A Wee Blether

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Ayr: St. Columba Church
May 4, 2008

What Shall I Do With You?
Hosea 6.1-6

1 “Come, let us return to the LORD.
He has torn us to pieces
but he will heal us;
he has injured us
but he will bind up our wounds.

2 After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will restore us,
that we may live in his presence.

3 Let us acknowledge the LORD;
let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
like the spring rains that water the earth.”

4 “What can I do with you, Ephraim?
What can I do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist,
like the early dew that disappears.

5 Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,
I killed you with the words of my mouth;
my judgments flashed like lightning upon you.

6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

(for audio click on the link above)

On Radio 4 last week, I heard an interesting discussion with a children’s book publisher and children’s book author on the newly proposed children’s book rating scheme. Not unlike the movie rating system, publishers have proposed rating children’s books according to age appropriateness, and prominently placing each book’s rating on the cover.

7+ for some books, 10+ for others, “Teen” for the rest.

What struck me about the interview, however, was not the merits of the rating system, but one of the questions asked by the interviewer. He said, “But isn’t it difficult to tell how to rate each book? For example, Christian parents will certainly have different standards for their children’s reading than, say, humanist parents.”

I let out an audible gasp, and tried to keep the car on the road. Is Britain truly in a position in which a well-educated Radio 4 host knows so little about Christianity (and presumably knows so few Christian parents) that he assumes the standards of Christian parents are somehow mysterious, prudish, and completely out-of-step with the recommendations of teachers and librarians? Or alternatively, maybe the interviewer thinks humanists feed their children a steady stream of adult literature, heavy on violence, sex, and drugs.

I’m not sure, but I am certain that the host hasn’t been reading the book of Hosea recently.

You see, Hosea’s rating would be off the charts. In the first chapter God instructs Hosea “to take a wife of whoredom, have children of whoredom, because the land commits great whoredom for forsaking the Lord” (1:2). And the second chapter is even more brutal.

The Lord condemns Israel with language shocking and profane. “Plead with your mother….that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts, or I will strip her naked and expose her as in the day she was born….Upon her children also I will have no pity, because they are children of whoredom” (2:2-4).

Clearly God would be not in favor of a Biblical book rating system–Hosea would have to be cut out of the Bible entirely.

The book of Hosea continues in a similar manner for several chapters, God accusing Israel of unfaithfulness, idolatry, bloodshed, theft, stubbornness, pride, greed, and murder.

Before tonight’s reading from chapter six, there’s hope, but not much. The Lord is fed up; it’s high time to call Israel to repentance.

So as we come to chapter six, a chorus responds to the Lord’s resounding rebuke.

Come, let us return to the Lord, they sing.
After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.

Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord,
his appearing is as sure as the dawn;
he will come to us like the showers,
like the spring rains that water the earth. (6:1-3)

After six chapters of the Lord listing Israel’s many sins, it makes sense to approach the people’s return to God with great skepticism.

It’s like a mother who counsels her daughter not to go out with that crowd tonight. The Mom just has a bad feeling about it, suspecting this group of friends is up to no good. But a fight ensures, the daughter eventually slamming the door, shouting insults. And when the daughter misses curfew, and it gets later and later, and eventually a call comes from the police reporting the child is drunk at the station, the mother still hurries as fast as she can to rescue her daughter for danger.

And so the Lord responds to the people’s supposed change of heart, as a loving parent might, disgusted, angry, but always-loving.

I bet you’re familiar with the phrase the Lord uses–either because you use it yourself, or because it’s used about you:

The Lord responds to the supposedly repentant chorus, exclaiming:
What am I going to do with you?

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
What, God wonders, am I going to do with you?

Ephraim, a region of Canaan known for its great richness and security, fertile plains and well-watered valleys had lost its way.

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? Corrupt Ephraim, wicked Ephraim. Hosea writes that Ephraim is consumed by corruption. Government official accept bribes; the king encourages drunkenness, and the pride of the people separates them from God. The people lie about God; they slander their maker.

What shall I do with you, O Judah? Judah, fallen as well, with leadership who seek their own gain above others, and deny the God of all. Powerful Judah, that should fortify towns for the Lord, but denigrates them instead. Judah, too concerned about its own matters to consider its God.

Indeed, what is the Lord going to do with you, O Ephraim, O Judah?

And so we read our bibles and wonder, What shall I do with you, O Britain? Great Britain who once colonized the world, and now fails to show hospitality to immigrants. Britain, king of credit card debt, while obesity rises. Britain bamboozled by Bush into violence and war. Britain, still suspicious of those from other economic classes. Britain, in many ways, a post-Christian nation, and more so every day.

What shall I do with you, O Ayrshire?
Ayrshire, where it is all too easy, and too comfortable to overlook the sad plight of others. Beautiful Ayrshire, in which youth loiter and litter, and elders only shrug. Ayrshire, with its drug and alcohol addictions. Ayrshire, where folks decide its just much easier to speak about your neighbors, than to them.

What is God going do with us?

The truth is, we’re all captive. Ephraim, Judah, Britain, America, Ayrshire. No place on earth escapes by our own doing. As one confession puts it, “We are in bondage to sin, and cannot free ourselves.”

In chapter 10, Hosea describes sin and captivity with the agricultural metaphor: “You have ploughed wickedness, you have reaped injustice, you have eaten the fruit of lies.” And that is true for us. We are caught in sin’s cycle, harvesting the food that does not nourish.

We are so consumed with the daily grind, the status quo, the same old same old that we cannot see a holy way forward. We’ll complain about others maybe, but we won’t be the change we want to see.

It’s part of the human condition, our tendency to list and dissect other people’s problems, issues, and sins, but to leave our own neither described nor addressed.

Friends, we reap what we sow, and we separate ourselves from God, denying God’s good intentions for us.

…But, that’s not this book’s ending. That’s not how God responds. What am I going to do with you?

The Lord’s indictments in Hosea, continue to the very last chapter. To the end, the Lord calls for justice–but there is none. To the end, the Lord demands peace and equity–none of that either. To the end, the Lord cries for rightness of heart, and knowledge of the Lord–from Ephraim, from Judah, from Israel, from America, from Britain, and from Ayrshire, but there is none.

What am I going to do with you?

I will heal their disloyalty;
I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned from them.

I will be like the dew to Israel;
he shall blossom like the lily,
he shall strike root like the forests of Lebanon…

They shall flourish as a garden;
they shall blossom like a vine,
their fragrance shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?
It is I who answer and look after you.
I am like an evergreen cypress;
your faithfulness comes from me.

Those who are wise understand these things;
those we are discerning know them.
For the ways of the Lord are right,
and the upright walk in them,
but transgressors stumble. (14:1-9)

What is the Lord going to do with us?

No. The question is:
What are we going to do with the Lord?