July 2022 – A Preacher’s Ponderings

Greed

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost; 31 July 2022; Proper 13C (RCL); Hosea 11:1-11; Psalm 107:1-9, 43; Colossians 3:1-11; Luke 12:13-21.

We have skipped over most of the material in Hosea, in which God punishes Israel to try to win their favor and fidelity. Hosea, on God’s instruction, married Gomer, a prostitute, as a prophetic sign of Israel’s unfaithfulness (her prostitution after other Gods). The implication seems to be that Hosea should have similarly punished Gomer to win her love and fidelity. Any battered woman reading Hosea would cringe, or worse.

Pray without shame

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost; 24 July 2022; Proper 12C (RCL); Hosea 1:2-10; Psalm 85; Colossians 2:6-18; Luke 11:1-13.

The metaphor of the relation between husband and wife for the relationship between God and Israel, while seemingly tender, is problematic. In the honor/shame context of ancient Israel, a wife’s adultery brought shame on her husband’s family, and so he was justified in methods of controlling her sexuality that we would find problematic at the least.

One thing

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost; 24 July 2022; Proper 11C (RCL); Amos 8:1-12; Psalm 52; Colossians 1:15-28; Luke 10:38-42.

The Amos passage is again hard to hear, perhaps even harder than last week. The word play is on “summer fruit” and “end.” The NIV catches the play. God asks Amos what he sees, and he replies, “A basket of ripe fruit.” God replies, “The time is ripe for my people Israel.” God will make an end of Israel. Amos does not provide an image of any hope held out for God’s people. Worst of all is the famine for hearing God’s word — God is no longer found among God’s people. Nothing is left.

Neighbors

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost; 10 July 2022; Proper 10C (RCL); Amos 7:7-17; Psalm 82; Colossians 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37.

In Track 1 in the RCL, we read through the major events in Old Testament history, and in Year C, Ordinary Time, we’re reading through the end of the two kingdoms. Amos is the first prophet of whom we have any record of his sayings. He is beginning to predict the collapse of the Northern Kingdom. As would become the standard trope of the deuteronomistic historians, Amos lays the blame for the impending collapse squarely in the kingdom itself, and particularly its king. Never mind the geopolitical forces that would bring disaster to both Israel and Judah, it is their faithlessness, according to the prophets, that brings about their end.