Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord, join us here today
Grant us the mercy needed
For wounds
Plain or hidden
In those we love
Fret about
And hold close

Bring healing
And restoration
Restoring hope
Faith
Joy
Along with reducing pain
Sorrow
And suffering.

We look to you for these things
For our friends and family
And also
Trusting you
For the healing and restoration
We need as well.
Thank you
Amen

Morning Talk: Sean Kappauf

This Is Home
Wrestling With Home
I just got back from spending about a month in El Salvador.
For those who do not know, I run an international nonprofit that helps families get access to clean water. Because of that work, I have spent the last 13 years traveling back and forth to El Salvador and other places around the world.

This last trip felt different.

I found myself driving through San Salvador without needing Google Maps. I know the city now. I know the roads. I know the people. We have friends there who feel like family. One of our friends has practically adopted our kids as their grandkids.

We love El Salvador in so many ways
Someone recently asked me:
“Would you ever move there?”
And honestly, my answer was:
“I don’t know.”
Yes and no.
I have been wrestling with this idea of home.
Belonging
Where do I actually belong?
In some ways, California does not feel like home the way it once did. But El Salvador does not fully feel like home either. Neither does Vietnam or Honduras or Colombia.
And yet, somehow, they all do.

When Everywhere Feels Like Home
I have felt at home sitting on the floor in Vietnam eating food and singing karaoke.
I have felt at home in a hut with a Vietnamese community leader.
I have felt at home in prisons in El Salvador hugging inmates.
I have felt at home crying with a shop owner in Colombia who had just lost her husband, and then laughing together as they made fun of me.
In those moments, titles disappeared.
Status disappeared.
It was not American and Vietnamese.
It was not gang member and gringo.
It was not donor and recipient.
It was simply two human beings connecting.
And I keep wondering:
Maybe Jesus is not trying to help me find my place in the world.

Maybe Jesus is freeing me from needing one.

Faith, Certainty, and Losing the Structures
For most of my life, my faith felt anchored in clarity.
I knew what I believed.
I knew how to explain it.
I knew how to defend it.
I knew how to preach it.
There was comfort in certainty.
But over the last several years, something has been shifting.
Not dramatically.
Quietly.
Almost imperceptibly.
It feels like Jesus has been gently removing the structures I used to hold onto Him.

Not removing Himself.

But removing the things I confused with Him.

And that is disorienting.
Because part of me wants somewhere to stand.
A system that works.
A faith that feels stable.
A place that feels like home.
A friend recently shared this quote with me, and I have not been able to shake it:
“You only are free when you realize you belong no place, you belong every place, no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great.”

That quote gave language to what I have been feeling.

I belong no place.
I belong every place.
No place at all.

The price is high.
The reward is great.
I wonder if this is what Jesus is doing in me.
Not making my world bigger, but making my categories smaller.
Things I thought mattered seem to matter less.
Things I used to overlook suddenly feel sacred.

Maybe the spiritual life is not about getting somewhere else.
Maybe it is about waking up to the Presence that is already here.

The Woman at the Well
That is why John 4 has been sitting with me differently.
Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well.
She is asking questions about place.
Where is the right place to worship?
This mountain?
Jerusalem?
Who is right?
Where does God belong?
Where do I belong?
And Jesus does something beautiful.
He does not answer her question the way she asks it.
She asks about geography.
Jesus answers with Presence.
He says the hour is coming when people will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
The age of geography is ending.
The age of Presence is beginning.
Jesus is not just relocating worship.
He is liberating it.
God is spirit.
Spirit is breath.
Wind.
You cannot possess the wind.
You cannot own the wind.
You cannot fence the wind in.
You can only receive it.

The Temple Became a Person
In John’s Gospel, we are told that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Literally, He pitched His tent among us.
God became wonderfully mobile.
No longer confined to a temple.
No longer confined to a mountain.
The temple became a person.
Maybe that is why Jesus says:
“Abide in me.”
Not abide in Jerusalem.
Not abide in religion.
Not abide in your understanding.
Not abide in certainty.
Abide in me.
Then I think about Jesus Himself.
He had no place to lay His head, yet He seemed at home everywhere.
At weddings.
On fishing boats.
Around dinner tables.
With Pharisees.
With tax collectors.
With children.
With Romans.
With Samaritans.
Why?
Because His home was never a place.
His home was communion with the Father.

Maybe the Opposite of Faith Is Attachment
Maybe the opposite of faith is not doubt.
Maybe it is attachment.
Attachment to certainty.
Attachment to identity.
Attachment to being right.
Attachment to control.
Attachment to needing everything figured out.

I think about the road to Emmaus too.
Two disciples are walking away from Jerusalem after Jesus died. They do not know He has risen. They are walking away from hope, from certainty, from everything they thought God was doing.
And then Jesus walks beside them.
For miles.
They talk.
They question.
He teaches them.
And they have no idea who He is.
I used to think the miracle happened when Jesus appeared to them.
Now I think the miracle happened when their eyes were opened.
Jesus had been there the whole time.
They simply did not recognize Him.

Maybe that is life with Jesus.
Not convincing Jesus to come near.
Learning to recognize the One who never left.
The same thing happens with the woman at the well.
She recognizes His Presence in the most ordinary place.
At a well.

Waking Up to What Is Already Here
Maybe we keep waiting for life to feel like home again.
Maybe we keep trying to recover an old version of ourselves.
Maybe we keep waiting until everything finally makes sense.
Maybe we keep searching for the perfect theology, season, belief, church, place, or answer.
And maybe Jesus is not asking us to go back.
Maybe He is not even asking us to figure it all out.
Maybe He is inviting us to wake up.
To become more aware.
More available.
More present.
Maybe spiritual maturity is not becoming better at explaining Jesus.

Maybe it is becoming better at recognizing Him.
In my marriage.
In my grief.
In my joy.
In my unanswered prayers.
In my children.
In my work.
In my neighbor.
In the stranger.
In an ordinary Tuesday afternoon.
Maybe nothing has to change except my awareness.

“Surely the Lord Is in This Place”
I think about Jacob in the Hebrew Scriptures (Genesis 28)
He falls asleep with a rock for a pillow.
He dreams.
Then he wakes up and says:
“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
God did not suddenly arrive.
Jacob awakened.
And maybe that is the invitation for all of us.
Not that God would become more present.
But that we would become more awake.
The older I get, the less interested I am in certainty.
And the more interested I am in recognizing Christ.
Maybe that is freedom.
Not having every answer.
Not escaping mystery.
Not finding the perfect place.
But becoming more conscious of Christ with me wherever I go.

The Price Is High, The Reward Is Great
The price is high because we lose our attachments.
Our attachment to certainty.
Our attachment to control.
Our attachment to identity.
Our attachment to needing it all figured out.
But the reward is great.
Because Christ becomes our home.
And if Christ is our home, then every table can become communion.
Every conversation can become sacred.
Every country can become holy ground.
Every stranger can become a neighbor.
Not because the world has changed.
But because our eyes have.
The way we see changes our imagination.
And the way we imagine changes how we live.

Maybe the greatest miracle is not that God occasionally comes close.
Maybe the greatest miracle is that Christ has always been nearer than we imagined.
And we are finally waking up to His Presence.

This Is Home
So my prayer is not that we would find God somewhere else.
My prayer is that we would see Christ where we are right now.
Making coffee.
Driving to work.
Sitting in traffic.
Walking into a meeting.
Laughing with friends.
Sitting quietly in grief.
And in that moment, maybe we wake up and whisper:
“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
This is home.

Genesis 12:1-9 (Robert Altar's translation)
And the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your land and your birthplace and your father’s house to the land I will show you. And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you, and those who damn you I will curse, and all the clans of the earth through you shall be blessed.” 
And Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him and Lot went forth with him, Abram being seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 
And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew and all the goods they had gotten and the folk they had bought in Haran, and they set out on the way to the land of Canaan, and they came to the land of Canaan. And Abram crossed through the land to the site of Shechem, to the Terebinth of Moreh. The Canaanite was then in the land. 
And the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your seed I will give this land.” And he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him. And he pulled up his stakes from there for the high country east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east, and he built there an altar to the LORD, and he invoked the name of the LORD. 
And Abram journeyed onward by stages to the Negeb

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Intro: Prior to this moment, Abram was merely a name on a list

Now he becomes a person; he’s given an identity
- he emerges from the genealogy into space and time
• he has a history and he is given a destiny
where he is from and where he is going is what has defined him
◦ where he is from: “your birthplace and your father’s house”
◦ where he is going: “to the land that I will show you”
• God is in the process of redefining Abram’s life
◦ he will no longer be the person shaped by family history
◦ he will become a person living in a covenant with God
- normal course of a person’s life: grow up in family system
• each person has there place and is assigned a role
◦ this does not happen consciously,
◦ it works itself out in interplay of each personality
• psychology would encourage us to ask two questions:
◦ how did I get were I am?
◦ where do I go from here?
▫ and this may require that we escape from our family system
▫ or the neighborhood where we grew up
			
But let’s move on with Abram

God tells Abram he is destined to be the epicenter of his will
- that his life, through his descendants,
• will move outward in ever-widening circles, until,
“all the clans of the earth through you shall be blessed”
• but this will not happen if he stays in his family’s settlement
◦ he and his wife are going to be traveling, and
◦ for the rest of their lives, they will live among strangers
- so we join them on their journey westward
• when they reach Canaan, God appeared again to Abram
◦ we can learn a lot from these two verses, 7 and 8
• God speaks to Abram, and in response, he builds an altar
◦ then Abram wants to call on God, so builds another altar
◦ the altar it is central to Abram’s contact with God

Growing up in a conservative Christian home,
- my siblings and I learned that the circumference of our home,
• revolved around the “family altar”
◦ that prayer is what held us together – and to the Lord
• our regular practice was to go there together
◦ and especially when facing challenges–an illness or a move
- Abram going to the altar was his response to God’s initiative
• but he also could take the initiative to approach God
• I don’t think prayer was ever meant to be a monologue,
◦ with us doing all the talking
◦ a lot of our spiritual development is focused on learning to listen and to hear

The last line in which we’re introduced to Abram reads:
“And Abram journeyed onward by stages to the Negeb”

The Negev is the desert south of Canaan, stretches all the way to Egypt
	- the first point I want to stress is his entire life was a journey
		• years ago, I spoke at a family retreat in Western Australia
			◦ a couple told me how grateful they were to be learning Bible
			◦ “We thought we had grown in the Lord as far as we could”
		• No! We haven’t arrived–we never arrive in this lifetime
			◦ the writer of Hebrews describes Abram’s life this way:
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents . . . .” (Heb. 11:8-9)
	- Abram could only journey “by stages,”
			traveling with extended family and servants,
				and herding and pasturing livestock
		• that is another lesson we learn about our spiritual journey
			◦ the progress we hope to make does not come all at once

I realized something for the first time just a couple weeks ago
- reading through the Book of Acts, I kept coming to the familiar phrase where someone was, “filled with the Holy Spirit”
My meditation: “I have assumed I knew what it meant to be filled with the Spirit–and now it seems I was partially correct. I have conceptualized it as a static condition, that once a person was filled with the Spirit, they remained filled. We used to refer to some people as being ‘Spirit-filled.’ But now it is becoming apparent to me that people, like the apostle Peter, were filled with the Spirit multiple times on different occasions.
What is it to fill a glass with water? Similarly, with each ‘filling,’ the Spirit is ‘poured’ into someone in that moment and for that moment. Then somehow an energy or power flows out of them. This reminds me of what happened with Jesus in Luke chapter 8,
‘And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me”’ (Lk. 8:45-46)
Now I remember reading something Francis Schaeffer wrote: ‘Though we today are immediately indwelt by the Holy Spirit when we accept Christ as Savior, being indwelt is not the same thing as having the fullness of the power of the Holy Spirit. . . . There are to be many “fillings.”’”
• I don’t often talk like this any more
◦ partly because it verges on sounding like “working magic”
◦ and partly because of the weirdos who always talk this way
• but still, the life we have in God is mediated by his Spirit
- how are we to make sense of this? 
• how does it become real to us?
• St. Paul’s answer would be, “we walk by faith not by sight”
◦ no one really likes this answer,
◦ but once we begin to trust God for his Spirit, we emerge into a new knowing and experiencing

I skipped a part of Abram’s story

But now I want to work my way back to it
- in my late twenties, a cousin recommended a book:
• Seasons of Man’s Life
◦ a longitudinal study that tracked stages of male development
◦ not unlike Gail Sheey’s Passages
• lots of young men stress over turning thirty
- I think, perhaps, God was preparing me for that transition
• as I read through the Scriptures, I kept bumping into thirty
◦ Joseph’s age when he entered the service of Pharaoh 
◦ the age at which priests could serve in temple
◦ David’s age when he became king
◦ and “Jesus, when he began his ministry was about thirty years of age” 
• I began looking forward to turning thirty
◦ I felt it could be a positive turning point in my ministry
◦ perhaps becoming more effective, more skilled

If I continue living to the half-way point of this year,
- I will turn seventy-five years old
• if you had asked me at thirty where I’d be at seventy-five,
◦ I’d probably say, “I hope to be dead by then”
◦ or else retired
• I don’t mind confessing, that if for my next birthday,
◦ God told me, 
“My biggest plans for your life’s work will begin this year,”
◦ I would feel completely discouraged and overwhelmed
- but we read, “Abram went forth . . . being seventy-five years old when he left Haran”
• I began meditating on this January 3rd,
◦ the same day my oldest son turned fifty
• and now I’m going to burden you with the possibility,
◦ that God may be telling you,
“You have not yet hit your stride. Your best and most important life’s work is still ahead of you.”

All I will add to that is:
- don’t let the world tell you, “You’re too old”
• or too poor, too uneducated, too unqualified
• if God is calling you to something, 
◦ you aren’t too anything that would disqualify you

Conclusion: God’s call on Abram’s life was to be a blessing

A blessing that spread out to “all the clans of the earth”
Can you imagine anything lovelier than that?
You and I and all Christians everywhere, being a blessing to the world

Podcast

Intro: So that you can see where I’m going with this talk, I’ll start with a question:

What was the primary responsibility Jesus gave to Peter?
– if you’re not sure, then listen to what I’m about to read,
• because Jesus makes Peter’s assignment absolutely clear

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep” John 21:15–17

◦ Peter’s calling was to devote himself to the care of Jesus’ sheep
• these are not Peter’s sheep – Jesus refers to them as, “my sheep”
◦ the Lord did not tell Peter to use the sheep to make a fortune for himself
◦ in fact, from now on, his life wasn’t his own, and it would not be easy or what he would choose for himself
“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself ad walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. . . .” “Follow me.” (v. 19)
– giving Peter this responsibility, Jesus answers his own prayer in Matthew:
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’” (Mt. 9:36-38)
• a long time ago, I heard someone say,
“It must be nice being a preacher; you only have to work one day a week”
◦ when Paul felt some members of the Corinthian church had turned on him,
▫ he described all of the hardships he endured for them and the other churches in his care
◦ most of it what he suffered was far more extreme than most pastors ever experience,
▫ but when he comes to the end of his list he adds,
“And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches” (2 Cor. 11:28)
I believe the “pressure” of human need–physical, mental, and spiritual–is something all true pastors experience
• that may not be the case for many mega-church pastors
◦ I’m pretty sure that those posts are handled best by narcissists
(you simply cannot have empathy for, or carry all the burdens of 500, 1,000, 5,000 members)
◦ there are many good people exhausting themselves for much smaller Christian communities

The shepherd care-giver is one of the warmest images in scripture
– this was not a typical opinion in the ancient Mideast
• shepherding was a chore for children and slaves
◦ adult shepherds were largely looked down upon
Bruce Malina, “Although shepherds could be romanticized . . . , they were usually ranked with . . . despised occupations. Being away from home at night they were unable to protect their women and therefore were considered dishonorable. In addition, they often were considered thieves because they grazed their flocks on other people’s property.”
◦ in scripture, “shepherd” it is the chief metaphor for leadership
• more than one prophet use this metaphor to rip into Israel’s leaders
“‘Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!’” declares the LORD” (Jer. 23:1)
“Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd . . . .” (Eze. 34:2-5)
◦ these were both religious and civil leaders
– there are many angry men with women behind pulpits today
• red-face, veins in their neck popping out, shouting at the sheep
◦ it’s like they’re trying to soothe their own inner turmoil by screaming at their kids
• others are almost too calm, hiding their rage, and smiling as they strike

Perhaps the worst shepherds serve to highlight the best

One of God’s promises to Israel was,
“And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding” (Jer. 3:15)
– in a beautifully poetic promise in Ezekiel, God says,
“I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out” and then describes how he will rescue them, provide pasture for them, and protect them so that they “shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel” (Eze. 34:11-16)
• this kind of care is what stirs tender feelings toward shepherd
• like in Jesus’ parable of the shepherd searching for a lost sheep
◦ the he adds a detail that creates a sense of affection: “carrying it on his shoulders”
– of course, the classic expression of the shepherd metaphor is Psalm 23
• this is precisely the role in which Jesus places himself
“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me” (Jn. 10:14)
◦ and it is the job description that he passes on to Peter
• however, prior to Jesus, there was another stellar prototype

The Bible’s introduction of David into its history is symbolic

It reveals something about David, with something something about God’s call on his life
“There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep” (1 Sam. 16:11)
– when Israel came to David to embrace him as their king, their representatives announced,
“. . . it was you who led out and brought in Israel. And the LORD said to you, ‘You shall be shepherd of my people Israel . . .” (2 Sam. 5:2)
◦ later, God sent a prophet to David with this message
“I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel” (2 Sam. 7:8)
◦ this is remembered and celebrated in Psalm 78
“He chose David his servant
and took him from the sheepfolds;
from following the nursing ewes he brought him
to shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance.
With upright heart he shepherded them
and guided them with his skillful hand” (vv. 70-72)
– it is one of the sad traits of our human nature,
that we easily adjust to any increase of wealth and influence
• upward mobility changes people
◦ they become accustomed to luxuries, they assume they need first-class products and accessories
• this dark cloud passed over David’s life, and it brought tragedy with it

Nearing the end of his life, David hardly resembles the young shepherd with his father’s flock in hills around Bethlehem
– I think David lost sight of this shepherd aspect of leadership
• he developed an expectation to be served rather than to serve
• not long before is death, he got it into his head to do something very wrong
◦ his general, Joab, strongly opposed his decision
◦ but King David stubbornly stuck to his plan and gave the order
– afterward, it was not only David that suffered, but the nation
• when he saw the harm he had caused, it broke him
◦ he cried out to God in confession, “I have sinned greatly”
“And David said to God, ‘Was it not I who gave the command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done great evil. But these sheep, what have they done?” (1 Chr. 21:17)
• how I understand this, is that David had lost sight of this facet of his rule;
◦ that is, until he witnessed the suffering it caused his people
◦ that’s when it came back to him; that he was a shepherd and the people were not his subjects, but God’s sheep

All of what I’ve said, was my meditation yesterday morning

And it got me thinking about you
– each week I have a task to perform, and that is to bring a message from scripture to you
• my typical approach is to decide what I think you need to hear
◦ so it’s more about what I assume is best for us, than it is about what you may actually need
• I want to be a better shepherd than that
◦ what difference does it make how much you know, if it’s not relevant to what you need
– some of us are passing through very difficult times
• what does God have for us, to get across this bridge?
• pray for me, that I do a better job of responding to your needs

Conclusion: There’s one more thing I want to draw from John
Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them . . . . When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me” John 21:20-22

“What is that to you?” – a great line!
You have your instruction, “Follow me”
we get stressed over what others do or say, and Jesus tells us,
“Stay in your own lane. You have your assignment – they have theirs”
We know people who must have an opinion about everything
But I find relief when Jesus says, “What is that to you?”
It removes excess pressure from my mind and body
We don’t need to babysit or police everyone else
It’s a waste of energy trying to correct everyone;
especially those who don’t want correction

When you get all worked up over something this week,
see if it will help if you can hear Jesus say,
“What is that to you? You follow Me”

Reflexion will not be meeting in person April 19 and April 26.

We are very fortunate to be able to meet most Sundays in the beautiful La Ventura Event Center in San Clemente. On occasion the facility has a previously scheduled event for a Sunday morning, and when that happens, we get the morning off.

Chuck will still give a talk those mornings, which can be watched here (note the button in the sidebar) or on our Facebook page: “Reflexion, a spiritual community.”

Meanwhile, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Podcast

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Do not rejoice, O Israel,
No exulting like the peoples
For you went whoring from your God,
you loved a whore’s pay
on every new grain threshing floor.
Threshing floor and winepress know them not,
and new wine shall deny them.
They shall not dwell in the land of the LORD,
and Ephraim shall go back to Egypt,
and in Assyria eat unclean things.
They shall pour no wine libation to the LORD,
and their sacrifices shall not please Him.
Like mourners’ bread it shall be to them,
all who eat it become unclean.
For their food is for their gullet,
it shall not enter the house of the LORD.
What will you do for the appointed day,
for the day of the LORD’s festival? Hosea 9:1-5

Intro: As we make our way back into Hosea this morning,

Let’s remember the passion running through the entire book
– it isn’t what we’re likely to feel when reading the bare words
• what it sounds like, is the ranting of an enraged deity
◦ but that is not the correct tone of voice
• if God were like one of the pagan deities of mid mid-east or Greece,
◦ he wouldn’t bother to rage at his rebellious people,
◦ he would just annihilate them
– this prophetic book, in fact, is the message of a wounded lover
• a husband who’s been disrespected, betrayed, and discarded
◦ yet for all that, he continues to try to reason with his wife
◦ he is not ready to give up, and he will not let Israel go
• so, we are not hearing the voice of anger, but of heartbreak

If we have any hope of understanding Hosea,
– we have to realize that its language and references,
• are take from Israel’s history revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures
• namely, historical events, place names, and religious practices

The party is over

In 1929, Franklin Roosevelt’s campaign song was “Happy Days are Here Again”
– it was meant to stir up hope at beginning of the Great Depression
• Hosea’s song moves in the opposite direction
◦ some of Israel’s religious festivals coincided with harvests
◦ worshipers came to give thanks, and then it was “party time”
• but it would no longer be that for Israel, “Do not rejoice, O Israel”
◦ they sacrificed offerings to pagan gods on threshing floors
◦ from now on they would be estranged from threshing floor and winepress
(that is, from the bountiful harvests they once enjoyed)
– here we come to first of two memorable symbols of doom
• in the past, decisive judgments had occurred on threshing floors
◦ that sad story of Uzzah (who was struck dead because he steadied ark) happened at the threshing floor of Nacon (2 Sam. 6:6)
◦ the punishment for David’s sin was halted over the threshing floor of Ornan (1 Chron. 21:15)
◦ King Ahab and King Jeroboam met to join forces against the Syrians, and this detail is made specific:
“Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah were sitting on their thrones . . . at the threshing floor of the entrance of the gate of Samaria” (1 Ki. 22:10)
◦ nations waging war on Judah (Micah 4:11-13)
◦ and then, into the New Testament, the message of John the Baptist
“he who comes after me is mightier than I . . . . His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Mt. 3:11-12)
• Israel can no longer pretend that their festival was a true worship event
◦ v. 4, their libations would be rejected and their food at their feasts deemed “unclean”

Hosea signals a scene change: “For, look”
For, look, they go off from destruction.
Egypt gathers them in,
Memphis buries them.
The treasure house for their silver
the thistle shall inherit,
the thorn is in their tent.
The days of reckoning have arrived
the days of retribution have arrived.
Israel shall know it.
The prophet is witless,
the man of spirit is crazed
by all you crimes
all your hate.
The lookout of Ephraim,
the prophet with my God—
a snare is laid in all his ways,
hate in the house of his God.
They have acted most ruinously
as in the days of Gibeah,
He shall recall their crime,
make a reckoning for their offense.
Like grapes in the wilderness
I found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree when it appears
I saw your fathers.
Yet they came to Baal Peor
and devoted themselves to a shameful god
and became vile things like what they loved Hosea 9:6-10

Instead of running off to their festivals, they will be running from destruction
[side note: a great deal of Hebrew poetry involves “parallelism” in which two and sometimes three lines are used to make a point. Some times both lines make the same point using different words. Other times they make the same point, but with the order of the words reversed in the second line. Then there are stanzas where the second line heightens or intensifies the first line. And so on and on. In this instance, the first line of verse 6 gives Egypt as the general destination of people when driven from Israel. The second line provides details that are more specific; namely, they will arrive in the city of Memphis and there they will be “buried.”]
• what happens to their treasures and homes
◦ the thistle will inherits their silver and thorns will occupy their tents
◦ the ominous sound of the next lines say it all:
“The days of reckoning have arrived.
Israel shall know it”
– what about the prophets, like Hosea? Aren’t people listening to them?
• God’s prophets have been sidelined – they were bewildered by Israel’s response
◦ not only Israel “crimes,” but also their hate (twice) against the prophets, or God, or both
• you know the saying, “Don’t kill the messenger”
◦ that was Israel’s characteristic reaction to the prophets
◦ rather than take warning, they attacked God’s lookout
(or “watchman”–the prophet doing guard duty; cf. Ezekiel 33)

Hosea compares Israel’s current behavior to their past failures
“They have acted most ruinously
as in the days of Gibeah”
– one of Israel’s most heinous crimes occurred in days of the Judges
• a Levite sought lodging in Gibeah; a city belonging to tribe of Benjamin
◦ locals surrounded the house the Levite entered, intending to humiliate him
Robert Alter reminds us that those locals of Gibeah “gang-raped” his concubine “to death”
◦ the eleven other tribes were outraged and wound up decimating tribe of Benjamin
• this event left a terrible stain that was never washed from Israel’s memory
◦ but even now, their present behavior was just as “ruinous”
I wonder if many Christians in the U.S. realize how harmful sin is
“Righteousness exalts a nation,
but sin is a reproach to any people” (Pr. 14:34)

A besides Gibeah, God provides a second example of Israel’s unfaithfulness
Like grapes in the wilderness
I found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree when it appears
I saw your fathers.
Yet they came to Baal Peor
– at any time, grapes and ripe figs in the wilderness would be a welcome discovery
• but Israel soon disappointed the Lord
◦ they were still in the desert when they received an invitation from Moab to join their worship of their God in a “pagan orgy” (Alter)
• this compromise resulted in a profound consequence
they “became vile things like what they loved”
◦ it is human nature for us to become like our gods

What Hosea predicts next is extinction of the nation
Ephraim—their glory shall fly off like a bird,
from birth and from the womb and from conception.
For should they raise sons,
I would bereave them of humankind,
for woe to them indeed
when I swerve from them.
Ephraim as I saw him—
a palm frond planted in a meadow.
But Ephraim brings out his sons to the slayer.
Give them, LORD,
what should you give?
Give them a miscarrying womb
and shriveled breasts.
All the evil at Gilgal
for there did I hate them.
For the evil of their deeds
I will banish them from My house.
I will no longer love them.
All their nobles are knaves.
Ephraim is stricken,
their root is dry,
they cannot make fruit.
Even when they give birth
I will put to death the precious ones of their womb.
My God shall reject them,
for they did not heed him,
and they shall be wanderers among the nations Hosea 9:11-16

How would Israel die off?
– by not having children and losing the children they did have
• Hosea traces their barrenness backwards: there would be:
◦ no live births, and nothing proceed from the womb, and that would be because there would be no conception
• any sons they did raise, they would lose to warfare
“woe to them indeed
when I swerve away from them” –that is, “abandon them”
◦ note the metaphor “a palm frond planted in a meadow”; which we would expect to thrive
◦ but instead, the people of Ephraim led their sons of to be killed by an invading army
– what could God give them to finish to make sure any live birth would not survive?
“a miscarrying womb
and shriveled breasts”
• verse 15 contains two strong statements, and we need to pay attention to both:
All their evil at Gilgal,
for there did I hate them . . . .
I will no longer love them
• as sad as everything God has already pronounced, so is the last line of the chapter
“and they shall be wanderers among the nations”
◦ they would lose their national identity, their culture, and their very ethnicity

Israel didn’t know how to respond to God’s goodness
A blighted vine is Israel,
his fruit is just the same .
When his fruit was abundant,
he made abundant altars.
When it was good in his land,
they made goodly cult-pillars.
Their heart is divided—
now they bear guilt.
He shall break the back of their altars,
ravage their cultic pillars.
For now they say,
“We have no king,
for we have not feared the LORD,
and a king—what can he do to us?”
They have spoken words,
empty oaths,
sealed a pact,
and justice blooms like poison weeds
in the furrows of the field.
The calf of Beth-Aven they fear,
the dwellers of Samaria.
For his people mourn for it,
and his priests for it.
They wail over their glory,
for it has departed from them.
It, too, shall be brought to Assyria,
a tribute to King Jareb.
Samaria shall be destroyed and her king,
like foam upon the water.
And the high places of Aven are ravaged,
the offense of Israel.
Thorn and thistle shall spring up
upon their altars.
And they shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,”
and to the hills, “Fall upon us” Hosea 10:1-8

The more they prospered, the more they produced pagan objects
“their heart is divided” – between God and Mammon
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Matt. 6:24)
– in verse 1, Israel was constructing altars and cult-pillars
• and in verse 2, God is breaking their altars and ravaging their cult-pillars
– think about this: materialism is a pagan religion
• and in the U.S., it is the greatest rival to Christianity
◦ it is materialism that starves the poor,
◦ and drives away the refugee, and defends the miser
• when God blesses us, it is our privilege to give back and to share
◦ there have been few times when anyone has show as much gratitude that I’ve given them as a homeless person to whom I handed a few dollars

In the previous chapter, God made a reference to the “evil at Gilgal”
– that could refer to at least two events that took place there
• one, was when Israel first asked for a king
◦ when Samuel complained about that, God told him:
“Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them” (1 Sam. 8:7)
• sometimes God provided Judah with a king to improve their lives
◦ but by this time, Israel had given up on their kings
◦ if they no longer respected Yahweh, why respect a king?
– meanwhile, everyone was trying to rip off everyone else
• swearing empty promises and signing bogus contracts
• if they were to receive “justice,” it would affect them like a “poisonous weed”

From the days of Gibeah Israel offended,
there they took their stand.
“War will not overtake them in Gibeah
against the wrongdoers.”
As I wish will I harness them
and peoples shall gather against them
as they are harnessed to their two shafts.
And Ephraim is a trained calf
that loves to thresh,
and I passed over its goodly neck,
yoked Ephraim[,
that he would plow,] Judah[,]
that Jacob[,] would harrow.
Sow for yourselves in righteousness,
reap in faithfulness.
Till for yourselves tilled ground
and it is time to seek the LORD
until He comes and teaches you righteousness.
You have plowed wickedness,
wrongdoing you reap.
You have eaten denial’s fruit
for you have trusted in your own way,
in all your warriors.
And the clamor shall rise in your people
and all your fortresses will be ravaged
like Shalmaneser’s ravaging
at Beth-Arbel on the day of battle—
mothers with children were ripped apart.
Thus is it done to you, Bethel,
because of your utter evil.
At daybreak the king of Israel
will indeed be destroyed Hosea 10:9-15

I mentioned earlier, two memorable symbols of doom
– the second one is in verse 8, “thorns and thistles”
• as early as Genesis 3, and much later retrieved by Isaiah, “thorns and thistles” are connected to the suffering people face for disregarding and disobeying God
• entire cities went to ruin and became overgrown by thorns and thistles
– to prevent or counteract this, they’re advised to
Sow for yourselves in righteousness,
reap in faithfulness.
Till for yourselves tilled ground
and it is time to seek the LORD
until He comes and teaches you righteousness
• but they had done the opposite, “You have plowed wickedness”
• and they had “trusted” in their own way

Conclusion: There’s enough negativity in these chapters to be exhausting

At least that is one way we can respond to these hard condemnations
But there’s another way to respond, and it is expressed in a poem by George Matheson:
O love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
If we can hear God tell us again and again,
“I love you, I will not let you go”–then we’ve truly caught God’s message through Hosea
And with that, we will have the motivation and determination
to love him back
with all our heart, and strength, and mind

Podcast

Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord, join us here today

You came once to us
Long years ago
In a most unlikely place
In most unlikely circumstances
To offer us a path to be made whole

You will come again
One day
With us unknowing
In circumstances unimaginable
To finish the work you began in us

You reside with us now
Abide with us
In this place
At this time
Unseen but still somehow known
Whispering to us
Speaking softly
To help us along the path
you have set before us

You Lord
Your very essence is our path
Our hope
Our peace
Our joy.
Our path, your essence, is loving
And it is our great gift
And the great gift for the whole earth

We may feel unloved today
Or inadequately love
Or unlovable
Or we may feel unable to love another
To hold them up
To reach out
And we are discouraged
Let down
Like nothing will ever change

But we start this path
Each day new
Where we are
As we are
Just like this.
And you meet us here
Each day new
Just like this
And the transformation
of the world begins
In the most unlikely and humble ways
And the changes begin
Little at first
But change is cumulative and living
And you are near
Encouraging us
Strengthening us
Teaching us
Making the promise of Christmas
come alive
The promise of salvation
Of becoming whole
Is given substance
Becomes tangible
Lived.

Thank you Lord
Coming to us
And the promise to come again
And for you presence just now
For the path of loving
For the healing it brings
And the lives it improves
Ours
And our neighbors.
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Luke 10:25-37

Intro: The Advent theme for today is LOVE

I’ve never heard anyone argue whether that theme is appropriate
– the words of the previous themes–hope, peace, and joy–are all found in the biblical text
• but love doesn’t appear in the details of the Christmas story
◦ it feels right that love should be another theme, but is it right?
• does love add a sentimental tone that wasn’t there?
◦ our culture is certainly attached to an “ideal” Christmas
◦ a “Hallmark special” with smooth edges and a soft glow
– the initial reaction to the early announcements of Christ’s birth,
• given to Zechariah, Mary, Joseph, shepherds, generated confusion and fear
◦ but love isn’t right there on the surface of the page
• love only comes in after much theological reflection
◦ the gospels tell the story, theology identifies its meaning–which is:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (Jn. 3:167-17)

There are several places we can find Jesus’ teaching on love

I’ve chosen one that fits the context of our own time
– in this instance, a lawyer approached Jesus with a question
• we know well that lawyers love to use trick questions
◦ they develop skills for trapping people in their own words
◦ Luke tells us right off, this lawyer’s intention was to trap (“test”) Jesus
• when the Lord answered his question, it seems he’s playing into his hand
◦ Jesus turns the question around, as if to say,
“This is your area of expertise. You’re the lawyer, what does the Law say? How do you read it?”
◦ my take on what happens next, is this is what the lawyer was hoping for
– the answer he gives is an exact quote of what Jesus says elsewhere
• so I wonder if he knew these were Jesus’ lines, and that what he was using to draw him in
◦ because when Jesus said, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live”
◦ the lawyer was instantly ready to spring his trap: “And who is my ‘neighbor’?”
• was it his intention to embarrass Jesus in front of the crowd? had he created this logical problem to discredit Jesus?
◦ what I hear him saying is something like this:
“Okay, Jesus, that is all well and good. But to make this instruction perfectly clear, you will have to define your terms. Who, precisely, is my neighbor? Is it the family that lives next door? Is it a fellow Judean? Would “neighbor” include the low brow Galileans up north? You see, don’t you, that this is a very complicated issue. You can’t treat it so lightly, as you have until now.”

The lawyer has accomplished two things with his objection:
– first, he has put Jesus to the test by challenging his credibility
• how can Jesus be taken seriously regarding loving one’s neighbor if he’s never thought it through?
– secondly, he’s dodged the challenge of loving his neighbor
• he’s turned the commandment into a puzzle
• he’s removed it from the category of practical application,
◦ and placed in realm of intellectual or philosophical debate;
◦ where it dies the death of a thousand qualifications

Can we admit that Christians frequently play this game?

For instance, we’ll come to a place in scripture that says,
“If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
– but then a Christian friend will say,
“The ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ refers only to fellow believers”
• we create those exclusive categories
• we become the lawyer, we equivocate
◦ we find ways of distancing ourselves from people in need
– many years ago, I was visiting a friend in Napa
• he was very involved in a church there
◦ his pastor was also a professor at a Bible college in San Francisco
◦ he invited me to go with him and attend one of his lectures
• on our way back to Napa, we drove one of those long, crowded bridges
◦ we passed this poor guy, carrying a gas can, with at least a mile before he’d reach a station
◦ I wanted to pull over and offer him a ride,
▫ but before I could say anything, the pastor shook his head and said,
“There but for the grace of God, go I”
– I remembered hearing other Christians use that phrase
• in fact, it’s been around for three hundred years
◦ I’m sure it can be an honest way to express gratitude
but it can also be a way of distancing ourselves from people in need

Jesus, gifted story teller that he is, answered the lawyer with a sad tale

The priest and Levite are stock characters – we immediately recognize the type
– Jesus’ intention for using them is obvious;
• if anyone in Israel knew the law and would follow it, if anyone was righteous, it would be either the devoted priest or Levite
• however, it is possible they had a valid reason for avoiding the injured man
◦ if he were dead or dying, and they had touched him, they would have become unclean and unable to perform their duties in the temple
– knowing Jesus, I’m convinced he would have told either one of them, “The wounded man is your true priority”
• on more than one occasion, Jesus himself violated the Sabbath by healing a broken person
• in this case, a life was at stake–even if he were one of those disgusting Samaritans

After the story, Jesus asks the lawyer to answer his own question (“Who is my neighbor?”)
Which of the three fulfilled the role of a neighbor?
– we need to look closely at the way Jesus worded the question
• he wasn’t asking, “Was the Samaritan a neighbor to the three men passing by?”
◦ but what he asked was which of the three proved to be a neighbor to him?
“Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”
• the lawyer’s answer is quite lovely “The one who showed him mercy”
– a couple of weeks ago, Esther shared with us that 2025 began with rough start
• as she prayed for God to give her guidance, she found herself in the Book of Micah
“He has shown you – O People- what is good,
and what the Lord requires of you.
To Act Justly, and to love Mercy,
and walk humbly with your God”
• on two occasions, Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6,
◦ where God told Israel, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice”
– Jesus was not telling the lawyer, “The Samaritan is your neighbor”
• he was saying,
“You have asked, ‘Who is the neighbor?’ The answer is, “You are! Go now, and be a neighbor to everyone in need. Then you will have the eternal life that you want”
◦ this, then, is the message – anyone can be the neighbor to anyone else!

Conclusion: So Christmas brings Jesus into our world,

And Jesus brings God’s love to us
Everyone needs love
Almost everyone wants to be loved
Don’t you feel that need deep within?
I once heard a psychiatrist say, “Love is a powerful drug”
He was referring to the feelings of falling in love
And it’s true.
falling in love amplifies the brain’s natural pleasure chemistry
Sometimes, for some of us, the longing to be loved is so great,
that only God can meet it

Can you allow yourself to hear God tell you,
“I have loved you, with an everlasting love,
therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you”
Open you heart to the love that will not let you go,
And have a Merry Christmas

Podcast

Podcast

Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord, join us here today.
We thank you for our community
Our shared lives.

Knit us together
In new ways
Forming new bonds of affection
New opportunities to give
and to receive
Increasing our joy
Deepening our faithfulness
Strengthening our hope
Turning us into people
Known for their loving
Putting aside our every anxiety
Knowing your great love
Will carry us along
And through
All the way
Every step
To the very end
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

The word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash king of Israel Hosea 1:1 (I am quoting Robert Alter’s translation of the Hebrew Scripture)

Intro: Before we began Galatians, I asked for recommendations as to where in scripture to go next

A trusted friend suggested we venture through the minor prophets
– “minor” because they are relatively short compared to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel
• I hesitated for awhile, then procrastinated, finally hoping to dodge The Dozen prophets at the end of the Hebrew Scriptures
• even though the longest of them is only fourteen chapters and shortest is only one chapter,
◦ they still require as much study and preparation as the major prophets
◦ so it’s basically been a matter of laziness
– however, we have reached a point in our nation’s history,
• in which we need to hear the voice of these prophets
• and Hosea in particular

The church in America is suffering a collective identity crisis

The way I see it, lines are blurred; we’ve lost the ability to discern
– between deep and shallow, true and counterfeit, what is of God and what is of the world
• the way people throw Bible quotations into public debates,
◦ reveals how little they understand the Scriptures or the context that gives meaning to each verse
– I’m not being flippant when I say reading through the prophets has convinced me,
• if we continue down the road we’re now on, God will lift his grace from over our churches and nation
• paying attention to the message of the prophets is essential, teaching us we must:
◦ do God’s will, follow the path of Jesus, and return to our first love
◦ so let’s listen to Hosea with this in mind

In verse 1, Hosea appears in his own world, during a specific time

He straddled two nations; Judah to the south and Israel in the north
– when Israel broke away from Judah, their first king, Jeroboam 1, created a cult
• after him, not one king of was faithful to God
• the king mentioned here in Hosea is Jeroboam II
– within ten years of his death, five different kings had come and gone
• and then, the nation of Israel was gone too
• the prophet lived to see Israel come to an end

Right off, Hosea’s story effects us like a shock to the system
When the LORD began to speak to Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea:
Go, take you a wife of whoring
and children of whoring,
for the land has surely whored
away from the LORD Hosea 1:2-3

Hosea’s message begins with a brief flash of poetry
– chapters 2 and 3 will contain more poetry than ordinary writing
• then from chapter 4 on, the rest of the book is poetry
• Robert Alter suggests poetry is more fitting for prophecy,
◦ because this is “the word of the LORD” delivered to his prophets
◦ God is speaking, and that requires a special form of expression
– but the big question is: Does God actually tell Hosea to marry a prostitute?
(at the least, the Hebrew word indicates a “promiscuous” woman)

More than a few scholars have looked for a work-around to this
– I won’t go into their theories, because I’m not convinced of their merit
• some of them, I suppose, feel they must protect God’s holy image
◦ perhaps they find the idea repugnant
◦ I suspect that some commentators feel threatened by it
(they don’t want to think God would ever ask them to do such a thing)
• I’ve heard young single men say,
◦ “I would never forgive my wife if she cheated on me”
◦ that sort of mindset finds Hosea’s story hard to handle
– God has placed other difficult demands on his prophets
• he used not only their speech, but their entire lives to reveal his heart

What we need to appreciate, is that from the start,
– God presented his love to Israel as a husband devotion to his wife
• so through his prophets he confronts their idolatry and fascination with other deities,
referring to it as adultery
• a spiritual form of immorality

Hosea’s children are recruited to illustrate God’s word
And he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. And the LORD said to him: “Call his name Jezreel, for soon I will make a reckoning for the blood of the house of Jehu and put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And it shall be on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel” Hosea 1:4-5

“Jezreel” was not chosen for the child because of the meaning of the Hebrew word
– however, the meaning names of his next two children will be relevant
• but the significance of the city of Jezreel is that it had a history
• and that would hit closer to home to people living in Israel, where the city of Jezreel was located
– King Ahab was notorious for being most wicked king of all
• his wife, Jezebel, was a princess from a border nation who brought Baal worship into Israel
(they had a palace in Jezreel that served as a second home away from the capitol city in Samaria)
◦ God appointed one of Ahab’s generals to execute justice on Ahab’s dynasty
◦ Jehu was to remove the crown prince and become his replacement
• Jehu came to Jezreel, where Queen Jezebel was living
◦ he commanded that she be thrown from an upper story window
◦ then he trampled her underneath his horses’ hooves
– soon, however, Jehu crossed a line and brutally caused more bloodshed, of which God did not approve
• it seems God chose this one event as a “case in point”
◦ Israel had to face trial and pay for their “spiritual adultery”
• the phrase “break the bow” refers to a decisive battle
◦ Assyria had recently become a world power in the Mid East
◦ they conquered Israel about ten years after death of Jeroboam

Another one of Hosea’s children is given an unfortunate name
And she conceived again and bore a daughter. And he said to him: “Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no more show mercy to the house of Israel nor will I forgive them in any way. But to the house of Judah I will show mercy and rescue them through the LORD their God, but I will not rescue them through bow and sword in battle with horses and with horsemen” Hosea 1:6-8

“Lo-Ruhama” means “no mercy”
– God was going to cut off his mercy to Israel
• for two centuries he put up with their pagan practices
◦ he was constantly sending them his word through his prophets
◦ and he came to their rescue repeatedly
• but now, all of that was over
◦ he would no longer provide for them or protect them
– a sad fact of our human condition is that we must lose some things before we appreciate their value
• we don’t think to thank God for our vision, until we see someone with a white cane and dark glasses clicking their way along a sidewalk
• we learn from Hosea that there are lessons we learn from our losses

Naming the third child
And she weaned Lo-Ruhamah and conceived again and bore a son. And he said, “Call his name, Lo-Ami, Not my people, and I will not be your God” Hosea 1:9

“Lo-Ami” signifies “Not My People”
– it would be impossible to measure the magnitude of this loss
• it is the end of a dream – the reversal of a promise and a vow
◦ it is nothing less than a separation and divorce

God’s devotion to Israel began long before they were a nation
– as far back as Abraham, he was forming their identity
“I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them . . . . I have remembered my covenant. . . . I will take you to myself to be my people and I will be your God . . . .” (Ex. 6:2-7)
• this is the essence of God’s covenant with Israel, and the benefit both parties receive
(Yahweh gets a people for himself and the people get a God who is for them)
◦ the slogan is repeated throughout the Old Testament, and especially in the Prophets
“I am your God – you are my people”
• the connection between God and the people is relational
◦ it is a bond sworn in love – a promised intimacy
◦ a commitment that would last forever
– but now, at this critical stage of Israel history, they are approaching a different destiny,
• God has loved Israel, been faithful, and forgiven many of their offences
◦ but he will no longer turn a blind eye to their adulteries
• there are consequences – and the consequences are painful,
◦ as Hosea learns through his own difficult circumstances

Could there be a greater tragedy?
– Israel not only loses God, but they lose their national identity as well
• they are now lost in the world
• when Assyria conquered Israel,
◦ they deported thousands of families to other countries
◦ then they planted thousands of foreigners in their land
– the mixture of the nationalities erased Israel’s unique identity
• that is where this first sad prophecy leaves off

Conclusion: The obvious question is “Why marry a whore?”

What I hear first is God asking, “Have I got your attention now?”
So we might want to begin there – does God have our attention?

For Hosea to bring this prophetic word with all the passion and intensity of God’s heart,
he had to experience the pain and betrayal of love for himself
His heart had to be broken
Only then could he speak in public with the right attitude and pathos

Next I hear Hosea telling us,
“Your healing will begin when you wake up to what you have”
We live in the new covenant which God enacts with us through Jesus
We don’t have to lose it in order to appreciate it
We can learn to walk in God’s ways as their spelled out for us in Hosea’s message to Israel
But the strongest and most surprising revelation in this remarkable book,
is the ongoing, intensely moving, and richly edifying and undying love of God

Podcast

Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord and join us here today
We take this world to be a certain way
Matters seem settled or maybe just set
Death and taxes and all that
People don’t change, never will
Life is hard and then you die.

And then you came
And you lived among us
And taught us about your path
Your ways
Your kingdom
And you loved people
And you healed people
And you set people free
We killed you for this Lord
But then you overcame death

And then you came to us
Each of us
And now that overcoming is ours as well
We can change
We can become great lovers
Of all the people
We can help ease the suffering of others
We can be a part of the healing of this world
We can be a part of setting people free

Life is no longer fixed
No longer dreary or a drudgery
Even in the midst of suffering or pain
We now live our lives enveloped in your overcoming
And we are overcoming too
Unbelievable
Remarkable
Amazing
Astonishing
Thank you Lord for this life
This life
Hallelujah
Amen

Today’s Talk: chuck smith, jr.

John 20:1-20

INTRO: Every Easter, until COVID, my dad would host a Sunrise Service

(First at the Pacific Amphitheater and later the Verizon Amphitheater)

And most every year he would tell the same story; this one about Mary Magdalene

• you might expect people to say, “Oh no, not this story again,”
  ~ but instead it was, “Oh! This is one of my favorite sermons”
  ~ about forty years ago, a Sunrise Service was held at San Clemente High School
  I went because I heard Eddie Piorek was going to speak
  He also told the story of Mary Magdalene
• I’m don’t intend to recover or carry on a tradition today
  ~ but last week—Palm Sunday—we read the story about another Mary,
  the one who poured perfume on Jesus’ feet
  ~ it felt right to spend a moment with the Mary in today’s story,
  who lost Jesus and then found found him

John, in fact, highlights three Marys who appear in connection with Jesus’ death
Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, who prepared Jesus for his burial (Jn. 12:7)
Mary Magdalene, who stood by the cross and later came to the tomb,
And Mary the mother of Jesus

• but we discover something odd regarding Jesus’ mother
  ~ although there were three Marys near the cross, John names only two of them
  “standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene” (Jn. 19:25)
  he does not mention Mary’s (the Lord’s mother) name
  ~ early in John’s Gospel, John tells the story of Jesus’ first miracle — at a wedding
  again there John doesn’t use her name, but says,
  “and the mother of Jesus was there” (Jn. 2:2)
• it’s not as if this were of great importance,
  ~ but John never mentions his own name either,
  even when talking about himself in the third person
  ~ here is how he refers to himself when Jesus spoke to him from the cross,
  “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby . . .” (Jn. 19:26)
• tradition tells us that later on Mary and John were very close
  ~ that they even traveled and ministered together
  ~ is it possible that they agreed that knowing John was writing the story of Jesus,
  neither one of them wanted attention drawn to themselves?
  so John did not identify either himself or Mary by name?
  If that were so, it’d be a great example for celebrity pastors and church leaders today

Anyway, three Marys are highlighted, and each one had given attention to Jesus’ body

• one of them touched his heart by washing his feet
• one of the touched his heart by desperately searching for his corpse
• and, of course, one of them had swaddled his infant body and placed him in a manger
  ~ three Marys, and at the end,
  Jesus was watching out for each of them, and caring for them

Had the events reported in the Bible not taken place in sexist cultures,

We would have more stories of heroic women

• most of those we meet in scripture are strong, brave, wise, resourceful, and devout
  ~ there’s a character type in the Bible, in which an intelligent and astute wife,
  is married to a dense and clueless husband
  ~ the scenes with Manoah and his wife, Abigail and Naval, Ahab and Jezebel
  are comical—at least that’s how I read them
• so, along comes Mary — and right away, she’s special
  ~ though the other gospels tell us that several women came to the tomb together
  John singles out Mary to give us a look inside her heart
  ~ she believed she owed Jesus a huge debt of love
  she owed him her life,
  which was haunted by several demons until she encountered the Lord
• I want us to hold this in our minds and imaginations while re-living this story

From a literary point of view, John expertly takes us to the tomb in the garden

Through the eyes of the characters, we see everything

• Mary saw the stone had been moved from the entrance
  John stooped to look into the tomb
  When Peter rushed into the tomb, he saw the burial cloths
  Mary eventually looked into the tomb—and saw angels
• and so on it goes

Subtle attention is given to the postures and positions of people and objects

• both John and Mary, “stooping” to look inside the tomb
  The placement and disposition of the linen cloths lying there
  We Mary where she “stood” weeping, and then saw Jesus standing there facing her
  The angels, however we’re sitting in the tomb
• all of this visualization carries us there, that early morning

Action is also highlighted

• it begins with Mary coming to the tomb
  The stone over the door had been moved
  She ran and found Peter and John,
  And they went, and they ran
  So the action goes, all the way to the moment Mary was clinging to Jesus
  (at least, trying to cling to him)
  Jesus told her she could not hang onto him, because he had to ascend to his Father

The importance of all this information—all the details and embellishments—

• is the way the richness of these descriptions work on our imaginations
  ~ we’re able to be there, to see what they see and feel what they felt
  ~ at first, they didn’t know what to think
  and neither do we — at least, not at first, and not all the time
  we venture through periods of unanswered questions,
  and serious deep, dark doubts
• allowing ourselves to feel the Scriptures is one way of getting them into our hearts
  ~ and getting them into our hearts is as important and maybe even more so
  than getting them into our heads
  ~ desire and determination, passion and motivation, love and empathy
  live in the tissues of our hearts

I speak only for myself when I say rational “proofs” of Jesus’ resurrection leave me cold

• if we’re honest, we must admit they work only for people who already believe
• living this many centuries since his resurrection took place,
  ~ it is not something that needs to be proven as much as believed
  now it’s about putting our faith in God and his Son
  now it’s learning to trust him, when there’s no rational reason why we should
  ~ the reasons we have for trusting God reasons are personal more than rational

I’ve heard preachers make statements like,
“We do not judge the Bible by science; we judge science by the Bible!”

• I would agree with the first half of that statement
  ~ we do not judge the Bible by science,
  we judge our interpretations of the Bible by science
  (although science is not infallible)
• the Scriptures are inspired, our interpretations are not
  ~ in fact, we have to have some flexibility in holding onto our interpretations
  ~ but let’s get back to Mary

Mary headed to the tomb before sunrise

Obviously, she was eager to get to the task at hand

• now this whole first half of the chapter is about the body of Jesus,
  ~ but the word, body, occurs only one time in the chapter (only five times in John)
  ~ Mary can’t bring herself to think of Jesus as a lifeless body—a corpse
  she consistently refers to him as “the Lord” or “my Lord”
• the instant she saw the stone was no longer blocking the entrance
  she turned and ran
  ~ she didn’t know why she was running, but assumed grave robbers had been there
  ~ breathless, she tells Peter and John,
  “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him”
  she cannot identify those who committed the terrible crime
  she can only say, “they”—everyone is a suspect
  Of course, she could not have
  guessed that the Heavenly Father had awakened and raised his Son

After Peter and John left the garden, Mary stayed there, crying

Where would she go?

• ever since she met him, her whole life was Jesus
  ~ even tending to his body would have given her existence a meaning
  as long as our crises, our emergencies require action,
  as long as there are things that must be done—or can be done—
  we hold off crying
  ~ but when the dust settles, when there are no more distractions,
  when we’re forced to give up hope, that is when we cry

Bible teachers have offered explanations for why Mary didn’t recognize Jesus at first

• and that, even though John says she turned and looked at him
  ~ but not recognizing Jesus is a recurring theme in the post-resurrection stories
  Luke give us two clear examples
  for instance, with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus
  and there it seems Jesus had a little fun with them
• Jesus knew Mary would not recognize him at first
  ~ and the way I read this, is he started to have a little fun with her too,
• feigning ignorance, as he did with the two disciples
• so he asked her,
• “Woman, why are you weeping?”
•     ~ but it’s as though, when he sees how devastated she is,
• when he hears the anguish in her strained voice,
• he drops the charade, and simply says her name
• CONCLUSION: Everything about this encounter reveals Mary’s desperate love for
• Jesus
• And why did she have this great depth of love for him?
• Because he was good to her
• Because he was good!
• Because he showed her kindness
• Because she knew she mattered to him
• Why did the other Mary pour perfume on Jesus’ feet?
• Why did this Mary cling to him—or at least try to cling to him?
• Perhaps these were the only ways they knew to express their love
• And Jesus accepted and received their love 
• This is why I’ve wanted to demonstrate how John tries to pull us into the story
• He wants us to have an experience of the love of Jesus
• And to love him in return
• God gets so much more from us when he has our love,
• than when we are merely doing our duty
• So, go, enjoy the remainder of this Easter Day
• And for heaven’s sake, HAVE AN EXPERIENCE!

Podcast

Welcome and prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come, Lord, and join us here today

We are full of gratitude that 

You sought us

Found us

Brought us close 

Made us new

And loved us like Your children

We have been so fortunate to live our days with You

To know Your presence

Your loving care

To hear Your voice

Even when quiet and gentle

And this love You have poured into us,

Is the love we want to pour into others

And it makes our hearts glad

Though sometimes—often times—

Life, people (ourselves included),

Are messy

Needy 

Wounded or broken

and life is hard

Loving is hard

Despite our best intentions

Our best efforts

Our determined sacrifices

And things fall apart

Come, Lord, and bind up the disappointed 

Tend their wounds

Chase away their self-doubt

Their self-loathing

And any inclination to condemn themselves

Remind us that You are sovereign

You are making all things new

All people whole

That a dreary, ugly episode for us

Can nevertheless be transformed

That more is happening than we know

That loving others is still our calling

Even when things don’t work out as we hoped

Grant us the grace to continue to love

Just as You have loved us

Morning talk: chuck smith, jr.

“Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive oil made from [an exquisite plant], and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?’ He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone, so she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.’” John 12:1-8

INTRO: I know this is Palm Sunday and I read the wrong story

However, this is like an introduction to this big occasion, because 

  Jesus came to stay in the home of his friends the day before his grand entrance

   – by the time he reached Bethany, his ministry was winding down

    ~ when we read to the end of this chapter, 

         We come to the end of Jesus’ service to the crowds (in John’s Gospel)

    ~ they will hear nothing more from him, personally

  – in fact, this important detail of limited opportunity is highlighted in this chapter

I wonder how long Mary had been wanting to bless Jesus in this way

  – she not have been sure she’d ever have the opportunity

    ~ but here he was, right there in her home

         if she chickened out now, would she have a second chance?

    ~ turns out, she wouldn’t! it was now or never

  – later on, Jesus will talk about missed opportunities — vv. 35-36 & 46

    ~ when he said, “While you have the light,” that space of time was narrow

Mary must have felt some measure of excitement

  – we bring gifts to people because we love them

     ~ we want to bring joy to their hearts

     ~ but we also worry— What if they don’t like my gift

  – did Mary nervously try to slip into the room without being noticed?

     ~ did she fumble with the stopper in the small clay jar?

or feel embarrassment in front of the disciples?

The times we visited orphans in Russia,

A few of the children gave us gifts

  – something small and worn out that they had held onto for a long time,

     ~ because they had nothing else

had the trinket had been anything of much value,

  the older, bigger orphans would have already taken it from them

    ~ the child bringing the gift would approach one of us with a big smile,

holding tightly to the little treasure in their hands

One boy, maybe seven years old—

    (it was difficult to guess their ages, 

because on their slender diets they did not develop normally)

    ~ with bright eyes, handed me an old fountain pen —out of ink

maybe thrown away or handed to him by another visitor,

  because it was worthless — but not to him

     ~ he had hidden it and hung onto to until then, when he gave it to me

I’ve kept it

The first time I was in Russia, at one of the most impoverished orphanages,

  – a small girl took my hand as we walked from a river back to their dormitory

     ~ and she didn’t let go of my hand until dinner, 

then she grabbed it again until it was time for her to turn in

     ~ ever since then, she has held onto my heart

she wrote a poem and gave it to me just before we drove away

  I’ve held onto that too — in fact, I have it right here . . .

     written in Russian and translated by one of our interpreters

If you sometimes skim through biblical passage, don’t overlook this line:

“The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”

  – I’m certain that John is suggesting something, like a hidden meaning

  – entering a person’s home, we often notice the fragrance of it

     ~ in some cases, the aroma was prepared for our visit

     ~ others times the residents scented their home for their own enjoyment

whenever we went to my grandmother’s home,

  it always smelled like chocolate chip cookies

Some people bring a pleasant fragrance into every encounter,

  – but it has nothing to do with our olfactory sense other than by analogy 

“thanks be to God,” St. Paul wrote, “who . . . through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2 Cor. 2:15-16)

How was it, that Mary’s devotion to Jesus became a problem for someone else?

  – nevertheless, this happens all the time

      ~ a Judas who never felt an overwhelming attraction to Jesus,

who has no idea what it means to be in love with Jesus,

who joins the followers of the Lord, not for the Lord but their own benefit,

     ~ sees another follower offer themselves completely to God,

worship him without restraint,

give him the most lavish offering of praise and worship,

    with their entire spirit, mind and body,

and scoff, or criticize, or find fault with them

  – King David’s wife saw him worshipping God 

as the Ark of the Covenant was carried into the city,

“leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart” (2 Sam. 6:16)

     ~ so he arrived home to her bitter insults and insinuations,

but in his own defense, he said, “It was before the LORD”

     ~ he justified his complete abandon 

as an extravagant expression of his adoration of God

the Lord was his audience — she was just a spectator

These harsh critics are skillful in the way they can conceal their contempt

beneath a veneer of piety and sensible decorum

“Why didn’t she sell that expensive perfume and give the proceeds to the poor?”

  – that kind of logic can infect the minds of others,

who may be truly caring followers of Jesus

      ~ John is the only writer who pins this this complaint on Judas

Matthew implicates all the disciples 

  and Mark said there were “others” who shared those sentiments

     ~ and of course — it sounded good — benevolent — generous

“Leave her alone!” Jesus said — he was immediately her hero, her protector

“Back off Judas! You have enough of your own problems,

and you cannot blame them on her.

If you really care about the poor, you always have them around you,

but you do not always have me.”

  – there it is again — that limitation —

the time will run out, the opportunity will pass

     ~ the day will end and then night will descend

NOW we can celebrate Palm Sunday 

“The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming for the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!’ And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,

‘Fear not, daughter of Zion;

behold, your king is coming,

  sitting on a donkey’s colt!’” (Jn. 12:12-15)

Wait! Was that it? John gives the most condensed account of this event

  – Matthew tells us how the entire city of Jerusalem was stirred up,

and even some time later children were still singing in the temple,

“Hosanna to the Son of David”

     ~ Mark is more subdued, but not as much as John

However it is Luke who tells us, that if the crowd had been silent,

“the very stones would cry out”

     ~ perhaps John felt his readers were already aware of those other accounts

We have sometimes heard

  – that the crowd who welcomed Jesus with praises on Palm Sunday

     ~ were shouting “Crucify him” on Good Friday

but according to what John says in verse 12, 

  the crowd on Palm Sunday were out-of-towners

the locals had to ask “Who is this?” (Matthew 21:10)     

     ~ it was the locals—and especially the religious leaders protecting their interests,

who clamored for Jesus’ execution

  – John does add something else no other Gospel reported

“Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus” (Jn. 12:20-22)

     ~ at the beginning of this Gospel, one of the first disciples to follow Jesus was Andrew

he went and found his brother Peter and brought him to Jesus

     ~ another first disciple was Philip,

who went and found Nathanael and brought him to Jesus

     ~ the first two disciples were already bringing others to Jesus

now, at the end of Jesus’ ministry, they’re still bringing people to Jesus

  only this time there is a radical difference: these men are not Jewish

  – neither were the Samaritans Jewish,

     ~ but they shared a distant identity with Israel and belief in their same God

     ~ the Greeks were from a different part of the world and a very different culture

it looks like a new stage in the spread of the Lord’s work

  so it seems odd to me, but John says nothing more about them

What happens next: Jesus just starts talking

And it’s as if he is saying whatever pops into his mind

  – he announces that his hour has finally arrived,

     ~ but he isn’t specific regarding what that means

he uses a figure of speech, that at least WE can understand refers to his death

  then he says those who follow him must walk the same path

     ~ before that can settle in, Jesus reveals something very personal

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me fro this hour? But for this purpose have I come to this hour” (v. 27) 

  – I feel the tension in his voice, 

torn between his mission and his natural inclination to avoid suffering and death

     ~ he didn’t judge himself for having these feelings

     ~ he faced them, acknowledged them, and transcended them

For the third time in John’s Gospel, Jesus talks about being “lifted up from the earth”

  – Jesus was not going to be doing the lifting

     ~ this was going to happen to him

     ~ he was going to be doing something else — a drawing

“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (v. 22)

  – in this chapter we’ve seen how people were drawn to Jesus

      ~ Mary, drawn by love

      ~ people drawn to her home drawn by the miracle of Lazarus raised from death

      ~ the crowd as he descended the Mount of Olives, 

drawn by all the wonderful works they had seen

      ~ and then the Greeks, who were drawn to him by who-knows-what or why

  – but when he’s lifted up, all people everywhere are drawn to him.

There’s another meaning to being “lifted up,” 

  – which means exalted, honored, raised to prominence or positive recognition

        ~ humans lifted Jesus up on a cross—his Father lifted up to glory

CONCLUSION: Before we lay down our palm branches,

Quiet our kids, collect our things, and leave the parade down the Mount of Olives

  – there is something Jesus said I want to take with me

“If anyone serves me, they must follow me; and where I am, my servant will be also” (c. 26)

When I pray, I frequently ask Jesus to be with me

His presence holds me together, when everything else is falling apart

But the verse reminds me, that when I’m praying, “O Lord, be with me,”

Jesus is telling me, “Follow Me, and you will be with Me”