Saturday March 21
Readings: HOS 6:1-6; LK 18:9-14
We continue reading from the prophet Hosea today.
Hosea is a very interesting book. When you read the opening chapters, it’s has pretty hard-hitting and graphic language (go ahead, give it a read…and I recommend going to biblegateway.com and reading Hosea translated by Eugene Peterson in The Message).
God’s really upset with humanity and has some choice words for us! God says, “That’s it. I’m out of here. I can’t take it anymore!” God says that despite all the signs, people keep turning away. The people put almost no effort into their relationship with God, don’t even know how to find God anymore and really don’t know the first thing about God. In fact creation weeps because humanity has lost its way…
This may be a very important book to read these days.
Of course, God relents and ultimately says, “OK, OK. We can start over…” but not before warning us, “If you want to live well, make sure you understand all of this. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll learn this inside and out (14:9).”
What must we understand? What are we supposed to learn?
In the gospel, Jesus points out the behavior of the Pharisee and the sinner. The Pharisee thinks he is better that the sinner because of all the things he does. But the Pharisee – the one who knows the scriptures and the law better than anyone else – miss the very heart of the scripture by lacking true humility. We can all probably relate to missing something which is right in front of us.
I do not pretend to have easy answers for today’s readings. For me it generates some very deep questions like:
What does it mean to live as a disciple in the world today?
Why would creation be weeping and how do we respond to the tears of the trees, fish and animals?
How do we return to God? What does that look like? How will we learn what we need to know?
Hosea 12 has a line that really caught my attention. God says, “I’m going to put you back to living in tents as in the old days when you worshiped in the wilderness.” Living in a tent in the wilderness is a precarious existence. One pays a lot more attention because survival depends on it.
The coronoavirus has been a powerful teacher for many of us these days about paying attention. Most of us are paying attention to things like handwashing, cleaning surfaces and physical distancing in ways we didn’t just 2 weeks ago. And we’re also paying attention to how to stay connected, social and caring in ways that we didn’t have to just 2 weeks ago.
In a similar way, I think God wants us to pay closer attention to things than we normally do. Lent is supposed to destabilize us, shake us up a little bit and help us to realize that there’s a lot on the line. Our survival might just depend on it.
2 Comments
Kathryn Franz
It is true that COVID 19 has awakened us about many things. On top of concerns about the threat of massive infections/deaths, the dramatic decline in the stock markets has reawakened financial insecurity where just weeks ago, many were feeling pretty confident about their financial futures!
I have been reflecting on this comment I read today in an article about the crisis…:“As long as people look at the rich and say “That could be me some day,” but don’t look at the poor and say the same thing, we will never solve our social problems.”
Many of us, indeed, will be “put back to living in tents”.
In this challenging time, our hearts may either be hardened in fear and anger, or softened and opened in compassion and loving kindness.
Mike Boucher Author
amen.
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