Ordinary Time Week 10

Psalm: Psalm 85 or Psalm 138

Old Testament: Hosea 1:2-10

 or Genesis 18:20-32

Gospel: Luke 11:1-13

Epistle: Colossians 2:6-15, 16-19

Happy Sunday to everyone. The heat of the summer is upon some parts of the country I hear, although San Diego remains nice and this week I was on vacation in Yosemite. John Muir said many memorable things about Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada mountain range, but I came across this new one for me, "God never made an ugly landscape. All that the sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild." We can all recognize the beauty in places like Yosemite. But Muir understood that in nature, unmarred by human exploitation, beauty can be found everywhere. God's creation shouts the wonders of his power, but also the depths of his love and the extent of free agency he has given his creation, not least of all humanity. There are a lot of Psalms that express this sentiment, but unfortunately Psalm 85 is not one of them. So I will skip over it, but it for the record it appears to be a Psalm from the Post-Exilic period praising God for restoring his people.

I hope you have time to read the whole of Hosea in the next few weeks even though the Lectionary only spends 2 Sundays on the book. It is not clear how long Hosea was in ministry, but he was active during the tumultuous 8th century when the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians. The book isn't too long, 14 chapters, but so much happened during the course of his ministry. Primarily, Hosea focuses on the coming judgement of God, as we can see in this first chapter.

The best way to see this point is through the prophetic actions Hosea takes under God's direction. First, he marries a prostitute named Gomer. That marriage in itself is surprising, but her name is also significant, meaning "completion." Hosea was told to marry a prostitute to represent the faithlessness of Israel. And "completion" referred to God's time of waiting reaching its completion in the coming judgement.

The other prophetic actions are the naming of the children. The first child, a son, was named Jezreel, meaning "God scatters." Again, an obvious reference to the coming judgement of God through exile. However, this is also a reference to the bloody events at Jezreel when Jehu took the monarchy away from Ahab, which Hosea mentions. The current monarchy at the time was of the house and line of Jehu.

Next came a daughter, Lo-ruhamah, which means "She has not obtained compassion." How's that for a name?! She represented God removing his glory, good providence and protection from Israel--at least temporarily as Hosea also points to. (c.f. 1:10-11)

Finally, a second son is born, named Lo-ammi, meaning "not my people." Not something one would want to be called, but for anyone who met the boy or heard of the prophet's new son, the message would be clear: Israel had lost its place as the favored people of God.

For the prophets of the Old Testament, names, actions, marriages, or people, can all be used as prophetic witnesses of the Lord's message to his people. Hosea and Jeremiah, for example, use this tactic more than others, but all the prophets use it to a certain extent. I think the take away for me, breaking through all the historical stuff, is that God seeks to reach his people in any way possible. He also calls certain individuals to some pretty strange, yet powerful, actions. Finally, God is not always successful in reaching his people. The prophets were almost universally unsuccessful and the people ultimately were sent into exile. Yet God never stopped calling and working, culminating in the sending of his Son as the final and full message to all of creation.

So this week, let us be open to the calling of God in our own minds. But also let us be open to those prophetic actions given by the people of God around us which we may need to hear to draw closer to God.

Grace and Peace.