Then What?

August 05, 2007

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Hosea 11:1-11; Colossians 3:1-11; Luke 12.13-21
The Reverend Javier A. Viera

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Sometimes I think the Greeks and Romans had it right. Although modern persons look back on Greek and Roman religious beliefs and practices as naïve or superstitious, we still live as if they had it right.

The ancients had gods for everything: beauty, wine, wealth, and war. There were gods for fertility and sex, gods for wisdom and for debauchery. Essentially there was nothing you could want, need or fear which was not presided over by a deity. Ironically, even though as Christians we don't believe in such a pantheon of divine beings, I think it is safe to say that the gods of the ancients die a slow death. After all, we too have all sorts of gods that compete for our allegiance and devotion.

Why do you suppose that is? I'm not satisfied with the most common answer to that question: "Well, you know, we are all human after all." I don't buy it. I think that's bad theology, for to be human is to be one who is in the image of God. Our most authentic self reflects the glory and love of God and is thus God's very image on earth. That's basic Christian theology. Therefore, living as less than that is not being human at all, it's just the opposite; it's being less than human (whatever that is). Which begs, I think, a clarification on who God is. If we are the image of God then perhaps we should better understand who it is that we reflect. It's an important task we have this morning, because on the other side of this clarification awaits what we otherwise call "the good life."
The trick for us is how exactly to clarify this dilemma. Where do we start? Do we start at creation? No--that's too controversial. Do we start in the garden with Adam, Eve and the snake? No--that will seem too fanciful. The truth is that anywhere we start will be arbitrary, and so no one place is better than another. So, let's just start with what the church has given us to work with today: God's response to our rebelliousness and to our love of money and what it can buy.

The Old Testament reading from Hosea is a classic text; classic in that in it is contained a smaller version of the story the entirety of scripture attempts to tell. "When Israel was a child I loved him. Out of Egypt (read: out of slavery, or out of nothingness) I called him." And so we know from the very beginning that this is a love story. This is a story about a lover who will do anything for the sake of his beloved.

Unfortunately, this story isn't exactly love at first sight. It's clear that God loves, loves without reserve. God's beloved (read: humanity) isn't easily wooed. Oh they like the attention, they like feeling special, and every now and then they like when their lover steps in and takes care of the bully who is harassing them. The rest of the time they play the field. "The more I called them, the more they went from me…I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them," reads our lesson. This story is one heartbreak after another.

But even God has limits. Soon that love turns to wrath. "They shall return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria [their greatest enemy] shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. The sword rages in their cities, it consumes their oracle-priests, and devours because of their schemes. My people are bent on turning away from me. To the Most High they call, but I will not raise them up at all."

Perhaps the beloved has gone to far. The Divine Lover has had enough and it seems is now willing to turn them over to their cravings, their lusts, and their greed. And like most jilted lovers, even the Divine Lover wishes the beloved ill and vows not to take them back even if they come begging on their knees.
But friends, love is love. It's not easily ignored or cast aside. Yes, love has its limits, as it should, but this is God we're talking about and thus these aren't ordinary limits. There isn't much that is puny in God, least of which is God's love. So it should come as no surprise that in the very next line God is singing a different tune. "How can I give you up…How can I hand you over, O Israel?" "My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger…for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. They shall go after the LORD, who roars like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling… They shall come trembling like birds…and I will bring them home."

The love story has a happy ending. But do not let its felicitous conclusion distract you from some very important implications. In this mini-drama an important but subtle comparison is made. Like our Roman and Greek predecessors, all sorts of wants and desires also easily distracted our Jewish forebears, and they weren't shy about worshipping at the altar of whatever it was they craved. We've proudly continued that tradition, worshipping wherever we need to in order to secure the outcome we yearn. In our Epistle lesson the apostle Paul lists some of the altars at which we unashamedly bow in reverence: sex, ill will towards others, greed, anger, possessions, revenge, and abusive language-just to name a few of our favorite shrines.

What the drama from Hosea reveals so well is that God too seemed tempted by these very things. When the rejected Lover comes to terms with the colossal snub the imagination begins to run wild. For a few moments, so it seems, God revels in the eventual destruction and pain of his beloved, and flirts with the idea of moving on and abandoning the covenant that was much earlier established. Ill will, revenge, and abusive language were just a few of the temptations that came God's way. The difference, however, is that in the end they did not have their way with God. God is God, and the Lord even of those things that might tempt their creator. God was able, or better said, God chose to be bigger than those temptations, realizing that succumbing to them would significantly diminish his very being.

Thus when Paul encourages the early Christians to "clothe yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator" this is what he's talking about. He's telling them, 'you are the image of your creator. Put the old temptations behind you. Clothe yourselves with what is honorable and loving, choosing the more excellent way, for that is who you are in your very essence.'

Jesus understood this well. A man approaches him and demands that Jesus make his brother divide the family inheritance with him. Jesus refuses to get drawn into the family drama. Instead he admonishes the man, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." Perhaps sensing that something other than fairness and justice was motivating the man, Jesus tells the story of a rich fool who stores up immense possessions for his own ease and leisure. His idiocy costs him his life.

Two things need to be pointed out concerning the rich fool. First, he didn't exist. He's a character in a story Jesus is telling; a parable, which is a method of teaching through the art of story. So Jesus isn't exacting the judgment of death on anyone in the telling of this story. The rich fool is anyone and everyone, and certainly Jesus didn't wish all greedy people dead. Secondly, Jesus never condemns the man's wealth. His money isn't the issue; it's his attitude that is the problem.

This story is a classic example of what we see played out in the drama from Hosea. The rich fool has everything he could want. One might argue he has been divinely blessed, even favored. His success is a moment of truth. What he will do with it is the climax of the story. Unfortunately for the rich fool he isn't wise enough, or strong enough, to resist the temptation to congratulate and credit himself and to do nothing with his success other than to take his ease in the finer things of life. What a waste! What a fool!

"You fool!" I hear Jesus uttering compassionately. "Tonight your very life will be required of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" The rich fool (whoever we are) will have his or her life required of them, for whoever fails to live a life that reflects the image and intentions of God has but a diminished existence. Physical death will not be the final judgment, but the relinquishing of a shallow, self-consumed existence will be. That's what Jesus meant when he said, "This very night your life will be required of you." That kind of life will not suffice for God, at least not for the God who as Lover will do anything for sake of his beloved; not for the God who in Jesus does not spare even Godself in order to give the beloved a deeper, more authentic, more generous life.

Friends, the Divine Lover will not let us waste ourselves, nor will we be able to shield ourselves from the reality of those around us. In the end Divine Love cannot be turned away. That's just the way it is with God. So why are we tempted to hold on to a diminished existence that in the grand scheme only provides limited reward? Is it in order to gain what will not last? Then what?

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