Sunday 3rd August 2025
Hosea 11: 1-11
Psalm 107: 1-9, 43
Colossians 3: 1-11
St. Luke 12: 13-21
“(You) have clothed yourselves with the new self.” Colossians 3: 10a
Those of you who have sent or received text messages from me know that my ability to text on the cell phone is best described as… well – “means well” or “tries hard…” I don’t expect ever to be someone who writes fluidly on tiny phone keys… If that weren’t challenging enough, some people send back that they “like” a message; others that they “love” a message. Exactly the same message which is only “liked” by one person can be absolutely “loved” by the next person…
Now, I’m not trying to get anyone to change their text messages… However, it seems to me that we are quite generous – perhaps even a little reckless – in identifying what we truly love… (Perhaps Canadians as a whole might be inclined to identify “love” somewhat indiscriminately…) Core to the gospel message is that we can re-capture what love truly is; and especially, to identify priorities about where we direct our love – for that is how we can understand today’s Bible readings…
Feelings come, and feelings go, and they are neither good nor bad in themselves. But true love is something much deeper: For Christians, love is not primarily an emotion, but an exercise of the will. We choose who we will love – who we will be in deep relationship with – not as a superficial gesture, or a passing feeling… Rather, we are determined to love even those people whom we don’t find it so easy to love. Love is given, and in a healthy way, love is meant to be received back… Love is not merely someone to whom we feel sexually attracted, nor can a tasty dessert love us back (although some of us might say we love ice cream)… Love is an exercise of the will (choosing to love) – and love means being in a healthy relationship, in which there is both giving and receiving…
The Lord Jesus reminds us, his followers, that we are to love God, with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. Not merely to respect God (although certainly God deserves our respect!), but to love God – to enjoy God’s presence and grace, and to desire to be in deeper fellowship with God through Jesus Christ… As well, we’re called to love others – especially, the wounded, and the broken, and those on the edges of our lives… Any decent person loves a friend. Christians are encouraged to love our enemies…
Bearing Christian love in mind, let’s look first at the prophet Hosea, from today’s first reading. When Hosea was prophesying, God’s people claimed to care about God. However, they worshipped all kinds of idols – such as Baal the local fertility god, an idol of the Canannites…
The people’s disloyalty to God is appalling to the living God… As an illustration of the people’s unfaithfulness, the prophet Hosea marries a prostitute named Gomer. Gomer has one son of whom Hosea is the father, and then has 2 other children by other men…
Gomer’s adultery, and betrayal of the marriage covenant, is an illustration for the people about how they are betraying their first love by their loyalty to idols… We are to worship the Lord God, who alone is worthy of true worship…
The Book of Hosea is soaked in the metaphor of adultery in marriage being a picture of the people’s faithlessness when they turn away from God – and how God longs for us to return…
The Book of Hosea isn’t in the Bible only for the ancient people of Israel… We – all of us
– are confronted with the same sharp truth: Who is our first love?… Do we love God – really, love God with all our being?… And if some idol of our generation has crept to claim first loyalty in our lives, when are we going to see our foolishness, and repent?…
Today’s gospel reading is about another misplaced love, with Jesus’ Parable of the Rich Fool… In this parable, a farmer who has done well for himself discovers that his barn is too small to accommodate his large harvest. The farmer proceeds to build a bigger barn, and then assumes that he can relax and party for all the years ahead of him… (In fact, however, the rich farmer who has put all his ambition into his new large barn has lost his first loyalty to God, and dies that very night.) Luke 12: 20-21:
But God said to the rich farmer, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
Our attitude toward money is a spiritual matter, you see… If we become consumed with ambition to acquire more and more in our bank account above all else, to exhibit the sin of avarice, we have displaced God as the Ultimate in our lives. It’s not about the money itself, but our attitude towards it… Money (or any other thing) should not displace our first desire – to love God and to live in response to God’s love…
If we recognize that we are developing an unhealthy attitude towards money, the cure is to give away what we have generously – that is the way to freedom…
When preachers speak about money and spirituality, it’s not because we’re trying to boost the church’s bank account, nor is our aim make anyone miserable… Rather, our motive is simply this: We want everyone (ourselves included) to become mature, grateful, joyful Christians… That’s it! Even when it seems hard at the moment, when we are generous but not reckless with the stewardship of the money entrusted to us, then we are released to put God first…
We don’t want to be like the people of Hosea’s time, absorbed in the worship of false gods. Neither do we want to be like the kind of person that the Lord Jesus warns about in the Parable of the Rich Fool, consumed with worldly acquisition, and cold toward God’s priorities…
Instead, as a positive model, let’s look at today’s epistle reading, from Colossians 3… St. Paul is contrasting the way the way the Colossians used to be, with the way they are now. In a real sense, Christians have “died” to the old, self-centred ways: “Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3: 3-4)…”
What are these old ways, that Paul expects members of the Church to set aside? Verse 5 and following:
Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices…
In contrast, Paul holds up the new way of living in Jesus Christ. The image is like our putting on new clothes – new priorities in our lives: “(You) have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its Creator…”
These words aren’t just for long ago! Like the people of Hosea’s time, we can turn around and focus on the Lord… Like those who were consumed by wealth alone in Jesus’ time, we can re-prioritize our love for Christ and others. Like the Church in Colossae, we can be renewed alone and together, clothed with the new priorities of a rich life in Christ…
We aren’t doing any of this on our own. God helps you and me become the men and women we are all called to be, by his Spirit. Let’s encourage one another! With God’s help, may we all we guided together to our best priorities, and to our true home…
Amen.