Keep your eyes on the prize.
Proper 13, Year C
The book of Hosea is a collection of sermons and poems by the prophet for whom this book is named. Hosea preached and wrote over the course of 25 years around 722 BCE. This book preserves God’s communications with Hosea. These communications show us God partnering with Hosea to keep Israel’s eye on the prize. Hosea experienced and internalized God’s message in his marriage. Gomar, his wife, had many affairs. Hosea was angry and felt betrayed by his wife. Hosea and Gomar loved one another and loved their children. Hosea and Gomar reconciled, Gomar stopped seeing other men, and Hosea paid the debts Gomar accumulated while philandering. The process of Hosea’s betrayal and reconciliation allowed him to experience and internalize God’s process with Israel. God was angry and felt betrayed by Israel. God initially responded to Israel by directing Hosea to tell Israel’s its bad behavior had been noticed and would be punished. Later, God had a change of heart. God directed Hosea to inform Israel that God would continue to love Israel in spite of their bad behavior.
What made God angry? How did Israel betray God? Israel’s political corruption, social injustice, economic oppression, and false piety caused these responses from God. God angrily pointed out their errors in Hosea’s sermons and poems. God disciplined them to prevent them from inflicting greater harm on others and themselves. Hosea sometimes referred to Israel as Ephraim. God’s errant child, Ephraim, violated the Commandments. Ephraim disobeyed the first Commandment, worshipping other gods. Ephraim violated the fifth Commandment by not honoring the fathers and mothers in the country. They refused to care for the orphans and widows of these parents. Ephraim coveted neighboring nation’s possessions and life styles, breaking the tenth Commandment. Israel’s leaders were enriching themselves at the expense of others. Ephraim, God’s child, behaved badly. God, a good parent, punished Ephraim. God used the Assyrian empire to discipline Ephraim. Assyria attacked, conquered, exiled Israel’s leaders and (in 722 BCE) unseated the corrupt King Jeroboam.
In the midst of disciplining Ephraim, God remembered.
When Israel was a child, I loved them, so out of Egypt I called my children. …I taught Ephraim to walk, took them into my arms; but they did not know that it was me feeding and healing them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like a parent lifting an infant to their cheek. When they were newborn, I fed them from my breast. When they were toddlers, I chewed their food making it soft enough for them to eat. Hosea 11:1, 3-4
In the midst of the mayhem resulting from Israel’s sins and God’s punishments, God relented. Contrary to the proverb, sparing the rod had not spoiled the child. But, God realized, sparing the rod would demonstrate unconditional love for the child. God would not allow Israel’s foolish, bad and sinful behaviors compromise or sever divine love. Hosea communicated God confession
I cannot give up Ephraim. How can I hand over Israel to an enemy? …My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger; I cannot destroy Ephraim; I am God and I am not a mortal, I am the Holy One in your midst, and I will not be overcome by wrath. …I will return Israel to their homes, says the Lord. Hosea 11:8a, 8c, 9b, 11b
God relented because God is good. In the Black Church there is a saying, ’God is good all the time; and all the time God is God.’ God got angry, but then remembered. God remembered that God is love. God remembered Israel, like God’s other children, was created by God with the capacity to choose. All God’s children were free to choose. Adam and Eve made good and bad choices. Israel, throughout its history, made good and bad choices. This time was no different than the times that proceeded or the times that would follow. Punishing Israel for exercising the capacity God gave them did not make sense. Destroying them would not help them to keep their eye on the prize. So God, kept God’s own eye on the prize by showing mercy to Ephraim. God kept God’s eye on the prize by guiding Ephraim away from foolish, bad and sinful behaviors. God loved and forgave Israel.
We must do the same. We must keep our eyes on the prize. No matter what happens, we must remember that we are loved and forgiven. We must remember that we have a choice. We can choose to forgive and to love. We must remember that we are children of the most high. We are citizens of heaven and resident aliens or undocumented people on earth. Paul, partnered with God to teach how to keep one’s eye on the prize. Paul told the Christians in Colossea
…you have been raised with Christ, so seek the things that are above, where Christ is and where you are from. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth…cloth yourselves with this new self, which is being renewed …according to the image of the Creator. In this renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; Christ is all and we are all in Christ! Colossians 3:1-2, 10-11
Jesus used a parable to teach us to keep our eyes on the prize. The parable in the Gospel lesson might sound like this if Jesus were telling it today.
A bunch of nerds launch a tech venture. Their business became outrageously successful. They made it a publicly traded company, sold shares and got a lot of money. They took a buyout offer and got even more money. After this, one of the tech nerds said to herself, `What should I do? I have no family to share this fortune. Then she thought, `I know what I can do: I will create digital banks, that lend and invest money through electronic transactions. Then I will say to my soul, `Your money is making money, you can spend the rest of your life enjoying the good things.' But God said to the tech nerd, `You are an idiot! Tonight you will spill, fall and break your neck on the marble floor you installed in your bathroom and die. What will all your money do for you when you’re dead?' Luke 12:16-20
Jesus taught this same lesson about keeping our eyes on the prize in the Gospel of Matthew. We hear this passage every Ash Wednesday.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal. Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21
What we treasure, claims our heart. What we focus on, influences our decisions, words and actions. My father taught me to drive. Pop, during one of our many practice drives, told me to change the station on the car radio. As I fiddle with the car radio, Pop asked me to look up at the road. He asked me notice the direction the car had moved while I was paying attention to the radio. The car had drifted to the left side of the lane, the direction where my hand and mind had gone to fiddle with the radio. My mind went away from the road and so did the the car.
We must keep our eye on the prize. The prize is God loves and forgiveness. We must love and forgive others and ourselves as we have been loved and forgiven. We must keep our eyes on the prize.
