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Derek Wadlington, preacher
Colossians 2:6-15 (16-19)
6As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
8See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. 9For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. 11In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; 12when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. 13And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, 14erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. 15He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.
16Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. 17These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, 19and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.
Hosea 1:2-10
2When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, "Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD." 3So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4And the LORD said to him, "Name him Jezreel; for 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. 5On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel."
6She 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. 7But 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."
8When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. 9Then the LORD said, "Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people and I am not your God."
10Yet 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.'
"And yet…"
Whenever I think of how difficult my life is, all I have to do is look at the lives of the prophets to put any troubles I might have into perspective.
Take for instance Jonah, who tried to flee God’s calling and ended up in the belly of a whale.
Or Jeremiah, who was told to walk around for a time in nothing but a dirty jockstrap as an example of how soiled Israel had become.
Or Ezekiel, who was forced to build a model of Jerusalem. God then had Ezekiel lie on his left side in front of the model for 390 days to represent the number of years of punishment for Israel. At the end of 390 days Ezekiel then had to lie on his right side, again for 390 days. That would not be my first choice of how I would like to spend more than 2 years of my life.
And then there is our passage for today. As I mentioned during announcements, this text is part of the Sunday lectionary series. It is quite troublesome – believe me when I say I would not have chosen this text had it not been part of the lectionary cycle for today – but that is precisely why it is important for us to hear this passage and reflect on it.
Hosea lived during the time after the civil war of Israel, when the kingdom was divided into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Hosea lived and worked in the northern kingdom, Israel. God was not happy with Israel during those days, and Hosea was called to make it clear that God was not pleased with how the people were living.
The first verse tells us that Hosea is a prophet and lets us know where and when he lived. Then we start today’s text, and from the first verse it is a doozy. I chose to read the NRSV translation because it tends to follow the Hebrew a little more precisely and in the case of this passage captures a much harsher tone. If you refer to the NIV translation in your pews the phrase “a wife of whoredom” is translated as “a woman of adulterous nature.” While this is also clearly a bad thing, it loses the force and, well, vulgarity of the author’s intent in this passage.
Another translation could have been “take a wife of prostitution” but the point of this verse is to demonstrate the extreme unfaithfulness of Israel to God. Idol worship, turning to other gods, turning away from God: those are the charges here. God is mad that the covenant made between Israel and God seems to be meaningless to Israel, and God intends to punish Israel’s unfaithfulness.
The name given to this wife of Hosea is Gomer. They have three children, each of which represents some aspect of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God and the punishment promised by God.
First is a son, Jezreel. This son represents the blood that had been spilled during the time of Jezebel and fulfilled the prophecy of Elijah that (2 Kings 9:36) “In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel.” This punishment is to be given exclusively to the northern kingdom of Israel.
The second is a daughter, Lo-Ruhamma. This name translated means literally “not pity” or “not compassion” as God will no longer have compassion for Israel. This child represents the action God will have towards Israel.
In verse 7 we find that again this punishment is limited exclusively to Israel, the northern kingdom. Judah, in the south, will still be seen favorably in the eyes of the Lord.
The third child is Lo-Ammi. Translated literally it means “not my people.” This represents God breaking ties with the people of Israel, the punishment for their unfaithfulness through the years. This is the ultimate punishment God can deliver: to sever the covenant relationship God made with Israel as the chosen people.
How did it get to this point? It could be seen as starting with the people demanding a king to lead them. It could be seen as starting in garden when Adam and Eve decided that having the knowledge forbidden them was more important than following God obediently.
In our world we separate ourselves from God all the time. When things are going well – despite the downturn in the stock market last week and the war in Iraq, things in this country are indeed going well – we all too often take the credit for our success and decide that it is we that are responsible for our great successes. We worship other gods – money, success, sports, television – instead of focusing on God.
It is no wonder God turned on Israel. The warring, the greed, the thought that humans were more knowledgeable about how the world should work, all take a toll and drive apart the relationship they had with God. Just as we heard in the Amos passage that Warren read last Sunday, God is tired of those taking advantage of the poor and the needy, of those using the Sabbath for their own gain, of using deceitful practices to get ahead. God is set to send a famine on the land as punishment. Hosea is preparing the people for the same punishment.
And yet. And yet. Verse 10 states: (Hosea 1:10) 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."
God has forgiven Israel. This passage has turned from a court case, moving from accusation, judgment and punishment to one of heavenly grace. Justice on a divine level.
Even though Israel has completely ignored the covenant bond God made with it, God has chosen to remain faithful. This abrupt turn is astonishing. And yet it is perfectly in character with the God who we know primarily through love.
God so loved Israel that God could not forsake them, no matter how badly they had distanced themselves from God. And God so loved the world that God gave us Jesus to save it.
That’s what this passage is all about. The incredible, astonishing, complete commitment of God to God’s children. Israel does not deserve this action. Israel certainly hasn’t earned this, and even if it had, that is not why God would choose to remain faithful to the covenant.
It is about God’s grace, plain and simple. Israel did not deserve it, just as we do not deserve it. And yet, God’s grace abound.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Derek Wadlington, preacher
Colossians 1:1-14
1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
3In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel 6that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. 7This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
9For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. 11May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Luke 10:25-37
25Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" 27He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." 28And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."
29But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' 36Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" 37He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
"Room at the Inn?"
The lawyer asked Jesus: "And who is my neighbor?"
What seems a fairly simple question is actually quite loaded. This passage follows the story of the sending of the seventy that Kim preached on last week, and a blessing and private moment with the disciples during which Jesus tells them they are blessed because of God’s favorable view of them, not because of their intellectual prowess.
And then this passage happens. The first thing we get is, ironically, a lawyer, a smart guy who approaches Jesus and asks about eternal life. This lawyer must be a Pharisee because he asks how he would obtain eternal life. A major difference between Pharisees and Sadducees was that Pharisees believed in resurrection and Sadducees did not.
Jesus asks him what he reads – the Pharisee priests wore around their wrists paper inscribed with what they considered to be the most important verses of scripture, which would have certainly included the commandment to love God with your whole heart and mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. These are all strict commandments from Deuteronomy and Leviticus held dear by the Pharisees.
It is the question about ‘who is my neighbor’ in which the lawyer tries to catch Jesus in a trap. For the Pharisee, the answer would almost certainly have been ‘who is my brother in faith.’ That is the view that the Pharisees had: take care of your own and stay away from everyone else as they are either unclean, heathens, or both.
Jesus’ parable confronts him directly on this viewpoint. While in our modern eyes this story seems like a fairly obvious decision must be made, the parable is loaded with religious and ethnic significance to the listeners of Jesus’ time.
The road from Jerusalem to Jericho is notoriously treacherous. Even until the last few decades of the 20th century it was roamed by gangs of thieves looking for easy targets to attack and plunder and known to be extremely dangerous. A man traveling alone on the road, like the man Jesus’ tells about, would have been viewed by the listeners as foolhardy at best, and deserving of everything he got at the worst. It would probably have been assumed he was a merchant or trader, putting him in a place of very low regard as the listener would have assumed him to be dishonest and greedy.
The priest comes along, and crosses to the other side. We might assume that the priest feared that the man was dead and didn’t want to touch him. According to religious law, touching a dead person would have made the priest unclean and prevented him from taking part in priestly duties at the temple for a set amount of time. The priest would not have wanted to miss out on the honor of being a temple leader and would have avoided being defiled. If this were the case the priest would have been putting his religious duties above taking care of the wounded man.
That might be acceptable for the priest except for one thing: the priest was headed away from Jerusalem, so he would not have had any temple obligations waiting him. Knowing that it seems the priest simply didn’t want to help and chose to ignore the man by crossing to the other side.
The Levite also would have been associated with the temple, and might have had the same concerns as the priest, but again he too was traveling away from the temple so this should not have stopped him from helping. It is possible that he supposed this was a trap: thieves would sometimes fake injuries trying to lure unsuspecting marks into their sights, and this could have been a setup. But Jesus’ story doesn’t even allow that the Levite showed any interest in the man at all. He simply couldn’t be bothered to so much as glance towards the severely injured man to check on him as he also crossed to the other side of the road in order to avoid having to deal with him.
The audience of the day would have known that these teachings usually happen in sets of three, so they would have expected another person to come by. What they would not have expected was that the third traveler would have been a Samaritan.
The Samaritan would have been viewed by the Pharisees listening to Jesus’ parable as a bad guy, the type they might boo and hiss at if he were to come onscreen in a movie.
First of all he would have been seen as someone who was ethnically different, and therefore one to be avoided at all costs.
Second: because he was walking alone on the road he would have been seen as a merchant or trader, another major strike against him.
Third, because of his obviously good relationship with the innkeeper it would have been assumed that he regularly stayed in inns, which means he would not have “good” homes to stay in while he traveled and would have been associating with other merchants and people of ill repute.
So it must have come as a great shock for the listeners to hear that is the Samaritan who is moved with pity upon seeing the beaten man lying in a ditch. I want to make a translation note here: I believe that a better translation is that instead of being moved by pity, the Samaritan was moved with compassion. That is a closer translation to the Greek word used there and makes a difference.
When you pity someone you are often looking down on someone, not sharing their pain or grief. But when you have compassion for someone you are feeling a connection with them, sharing a moment of concern. It may seem like I am nit-picking, but to me it notes a major difference in the emotional connection between the two men.
The Samaritan takes the man to an inn and leaves him there under the care of the innkeeper. It is evident that he has good credit; the innkeeper is willing to keep the man, take care of him and run a tab for the expenses. It could be that the man stays there often. Perhaps the man does this sort of thing on a regular basis, helping out those in trouble and providing a place where someone can take care of them.
Either way we know that the injured man is rescued by the Samaritan, a person willing to ignore the risk of a trap, willing to overlook social boundaries and provide help where it is needed. It is a truly human response, an outreach to make a connection with another soul in need no matter what the potential risk might be.
When Jesus asks the lawyer who in the story acted as a neighbor, the lawyer steps outside of his own religious and personal boundaries and recognizes that the Samaritan is the only one who truly acted the part. Jesus’ response is simple and direct: "Go and do likewise."
Where do we fit into this parable? Certainly I like to think I act like the Samaritan, but more often than not I find myself acting more along the lines of the priest and the Levite. It is easy to convince oneself that someone else will come along soon and help, or that I am too busy to stop my important task to offer assistance.
Sometimes it is the fear of opening up, of exposing myself to danger. Or exposing myself to the fact that I may not be able to help at all even if I want to. It is easy to convince yourself that they probably don’t need me.
Tom Long, a professor at Candler School of Divinity at Emory University, says that we are at best the man lying in the ditch. We lie in the ditch; beaten and broken, waiting for help, hoping that someone will come along and save us. We are incapable of anything more. Certainly this fits in with John Calvin’s view of total depravity, which basically says we are a totally sinful people unable to look beyond our own selfish needs.
Another perspective was offered up by Laura Mendenhall, president of Columbia Theological Seminary, who preached a sermon last year on this text that I liked very much. Her viewpoint agrees in part with Tom Long’s, that we can never be the Samaritan (which does not mean that we shouldn’t try to be like the Samaritan). That role falls to Jesus.
We should instead look to the innkeeper as a role model. People will be brought our way for help by the Samaritan and we can take them in and nurse them back to health, both physically and spiritually. It is not our position to judge who is brought our way but to welcome them in and provide for them.
So we must ask ourselves the same question Jesus asked the lawyer: Who is our neighbor?
We heard today from our youth about their experience on the Gulf Coast. Hurricane Katrina played the part of a gang of thieves, leaving many people bruised and battered, lying in a ditch with nothing. Representatives of our church traveled two days to get there to do whatever they could to help. They expected nothing in return, but were rewarded with far more than they possibly could have asked for.
That is a great example of this lesson in our lives, one that I hope we repeat again annually whether it is to Mississippi or Mexico or a destination closer to home.
In the meantime we can reach out to people right here in the Middle Spring and Shippensburg community. There are many opportunities in the church and community waiting for us, hoping we don’t cross to the other side of the road to avoid getting involved.
Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"
"The one who showed him mercy."
Jesus said "Go and do likewise."
Amen