Psalm 107;
Hosea 11:1-11
Before the
Hosea reading….today we hear from the prophet Hosea, who lived a long time ago,
about 730 years before Jesus. He lived
just before the downfall of the nation, God’s people, at a time when they had
turned away from living in God’s ways, and were more interested in running
things their own way….a time of decline and decay played out against a
background of threat from other larger empires.
Hosea’s
message used two metaphors for the situation.
For starters, his own troubled marriage helped him see the sacred
relationship between God and God’s people in a new way—God as faithful spouse,
hurt and betrayed by a faithless beloved.
And much of his book reflects that metaphor.
Then, in
THIS reading, Hosea sees another side of God, as disappointed parent,
frustrated and angry and hurt because the child has wandered away.
Listen as
Sid reads, and imagine yourself as the child of God, hearing God the father,
the mother, the parent, talking to you……
Hosea reading
When I was a
new parent, I loved this text…as I bent over to feed Jess, or clean up her
messiness….I remembered this image of God.
As I taught Ben to walk, and put one of those harnesses on so he could
feel independent yet safe…I remembered this image of God. And when all of those parenting jobs drove me
nuts, I tried hard to remember this image of God! And then more recently, as my mothering heart
breaks over some of our kids’ stuff, I try hard to remember this metaphor.
Do you ever
talk to yourself? I do. Someone once
said it’s ok as long as you don’t answer yourself. But I do….oops. Maybe most people do…I bet lots of parents
do. And I believe God does.
I think
that’s what God was doing in this Hosea text.
Imagine the incredible struggle in God’s parenting heart….hurt and
betrayal and the desire to punish…against compassion and steadfast love…..tune
in as we listen to God......
Where did I
go wrong? I loved them, I created them
for goodness’ sake! I gave them freedom
of choice….but they turned away.
I cared for them, brought them out of slavery,
led them through wilderness times, promised them the earth…but they complained
against me, then chose to ignore me.
I gave them
boundaries and rules to live by….but they broke them, rejected me.
I’m forever
lifting them up, offering them care and advice and discipline, teaching them
how to live, nurturing, guiding. But
still they turn away.
It makes me
so mad. I’m going to let them have it….I’ll
rant and rave and punish them and see how they like that! They’ll lose their identity, forget who they
are, and it’ll serve them right.
But wait a
minute. I love them. They are my children; I cannot let them
go. I’m not human, I’m God. I am Love, through and through. Human parents
might let their anger win, but I cannot.
I weep for their suffering. The
fire of my anger is dampened by my tears of compassion.
Even in
whatever catastrophe of their own making is coming, I will not fail or abandon
them. I will not stop loving them.
So…..
What does
this image of God’s tender nurturing have to say to us? Only you can answer.
What does it
say about your attitudes and relationships with your loved ones?
If God is
like a steadfast, faithful loving and guiding parent, how do we experience God?
What kind of Godchild am I are you are
we? Wayward and recalcitrant? Or attentive to God’s ways?
And if God
is like a steadfast, faithful, loving and guiding parent, what does it say
about me..or you….who are made in God’s image?
What does it
say about us as a church, who’re supposed to be the Body of Christ, this God
with skin on?
What does it
say about us as a nation—one nation UNDER GOD?
What about the freedom and justice and compassion for ALL?
Are there
ways to be more attentive to that loving relationship, to invest in listening
to God instead of the culture? To
nurture intentionally our love relationships, and to re-imagine who it is whom
God loves?
I believe
God still desires, with a broken heart, to guide us, individually and as a
church, as a nation, from being recalcitrant and overly independent children,
into the maturity and mutuality of a covenantal life….life where we live out
our inheritance as children of a God who bends over to feed children, leads
people with kindness instead of force, who guides policies with love instead of
competition, who lifts up the weary and the weak.
May God
Grant our minds the insight to see ourselves
in this text,
the courage
to recognize what needs to change,
and the commitment to return to God with all
of our lives.
Amen
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