INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Year C - Proper 12
HOSEA 1:2-10. Does God really want Hosea to marry a prostitute? But that isn’t the real story of this passage. The essence of this prophetic act lies in the meaning of the names Hosea gave to the children born of his marriage to this profligate wife. Their names symbolized Israel’s degraded moral status and conveyed the message of judgment Hosea had received from God. The names restore the moral credibility of the prophet and proclaim God’s will that the people of God live faithfully in all respects.
PSALM 85. With this beautiful lament the psalmist pleads for God’s mercy and justice. In curious juxtaposition to the foregoing prophecy, it presents a very hopeful attitude. It voices sincere humility and asks for salvation on the basis of God’s past beneficence.
GENESIS 18:20-32. (Alternate) In recent years some Christians have grossly misused the sorry tale of Sodom and Gomorrah in the struggle against homosexuality. This introduction to the story relates how Abraham pleaded with God to save a few citizens of the two cities despite their apparent wickedness. Though the story does not say so, these cities were believed to have been located in the valley of the Dead Sea before their disappearance attributed to a violent earthquake.
PSALM 138. (Alternate) In this personal hymn of thanksgiving the psalmist offers praise to God for preserving him against unnamed enemies. He trusts God to fulfill God’s purpose for him as an individual, but also has a vision of God bringing all nations to offer praise.
COLOSSIANS 2:6-15, (16-19). The Scottish scholar, William Barclay, called this one of the most difficult passages that Paul ever wrote. Many metaphors and images are stacked one upon the other in these two paragraphs written primarily for Gentiles. Yet the message can be summed up in one sentence: Christians grounded in their faith in Jesus Christ have been forgiven all their sins through his death and resurrection. Thus all are freed from all demands of the Jewish ritual laws and any other forms of worship or discipleship.
LUKE 11:1-13. Most of us feel rather inferior about how we pray; and so did Jesus’ disciples. Their time with Jesus, however, had shown them how much prayer meant to him and how effortless it was for him to pray. They wanted to learn from him. Would that it was so for all of us!
The brief homily that follows what we call “The Lord’s Prayer” explains the willingness of God to match our requests with a grace and kindness beyond all measure. God’s answer may not be exactly what we ask for or expect. It is far more important that God’s will be the determining factor in our prayers, our lives, for us and for all the world.
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A MORE COMPLETE ANLAYSIS
HOSEA 1:2-10. The prophet marries a prostitute to teach the Hebrews a lesson about deserting the path of faithful living and God continuing to love. Now isn’t that a switch? How could God do such a thing as direct to the prophet Hosea to commit sin like that? Doesn’t that give our libertine generation just about all the license we need to do just about anything that is contrary to good morals and a stable, family-oriented society? As if we needed God’s permission anyway!
Well, that may be the headline news story. It certainly makes us open our eyes and prick up our ears. But that isn’t the real story of this passage. The essence of this prophetic act lies in the meaning of the names Hosea gave to the children born of his marriage to this profligate wife: Jezreel, Lo-ruhammah and Lo-ammi. These names symbolized their degraded status and conveyed the message Hosea had received from God.
A footnote in the NRSV translates Jezreel as “God sows.” Another possible translation is “may God make fruitful.” Yet there is a significant period of Israel’s history bound up in that name.
The Jezreel valley is a very fertile agricultural region in northern Israel. It was in this valley that a bloody battle occurred in which, according to the Deuteronomic version in 2 Kings 9-10, Jehu overthrew the idolatrous dynasty of Ahab and Jezebel. Jehu then proceeded to murder all their descendants and obliterated the worship of Baal which Jezebel had introduced into Israel, the Northern Kingdom. He also killed Ahaziah, king of Judah, the southern kingdom, and slaughtered forty-two of his family. Jehu’s reward, according to this version, was to have five generations of his dynasty rule over the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In contrast, Hosea 1:4-5 tells a very different story. Because of the blood he had shed against the descendants of Ahab, Jehu’s dynasty was to be Israel’s last. This proved to be so when the Northern Kingdom fell to the Assyrian invasion of 722 BCE.
The names of Hosea’s other two children began with the negative *Lo* which in Hebrew means “No.” It is not repeated in 2:1. *Ruhammah* meant “pitied;” and *Ammi* meant “my people.” Uttered as negatives, the daughter’s name expressed Yahweh’s disfavor which was about to be visited on Israel, but not on Judah (vss.6-7). The younger son’s name meant that God had totally rejected Israel as the chosen people. (vss.9-10) Thus the parable of the children’s names restores the moral credibility of the prophet and proclaims God’s will that the people of God live faithfully in all respects.
There is good reason to question whether vs. 11 was part of the original prophecy. The verse reads as if it had been added at a later date after the return from exile in Babylon in the 6th century BCE when there were high hopes of a restoration of the united kingdom of David and a period of great prosperity with the valley of Jezreel producing abundant crops once again.
PSALM 85. In curious juxtaposition to the foregoing prophecy, this
psalm presents a very hopeful attitude. As a lament of the community, it voices sincere humility and pleads for salvation on the basis of Yahweh’s past beneficence. Some unknown historic circumstance may lie behind it, but there are no clues to what that event may have been other than that some imminent danger threatened the whole community.
We have no way of knowing when that was, but it seems likely that the psalm is post-exilic. Some scholars believe that it reflects the conditions in Judah similar to that described by Haggai (ca. 520 BCE) when Judah experienced a severe economic depression and a failure of spiritual enthusiasm (cf. Haggai 1:6-11; 2:15-19).
An eschatological element some detect in the closing vss. 8-13 has given the psalm a wider relevance. A prophetic note similar to that of Second Isaiah sounds through these lines. An earnest desire for peace and fidelity to Yahweh will yield prosperity and social justice.
The psalmist looks forward to a time of faithfulness and well-being throughout the land in his own time period. The Anglican Book of Common Prayer made this the “proper psalm” for Christmas Day. Since the author had in mind an immediate demonstration of Yahweh’s saving power, it seems most appropriate for that or any Christian celebration.
GENESIS 18:20-32. (Alternate) In recent years some Christians have grossly misused the sorry tale of Sodom and Gomorrah in the struggle against homosexuality. This introduction to the story relates how Abraham pleaded with God to save a few citizens of the two cities despite their apparent wickedness. Though the story does not say so, they were believed to have been located in the valley of the Dead Sea and their disappearance attributed to a violent earthquake.
The heart of this passage has to do with a preliminary decision by God not to tell Abraham, God’s chosen servant, what would happen because of the grave sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. Then God does just that because God intends to reward Abraham’s faithfulness in teaching his children to be faithful and righteous (vss. 17-19).
While two of Abrahams’ visitors go on their way, God remains in active conversation with Abraham who petitions him to save the citizens of those toward fated cities. More of a negotiation than a prayer, Abraham beseeches God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of a diminishing number of persons, especially Abraham’s nephew Lot.
PSALM 138. (Alternate) Less common than laments, which most often ended with a hopeful note of thanksgiving, this pure hymn of thanksgiving is only one of twenty such in the Psalter. It would appear that the psalmist has come to the temple to offer thanks for Yahweh’s steadfast love and faithfulness (vs. 2). His praise has to do with God preserving him against unnamed enemies in some desperate circumstances. Indeed, he seems a little astonished at the almost miraculous nature of his experience.
The psalmist trusts God to fulfill God’s purpose for him as an individual, (vs. 8), but also has a vision of God bringing all nations to offer praise (vss. 4-6). More than that he has been spiritually strengthened so that he is assured of Yahweh’s continued help (vs. 7).
Scholars have suggested that, despite its individualistic style, it was composed at the time the temple was being rebuilt after the return form exile in Babylon.
Some versions of the Septuagint attributed it to the prophet Zechariah although it is included in a small collection (Pss. 138-145) of psalms attributed to David, but almost certainly not written by him.
COLOSSIANS 2:6-15 (16-19). A cursory analysis of this passage cannot begin to discover all that it has to offer to the careful reader or preacher. One could spend many days making sense of what William Barclay called of the most difficult passages that Paul ever wrote. One metaphor and image upon another crowd into these two paragraphs. Yet is it sufficient to sum up in one sentence all that Paul is saying, as in the following attempt to do so?: “We are rooted in Jesus Christ, forgiven through him and freed from all cultic demands.” (UCC Online Resource. “Gathering.” Edited by Marilyn Leuty and Fred Graham.)
Paul’s metaphors centered on both the human and the risen Christ. He saw Jesus as the one human being in whom the Spirit of God had fully dwelt (vs. 9). He also saw Jesus as the crucified and risen Lord. To these images he added the image of the Christian community as the body of the risen Christ of which Jesus Christ himself was the head. Baptism by immersion in water had become for him a symbolic sharing in the death and resurrection of Christ. The effect of baptism was to erase all record of sin and the demand for moral justification before God. God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ also removed all necessity for the ritual laws symbolized by Jewish circumcision. In other words, every other religious tradition and all their multiplicity of ritual, dietary and physical practices no longer had any spiritual validity or moral implications. The only thing Christians needed was the spiritual gift of forgiving grace made available to all freely and unconditionally through Christ symbolized by baptism. This alone assured the spiritual growth that results in life with and for God.
In dealing with this passage it is important to remember that the Colossian Christians were being assailed by a rival philosophy which its proponents claimed was necessary in addition to the Christian faith in order to be saved. Scholars have identified this philosophy by different names and definitions, but without reaching any final consensus. In his commentary Edouard Schweizer dedicated more than eight pages of an excursus to analyzing it. He called it a syncretistic Jewish Pythagorean rite about which Philo of Alexandria had complained and which had infiltrated into Jewish families. William Barclay saw it more as a mix of ascetic beliefs and practices drawn from both Gnosticism and Judaism. The Gnostics espoused intellectual knowledge and astrology. Asceticism with its rules and regulations come direct from Judaism. F. W. Beare described the Colossian heresy as having roots in Hellenistic religious syncretism, but also including some Jewish elements.
One wonders if our increased understanding of the influential Essene sect based in Qumran would cause each of these eminent scholars of the past generation to consider them as the likely candidates for Paul’s denunciation. In his masterful study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Geza Vermes describes this literature as a collection of rule books, biblical interpretations, poetry, wisdom, sectarian calendars, liturgical texts, astrological horoscopes and descriptions of human features related to the dates of a person’s birth. This would appear to fit Paul’s protest remarkably well.
It is possible that there were two different, conflicting groups, one Hellenistic Greek and one Diaspora Jewish, striving to capture those who had begun to live as Christian disciples following the initial instruction they had received from Epaphras. Perhaps Barclay came closest to the truth when he said simply: “We do not know precisely and in detail what that teaching was.” All we can say is that this letter was written to a congregation in the midst of a very intensive moral and spiritual struggle. That places this reading as one which has extremely helpful counsel for any congregation struggling in the context of our crisis-ridden Western civilization.
In the final analysis, what Paul was saying to the Colossians and to us is that faith in Jesus Christ crucified and raised from the dead is all we really need for a healthy moral and spiritual life. There are behavioral implications enough to keep us all well occupied as we seek to advance God’s reign of love on earth.
See also: Barclay, William. Daily Bible Readings: Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. Edinburgh: The Church of Scotland, 1957.
Beare, F.W. The Interpreter’s Bible. Vol. 11. Nashville: Abingdon, 1955.
Schweizer, Edouard. The Letter to The Colossians: A Commentary. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1976.
Vermes, Geza. The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English. Allen Lane, The Penquin Press, 1997.
LUKE 11:1-13. So what is it with prayer? Most of us feel rather inferior about how we pray; and so did Jesus’ disciples. Their time with Jesus, however, had shown them how much prayer meant to him and perhaps how effortless it was for him to pray. Quite naturally, they wanted to learn from him. Would that it was so for all of us!
In a little daily devotional book, The Meaning of Prayer, published by Associaton Press of the YMCA in 1915, Harry Emerson Fosdick described prayer in one simple phrase: “friendship with God.” But is that what the formal words of the Lord’s Prayer in vss. 2-4 convey? Certainly the story and admonitions that follow seem to concentrate more on what we may ask of God rather than enjoying the experience of being with God as friend with friend. In some respects, Fosdick pointed out, this is an immature or childish way to pray: “Childishness in prayer is chiefly evidenced in an overweening desire to beg things from God, and a corresponding failure to desire above all else friendship with God himself.”
Fosdick then quoted this prayer of Thomas à Kempis: “Grant me, O most loving Lord, to rest in thee above all creatures, ... above all riches and art, above all fame and praise, above all sweetness and comfort, above all hope and promise, above all favors and gifts that thou canst give and impart to us, ... above all things visible and invisible, and above all that thou art not, O my God. It is too small and unsatisfying, whatsoever thou bestowest, whilst thou art not seen and not fully obtained. For surely my heart cannot truly rest, nor be entirely contented, unless it rest in thee.”
Yet this lesson seems to suggest the very opposite of what Thomas à Kempis and Fosdick were saying. Jesus encouraged his disciples to be persistent in asking. In the Lord’s Prayer, there are three specific requests: for daily bread; for forgiveness and the freedom to forgive others; and for deliverance from life’s inevitable trials. The exact meaning of the word *epiousios* (Eng. = ‘daily’) is obscure since the word has never been found anywhere else in biblical or other Greek texts. Furthermore, the story of the persistent friend and its exposition in the light of God’s gracious, loving nature as “the heavenly Father” do suggest that we are expected to do as Paul states in Philippians 4:6 “In everything by prayer and thanksgiving let (our) requests be made known to God.”
In the end, we must realize that the disciples’ practice of faithful prayer in any time or place may take one of two forms: the prayer of quiet contemplation or the prayer of thanksgiving and petition. Neither one is better than the other. If Luke 4:42-44, John 17, and the Gethsemane experience are any indication, it is likely that Jesus himself adopted both means of seeking God’s presence, God’s guidance and God’s provision for both body and spirit. His prayer life fully exemplified the life of friendship with God.
SOME ADDITIONAL PREACHING POINTS.
HOSEA 1:2-10. On what does a nation’s moral credibility depend? That is a question about which Christians should constantly struggle. Is it to be open and accepting of many different behavioural patterns? Or is it to be rigidly opposed to any and every behaviour that appears to deny “our family (or community) values?”
Puritanism has shaped a significant part of North American cultural and religious history. Europeans tend to smile with not too secret self-conceit when we hold our political leaders to a higher moral standard than they do, or than we ourselves are willing to follow. OTOH, we also have high regard for our athletic heroes, some of whom have achieved their status despite some very questionable moral behaviour? There is no question, nonetheless, that all of western civilization has been based on the acute sense of moral responsibility of individuals and nations to be found in the ancient Ten Commandments and moral outcries of Israel’s great prophets.
LUKE 11:1-13. Bruce Chilton has built his latest book around the Aramaic version of the Lord’s Prayer. (The Way of Jesus To Repair And Renew The World.
Abingdon Press, 2010.) In the introductory chapter he gives what he says is the original Aramaic form and translates it into English as follows:
(My) father/source --- your name will be sanctified --- your Kingdom will come
--- give me today the bread that is coming --- and release me my debts not bring me to the test.
“Each of these affirmations and petitions involves a way in which a human being responds to God,” he writes. He then deals with each in a separate chapter to which he gives a single word heading: Soul; Spirit; Kingdom; Insight; Forgiveness; Mercy; Glory. These titles seem to be taken from the English not the Aramaic version. Finally he summarizes the whole in a chapter he called “Mindful Practice.” There he points out that Jesus lived out the prophetic powers and divine revelation he had inherited from the prophets of Israel.
“Jesus intended to pass on to his followers the inheritance, not merely of believers but of any person who wishes to understand him. They are the pillars of humanity and the continuance of civilization that we can build upon, if we are patient enough to discern them. These are the resources not only of belief but also of learning to become human with Jesus as a guide, and they identify powers within people – despite the variety and hardship of their conditions – that reside within them because they a re God’s children. They only await our recovering them so that we may repair and renew a broken world, starting with our broken selves.” (Chilton, 17. Italics mine.)
In the chapter “Spirit” Chilton discusses the last of the petitions, “release me my debts – not bring me to the test!” (Punctuation his.) He further states that “temptation was constant in Jesus’ life, and he conveyed to his disciples the necessity of resisting it, not simply on one’s own strength, but in prayer. Jesus had broken barriers of convention and prejudice, and he needed to create his own personal form of prayer as a means of distinguishing the transcendent from the temporal, productive transgressions from personal exaltation.”
So how shall we pray in the 21st century? Above all, let us be real. This is a time when there is much to be distressed about -- illness, conflicts, disasters, poverty, famine. Who can count the number of issues to be anxious about and to bring before God in prayer? But it is into such a world that Jesus was born and lived. He is with us still and wants to know just how we think and feel, who we are praying for and how we act in his name.
Then let us be persistent. That is a message of the sermonette that follows the Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11:5-15. It could not be said in plainer words. An elderly preacher of an earlier age said in the typical theological terms of that time, “We should shake the gates of Heaven with our prayers!”
Let us be joyful in our prayers. Check out the number of times the word “joy” and its related terms appears in scripture, especially in the Psalms and the New Testament. There are hundreds of them.
A non-religious source of spirituality suggested that to expel the negativity from our thinking and living we need to meditate to be well, to be happy and to be filled with loving kindness. (http://www.care2.com/greenliving/how-you-can-unhook-from-negativity.html?page=2 ) Paul and Silas were not happy to be in prison in Philippi, but they were joyfully singing at midnight. (Acts 16:25ff) Years later from Caesar’s’ prison in Rome he wrote to those same Philippians, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, Rejoice.” To the Colossians he or one of his disciples wrote, “May you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father.” (Col. 1:11-12)
Finally, let us be quiet. Prayer is the expression of our being in the presence of God. We can be sure that God knows who we are; but do we? When we come know who we are in the essence of our being, we transcend ourselves and find the peace and the love for God, our neighbours and ourselves that Jesus so fully exemplified how he prayed.
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