom we have heard about in recent weeks’ lessons. The people had largely forsaken the god of the covenant, YHWH, and the Law which was to guide them and order their lives. They had migrated to the indigenous gods of that land. From a faith perspective, they were being unfaithful.
Which is where Hosea comes in. He uses an autobiographical method to describe Israel’s conflicted existence. He says he marries a woman named Gomer – a woman he knows to be unfaithful. In the first lesson passage today, she gives him three children – two sons and a daughter.
Their names describe the betrayal.
God instructs him to name the first son. "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."
Soon, a daughter is born. God gives a name. "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, or by horsemen."
The name of the second son contains a similar judgement.
The analogy is potent and pointed. Gomer has been unfaithful. Israel has been unfaithful. Evil will befall succeeding generations. That is the price to be paid for the people’s unfaithfulness.
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I can’t help but wonder. In light of this passage, what do I need to hear? What do we need to hear? What do Hosea’s words have to say to us today?
A thought: The General Confession we include within this service – the one we will say in just a few moments – is not what many of us think it is. It is not a personal confession; it is a corporate confession – a confession of the community’s failures and shortcomings. These are the words we say, our fessing up to sins as a body.
The old confession noted “that we have erred and strayed like lost sheep.” That seems a little more to the point. So, what do we need to hear from Hosea? Would he prophesy to us in the same way he prophesied to Israel?
Have other things in our lives… other idols, priorities, comforts, aspirations, goals, brass rings… replaced focus on the eternal one?
I don’t have answers now. I wrestle with these questions. I invite you to do the same.
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