(Please read the passage above before reading this.)
“Thus says the Lord.” So begins this passage from the prophet Hosea. The word speaks of courtship and marriage, a relationship not between one human with another, but a union of God with God’s people.
Long ago, when God’s people were young, they claimed God as their own and were loyal to God. This people, however, grew older and forgot their God. They resorted to paramours and pretended to be married to them.
God, the lawful husband, however, was going to take them back into the desert to woo them again as God had once done before. This God is a forgiving God.
We celebrate today the birthday of the United States of America. If God has chosen us for a special relationship, we have not been faithful. We claim to trust in God, but we trust more in money and in power over others.
We find fault with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. We find fault with Chine over its treatment of Tibet and Taiwan. We want God to lead these nations back into the desert to show them a thing or three about justice and right living.
On the other hand, what we possess, we possess by theft and dominance. We have pushed our indigenous people into deserts we call reservations. We have built our nation on the back of kidnapped slaves and have denied their descendants the full rights of citizenship. We have purchased Alaska from the Russians as if they had the power of ownership beforehand. We have annexed Texas, California, and much of our western states as peace terms we imposed on Mexico. Our past belies our fault-finding with modern situations.
The message for us today is that God wants a relationship with us. God wants us to put aside our replacement gods, our Baals, and instead unite ourselves to God in truth and fidelity. Our future on earth and the health of the planet and solar system depend on it.