Children of the Living God

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

July 28, 2019

12 Proper C

          In the baptism service in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, the edition immediately prior to the prayer book we now use, right after the lessons and prayers and just before the baby was baptized, the priest said “Name this child.”  The service recognized that God knows and calls us each by name, and that names are important.  Our name distinguishes us as individuals.  The way someone says our name can communicate love or displeasure.  My name connects me to my godmother and cousin, and to her grandmother who was my great-grandmother, connecting me to a story much larger than my own.   The names Don and I gave our children were carefully thought out, combining names we just like with names that connect them with a larger story.  Names are important.

          So, I am somewhat taken back by the reading from Hosea this morning.  God instructs Hosea to take for himself a wife of whoredom, for the people have committed whoredom by forsaking God.  If that is not bad enough, God then instructs Hosea and Gomer to name their children Jezreel, as a sign of the punishment to come; Loruhamah, because God will neither pity nor forgive the house of Israel; and Lo-ammi meaning that the people are no longer God’s people and God is no longer their God.

          So now we have three innocent little children caught in the middle of an ugly dispute between God and the people of Israel.  This is the kind of story that gives the Old Testament a bad reputation and casts God as an angry and vengeful god.   While the final verse of the passage promises that God’s anger will not have the final word, anyone familiar with the cycle of domestic violence knows that the violence is often followed by apologies and promises, which are then followed by more violence.  Passages of scripture such as this one have often been misused to justify violence against women and children.

          So, what are we to do with this reading?  Rather than look at all of Scripture through the lens of one passage, we are always called to look at any single passage through the lens of all of scripture.  Fortunately, our other readings today help in this regard.  The psalm sings of the graciousness of God and the way God restored the good fortunes of the people.  The psalm recognizes God’s fury, and God had every right to be angry at the transgressions of God’s chosen people.  But the psalm also calls the people to turn their hearts back to God and listen to what God is saying, for God is speaking peace to God’s faithful people.

          The reading from Colossians reminds us how God calls us to live, rooting our lives in Christ and abounding in thanksgiving, and not turning away from God toward human tradition.  The passage from Luke’s gospel teaches us how to pray and reminds us how very much God loves us and wants good things for us.  The prayer that Jesus teaches us reminds us of our deep connections with God and each other.  If we believe that God’s name is hallowed, or holy, we believe that God has a claim on us.  If we ask for God’s kingdom to come, then we imply that we will pattern our lives after the values of that kingdom.  If we ask to each be given our own daily bread, we admit our dependence on God and our trust that God will care for us.  And as we ask forgiveness of our sins, which is to be reconnected with God and those we have offended, we offer that forgiveness to others, willing to admit that we are connected even with those who harm us. 

          How does any of this help us with Hosea?  Hosea was a prophet in Israel in the 8^th century before the common era.  God’s people were worshiping foreign gods in the hopes that those gods could save them from the Assyrians.  The commandments of God had been forgotten, as murder, theft, and unfaithfulness were rampant.  Widows, children and the poor were being neglected.   The story of the Exodus and God’s deliverance of the people from slavery in Egypt had been forgotten.  The way God called the Israelites to live was not that different from the way the readings from Colossians and Luke’s gospel call us to live, rooted in God’s love, abounding in thanksgiving, remembering our connection to God and all people.  No one knows for sure whether Hosea’s family as described this morning was a real family with three real children or is an allegory of the people’s unfaithfulness. But either way, what is clear is that God is justifiably angry.  Why is God so angry?  God’s heart has been broken by the deep unfaithfulness of the people God has chosen and whom God loves. 

          So, this morning, in the context of all the rancor and division in our country, in the context of the deplorable ways human beings, particularly children, are being treated, in the midst of our concern for our own rights more than the rights of others, we hear God’s call to live our lives rooted in Christ, abounding in thanksgiving, living into our connections with God and all whom God has made.  We hear the absolute heartbreak in God’s voice in the reading from Hosea, naming the sin of God’s people, and calling them and us to live as children of the living God and to treat all people as children of the living God.  The good news is that God loves us, despite ourselves.  The challenge is the demand God places on us to actually live our lives as the children of the living God we are created to be.

                                                                             Amen.