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July 29, 2007
What's in a Name?
Hosea 1:2-8
This past week the children in our Vacation Bible School dove into the "Great Bible Reef!" I have to admit it took me a couple of days to understand the theme - but I got it. The Scriptures are like a vast reef - intricate and alive consisting of many different parts. We need to dive into the Bible which have been assembled over nearly 7 millennia - take a swim in the depths of these stories. One aspect of the theme which occurred to me is also the notion of what happens to a reef which people start breaking off pieces. What happens is that the reef dies. In the same way, we tend to just want to break off pieces of the bible and stuff them into our pockets. (John 3: 16 is a good one!) With our little bit of the greater structure, we think we know what's there when in fact we only know a tiny part of the vast living tradition which has become the holy record of God's interaction with us.
We have been looking at stories this summer - stories from that ancient past when the Scripture was passed by word of mouth and not found in leather bound red letter versions. So, let's dive into a new story as we read a bit from the very personal style of the writing that marks the Book of the Prophet Hosea.
2 The first time God spoke to Hosea he said: "Find a whore and marry her. Make this whore the mother of your children. And here's why: This whole country has become a whorehouse, unfaithful to me, God."
3 Hosea did it. He picked Gomer daughter of Diblaim . She got pregnant and gave him a son.
4 Then God told him: "Name him Jezreel . It won't be long now before I'll make the people of Israel pay for the massacre at Jezreel . I'm calling it quits on the kingdom of Israel.
5 Payday is coming! I'm going to chop Israel's bows and arrows into kindling in the valley of Jezreel ."
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6 Gomer got pregnant again. This time she had a daughter. God told Hosea: "Name this one No-Mercy. I'm fed up with Israel. I've run out of mercy. There's no more forgiveness.
7 Judah's another story. I'll continue having mercy on them. I'll save them. It will be their God who saves them, not their armaments and armies, not their horsepower and manpower."
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8 After Gomer had weaned No-Mercy, she got pregnant yet again and had a son.
9 God said: "Name him Nobody . You've become nobodies to me, and I, God, am a nobody to you.
10 "But down the road the population of Israel is going to explode past counting, like sand on the ocean beaches. In the very place where they were once named Nobody, they will be named God's Somebody.
11 Everybody in Judah and everybody in Israel will be assembled as one people. They'll choose a single leader. There'll be no stopping them-a great day in Jezreel ! (Hosea 1: 2-10)
You need to know something about Hosea's own personal life to understand the thrust of his ministry. Hosea the prophet actually becomes a parable through the narrative of his own life:
He was married....but unfortunately had an unfaithful wife. Her name was Gomer and she bore him three children before she herself gave into her promiscuity and became the paramour of other men.
Obviously, Hosea is hurt. The law and the tradition was strong and dictated a vengeful response. She should be called out and stoned. But what the first part of this book reveals is that Hosea still loves his wife. He is angry and deeply hurt, but realizes that he wants her back. His love is strong enough even to suffer the embarrassment and the ridicule of purchasing her back in a slave market in order to accept her again as his wife. Hosea tells Gomer (whose name is derived from a root which means something like, "It is finished - it is all over!") to name their child Lo- Ruhamah wich means "Not Loved," or "No Mercy" foreshadowing the Lord's rejection of Israel and another child is to be called Lo- Ammi meaning, "not my people" and utilizes the same words as Leviticus where it says "God walks with his people and loves them." In an historical context, Hosea the prophet is foreshadowing the coming of the Assyrian conquerors from the north and the end to the Kingdom of Israel. At the center of Hosea's story there is more, it is the truth of God's ironic relationship to us.
Hosea's life story is at the heart of his perceptive understanding of God. For as he experiences his own love for his wife in spite of her iniquities and infidelity to him -- as he experiences his own anger and hurt being overwhelmed by a need for reconciliation he comes to understand God's relationship to the nation, to the people Israel. They have sinned and strayed far from God and God's anger has been kindled. In frustration God toys with the idea of giving up on us. In truth none us should be surprised.
We certainly are not lovable much of the time in the history of human kind. We cannot seem to negotiate even a decade in the life of the world without war. Religion, unfortunately is often at the heart of our conflicts.
What was called by Pope John Paul II the "Mother Church of Christendom," the Church of the Holy Sepulchre , is located in Jerusalem on the site, supposedly, of the tomb in which Jesus was laid and from which he ascended. For centuries, that church has been the object of constant squabbles between the Eastern Orthodox, the Armenian Church, and the Roman Catholic Church - as well as the Syrian, Coptic and Ethiopian churches. Each claims a little bit of jurisdiction over a part of the ancient building constructed first by order of Constantine the Roman Emperor who first legalized Christianity in the Empire. Since then the various factions have fought - sometimes violently over who is in charge. There are even separate sewer drains, because one group does not want the other using its facilities! Years ago, they came up with a partial solution to their problem, the hierarchs of the each tradition could not agree about who would hold the keys to the front door, so they turned them over to the highest Moslem Cleric in Jerusalem. That tradition is still followed. To open the church, they require the Imam to unlock the lock.an interesting irony isn't it?
Power is "GOD" for many of us, isn't it? Workers in the U.S. are asked to take cuts in wages while 1/100 of 1% of families in the U.S. control 5% of the nation's income. A new Gilded Age of billionaires has dawned and the majority of the world looks on in homage as celebrities monopolize the evening news with their latest drunk driving arrests. We lust after the god of wealth and the god of power.and often we are not God's people at all. We become as it says in Hosea, "nobodies!" as we worship and emulate the activities of the very wealthy and powerful, sacrificing even our well being to feed the economic engine.
God is named Yahweh which means, "I am who I will be" - a God who is forever changing, yet we cling to a God we learned about in 3rd grade and don't dare to venture into the depths of the scripture story. So often we confuse worship of God with homage to tradition or a longing for the "way things were." We find solace in anthems and banners and air shows - and fret constantly about our security.
Ironically, in spite of the picturesque language of prostitution which Hosea uses to evoke the nature of God's relationship to us and our unfaithfulness to God , Hosea is often called the "Love Prophet." It is a name acquired because of the way in which his story evolves beyond the first chapter's anger. In the 11th Chapter are the wonderful verses:
8 But how can I give up on you, Ephraim? How can I turn you loose , Israel?
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10 "The people will end up following God. I will roar like a lion- Oh , how I'll roar!
My frightened children will come running from the west.
11 Like frightened birds they'll come from Egypt, from Assyria like scared doves.
I'll move them back into their homes." God's Word! (Hosea 11:8, 9-11)
"Mary! Mary! Stop! Come back!" The small child with curly hair was running across the parking lot. It seemed the louder her mother shouted, the faster the little girl ran away. And she was running toward a busy intersection in the grocery parking lot and cars would not be able to see her if she ran out into it. The louder her mother- arms filled with bags of groceries calls to her to come back, the more determined is the child's dash toward the traffic. The mother is terrified and nearly paralyzed.
Dropping all the groceries and tearing across the parking lot after her, now, the little girl must have sensed her pursuer so her tiny legs began moving faster...but that was her mistake. She tried to run faster than she could and promptly fell forward onto her knees and then down on the side of her face just before reaching the intersection.
Her mother got to her and gently lifted her up. Apparently the little girl had the breath knocked out of her for she was not able to speak. There were scrapes and scratches on the side of her face, on her hands and her knees. Soon enough the air came back into her lungs and she began to shake and sob, large tears streaming down her tiny face. The mother gently cleaned the scrapes, put on some Neosporin and Band-Aids from a first aid kit, all the while speaking softly, lovingly to her little one. Then she asked the child, "Mary, why did you run away when I asked you to stop?" The little girl reached up with one band-aided hand draping back some curly strands of hair from her face, looked up through large teary brown eyes at her mother and said, "I don't know..."
As ancient as the Biblical stories are, the God they reveal present even now is the God who is asking us, time and again, "why do you run from me?"
God did restore the nation in Hosea's saga - after exile. The conquerors were sent by God to awaken the people to the consequences of their actions, and out of exile came a new nation, a new faith and a sense of renewed covenant.
To say that God is angry with us seems somehow to contradict the generalized notions we have about our bible. God is supposed to love us.but through Hosea's voice calls us, "You are not my people." This may not sound like a loving God...but as a parent, what else can be said when witnessing the child making the mistake of their lives. God obsessive wish is that we will recognize it when we stray in the wrong direction and turn again to God of our own free will. If we don't turn on our own, well then, God is going to start shouting.
Remember what the children in the Chronicles of Narnia , by C.S. Lewis, learned about Aslan the lion who is the representation of God in Christ in that wonderful story, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe :
Is he quite safe? they asked.
"Safe" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? "Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."
God is not safe. God is not in your pocket. But God is good! In the midst of the turmoil of these days - I am convinced; personally that God is reaching out to us. The seeds of a new covenant are already sown. Perhaps Hosea's new child will be called, "They do not deserve my creation" because we watch the ice bergs melt and yet our stewardship of the earth is so haphazard and shortsighted. Maybe we should be called, "they do not listen" because of our failure to choose dialogue instead of armed conflict and are so inept at finding ways of living with one another in peace. Think about it. There are countless names that might fit us in these days. What is God about to call us? Are we again, nobodies?
"The more I called them...they went from me...the more I loved them, they turned away" says the voice of the Lord through Hosea. God does judge...and the human race faces the consequences of our mistakes. God's love has set us free to run away...free to expend our energies in whatever endeavors we choose. But God's hope, God's vision is that we will use our skills and talents to declare our love in our own way in return.
What's in a name? What is God calling to us in these confusing times? Obsessed with loving us - even when we are at our worst - God's love is still extended to us. "Why do you run away?" God asks.
And we answer...?
End Notes
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First Presbyterian
Church of Cedar Rapids
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Phone: 319-364-6148
E-mail: church@fpccr.org
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