An Odd Love Story

24th July 2022

Hosea 1: 2-10

Luke 11: 1-4

This is the second week in a row we have the judgmental ranting of an OT prophet!

Last Sunday it was Amos proclaiming human sin and divine judgement.

Today this same pattern is proclaimed by the prophet Hosea – but with Hosea it’s more personal, and it’s not all bad news – there is a glimpse of divine restoration.

This is an odd love story.

The prophet Hosea marries the prostitute, whose name was Gomer.

The prophet and the prostitute.

Goodness choosing depravity for a partner,

Wisdom embracing folly,

Faithfulness marrying unfaithfulness.

It’s a strange tale

And I hope you can clearly see how we are NOT to understand this:

this is NOT a passage written as a guide to a happy marriage!

It’s not Christian marriage advice.

It’s more like one of those stories where a prince braves obstacles to rescue a fair maiden.

This is a prophetic passage, and the human relationships are referenced to help us understand another relationship – that of Israel with God.

This story of Hosea tells us that God chose to “marry” beneath his class.

God chooses those unsavoury little creatures scrambling around on planet earth who are called human beings. He chooses them to be soul mates.

And from within the range of races and nations, God chooses a minor and cantankerous tribe called the Jews to be the agent of bringing all nations into the light.

Like Gomer, isn’t our faithfulness disastrously fickle?

But God always keeps his side of the covenant.

On our side we fail badly and often.

The glitter of the world draws us away. And we go on the streets again, as it were.

It seems likely that Gomer left Hosea .

She slipped back into her old ways.

Hosea was the type of person who continued to worry about the well-being of  Gomer. He still loved her and longed for her rehabilitation.

It’s an illustration of divine love (toward humanity).

Hosea felt impelled to go and look for Gomer. You will find the incident in Chapter 3. 

Evidently Gomer had sunk low.

She had become the sex slave of another man. Literally a slave; owned by this fellow. If Hosea wanted her back he would have to buy her.

We are told that Hosea bought her for 15 shekels and a measure of barely.

Half price in fact, so low had Gomer’s market value fallen. Thirty shekels was the usual price of a slave.

Gomer was redeemed for 15 shekels along with some measures of grain.

Hosea took this slave woman (of depreciated value) back home.

We know how important home-comings are, don’t we?

They are about being together; belonging.

And I know for many of you in the last couple of years there has been frustration and agony as you have had obstacles preventing home-comings.

In experiencing longed-for home-comings, you can relate to this story of Hosea.

Carrying out his own ‘rescue mission’ of Gomer, Hosea is living out God’s way of loving.

In a wonderful passage (further on in chapter 11), [God’s] love cries out in anguish:

            How can I give you up, O Ephraim!

            How can I hand you over, O Israel!

In a beautiful way, do you see how this love of Hosea foreshadows the love of God?

That exquisitely painful love which would be shown in its ultimate fullness when Jesus of Nazareth came amongst us, full of grace and truth.

God’s love would do at least as much as Hosea felt impelled to do for Gomer.

God’s love did not ever end for the human race.

Not now. Not ever.

Christ Jesus crucified, testifies to this unbreakable covenant of love.

God is committed to the astounding mismatch.

By redeeming grace, we become God’s partners once more.

Bless you, Hosea, for preparing us for Christ!

We are redeemable.

No matter how often we fail through foolishness, not matter how many times we fail through wilfulness, God does not wipe his hands of any of us.

We, the fools and rebels who prostitute our gifts and energies to many other masters, have a God who comes looking for us in the dark places.

God comes calling our name , not to treat us like dirt and condemn us, but to reclaim us as soul mates.

Even if it costs God everything.

That is the Gospel. That is the amazing truth. Bet your life on it!

So today we see redemption hope is given by the prophet Hosea.

Redemption arrives in the One who came to invite us into a restored relationship with “Our Father…”

In today’s Gospel reading the disciples want to know how to pray, and Jesus gives them a model prayer.

“Our Father…”

Disciples are invited to pray with the same familiarity that Jesus prays.

This is a whole new assumption about how know and speak with God

We are invited to trust.

This prayer Jesus teaches is very brief.

How many times have you ‘suffered’ the prayers of the long-winded?

Only one who is supremely qualified can offer that concentrated wisdom!

Many sermons can (quite rightly) be preached on the Lord’s Prayer.

But today what I want us to recognise about the Lord’s Prayer is just one thing:

that it’s Jesus Christ who teaches us this prayer.

He is the One who brings God’s grace to reconcile us back to God.

He is the One from God who restores us through his life, death and resurrection.

He is the One who is faithful and true,

and shares with us his pure and full expression of relationship with God

…Our Father.

Praise be to our Saviour!  Amen.