Hosea 5:15-6:6 Ps.50:7-1
Rom.4:13-18 Matt. 9:91-13
Lectionary Link
Have you heard about the marriage of Hosea and Gomer? Sounds like southern fiction, but that’s only because of the fascination of certain parts of the South for adopting interesting biblical names. Afterall there are so many people named Adam, Sarah, or David; so to name one’s unique child, one looks in a biblical concordance where one can find all sorts of interesting names.
But actually the marriage of Hosea and Gomer is the story line of the biblical book named after the prophet Hosea.
Hosea did not have lots of luck in his marriage. He loved his wife Gomer but she could not and would not be faithful. Hosea continued in his love for Gomer and by goodness and forgiveness he tried to convince Gomer to be faithful in her love. I imagine if one has one’s shingle out as a Prophet, then to have an openly unfaithful wife could be very embarrassing.
So the Prophet Hosea had a brilliant solution. When the pain and loss hit hard, I’ll make it into a metaphor. "My suffering is not meaningless, it is also symbolic and it illustrates a condition that plagues the entire country.” Hosea thought, “My love and forgiveness of Gomer and her continuing unfaithful is a metaphor for the relationship between God and the people of Israel. You remember that God and Israel had this marriage covenant. God gave them the 10 Commandments and the Most Favored Nation Status, and Israel had said, "I do," to God. They had official papers and they had that Temple House in Jerusalem with all of that holy furniture. Surely this was a sign of a holy marriage? A holy house with furniture. That is a marriage isn’t it?
Just as Hosea found that his official marriage to Gomer didn’t mean much unless there was continual marital practice, so too, being God’s officially chosen people did not mean much without continuous faithfulness to God.
The people of Hosea’s time had found a way to declare their religious allegiance to God: We’ll do whatever we want most of the time and then go to the temple and get the priest to offer a sacrifice and then everyone will know how religious we are.
That’s like the woman who declared the advantages of having an unfaithful man, because he would always show up with excessive gifts when he had done something really wrong. Cars, diamonds, seemingly extravagant acts of devotion to cover over general unfaithfulness.
Marriage papers without marital acts does not make a marriage. Being designated as God’s chosen people and replacing general faithfulness with a sacrifice of the blood of bulls and sheep; that does not make a genuine relationship with God.
The Law that was given to Israel was so great that they wore it like an expensive diamond wedding ring. Yet the prophets and Paul criticized the people of Israel for not being faithful to the requirements of the Law. So Paul wrote, “If you think that you’re special because of the Law, just remember that faith was present long before the Law was even given. Faith was present to Father Abraham who lived long before Israel and the Law.” Therefore Gentiles can come to faith through Jesus Christ without the benefit of the Law, because it is the practice of faith that is more important than just having some famous religious people in your family tree.
This issue is raised also in our Gospel lesson. Matthew is a hated IRS agent. He’s Jewish but he works for the Romans to collect taxes from the Jews. He’s rejected his heritage, forgotten his pedigree and sold himself out to the foreign conquerors. That is why tax collector and sinner are put together in the Gospels.
Matthew is a person who could not be a religious person. He could not be in the good graces of the Jewish religious leaders. But Matthew wanted to have faith and he wanted to make his life better. He wanted repentance. So what is the commentary of Jesus and the early church on people such as Matthew: God is merciful to such people. God does not care if they are offering the religious acts at the temple. God wants faith and repentance.
The lessons today are not just about the break down and competition that arose between members of the Jesus Movement and members of the synagogue. It has to do with the motive in our hearts regarding our practice of faith and religion. If we are performing public religious acts instead of living constant faithful lives before God, then we should not be fooled. “Hey God look at me… I’m at church now doing religious things… Please don’t look at what I did Monday through Saturday when I wasn’t making such a good public display of faithful behaviors.”
God doesn’t really care if we make a good show and come to church; God cares about how we live. Now God may not care if you come to church but the clergy and the local parish community do. Coming to church is not to make points with God nor to overcompensate for all of our sins. Coming to church is being a part of our family of faith and we do it to encourage each other in our lives of faith. We do it to provide examples for our children. We do it do express and pass on important values of our lives. We do it to offer a hand shake, a smile, a word of encouragement to someone who might need it. We do it to mentor our youth. We may do it to encourage the priest who might be tempted to think that no one is interested in his subject matter anymore. And we come to church, in order to gain inspiration for living faithful lives outside of church.
Coming to church is not to make people think that we are better than we actually are; Coming to church is for the purpose of being inspired and to help each other be better than we would be if we didn’t come here. Coming to church is a public act, not to get points with God, not to be entertained by music or the sermon, but it is public because you are helping other people and the community by being here. We are not here primarily to get something out of the church service; we are here to give to the church service because the presence of each person here is an irreplaceable act toward the well-being of the community.
We come here to be encouraged to perform consistent acts of faith and love and to prove that faith for us is not accidental and sporadic acts of public religious devotion.
Let us be encouraged that the Gospel of Christ is working on the motive of our hearts in all that we do and say, and may our participation in the sacraments and the mission of the church be like wedding bands that symbolize our efforts to live faithful lives at all times and all places before God. Amen.
But actually the marriage of Hosea and Gomer is the story line of the biblical book named after the prophet Hosea.
Hosea did not have lots of luck in his marriage. He loved his wife Gomer but she could not and would not be faithful. Hosea continued in his love for Gomer and by goodness and forgiveness he tried to convince Gomer to be faithful in her love. I imagine if one has one’s shingle out as a Prophet, then to have an openly unfaithful wife could be very embarrassing.
So the Prophet Hosea had a brilliant solution. When the pain and loss hit hard, I’ll make it into a metaphor. "My suffering is not meaningless, it is also symbolic and it illustrates a condition that plagues the entire country.” Hosea thought, “My love and forgiveness of Gomer and her continuing unfaithful is a metaphor for the relationship between God and the people of Israel. You remember that God and Israel had this marriage covenant. God gave them the 10 Commandments and the Most Favored Nation Status, and Israel had said, "I do," to God. They had official papers and they had that Temple House in Jerusalem with all of that holy furniture. Surely this was a sign of a holy marriage? A holy house with furniture. That is a marriage isn’t it?
Just as Hosea found that his official marriage to Gomer didn’t mean much unless there was continual marital practice, so too, being God’s officially chosen people did not mean much without continuous faithfulness to God.
The people of Hosea’s time had found a way to declare their religious allegiance to God: We’ll do whatever we want most of the time and then go to the temple and get the priest to offer a sacrifice and then everyone will know how religious we are.
That’s like the woman who declared the advantages of having an unfaithful man, because he would always show up with excessive gifts when he had done something really wrong. Cars, diamonds, seemingly extravagant acts of devotion to cover over general unfaithfulness.
Marriage papers without marital acts does not make a marriage. Being designated as God’s chosen people and replacing general faithfulness with a sacrifice of the blood of bulls and sheep; that does not make a genuine relationship with God.
The Law that was given to Israel was so great that they wore it like an expensive diamond wedding ring. Yet the prophets and Paul criticized the people of Israel for not being faithful to the requirements of the Law. So Paul wrote, “If you think that you’re special because of the Law, just remember that faith was present long before the Law was even given. Faith was present to Father Abraham who lived long before Israel and the Law.” Therefore Gentiles can come to faith through Jesus Christ without the benefit of the Law, because it is the practice of faith that is more important than just having some famous religious people in your family tree.
This issue is raised also in our Gospel lesson. Matthew is a hated IRS agent. He’s Jewish but he works for the Romans to collect taxes from the Jews. He’s rejected his heritage, forgotten his pedigree and sold himself out to the foreign conquerors. That is why tax collector and sinner are put together in the Gospels.
Matthew is a person who could not be a religious person. He could not be in the good graces of the Jewish religious leaders. But Matthew wanted to have faith and he wanted to make his life better. He wanted repentance. So what is the commentary of Jesus and the early church on people such as Matthew: God is merciful to such people. God does not care if they are offering the religious acts at the temple. God wants faith and repentance.
The lessons today are not just about the break down and competition that arose between members of the Jesus Movement and members of the synagogue. It has to do with the motive in our hearts regarding our practice of faith and religion. If we are performing public religious acts instead of living constant faithful lives before God, then we should not be fooled. “Hey God look at me… I’m at church now doing religious things… Please don’t look at what I did Monday through Saturday when I wasn’t making such a good public display of faithful behaviors.”
God doesn’t really care if we make a good show and come to church; God cares about how we live. Now God may not care if you come to church but the clergy and the local parish community do. Coming to church is not to make points with God nor to overcompensate for all of our sins. Coming to church is being a part of our family of faith and we do it to encourage each other in our lives of faith. We do it to provide examples for our children. We do it do express and pass on important values of our lives. We do it to offer a hand shake, a smile, a word of encouragement to someone who might need it. We do it to mentor our youth. We may do it to encourage the priest who might be tempted to think that no one is interested in his subject matter anymore. And we come to church, in order to gain inspiration for living faithful lives outside of church.
Coming to church is not to make people think that we are better than we actually are; Coming to church is for the purpose of being inspired and to help each other be better than we would be if we didn’t come here. Coming to church is a public act, not to get points with God, not to be entertained by music or the sermon, but it is public because you are helping other people and the community by being here. We are not here primarily to get something out of the church service; we are here to give to the church service because the presence of each person here is an irreplaceable act toward the well-being of the community.
We come here to be encouraged to perform consistent acts of faith and love and to prove that faith for us is not accidental and sporadic acts of public religious devotion.
Let us be encouraged that the Gospel of Christ is working on the motive of our hearts in all that we do and say, and may our participation in the sacraments and the mission of the church be like wedding bands that symbolize our efforts to live faithful lives at all times and all places before God. Amen.
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