"For Better, For Worse"

Years ago, a woman’s magazine, one of those that you can see at the supermarket checkout line, had a regular feature entitled “Can this marriage be saved?”

In effect, that is the question posed in the Old Testament book of Hosea, part of which we heard today. But the marriage, in this case, is the relationship between God and the people of Israel.

To really understand Hosea, you have to look at the whole book, not just the isolated passage we hear today. The story begins with God telling Hosea, a faithful prophet, to marry a prostitute named Gomer, and to have children with her.

Now a prostitute is not the sort of woman that a man like Hosea would normally go near at all, much less marry. But since God commands it, he marries her.

Marriage does not reform Gomer. She has three children, and the inferences are that their father is not Hosea.

Hosea, understandably, is livid. He announces that he will divorce Gomer, “for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband,” he declares.

The story continues with Hosea outlining the punishments he will inflict on Gomer, each increasing in severity.

First, Gomer will be frustrated in any future love affairs, because Hosea will make sure that any potential partners know the truth about her. Things will get so bad for Gomer, Hosea predicts, that she will eventually try to come back to him, begging for forgiveness.

He will not take her back, he declares. Instead, he will take back all the things he has given her, the jewelry, the clothes, the food and wine. Gomer will be left destitute and alone in the wilderness with wild animals lurking around her, licking their lips as they look upon her as prey.

But in the middle of Hosea’s tirade against Gomer comes a surprising change of nouns. “I will punish her for the festival days of Baal, when she offered incense to them and decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, and forgot me,” says not the wronged husband Hosea, but God.

Suddenly we are not only talking about the relationship between a husband and wife, but the relationship between God and Israel, God’s chosen people. Israel is like the prostitute Gomer, faithless and promiscuous, worshipping idols and false gods. And God is the wronged husband, jealous and angry.

Those of us who fall for the stereotype of the Old Testament God being always wrathful, vindictive and judgmental may think we know what comes next. Surely, God will punish Israel with some sort of disaster or famine or war. Isn’t that what we expect in the Old Testament?

So it may come as a shock to hear what God has to say. “Therefore,” God says, “I will now allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. I will give her vineyards.
What a surprising reversal. These are not the words of condemnation we expected, but words of love. These are not the words of a vengeful, jealous husband, but the words of an eager suitor, who intends to intervene in the life of his beloved in a caring, transformative way.

What has been the threat of exile now becomes an invitation to an intimate rendezvous in the wilderness. Remember that the place where God and Israel first pledged themselves in a covenantal relationship was in the wilderness, after God had helped the people escape from slavery in Egypt.

In effect, God is now inviting the people to renew their vows and go on a second honeymoon, with the hope that the things that went wrong the first time can be made right.

And this time, Israel doesn’t even have to make any promises. The covenant that is made in the wilderness the first time has stipulations for Israel. “If you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possessions out of all the peoples,” God says.

And the people answer, “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.” Then God gives them the Ten Commandments, which the people promptly begin to break.

But this time the promises are all made by God.

“I will make for you a covenant with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground,” God says. “And I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety.

“And I will take you for my wife forever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will take you for my wife in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.”

Hosea shows us a side of God that we don’t often think about. It’s easy to think of God as angry and judging, or as loving and forgiving.

It’s not so common to think about a God whose feelings are hurt because we humans have gone off after other lovers – the pursuit of wealth and power, the lure of believing that we are in control, the faith in material things.

Hosea shows us that when we are not faithful to God, God is brokenhearted and will go to any length to mend the relationship.

Hosea shows us that not only do we need God, but that God needs us.

The God of Hosea yearns for a relationship with humanity. God longs for intimacy with us.

And Hosea shows us the kind of relationship God wants to have with us – not one based on intimidation and fear, but a partnership based on righteousness, justice, steadfast love, mercy, and faithfulness.

God does not reject Israel. Hosea does not reject Gomer. And we learn that there is no situation that is beyond God’s forgiveness and love.

It’s easy for those of us who tend to be cynical to look at the world today and think it is beyond redemption. Hosea tells us it is not.

No matter how far we have strayed, no matter how long we have turned our backs on God and followed other lovers, no matter what we have done – God is there, watching us with a broken heart, loving us, and yearning for us to return.

Back to Top

Readings

Hosea 1:2-10

Colossians 2:6-15

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.

Luke 11:1-13

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.’” And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Back to Top