THREE AND FOUR LETTER WORDS
A sermon by George R. Pasley
Hosea 1:2-2:1; Luke 11:1-13
Right off the bat this story from Hosea shocks us.
Did God REALLY ask Hosea to do what he did,
And did Hosea REALLY do it?
An earlier generation of scholars tired to say that it didn’t really happen,
Or that God knew Gomer was promiscuous, but Hosea didn’t, not until God revealed it later.
But more and more scholars and preachers- myself included- are insisting that yes, it really did happen. Our argument goes like this:
Sometimes, if the point you want to make is REALLY important, you’ll go to great lengths, and the prophets were especially that way.
One feminist pastor who has read Hosea backwards and forwards insists that Hosea was really taken with Gomer and that he loved her enough to look beyond her character flaws.
And finally, it is this way: as a class, human beings are all pretty unfaithful to our creator. We’ve always been that way. One prominent ethicist describes it by asking three questions: Why did God bother to create us? Why does God continue to bother? And, Why do God’s people NOT bother?
Exactly. Those are the questions Hosea wants us to consider, and to make his point he fell in love with a woman of poor character.
He knew better of course, because Hosea was a man of uncompromising character. The prophets always were- they never went along with the crowd.
So Hosea did it, but even though it was a match made in heaven, things did not go well. In fact, God even predicted the troubles that would occur, and the punishment that would follow: the children of that unfortunate marriage (two of them anyway) were given exceptionally embarrassing names- Not Loved, and Not Mine.
So the first point of this tragedy is made loud and clear: the constant ways in which we veer away from God are tremendously upsetting.
We have a name for those ways, a little three-letter word- S-I-N.
Sin. It’s all those ways we have of wondering away from the love we have from God, and the love God has for each and every one of us.
Is it a sin to think the most important thing that can happen on any given afternoon is for YOUR team to win?
Is it a sin to be preoccupied, occupied, and post occupied with physical appearances?
Is it a sin to rush out and buy the latest I-gadget because you think you can’t do without it?
And to ask a question of myself, is it a sin to crave all of the latest books by the most prominent scholars, so that my house is overfilled with books?
It’s a sin if it doesn’t fill us with gratitude for our creator, if it doesn’t nurture love for our fellow human beings (ESPECIALLY the least of them), and if it doesn’t lead to a life of satisfying joy, shared generously.
But we need to take it further, because Hosea was not talking about me being too preoccupied with books, or my friend showing off his Kindle.
Hosea was talking about his whole nation. He was talking about their national sin.
He was talking about the way that whole cultures wonder down paths of least resistance, harming planets, neighborhoods, families and individual lives as we go.
Most of us would answer yes if asked, “Is the spill of oil into the Gulf of Mexico a sin?” but how would we answer the question, “Is it a sin for the
Is it a sin for the average American to consume 3 times as many of the earth’s resources each year than the average person on earth? IN fact, never mind sin- is it even healthy?
Is it a sin for us to always want to have our way in world affairs, and to think something is terribly wrong if we don’t?
Well, I’m going to stop there. Every nation sins, every culture sins, and every individual is part of it. It’s inescapable, and even rampant political activism won’t let us escape responsibility.
That’s not to say we should throw our hands up in the air and keep on doing what we’ve always done. It’s to say that we should examine our lives every week, and as far as possible live in a way that a) does no harm and b) benefits those who are suffering.
Sin. A three letter word we can’t escape. Hosea makes it clear that our sin angers God.
God promised to destroy
Sin angers God, but more profoundly, it breaks God’s heart the way a wayward lover will break a woman’s heart.
But thank goodness, the story of our sin does not end with a broken-hearted God. In fact, the introduction to Hosea moves toward another three letter word- Y-E-T.
Yet.
Yet, the Israelites will be like sand on the seashore.
In the place where it was aid to them, “Not My People, they will be called “Sons of the Living God.”
Sin crushes us. It pushes us down and whispers into our ear, “You can’t do better!”
YET there is a word from God that picks us up, brushes the lies off of our lives, and proclaims, God still loves you, God still has plans for you.
That is the story of Gomer, known far and wide as a woman of poor character yet beloved by a man of God.
That was still her story when she ran away,
And it was emphatically her story when Hosea took her back again- and he did take her back. In fact, he went looking for her.
The one who has thrown away their chance at love,
The one who seemingly has ruined their life,
That person- that nation, no matter who they are or what they have done-
That nation is YET capable of receiving mercy and love from God.
That nation is YET able to love in return.
That nation will YET be called, “Sons of the Living God.”
But know this- we will not save ourselves, none of us, no matter who we are.
Only God can save us. All we can do is respond.
Which brings us to a four letter word: P-R-A-Y
Luke’s Gospel gives us a slightly abbreviated version of the Lord’s prayer, but we can live with that.
It tells us to pray, it tells us we CAN pray, and in fact it insists that we need to pray persistently.
It tells us to pray for what we need. Not too little, not too much, just one day at a time.
It tells us to pray for forgiveness, promising that as we do we have already forgiven others.
It tells us to ask God to lead us way from temptation- which means that surely our errors will be pointed out, and we’ll have a chance to correct them.
But it begins all of that by praying allegiance to God’s Kingdom- by praying prayer of hope that the Kingdom will come, sooner rather than later, here as well as somewhere else, evident in our faithfulness, in our deeds, and in our words.
To say “Thy Kingdom come” is to say, “God YET loves you” to all the Gomers of the world- to every sinner of every stripe.
It is to say “We were all sinners together YET we are all children of the Living God.”
Well, anybody who has tried to be good for even one day knows that it’s a hard act.
But we don’t save ourselves- God saves us.
Our part is to pray, and then to take the hand of reconciliation that God extends.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
