(Please read this Scripture passage first, before the homily.)
There were two kingdoms after King Solomon. The southern part, Judah, maintained its allegiance to the line of King David and had its capital in Jerusalem. The northern kingdom split away and eventually had its capital in Samaria. Today we had proclaimed the fall of the Northern Kingdom. It was sad, but it all came about because the people had turned away from their God and followed the deceits of their own hearts.
I spoke Friday about God’s love as rope that God holds onto to keep us safely attached to God. God so loves us as to hold onto God’s end of the rope so that we can have safe contact with God. In the catastrophe related in the reading today, we may ask if (or why) God had dropped God’s end of Israel’s rope. I have to answer that God did not drop that rope, despite the fall of the Northern Kingdom.
Scripture says that the people venerated other gods and followed the religious practices of the other nations. They adopted the culture, civilization and ways of thinking of the rest of the world. They rejected God, much as the teenager in that letter seemed to have rejected the parent. Despite the rejection, however, God continued to hold onto the Northern Kingdom’s rope.
Our world looks down on people with darker skin, although many of us like deep sun tans. We make fun of people who are different in appearance, in ancestry, in color, in ethnic or sexual expression. We call them names, derogatory names. We turn our backs on the poorer people and blame them for their poverty. We like ourselves and our way of living. We want liberty from social distancing and the wearing of masks, despite the fact that our cooperation in these matters prevents disease from spreading to the poorer and more vulnerable parts of our communities. In all this we turn our backs on God and make ourselves like the culture and civilization in which we live.
So, when the pandemic returns in doubled strength, we shall cry out to God that God not release the hold God has on the other end of our rope. When we have rejected God’s statutes, God’s covenant and God’s warning, it will be only the mercy of God who still holds onto our rope that saves us from everlasting punishment. We still have value in God’s sight even when our world seems to fall in around us.
The Northern Kingdom found itself having to beg God not release its rope. In our fight against God as we try to become our own persons independently of God, we hope that God keeps holding our rope. This is so in our personal lives and in our national life. We struggle against God, but hope in God’s mercy. We refuse God the greatness God deserves, while we strive somehow to make ourselves great and our nation great. Doing that, we have the audacity to hope that God not stop holding our safety line.
If God does continue holding our rope, it will be God’s merciful love and not our greatness that brings God to do it. In the end we can only say to God, “Thanks to you for saving me from my selfishness.” We still have value in God’s sight always.