Risky Love (Prophet Margins – Part IV)

Sermon Title: Risky Love

Good News Statement: God loves us: sins, seriousness, and smiles

Preached: Sunday, August 7, 2022 at Dogwood Prairie UMC & Seed Chapel UMC

Pastor Daniel G. Skelton, M.Div.

 

Scripture (NRSV): Hosea 1:1-11 Today’s scripture reading comes from the minor Prophet Hosea chapter one verses one thru eleven. Listen to the words of a minor, obedient, prophet…

The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri, in the days of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah and in the days of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel.

² When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and have children of prostitution, for the land commits great prostitution by forsaking the Lord.” ³ So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

⁴ And the Lord said to him, “Name him Jezreel, or in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. ⁵ On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

⁶ She conceived again and bore a daughter. Then the Lord said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them. ⁷ But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God; I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”

⁸ When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. ⁹ Then the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”

¹⁰ Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered, and in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” ¹¹ The people of Judah and the people of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head, and they shall rise up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

 

This is the Word of God for the People of God; And all God’s people said, “Thanks be to God.”

 

Introduction:

Every day a woman stood on her porch and shouted, “Praise the Lord!” And every day the atheist next door yelled back, “There’s no Lord!” One day, she prayed “Lord, I’m hungry. Please send me some groceries.” The next morning she found a big bag of food on her stairs. “Praise the Lord,” she shouted. “I told you there was no Lord,” the neighbor said, “I bought those groceries.” “Praise the Lord,” said the woman. “He not only sent me groceries, he made the devil pay for them.”

Last week we encountered a different perspective of God’s question to Amos: God asked Amos, “What do you see?” (Amos 8:2), and instead of saying “plumb-line,” Amos mentioned a “basket of summer fruit” (Amos 8:2). Based upon the actions of the people of Israel, this basket of summer fruit wasn’t a ripe basket of fruit, rather it was a basket of rotten fruit. From this vision, Amos likens the rotten fruit to the faith of the people of Israel: their faith has become rotten and because of this God sees their injustices, their oppressions, and their inequalities. Do you have any “rotten fruit” in your life that is weakening your faith?

After seeing the rotten fruit of the people of Israel, we found ourselves examining the reflection that we see when we look at a mirror. If God is asking Amos to see below the surface of things, then God is asking us the same thing. When we look into a mirror, God needs us to see the creation that he created, the disciple that has been called to bring transformation, the individual that seeks to overcome the fruit of the flesh and live into the fruit of the spirit, and the person who, yes is filled with fear and stress, is filled with hope, grace, and love. God needs us to see below the surface: to see the injustices of this world, to witness the pain that is taking place, and to see the needs of those around us. God needs us to see what is reflected in His mirror of creation.

The mirror on the wall says a lot about who we are from the outside, but the longer we stand in front of it—the longer we allow God to be in our life—the more we begin to see what is inside us. Essentially, we begin to see what God needs us to see. We begin to see the ripe summer fruit of the basket. We begin to see our faith blossom and change the world. We begin to see the creation and image of God that resides in our heart. When you look into a mirror what do you see? When you stood in front of a mirror this past week, did you ask yourself, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, what do you need us to see most of all?”

Today we are introduced to another minor prophet who is on the margins of life, who is told by God to marry a prostitute, and who learns about risky love. Although this wasn’t the life that Hosea saw for himself, marrying an impure woman and naming his children after God’s negative relationship with Israel,  he trusted in God’s plan. Hosea, son of Beeri, in the days of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah, and in the days of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel (Hosea 1:1), trusted God’s plan for his life. In accepting God’s plan for his life, “Hosea,” according to Biblical Scholar Gary V. Smith, “submitted his wishes to God’s will.” He set himself up to feel and know a little bit about the bitterness of God’s plan as well as the depth of God’s love for underserving people.

I ask you today, do you love everyone? Do you love all people? If God told you to love a prostitute, a sinner, someone in prison, someone who “reviled against you and persecuted you” (Matthew 5:11) and did “all kinds of evil against you” (Matthew 5:11), would you be able to trust God and say “Yes, I love them?” Without any excuses or negative comments, Hosea said, “Yes to God.” Could we do the same thing? Following God’s plan involves risky love.

Opening Prayer:

            Let us pray… Dear God of hope, there are moments we feel as though we are separated from you, times where we have chosen our own agendas over you. As we gather to worship today, remind us that despite our wanderings souls, you are still “home” to us, you are still our ultimate trust. May my words fall to the ground as your words settle in the hearts of all those before me. In Your name we pray, Amen.

 

Body:

Hosea begins his ministry by being told by God to get married. Hosea, unlike many prophets before, didn’t get a shot behind a podium. He didn’t get a test run speaking to a king or to a nation. He didn’t get the opportunity to turn a staff into a snake and lead people to the Promised Land. Instead, his first call to Prophet-hood is to get married. However, he isn’t told to marry another righteous, pious, spirit-filled person; rather God wants Hosea to marry a prostitute. “The Lord said to Hosea, ‘Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and have children of prostitution, for the land commits great prostitution by forsaking the Lord’” (Hosea 1:2).

First of all, how many of you would be able to follow God’s plan, if God told you to go marry a prostitute? We have all done some crazy things when it comes to following God’s plan for our life: we have made decisions that have changed our life, we have embarrassed ourselves for the sake of sharing the Gospel, and some of us have even come to trust a Pastor who is not even thirty years old yet. It says in Proverbs 3, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (3:5-6). Would you be able to follow God’s plan, trust God with all your heart, if God told you to go marry a prostitute? I’m sure some of you would have a few choice words to say to God, if God demanded this from you! But yet Hosea didn’t rebuke God’s command. “So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son” (Hosea 1:3).

Second, Gomer, who Hosea marries through risky love, is more than a prostitute. Gomer is a promiscuous woman (NIV), a harlot (NASB), and an adulterer (CEB) (and a whore (KJV)) who has had many lovers and who possibly had children with other men while married to Hosea. Furthermore, the name “Gomer” is used to describe any chronically debilitated patient admitted to a hospital that has little or no hope for recovery. Not only is Gomer a prostitute, but she is a patient of the Israel people who has reached the point of not being  able to recover from her choice of living. Hosea, a prophet of God—a person chosen by God to do God’s work—is told to marry a prostitute that is beyond recovery. This marriage is beyond risky love. But, yet, Hosea chooses to love her. Could you do the same?

This directive to marry Gomer comes on the heels of God being frustrated and fed up with the people of Israel and their rebellious ways. Last week we read these words from Amos 8:9-12, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day. The time is surely coming…when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord but they shall not find it” (Amos 8:9-12). God wants Hosea to know of this despair, that the people of Israel are possibly in a state of no recovery. Because of Israel’s actions God wants Hosea to know the bitter sting of unrequited love. God wants Hosea to know the deep pain of what it’s like to see those who once worshiped, praised, and celebrated you abandon you to false gods. This is why God wants Hosea to marry a prostitute—someone who once seemed faithful but lost faith. After all, Hosea’s children are named after Israel’s deceit towards God as well. This pain is seen in the next generation.

Jezreel means God “will soon punish.” God will soon punish the people of Israel and all those who choose to disobey Him. Lo-Ruhamah means God will have “no compassion, no love.” This child reveals that God will end his tender feelings of deep affection towards the people; that God’s compassionate mercy will no longer be extended to the people of Israel. God gives the third child the name Lo-Ammi which means “not my people.” Israel will no longer be the children of God; their identity will change because they have committed themselves to another lover: “For you are not my people and I am not your God” (Hosea 1:9). According to Smith, “Israel’s unfaithful adultery will to lead to the dissolution of the covenant relationship.” Not only does Hosea come to love Gomer, but he comes to love his children who so happen to represent the fate of his people. Hosea is suffering, but yet he is filled with the love of God. Hosea loves his neighbor as he loves himself. Would you be able to love those who may bring devastation to your people? Essentially, God wants Hosea to experience the same pain that He is experiencing, to embrace and embody a sense of risky love. In order to become a true prophet of God’s word, we must be willing to patiently endure suffering: we must learn how to love all people in all situations even if we don’t want too.

Let me share with you a story about loving people even in the most saddening and devastating moments of life. In 1993, two young men living in Minneapolis got into a gang-related dispute, and one of them shot and killed the other. One was a teenager, and the other was twenty years old. The police informed the teenager’s mother, a woman named Mary Johnson, that her son, Marlon Byrd, had been shot and killed, and the police identified the killer: Oshea Israel. Israel stood trial, was convicted of homicide, and was sent to the local penitentiary. Mary said all the right things after her son died. She explained to the people at the trial that she was a Christian; she was a “daughter of the church.” Thus she would find space in her heart to forgive her son’s killer. After all, that is what Christians do, or at least that is what they are supposed to do. But as time passed, Mary found bitterness and resentment eating away at her soul. If felt almost impossible to let go of the anger she felt.

Mary needed what so many of us need. She needed to be able to pray, “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Praying these words, Mary knew something had to change. She decided to visit Oshea Israel in prison, the killer of her son. She started their meetings with simple discussions designed to get to know each other. After a while, they become friends. Mary even convinced her landlord to have Oshea move into the apartment next door. Mary, who could have hated and despised Oshea for the rest of her life, knew that something needed to change: she knew that love is stronger than hate. If God can love the oppressed, the needy, the poor, the struggling, the rich, the happy, the lost, and the confused, then she could find some way to love Oshea. It was a risky and bold move, but that’s what God needed her to do: to be bold and to listen to her heart. (The Practices of Christian Preaching: Essentials for Effective Proclamation by Jared E. Alcántara, 2019, pg. 146)

Could you do what Mary did? Love someone who took a loved one away from you? Could you love the neighbor that steals from you? Could you love the person who persecutes you, who wrongs you, who trespasses against you? Could you love the person that takes the last carton of your favorite ice cream off the shelf in front of you? Could you love the doctor that may have given you bad news? Could you love the neighbor that repeatedly takes and takes and takes, but never gives anything back? Could you ever love the way Jesus loves?

After witnessing the pain of the Israel people, God saw a love in them that was seen in the prophet Hosea. He saw a risky love: a love that doesn’t come from negative reaction or defeat or grief but rather from the deep trust and grace of God in their hearts. Hosea, although had every right to go against God’s plan to marry Gomer, he knew that with God on his side there was hope that his love for Gomer could change her heart. It was a risky move, but a move that needed to happen. Chapter one of Hosea ends with a similar risky move, a move of restorative love for the people of Israel: “Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered, and in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ it shall be said to them, ‘Children of the living God.’ The people of Judah and the people of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head, and they shall rise up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel” (Hosea 1:10-11).

God loves the people of Israel so much, even though have sinned against him, that he is willing to stand by them and call them “Children of the living God.” God claims, protects, and loves the people of Israel just like He loves each and every one of you: He protects you, He loves you, and He claims you with His whole heart. If God can love us for who we are, then certainly we can do Him a favor and try to love all those in our life. It will be risky, but that’s what God needs us to do.

Conclusion:

Mary Johnson, concluded her story by reciting this poem: “’I would have taken my son’s place on the cross,’ said a mother. ‘Oh, you are the mother of Christ,’ said another mother as she fell to her knee. Kissing the tear away, the first mother said, ‘Tell me who your son is, that I may grieve with you also.’ The second mother said, ‘My son is Judas Iscariot.’” Love is risky, but when we come to embrace Christ’s love we in turn embrace both the sin and sinner and the saint and the blessing. When we trust God, our love grows; and as our love grows, we learn how to love more.

In a rather famous hymn we are reminded of these words: “When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, What a glory He sheds on our way! While we do His good will, He abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey” (Trust and Obey, #467 in The UMH). Through trust, Hosea’s life was changed and filled with love. Through trust, the people of Israel received God’s love. Through trust, Gomer’s heart experienced unconditional love. Through trust, Hosea’s and Gomer’s children became known as “God sows,” “My people,” and “Loved ones.” Through trust in God, we, too, can experience a love from God that changes our life; and this love doesn’t discriminate but allows us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

We don’t decide which persons God should show compassion to, and we do not pick the people who will become the “sons and daughters of the living God.” God loved the whole world and each individual while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). Thus, everyone should expect that God wants us to love the sinful and the righteous people just like He loves them. Loving all people will be risky, but if we want to become true disciples of Jesus Christ, then we must follow in his footsteps. Hosea, a prophet on the margins, came to love a prostitute and her sinful ways. If he can do that, then certainly we can love our neighbor. But the choice is yours… Are you willing to trust God’s plan and to love His people or are you more concerned about your own plan?

Communion Transition:

Gathered around the table with his disciples, Jesus brought forth a love that raises above all sins, all wrongdoings, and all trespasses. This love is unconditional and righteous. It’s a love that calls us to take risks, to listen to his words, and to follow in his footsteps not as separate individuals, but as the Body of Christ. Around this table, we receive a love that will never end but live eternally in our heart, mind, body, and spirit. This love is truly divine and wonderful!

Benediction:

As you go about your week, I pray that God bless you with a love that is understanding, accepting, transforming, and everlasting. May you share this love with all those around you as you take risks trust His words as you build His kingdom here on earth. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit go transforming lives as you live well and wisely in God’s world. Amen. Amen. Amen.

 

Prayer of Confession/ Prayer of the People

God of Salvation,

We are grateful for the gift of your love.

A love that has no bounds, a love that keeps reaching out to us, calling us to you.

We are more than your people … we are your beloved children.

You reiterate throughout scripture your readiness to hear us when we pray to you.

God, you are our father.

God, you are our mother.

God, you are our family.

God, you care for us and love us in ways we cannot comprehend.

Forgive us when we forget how much you love us.

Forgive us for times we are unfaithful to you, times we fail to do as you’ve called.

God, thank you for loving us in the most sacred and scandalous ways.

You are God, and we trust that you journey with us in all things.

Amen.