God, the Jilted Lover: Lessons in Love from Hosea the Prophet
by Ken Wilson
Final God, the Jilted Lover: Lessons in Love from Hosea the Prophet. Debt Abraham Heschel, Jewish scholar-mystic-activist, ontemporary of MLK, labored civil rights in 1960's. The Prophets: best work….
Today, consider the closing appeal of Hosea--the call to make up:
"Return, Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the Lord." (H. 14:1-2)
To let these words work their magic, have to understand where they come from---who it is these words are spoken to; nature of the sins Hosea is calling us to return from; the voice bearing the words
Who is it these words are spoken to? Addressed to Israel, the nation, the community, the people of God. If we hear them as a private word to individuals, missing point. Focus not on our small scale individual lives and sins. The Spirit, of course, can apply these words to us at that level but only after hearing them as they are delivered to us: as members of a community, the people of God.
What are the corporate sins of the people of God that have become their downfall? Hosea began his ministry during Israel's Clinton years: prosperous days of Jeroboam 2's reign. Followed by a period of decline; northern Kingdom Israel divided from the Southern kingdom of Judah, where Isaiah bringing a parallel message.
Super-power Assyria rising. "Ashur [fierce military-fertility god] was its god, plunder its morality, cruelty & terror its means….no sovereigns more despotic, more covetous, more vindictive, more pitiless, more proud of their crimes.'
Israel in a panic over Assyrian threat: make nice with Assyria to the north, then run to Egypt to the South, losing their own identity in the process. "Ephraim is like a dove, Silly and without sense, Calling to Egypt, going to Assyria….They make a bargain with Assyria, And oil is carried to Egypt." (Hos. 7:11; 12:1)
Long history of this in the church. Church in Europe hitched its wagon to Roman Empire, gaining protection & status. Looked good for gospel. But soon church acting like an Empire; forget "prince of peace" bit, launching crusades to recover the holy land.
Have their been times when church in U.S. has allied itself with one political party or the other? Adopting its platform as God's platform? Enjoying the privileges of power, but at the risk of her own soul?
It was such a time in Israel.
In the process of mixing it up with these powers, she neglected the mission God had given her: to show God's righteousness, faithfulness and justice in the earth. "Your kingdom come, will be done on earth"
Down in Judah Isaiah thundering a protest: Isaiah 1: 13-17
Worship was flourishing, plenty of music & prayer, big crowds at the temple, but little justice. A religion for winners; the poor were left out.
What was Hosea's prophetic voice bearing these words? The voice of prophetic sympathy. With God. As though Hosea is feeling God's heart, speaking in voice of God, the Jilted Lover.
God has what Abraham Heschel calls "pathos". By that he means God is a being who has "a heart" and that God's heart can be moved. That God is capable of suffering and feeling pain, anguish, joy, delight, longing… Not just because he decides to be so moved. But God, like us, is affected, moved by things.
God is what we would call a subject, not just an object. Things happen to God that affect God. And we are among the things that happen to God that affect God. When we were given freedom as his image bearers we were also given the power to affect God.
I noticed a pattern over my years as a pastor. An occasional over-the top tirade, angry email or letter ascribing worst possible motives to me. At first, defensive.
Then I noticed pattern: these communications often came from those who had bad experiences with authority figures, low self-worth.
They came from people who didn't realize they actually had power to hurt with their words. Weren't trying to be mean. I had been cast in the authority figure role, they were the powerless voice that had to holler and scream to be heard at all.
Instead of defending myself, I gave them insight into impact of their words: "I wonder if you realize your words really stung me. They hurt." It was obvious they had no idea.
We can relate to God as though he's just this divine entity, with these divine traits. Impervious to us. Now, he's not hyper-sensitive, easily offended. (A god who can't handle anger. A god we have to tip toe around.) But God is personal. He's affected by us. Our actions can cause him delight, injury.
When we stiff-arm him, he feels jilted.
The Hebrew word for spirit, ruah, has many layers of meaning: breath, wind, air in motion, spirit, mind. But in the Bible it is also a word that describes something like the movements of the soul, or what we would call emotions: troubled spirit, crushed in spirit, grieving spirit, faint spirit, anguish of spirit.
The heart has breezes blowing through it all the time: feelings, affections, emotions, dispositions. They come & go. Rise to a crescendo & fade. Ruah, spirit. God is, God has ruah.
One of effects of God's spirit is sympathetic movement in our own.
Resonant frequency. Guitar string. [One string vibrating next to another sets other vibrating.] Bridge collapsed when wind hit it at it's frequency. We're made in his image, have resonant frequency like his.
When a person is deeply moved, affected--peace, joy, sadness, tears--these can be sympathetic vibrations in our heart from God's heart. Because there's movement in God's heart too!
Now we're ready for the climax of Hosea's writings: Hosea 14
Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: "Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. 3 Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion." (1-3)
Hosea is now the go-between, yenta, friend of Israel advising her on how to make things right with God, the Jilted Lover.
"Take words with you and return to the Lord" Husband, had a falling out with your wife? Said/done something stupid, inconsiderate, or worse? How to reverse situation? Take words with you! Words! Jesus said, "Out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks." Words reveal the heart! Reveal your heart with Words!
Not just what you need to say. But also what she needs to hear! She who has been affected by your actions.
Words! Don't assume she knows without them. Say them!
How does she know that you are earnest, unless you are willing to say words! I'm sorry….I regret. Good, you're signaling a change in you. Now what is it that you are sorry for? I'm sorry you're mad? Sorry if I offended you? Sorry I'm in doghouse. Won't do. (Would it for you?) Take words that signal a real return.
"Assyria cannot save us. [We know that now] We will not mount war-horses. [Next time a political hack declares a culture war, we'll look before we leap on that war horse.] We will never again say, 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made. We've learned our lesson"
That's what the Jilted Lover needs to hear. He needs to hear the movement, the change in the heart put into words.
Words, of course, also seal the deal for the speaker. Words convert silent intention of the heart into a firm commitment. "If you confess with your lips, 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart…' Words are important to God & us.
"For in you the fatherless find compassion." We had forgotten who you are! Had our hearts turned by that hardball god Ashur, god of military might and fertility. We thought we'd be safe under his wing. And of course, he didn't give a rip for the widow, the orphan and the alien.
As if he's saying, "Take words like this with you: we know where we got off; we're coming back to heart of worship: justice for outcast, vulnerable, left behinds."
The church in our day has some business to do with God.
Been some confusion. Some foolin' around on side. Loyalty to God mixed with other loyalties so can't tell the difference. The effect: lost focus on what most matters to God.
Over and over the prophets remind us what most matters: "Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widows." (Isaiah) "He has shown you O man what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love steadfast love, walk humbly with your God." (Micah) "Let Justice roll down like a river…" (Amos)
God is not as complicated as we think in his aspirations for
the world. A simple agenda that revolves around justice: for the widow, the orphan, the alien, the vulnerable.
Defend them and I'll worry about you.
For a while there, it seemed like what most mattered to us was defending our own rights: to pray in school, display the 10 Commands, teach our understanding of creation.
Forgetting that what matters most to God is that we defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widows.
We took our eye off the ball! Great worship festivals! Sale of Worship CD's topped the charts! But where was the passion for justice?
Slowly but surely, we're getting our groove back.
Sundays: twice a month serving 120 or so hungry people in Ypsilanti. Used to be 75 or so, but times are tough.
Soon Green Vineyard, environmental stewardship team will lead service projects to help us tend the garden.
Tuesdays: third tuesday single moms and & kids (100) cared for in this building--a banquet feast for the moms to encourage them, and some caring adults to feed and hang out with their kids while the moms get a break.
2nd & 4th Tuesdays Matthew's Party: providing 100 homeless a sit-down meal in downtown A2. After dinner for those who want to stick around--worship, bible study. Last week Paul Metler taught homeless how to pray for ea. other.
Fridays: every week 120 homeless gather in Liberty Plaza for pizza, pop, coffee, a bag of provisions to see them through. Collecting coats, blankets for the winter.
Saturday: twice a month, 313, tutoring 10 kids in Detroit neighborhood, connect with families, annual serve Detroit Day. take kids to game. Tigers always win.
Go church! Right direction! It's not that complicated!
If Hosea is any indication, as soon as we make our move to make up, God's heaping on the encouragement, the welcome, the promises….
"I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon. Men will dwell again in his shade. He will flourish like the grain. He will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon. O Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him. I am like a green pine tree; your fruitfulness comes from me."
Do you want to make up with God today? Do feel a need to take words with you and return to the Lord?
Act of Surrender Prayer: Jesus of Nazareth we acknowledge before you, our thirst for what you have to give. We surrender ourselves to you--whole and entire, what was, and is, and is to come. Plunge the wrongs we have done and the wrongs done to us into your fathomless mercy. Receive us as we are today. Make of us what we are meant to be, and let us walk in the path of your new creation.
You're forgiven. You're received. Go and do justice.
Kid Minute for Adults
The tending of the child's soul is like gardening.
Do your digging and seed sowing as soon as the ground is soft.
Springtime. Early in the season.
Don't wait to do your seed sowing until it's summer and sun is burning down, and birds are numerous and ravenous to steal away seed.
Do your digging and your sowing when the ground is softest.
Start early. Sow often.
Go to church, establish that rythym early.
Pay attention to what's going on in Sunday School to echo what's being said there.
Get the handouts, talk to the teachers.
Do your own sowing at home.
Get a good Bible story book and pick the best stories to read.
Continually update those story book to keep pace with your child's soul.
Make connections in the body of Christ in the Springtime of your child's soul if at all possible to that there are other voices for God in child's life down the road.
Do your digging and seed sowing as soon as the ground is soft.
If you've gotten a late start, better late than never, and pray for rain.