Once again, I find at Zion Church new experiences. This past Sunday I preached for the first time on Hosea 1:2-10, the passage that talks about Hosea and his promiscuous wife Gomer. There seemed to be so many themes drawing my attention, none least the theme that even our life experiences (good and not so good) may (in the hands of God) becomes means by which we hear God and even feel our hearts beat in sympathy with His heart. This empathy is, I believe, to authentic pastoral and prophetic ministry.

The text is below the audio; the sermon begins about four minutes into the recording. If you can, please view the video…

https://zionepiscopal.com/Sermon%20Videos/seventh-sunday-after-pentecost.html

Sermon preached at Zion Episcopal Church, Washington NC
Sunday 24th 2022
The Reverend Alan Neale
“No becomes Yes in God’s Hands”

It’s good to be home and back in the family of Zion Church! Thank you all for taking such good and constant care of this sacred and happy community.
We stayed most of the time in an Airbnb Carriage House in Killingly, CT. The house is owned by two UCC ministers; one of them, Jon, is a minister at Enfield Congregational Church where Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon on July 8th 1741. The sermon title? “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. The sermon was the spark of the First Great Awakening, a phenomenal revival that spread through the Northeast. After his sermon 500 gave their lives to Christ.
The sermon was over forty minutes long, and spoke vigorously and often of an angry God.

But fear not, I intend to neither emulate the length nor the content/tone of the sermon.

And yet, I would not be treating you like adults, grown-up people, if I chose to avoid our first reading from the prophet Hosea. Here we read that Hosea marries a promiscuous woman, maybe with hopes of change. Those hopes are dashed and children suffer (as they often do) with names and attitudes of doom and gloom.

These past Sundays we have read about the prophet Amos; here was a prophet who understood the heart of God as he pondered… a plumb line by a building project, or a bowl of summer fruit on a neighbor’s window.
But not so with Hosea; his insight in to the divine heart, his experience of the divine agony, his empathy with the divine trauma was thoroughly subjective not conveniently objective, it was a life experience rather than a visual observation.
Commentator after commentator, women and men, all bemoan and lament the latent and cruel sexism in Hosea which, in the hands of the wicked, can justify, has justified mean, vile and wretched abuse. Oh how wicked and perverse can be the human heart!

Here there is nothing to suggest we emulate Hosea, there is no exhortation that we should be like him. And yet, some of us will identify with Hosea, with Gomer and with the children… we find ourselves in situations of pain, confusion and we wonder… why?
Now whether this is factual account or poetic allegory, we learn profoundly that it is the prophet’s role to gaze deeply, with penetrating stare, into the heart and anguish of God…

Hosea challenges us to confront, to imagine, the divine agony as those whom He loves ignore, reject His invitation. Remember these words in our Eucharistic Prayer? “You made us in our image… but we rebelled against you and wandered far away… (and again) He yearned to draw all the world to Himself yet we were heedless of his call to walk in love.” As we continue as friends of God, so we grow in understanding, even experiencing, the divine heart.

You may have spent enough time with me to know that a favorite, oft used phrase of mine is “it occurs to me”. I use it as I reflect upon ordinary and commonplace situations and events; and I try to use it as I endure personal struggle. “It occurs to me”, that very phrase, then becomes a springboard, a catalyst, a trigger for me to hear the voice of God and even to have my heart, my deepest being, resonate with the heart, the deepest being of God. This is why I find it helpful to have a spiritual director, a therapist… that with them I may understand a little more clearly the experiences and the observations of my life. I am always available to listen and share your journey!

You will have noticed, I am sure, that the minor key of Hosea chapter 1 verses 1-9 is transformed into a glorious major key in verse 10 when “not-my-people” becomes “my-people – children of the living God”.
These good words, these Gospel words, are sharply disjunctive. They undo the condemnation. Only God can undo God’s own NOT. Here there is no mention of change or repentance, verse 10 is not a reward for repenting, sincerely or otherwise. The movement from the three names of the benighted children denotes a change in God! The three names are a “Good Friday”. There is death in Israel. Verse 10 is an “Easter”. There is a promised re-creation.
Friends, this is the God whom we worship, the God with whom we are in relationship. Righteous ever, gracious evermore.

I finish with a poem written by Myra Brooks Welch in 1921

The Touch of the Master’s Hand
‘Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Through it was scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But held it up with a smile:
“What am I bidden, good folks,” he cried,
“Who’ll start the bidding for me?”
“A dollar, a dollar”; Then, “Two!” “Only two?
Two dollars, and who’ll make it three?
Three dollars, once; three dollars, twice;
Going for three—“But no,
From the back of the room, far back, a gray-haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow;
Then, wiping the dust from the old violin,
And tightening the loose strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet
As a caroling angel sings.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer,
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said: “What am I bid for the old violin?”
And he held it up with the bow.
“A thousand dollars, and who’ll make it two?
Two thousand! And who’ll make it three?
Three thousand, once, three thousand, twice,
And going, and gone,” said he.
The people cheered, but some of them cried,
“We do not quite understand
What changed it’s worth.” Swift came the reply:
“The touch of a master’s hand.”
And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd
Much like the old violin.
A “mess of pottage,” “a glass of wine,”
A game–and he travels on.
He’s “going” once, and “going” twice,
He’s “going” and almost gone.
But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd
Never quite can understand
The worth of a soul and the change that’s wrought
By the touch of the Master’s Hand.
(Myra Brooks Welch)

Hosea, Gomer, Jezreel, Lo-ruhammah and Lo-ammi “all touched by the Master’s Hand”. May that same hand continue to rest upon us, our families, our work, our nation and our church.
AMEN