Now, today is the first Sunday of the school holidays. My kirk is a branch of the local Presbyterian Congregation, and it is aimed at school age and university children and their parents. During the holidays, we go into recess. We attend the morning service. But when you wake up, and the clocks have gone forward so kirk is starting in five minutes, you are profoundly glad that the sung communion at the local liberal congregation is Haydn, in Latin, and therefore the ministrix cannot foul up the words, as she does with anything in English.
Now, since daylight saving has started, there is a high probability that we will get some snow — you cannot tell at this time of the year. It has been 30 degrees one day — and then snowing three days later.
Odd week. I’m another year older, the WordPress counter has gone over 70 000, there are now over 300 posts here, and the purpose of this place remains the same. The one difference is that when I find something to quote that is longer than a tweet, I am putting those things up.
Anyway, to today’s lectionary.Over the last few days there has been a fairly long conversation about the nature of our society. It is apropos that we start reading Hosea. You see, God hates our faithlessness.
1The 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.
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.” 11The people of Judah and the people of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head; and they shall take possession of the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
1Say to your brother, Ammi, and to your sister, Ruhamah.
Now, why have I quoted one of the most unpopular prophets, who was called to marry a woman who had left the joys of being a slut long behind her and had joined the oldest trade in the world? Well, in part it is because there is now a Gomer in almost every woman. SSM notes today that women are bombarded with hypermasculine images in popular culture — from wolverine to twilight — and real men have never been able to compete with fiction.
Most men won’t measure up to the man in her head. Eventually she’ll settle, but how happy of a union will that be? The man might be a normal man – most men probably are “normal” men – but he’s going to seem more beta that he would have been perceived as being 100 years ago.
Is game a partial solution to this problem? Maybe. It certainly can’t hurt for a man to up his assertiveness, and it will certainly be effective to trigger that emotional/sexual attraction response.
But somehow it makes me a little sad to think that most men really aren’t pussies but still have to learn how to manipulate a woman’s emotions in order to have a functional relationship.
You see, Hosea was asked to sacrifice almost everything in a very obvious way. God was making a point. Israel had been unfaithful. Now the current infidelity we see — inside our heads, in the books we read, the images we like (and we all have them) occurs because we are not taught correctly — nor are we trained correctly. Marriage is not about a warm glow of love and a white dress. It is about cleaning up kids vomit at 2 am, and walking the child with colic so your wife can sleep. As that wise woman Ezra noted…
Because even good Christian girls have watched hours of network TV, and read scores of popular novels, and seen way too many chick-flicks…and Whomever their Eddie Vedder might be to them…
…they marry, and find themselves B-O-R-E-D.
Not because their new husband is boring, but because they never learned that refinement of character comes through the small things; the daily things – the grind of Groundhog Day (The Movie) over and over and over again.
They have not been taught that marriage is not a form of entertainment for women, but a crucible for the refinement of love, and an avenue for dying to one’s self on a very regular basis.
This false teaching leads to us looking for that we cannot find in one person. Most of us are ordinary, and those who play superheroes are actors, frequently highly paid ones. There are very few saints in this world. But in our wish that our spouse was something he is not we go elsewhere for comfort, and this leads to a fall
By the time it finally happens, we are both already lost. We have continually compromised, steadily given in to the monsters inside. We have gazed into the abyss of our hearts and justified our need, our selfish desire for far too long, flirting with disaster. All the while Satan has waited, crouching, laughing for the final surrender.
In this moment, I am no longer following the rules, being a good girl, being a victim.
I willingly become a whore.
Stolen moments pass and days full of agony and shame drift by. I know I am drowning in a foul pit of destruction, know I am bending and swaying to Satan’s siren call.
And the most devastating knowledge of all? The foretold rottenness ingrained in the very nature of my soul? It is uncovered, raw, exposed:
I don’t care.
Then we are caught. And life implodes with fury and hurt. Consequences for the affair come swiftly, and they come hard. I feel my identity being ripped away; the separation violent and bloody. When I made my choice, I threw away the beauty of being a wife, a mother, a friend.
(One of the virtues of the internet is that there are enough sinners thinking they are Hosea. They are publicly saying that they have been manwhores or sluts. In. places. their. children. can. easily. read. We can either use the witness of fools as an example of what NOT to do or, as fools ourselves we can follow the herd).
Yes, as a society and as individuals we have fallen. Those of us who see this and try to train our children differently are working completely against the culture. But that is our duty, and that is our task.
And this task has rewards. If our words and prayers mean that one person turns back from the road to perdition, that one family is saved, then the effort and expense, the pain, the criticism, of commenting and writing on the net.
13Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. 14Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. 17Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.
19My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, 20you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
These conversations are not polite. They are not nice. They are ugly, confrontational, and I would rather not need them. But we are in crisis. The time for politeness is gone. Our children are suffering. Our men are giving up.
Retreating into fantasy is no longer an option.As our society rots, it will affect everyone. We need to pray, today, and all days, that Our God will not divorce us, but instead will hold us until the time of restoration. The tide of falsehood and evil is rising, We need to be firmly held by him, tied into the rock of truth, to stand against the spiriti of this time.