Sermon by the Vicar, July 25, 8 & 10am
It is not often I am compared to, by the God I consider the source of all, the source of my life, it is not often I am, by the God I love, compared to a prostitute. And yet that is exactly what is happening in today’s Hosea reading. It is easy for us to extrapolate this out as a story about a prophet from long ago, a man who was called by God, but whose presence today is insignificant and impotent. But we cannot see the prophet Hosea in such a light, we must see his powerful actions in the light God meant us to see these words. To render these characters simply to the imagination cheapens the Good News of a Gospel that transforms all of human kind centuries later.
The time of Hosea was difficult, God had delivered the Israelites from certain doom, from the slavery of Baal, God had offered up God’s self in service, in love and had done much for God’s chosen people. The people then, repaid God by having, as it says later in the book of Hosea, “No faith in the land”. This lack of faith in the land involves a rupture of faith from the land, a separation from the very soil we walk upon. It is as if we, along with our ancestors have decided that our God is not the God of Creation. That our God could have done no such thing.
Of course, to read this periscope from the Book of Hosea means we also have to consider the patriarchal assumptions of a time we can only barely understand. We have to see Hosea’s gender position, his consideration of his place as a dishonored husband. The position of a dishonored husband in the face of his family and the shame and disgrace infidelity brings upon, not just a person, but an entire family. This sort of infidelity, in an age when marriage is at a 50% success rate, is a concept far from our own minds. I find myself saying, well, geez, Hosea, man up and get out of that relationship. Of course, upon further reflection I find that in the context of this story I am saying that to God, and do I really want God to man up and get out of this relationship?
But back to these assumptions that we must consider in the reading of this prophetic text. It is because of these, because of the hierarchical, ancient assumptions that we can read this scripture in alternate ways. What if Hosea had been a woman, what would the demand from God look like? How would her image of the ruptured covenant with God have been expressed? What shames and violence’s of marriage would she have used to invite the audience, you and me, to identify with God’s experience?
However we remember this, this exercise of reading the word of God is not a way to water down the impact of a story that should shock us into reflection. No matter how we look at it, we occupy the place of Gomer in this relationship with God. Willis Jenkins, a theologian writes, “Consider Gomer’s mute passivity in all this. We know nothing about who she was or how she interpreted this experience. That has in part to do with the patriarchal context, but also offers a clue that human experience is not the emotional center here, God’s experience is.” Once again, we are reminded that we are not the center of the universe, whether it be the galaxies and stars in their places or our own hearts, our own universe, at the center of it all is God’s experience, God’s experience of creation, God’s experience of humanity, God’s experience of relationship with each of us walking this planet.
Mothers and Father of the Church all agreed over the centuries that you are doing what you ought to do, as a human being, only when your whole being is focused solely on God, and this means, to be concrete, when you forget yourself. How do you move from this prophetic reading to the teaching of one of the most beloved prayers in the history of humanity? A brief story for you all, prayer for me is more often than not, an action, it is active, it is fluid, it is moving. And I mean that literally. I learned this the hard way when I was in college. After my discernment process was finished I was inundated with suggestions about how to pray. I tried everything, centering prayer, meditation, you name it I tried it and it all failed me. I would often get this feeling in my stomach, a feeling of emptiness and loneliness, a feeling that no matter how hard I tried to fill, it always gave me a sharp pang of hunger for something I lacked. It seemd that prayer was of no use to me.
It was towards the end of college that I realized I had been doing an act of prayer that suited my own needs for finding my center, for forgetting about myself, and focusing solely on God. Whenever those pangs hit my heart, or my stomach, I would put everything down and go for a walk. I would walk amidst my fellow students, looking deeply into their faces for some sign or signal of God, I often discovered it, on those walks I would see the light in the eyes of these people and know, even if they did not, that God was walking among us. So now, today, you will find me walking about downtown Minneapolis, in the midst of prayer, looking and finding a God that is at the center of my universe, a God that is at the center of our universe, a God whose experience of love for all of humanity is at the center of the universe.
We are burdened by centuries of exhortation and technique concerning right prayer. We have to do centering prayer, we have to do taize, this burden of right prayer makes me wonder what percentage of people actually pray, for fear of offending God, for fear of asking for something we shouldn’t. I find the juxtaposition of this story from Jesus, teaching the disciples to pray with the reading from Hosea fascinating. It seems the compilers of these texts were saying to us who would read them, yes, we are flawed, and yes we are broken and no we are not perfect, but in order to glorify this God we love and adore and this God who loves and adores us, the only way to build relationship is through prayer. Prayer that does not lead us away from God, prayer that does not change who we are, prayer that does not separate us from the God of creation, prayer that does not belittle us to insignificant little children whining in the wilderness.
Douglas John Hall, one of my favorite theologians writes, “Prayer is not a meek, contrived and merely “religious” act; it is the act of human beings who know how hard it is to be human.” That is what God desires in the story from Hosea, relationship, and not simply an acknowledged relationship, but rather a relationship that is rooted in prayer, connection and the real sense of who I am as a human being, as a human doing. A relationship that is like a relationship with a beloved friend, lover or family member. Relationship is hard, relationship is never complete, and yet relationship is the most joyous expression of love we have to share with the world and all who reside within it.
The time of Hosea was difficult, God had delivered the Israelites from certain doom, from the slavery of Baal, God had offered up God’s self in service, in love and had done much for God’s chosen people. The people then, repaid God by having, as it says later in the book of Hosea, “No faith in the land”. This lack of faith in the land involves a rupture of faith from the land, a separation from the very soil we walk upon. It is as if we, along with our ancestors have decided that our God is not the God of Creation. That our God could have done no such thing.
Of course, to read this periscope from the Book of Hosea means we also have to consider the patriarchal assumptions of a time we can only barely understand. We have to see Hosea’s gender position, his consideration of his place as a dishonored husband. The position of a dishonored husband in the face of his family and the shame and disgrace infidelity brings upon, not just a person, but an entire family. This sort of infidelity, in an age when marriage is at a 50% success rate, is a concept far from our own minds. I find myself saying, well, geez, Hosea, man up and get out of that relationship. Of course, upon further reflection I find that in the context of this story I am saying that to God, and do I really want God to man up and get out of this relationship?
But back to these assumptions that we must consider in the reading of this prophetic text. It is because of these, because of the hierarchical, ancient assumptions that we can read this scripture in alternate ways. What if Hosea had been a woman, what would the demand from God look like? How would her image of the ruptured covenant with God have been expressed? What shames and violence’s of marriage would she have used to invite the audience, you and me, to identify with God’s experience?
However we remember this, this exercise of reading the word of God is not a way to water down the impact of a story that should shock us into reflection. No matter how we look at it, we occupy the place of Gomer in this relationship with God. Willis Jenkins, a theologian writes, “Consider Gomer’s mute passivity in all this. We know nothing about who she was or how she interpreted this experience. That has in part to do with the patriarchal context, but also offers a clue that human experience is not the emotional center here, God’s experience is.” Once again, we are reminded that we are not the center of the universe, whether it be the galaxies and stars in their places or our own hearts, our own universe, at the center of it all is God’s experience, God’s experience of creation, God’s experience of humanity, God’s experience of relationship with each of us walking this planet.
Mothers and Father of the Church all agreed over the centuries that you are doing what you ought to do, as a human being, only when your whole being is focused solely on God, and this means, to be concrete, when you forget yourself. How do you move from this prophetic reading to the teaching of one of the most beloved prayers in the history of humanity? A brief story for you all, prayer for me is more often than not, an action, it is active, it is fluid, it is moving. And I mean that literally. I learned this the hard way when I was in college. After my discernment process was finished I was inundated with suggestions about how to pray. I tried everything, centering prayer, meditation, you name it I tried it and it all failed me. I would often get this feeling in my stomach, a feeling of emptiness and loneliness, a feeling that no matter how hard I tried to fill, it always gave me a sharp pang of hunger for something I lacked. It seemd that prayer was of no use to me.
It was towards the end of college that I realized I had been doing an act of prayer that suited my own needs for finding my center, for forgetting about myself, and focusing solely on God. Whenever those pangs hit my heart, or my stomach, I would put everything down and go for a walk. I would walk amidst my fellow students, looking deeply into their faces for some sign or signal of God, I often discovered it, on those walks I would see the light in the eyes of these people and know, even if they did not, that God was walking among us. So now, today, you will find me walking about downtown Minneapolis, in the midst of prayer, looking and finding a God that is at the center of my universe, a God that is at the center of our universe, a God whose experience of love for all of humanity is at the center of the universe.
We are burdened by centuries of exhortation and technique concerning right prayer. We have to do centering prayer, we have to do taize, this burden of right prayer makes me wonder what percentage of people actually pray, for fear of offending God, for fear of asking for something we shouldn’t. I find the juxtaposition of this story from Jesus, teaching the disciples to pray with the reading from Hosea fascinating. It seems the compilers of these texts were saying to us who would read them, yes, we are flawed, and yes we are broken and no we are not perfect, but in order to glorify this God we love and adore and this God who loves and adores us, the only way to build relationship is through prayer. Prayer that does not lead us away from God, prayer that does not change who we are, prayer that does not separate us from the God of creation, prayer that does not belittle us to insignificant little children whining in the wilderness.
Douglas John Hall, one of my favorite theologians writes, “Prayer is not a meek, contrived and merely “religious” act; it is the act of human beings who know how hard it is to be human.” That is what God desires in the story from Hosea, relationship, and not simply an acknowledged relationship, but rather a relationship that is rooted in prayer, connection and the real sense of who I am as a human being, as a human doing. A relationship that is like a relationship with a beloved friend, lover or family member. Relationship is hard, relationship is never complete, and yet relationship is the most joyous expression of love we have to share with the world and all who reside within it.
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