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.
In this passage, Hosea shifts the metaphor from spouse to child: Israel is God’s son. Interestingly, Matthew quotes 11:1, in showing the flight of Mary and Joseph to Egypt as fulfillment of prophecy; out of Egypt I have called my son. The realities in 11:1-11 are harsh — Israel has indeed been Exiled to Assyria and Egypt — but the images are tender — I shall be to Israel as one who lifts a child to his cheek. I wonder if the stories of Jesus blessing the children have this passage in the background? It would have resonances of God restoring and healing a broken Israel.
The Gospel passage recalls the story of Joseph and Pharaoh hoarding all the grain of Egypt during the seven years of plenty. Of course, what Joseph and Pharaoh did with that surplus was to buy the people of Egypt into slavery, as well as buy all the people’s money, livestock, and land. When the people gathered manna in the wilderness, any excess gathered would rot overnight, precisely to prevent the hoarding of food. Many of the laws in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy were designed to prevent a repeat of the Egypt experience — do not harvest your field to the edges, leaving some for the poor to glean; the year of Jubilee was meant to prevent the amassing of land in the hands of a few.
The Colossians reading also directs our attention away from things earthly toward things above, but not in the sense of an asceticism of denial. The author of the letter is arguing against opponents who apparently saw practices of mortification of the flesh as the means of progress in the spiritual life. The author of this letter suggests that baptism has already accomplished the necessary translation of life from a life of sin to a life hid with Christ in God, not by means of denigrating the life of the body, but by transforming it. Those baptized have already put off the old person and been clothed with a new person, and undertaken new practices not as a means to spiritual advancement, but as a consequence of new life.
The first list of vices (fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry)), all concern the ill-use of others, as does the second list as well (anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language). Interestingly, the Greek word for greed connotes taking more than one’s share. It is not an attitude so much as the reality of having too much. This is precisely the sin of the man in Jesus’ parable — the hoarding of what belongs to others, which is idolatry.
Also missed in our translations is God’s response to the man. God says, “Fool, this very night, they will demand your soul from you in repayment.” Presumably, the “they” is the good things for which the man has just congratulated himself. “These things you have prepared, whose then will they be?” To be rich toward God would then presumably imply stewarding these good things for those to whom they rightfully belonged — the poor of the land, whose share they should be.
The passage from Colossians suggests that having put off the old person and having been clothed in the new one, the new person will grow in recognition (the knowledge is not knowledge in an abstract sense, but “knowing” as in “I know you!” when meeting someone you’ve met before) of the image of the creator. As we recognize the image of the creator in our selves, we are conformed to the purposes of the creator, which include making sure all have their share of the good things of God. No wonder greed (having more than one’s share) is idolatry — it is the worship of the creature (wealth, ourselves) rather than the creator.