Lectionary Year C
July 29, 2001
Hosea 1:2-10

Step VI: Contemporary Address
(FS)

This is a rough outline for a sermon that will be preached for the First Presbyterian Church of Navasota, Texas. There will be around 100 people in worship, most of them middle to upper middle class, small-town (7000 pop.) folks from east central Texas.

AMAZING LOVE

INTRO I will briefly tell the story of Hos. 1:2-10, simply saying "preacher" instead of "Hosea": a servant of God who marries a woman, "guided by the Lord", even though she has a reputation. She lives up to it-- they have three children, and there's some doubt that two of them are his. She leaves, running off for a number of lovers. What would the "preacher" do now?
That's not gossip from the Grimes County Ministerial alliance, or New Covenant Presbytery. It's the story of the prophet Hosea.

I. SOME OF US WORK VERY HARD TO COME UP WITH GOOD SERMON ILLUSTRATIONS. HOSEA WAS CALLED TO PREACH THE WORD OF GOD TO AN ISRAEL THAT WAS UNFAITHFUL (mention Baal worship, syncretism, etc.)

A. But God went a step further: "Hosea, this people is like an adulterous, unfaithful spouse. So go show what I feel like: marry a woman who'll be unfaithul to you!"

B. He marries Gomer, and they have children. Now, choosing names for children (note--there are a number of babies due in church this year) is a demanding task. It can mark a child for life! The Mexican comedian Cantinflas in one of his movies played a priest who refused to baptize a child with a-- er--- peculiar name saying, "Were you mad at him when you named him?!" Hosea had to give voice to the pain and indignation of God when he named his children. Just imagine: "Her name is NOT PITIED. And this is little "NOT MY PEOPLE".

C. For Israel had gone too far-- and God was firm: the covenant would be broken. Israel was no longer (God's) people! For they were unfaithful to him...

D. It puts our own stumblings, our failures, our SINS, in a new light: and some of us who know the pain that an unfaithful spouse causes have too good a grasp of the anguish of Hosea...and Yahweh!

WHAT WOULD HOSEA DO? WAS THE RELATIONSHIP DEMOLISHED?

II. In Ch. 3, God speaks again: "Go and show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and she is an adulteress..." (NIV)

A. Hosea goes-- and buys her back. We don't know what had happened to Gomer-- maybe she was deeply involved in a cult; perhaps she'd had to sell herself into slavery. Hosea takes silver and barley, scraping together enough to pay, and takes her back into his home.

B. And at the end of the chapter, there is also hope for Israel: "They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days." (NIV)

C. But God would be the One to seek (God's) people. God would in a most tangible way show love and compassion to Israel, and to us all. In Paul's words, God would take the decree against us-- all the details of our sin, every trace of "adultery"-- and bind it onto the Cross where God's beloved son, Jesus Christ, died. Through the gift of Jesus-- his obedient life, his suffering and death, his resurrection, and his reign in our hearts and lives -- God holds out a hand to the world.

What happened to Hosea and Gomer? How did she respond to Hosea's gesture? Did she reciprocate his love-- or did his compassion and love only make him vulnerable to a further rejection?

And we...how do we respond to the love of God that holds out peace and new life to us, "even when we were dead..."?



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