praxistheologia.com

This is my sermon for last week, July 29, 2007.

Some of the most powerful stories in our collective memory are love stories. Romeo and Juliet, Moulin Rouge, Sleeping Beauty, Anthony and Cleopatra, Pride and Prejudice, Cupid and Psyche, Hitch and everyone’s favorite green ogre Shrek are just a few examples from our collective memory. Inevitably, love stories end one way -With the lovers united forever. Sometimes they are united in death, as in Romeo and Juliet. Remember, there has never a tale of more woe than that love story of Juliet and her Romeo. More often, however, famous love stories end with some variation on the phrase “they lived happily ever after.” Shrek and Fiona, Sleeping beauty and her prince, these stories all end with a happily ever after. But these love stories are fiction, lies seductively dressed in all the delicious trimmings of desire. We all desire the love that leads to happily ever after. Regrettably, we also know that even the happiest couples, or the best of friends are never perfectly happily ever after. Arguments, misunderstandings and miscommunications permeate our relationships. In Real Life love stories are not fundamentally stories of happiness, but rather stories of faithfulness, forgiveness and trust.

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Unfortunately, stories of adultery are equally captivating. The very thought of adultery causes a collective raise in the blood pressure. We even have a group of laws describing “crimes of passion” that are, in the eyes of the law, understandable if not justifiable. Adultery is betrayal. But it’s more than just betrayal, It’s the rejection of love, a glowing neon sign of broken faith and a yearning, mournful cry for forgiveness. Adultery is the abandonment of trust and a violence beyond words. Precious few sins have such a visceral and evocative hold on us, precisely because so few sins are as bodily and emotionally close –and thus devastating– to us.
Isn’t it odd, then, that a book centered around the adultery of a minor and inconsequential prophet’s wife, can be such a powerful and beautiful story of faithfulness and love? For Hosea’s story is, if nothing else, a beautiful story of faithfulness and love. But Hosea’s story is a complex one, thick with metaphor and symbolism. Indeed, even the names of Hosea’s children have meaning. In Hebrew culture, names are not simply the word or words that mothers use when calling us to dinner. Names are carefully crafted to show meaning and display relevance. For example, the name Israel means “contends with God.” The names of Hosea’s children are the key to understanding Hosea’s prophetic words to Israel.
Having been told to find a whore and make an honest woman of her, Hosea chapter one tells us that Gomer, became pregnant and gave him a son. Hosea’s son is named Jezreel by God. Jezreel is a valley famous for military victories and defeats throughout Israeli history. Can you imagine the conversation? Hosea, you named your child after a valley? Your going to give him a complex! Imagine a contemporary parallel, the baptism of a newborn into this congregation. When the pastor asks, what name should he be called by? the parents respond with “Pleasant Green Road.” Inevitably, after the service someone would gingerly approach the proud parents and ask, as politely as possible, “So, is Pleasant Green Road a family name? I mean, don’t get me wrong, Pleasant Green Road is a beautiful name, how’d you decide on that?” Suffice it to say, even in Biblical times, most children were not named after large tracts of land. Yet here is Jezreel, Hosea’s oldest son and Israel’s foretold valley of doom. With Jezreel, Hosea saddled his firstborn not only with an awkward name, but also the burden of bearing witness to God’s coming judgement. Jezreel the boy is a reminder to Israel, with every utterance of his name, that God had foretold their undoing, foretold the breaking of their bows and the shattering of their military might. Jezreel is where Israel would be undone for their idolatry.
The scriptures then tell us that Gomer again became pregnant. No indication of the father is given. Yet Hosea has the responsibility of naming and raising this daughter named Shown-No-Mercy. If Jezreel was a constant reminder of where Israel would fall, Shown- No-Mercy was a reminder of just how far they were to fall. Israel’s sin had brutally thrown God from their embrace. No longer were they to be called God’s chosen people, instead they would become the people God showed no mercy to. A daughter named Shown- No-Mercy. A people God proclaims a vengeance without mercy to. God proclaimed military defeat with Jezreel and his impending silence with Shown-No-Mercy. Not even the merciful uttering of God’s loving voice.
Separation from God’s loving voice is a frightening thought. Whether or not we admit it, to many of us live each day with the mistaken belief that God doesn’t speak to us. All too often we believe this because we fail to recognize his voice amid the media maelstrom surrounding us. Imagine not only believing, but knowing that the choices we and our people have made, have turned and tuned us away from God’s voice. This is the state of Israel in Hosea’s time. Shown-No-Mercy, with every utterance of her name, reminds us of Israel’s idolatry, of her choice to participate in sin so powerfully seductive that it results in a poverty of God’s voice. Instead of being faithful to YHWH, they chose a lover they understood, rather than God.
Finally, Gomer gave birth to Not-My-Child. As you may imagine there is a double meaning behind this name. After all Gomer, was chosen not for her beauty or depth of character, but because of her unfaithfulness. Not-My-Child is at once condemnation, and grace. Condemnation for the sin of adultery. Grace in caring for the child regardless. Hosea is most likely not the father of Not-My-Child. And here’s the beauty of this story. Regardless of Gomer’s infidelity, regardless of her adultery, her sin, her breech of trust and regardless of the hurt that must inevitably gnaw at Hosea’s soul every time the child cries, Hosea resolves to be the father. God told Hosea to name him Not-My-Child precisely because it provides such a powerful allegory for God’s ultimate faithfulness to us. Though Israel had whored itself out through idolatry to false gods like Baal and Asherah; though Israel had become “Not-My-Chlid,” to God; God ultimately remains faithful to Israel. God illustrates his faithfulness in his calling of Hosea to remain faithful to Gomer.
Scripture reminds us time and again, that we are to have no other god’s before GOD. We are called by God to be in relationship with him, and only him. Worshiping anything other than God is adultery. A rejection of the relationship he has worked so hard to invite us into. A dismissal of the trust, and a denial of God’s love. Worship of anything other than God is courting the seductive and alluring idols and images of lovers less faithful and less wild than God.
Thankfully, few of us have problems with worshiping Baal. After all, if we have sacred calfs in our houses, they’re most likely found in the fridge marinating in uncle Red’s famous steak seasoning. Likewise, I’m fairly sure none of us have problems dancing naked around Asherah’s golden staves of fertility. While we no longer struggle with idolatry of Baal and Asherah, that does not mean that we are freed from listening to Hosea’s words. Humanity has come along way from the adoration of Baal’s calf. Or have we? We come to Pleasant Green, for worship once a week. But who, or what, do we worship and love during the rest of the week? It is true, and commendable, that we no longer worship the golden calf; but isn’t it equally true that we do, in our own way, worship the gold? Haven’t we replaced the golden livestock with golden stocks and bonds and traded the towering Asherah poles for towering bottom lines. Money is our idol. Perhaps not the actual bills and coins of money, but the wealth behind those bills, and the things that wealth brings us. Security, comfort, entertainment, and perceived peace; all the trappings of wealth. All the seductive lingerie of our own adultery from God.
Inevitably it seems culture dictates that our discussions of money almost always centers around the topic of how: *I* can make more money, how *I* can save *my* money, how *i* can use *my* money to secure *my* future, or give *my* money to help support causes *I* believe in. Remember too, our words of invocation for offering. “let us give our tithes and offerings.” Thankfully, the truth is that it’s not my money. It’s not your money. It’s God’s money, God’s Tithes, God’s offerings. We are but stewards. None of us wants to hear that. There is a sense of security in the idea that, I can choose how to spend *my* money. After all, if it’s *my* money, *i* can choose to spend it on *me* without guilt. On the other hand, if it’s God’s money, the trip to Starbucks, the 4.95 venti cafe mocha, has less to do with my desire for Caffeine and more to do with stewardship of God’s money. Do I need another venti cafe mocha frapachino machiato half-calf soy late? Would that 4.95 be better spent on school supplies for children. After all, the office provides coffee.
The Scriptures tell us Hosea’s wife, Gomer, gave him one legitimate son. Gomer further graced him with a daughter and a second son, both presumably outside of her marriage to Hosea. All three children carried God specified names: Jezreel, Shown-No- Mercy and Not-My-Child. I believe that there are prophets in our time, those called by God to speak his world to his people who have turned to adultery. Much like the story of Hosea, I believe that the marriage between God’s Prophet and we, his adulterous wife has resulted in three offspring. Hosea’s oldest, Jezreel, was the place of Israel’s downfall. Likewise, the firstborn of our adulterous relationship with money, our son Wallstreet, has often been the place of our downfall. Our economic system, predicated on systems of credit and debit, is one of things we love most about this country. But we do not have to look far into our past to find situations where our allegiance to economics, our love of wallstreet has been our downfall. Black Thursday, and Black Tuesday in 1929, Savings and loan scandals in the 80’s, Enron, Healthsouth and countless other corporate scandals where the livelihood of retiring employees is stolen when their stock market pension funds evaporate. Lest anyone think the economics of the US are not widely recognized as our battlefield, and our weakest point we need only remember back five years. 9/11 was a terrorist attack, but the chosen target –the world trade center– was primarily a center of economic trade. In the aftermath of 9/11 walstreet took 7 months to recover. Wallstreet is every bit the place of our demise that Jezreel was for Israel.
If our firstborn son, wallstreet, is also the place of our undoing, our firstborn daughter bears the name Poverty. For if the Israelites suffered poverty due to a lack of God’s voice, we suffer from an equally devastating poverty found in our abundance. Indeed, how often have each of us pondered the question: “what’s for dinner tonight?” How often have families fought over what’s for dinner? Put simply, we can only question or argue about what’s for dinner from positions of abundance. Most of the world sits down to dinner with what they could find, not with what they desired. Yet we live in a world, a state and a community where our gardens grow more than we can eat, fast food signs mark our routes to work and we can afford to never wear the same outfit twice in the same week. All while our brothers and sisters in Christ sleep on Church steps and scavenge through our dumpsters for their next meal. What’s for dinner? has a slightly different meaning for them. We live in a world that believes poverty is nothing more than the necessary casualties of wallstreet battles that had to be, and must be, fought. That poverty must exist, if we are to have wealth because there is fundamentally not enough wealth, food, and resources for all of us. In the midst of our abundance we forget those around us living in poverty. Worse yet, our imaginations become impoverished and we loose our ability to be thankful for what we have, for we cannot imagine life without it. Worst of all, despite our abundance, all too often we find ourselves marching to the corporate drum, chanting “I owe, I owe, it’s off to work I go,” rather than skipping to work for the joy of a job well done.
Like Hosea, our younger son is named Not-My-Child. For we no longer expectantly look, as children do, to God to provide for us, to be our parent and protector. Furthermore, we have become “Not-My-Child” to each other. When we are reminded of our abundance we rarely look for ways to share that abundance. Indeed, we pray to God in times of trouble, financial, emotional and physical. This is a good and commendable trait, yet we rarely pray and humbly ask how we can be the answer to another’s prayer. In other words, during times of trouble we pray for a windfall, yet when windfalls surround us we rarely seek out giving opportunities.
Our daily lives are marred with decisions and actions that reflect our adulterous love of money. Do we consider how our choice of toothpaste, breakfast food or coffee brand reflects our dependence on God? Or do they reflect our love of choice? choice afforded us by abundance? Do we choose Colgate because it’s cheaper than Crest? or because Colgate pays it’s employees ethically? Do we choose one thing over another tritely, without thinking about what our choices say about what we believe? Whether or not we admit it, the choices we make on items as simple as toothpaste and coffee implicitly reflect our beliefs. Enjoying the abundance of God, wrestling over choices in toothpaste is an abundant gift in itself. But we can never forget who that abundance comes from, or we beget a culture and a people that God names Not-My-Child. Additionally, if when we are Not-My-Child to one another, those of us relaxing in abundance and those of us in poverty, are reticent to share. Reticent to Share resources, share lives, share life.
Like Israel, we have wandered away from our marriage covenant with God. Our love of money, has caused our repeated downfall, abject poverty in the midst of abundance and ultimately caused us to reject our heavenly father, to announce ourselves and our culture as “Not-His-Child.” Like Hosea, God is faithful, even in the midst of our adultery and idolatry. We need not be shackled to wallstreet for our sense of security. Indeed, the Church could easily provide a viable, and vibrant alternative to the tidal forces of wallstreet. For example, a common purse, where we all contribute all –not part– of our income, and where we are financially responsible to one another precisely because our groceries, and our entertainment all come from the same purse. Such a common purse could be created here, at Pleasant Green, so that those who are financially abundant, and those who are financially impoverished could both equally revel in the abundance of God. Ask yourself, would you rather rely on the love of your friends in this room to provide for you and your family, as you work to provide for them, rather than relying on the government? And isn’t the idea of a common purse a sensible idea for acting on our belief that teachers and taxicab drivers are equal to lawyers and doctors?
Old joke, about a rabbi, a priest and a UMC pastor playing golf while discussing stewardship campaigns. The rabbi says, “let’s throw the money into the air around the altar. The money that falls on the altar, we put to God’s work.” The Priest says, “no no no, thats backwards. All the money that fall on the ground and not the altar we put to God’s work on the ground.” Laughing the UMC Pastor says, “No, we throw the money into the air, what God wants he’ll keep.” God has given to us more than we could ask for or imagine. What that pastor failed to realize is this: God has already given us this money to steward; to use for his work. Not just the portion we ironically name tithes and offerings. All of it. Furthermore, it is shortsighted stewardship, at best, to sit on a pile of cash and wait for the day it is needed. Indeed, money, even if it was ours, is useless until it is used. There are people all around us, every day, struggling to pay rent, to find food, and to give their kids a good education. Ours is not to wonder or discuss why this is the case. Our job is too see that we remain faithful to our God. A God that gives, and gives and gives. A God that came to life as a boy in a stable, just to give his life, all that he was, for us. Our call to faithfulness demands we give as he gives. It demands we crawl out of the warm and seductive bed of money, and into a wild relationship with God. It demands we recognize the abundance of his creation and gifts and to shepherd those gifts into the hands of those who need them. Anything less is to live in a fairy tale love story woven with lies. Anything less is to crawl into bed with idols. Anything less is to painfully relive the life of a minor prophet and his prostitute wife. Anything less is adultery.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.