July 28, 2013, "A Marriage Made in Heaven"

Hosea 1: 2-10 Luke 11: 1-13 To what shall we compare God's Love, not as an abstract but God's love for You and me? What we as a congregation know best are weddings, we celebrate more weddings than any church I have ever known, and where some churches have restrictions about only being married inside on Saturday afternoons we try to accommodate people's needs and desires wherever they are, as sacred. Imagine a wedding...As you come up to the Sanctuary the pastor is waiting outside beaming as this is a Marriage made in Heaven. There is space for every guest. You enter the wedding and the most beautiful music is playing. There are flowers and ribbons. Once everyone is gathered, the Bridegroom escorts his mother and father to their place and intently watches the door for the coming of the Bride. The Bridegroom has been transformed from that infant whose existence changed the lives of everyone, and that gawky teenaged boy asking questions beyond his years, to a man, robust and poised, exuberant and joyful. He stands at the Communion Table in full tuxedo and smiling from ear to ear at having found the partner for all time. This is a Marriage Made in Heaven for the Bridegroom is God the Creator, is Christ one with humanity, and the partner, the Bride was chosen by God, is the Creator's own creation. The command is given to rise, the trumpets fanfare, the doors burst open and the Bride enters. But something is amiss. Where the Bridegroom is in love, is captivated and committed with everything they have and are to this other... The Bride is distracted, appearing as though they would rather be anywhere else, with someone else. As the Statement of Intention is asked, the Bridegroom's voice quivers, he pauses to swallow and commit himself fully for ever saying “I AM and I DO”. When the Bride is asked whether she will love, honor and cherish her partner, she replies “Whatever, I Guess.” The problem named in Hosea is prostitution, in its most base sense: whoredom! But the problem of prostitution is not SEX, but that the common person sells themselves, sells their very soul for money to feed their addiction. Ironic, in that there are so many unnamed women in the Bible, that the bride of the prophet Hosea is personally remembered. Hosea's prophecy makes faith scandalous, shameful, intimate and personal and real. Something happens to us, something hard and calloused when we sell our intimacy, our emotions, our love, our soul for what can never satisfy. This week a 17 year old from this community died of heroine overdose. Not in Auburn, or Syracuse, but here in this, our Village, under our watch, a child is dead. I remember when a husband got passed security in the hospital and beat his wife to death, and the community was so outraged that hospital security was changed and there were community discussions about domestic violence and abuse. I remember when there were alcohol related deaths on the lake and the streets, and there was rage, who could have left a couple for dead, who could have provided liquor to those underage. Why then, when a 17 year old is dead from Heroine, are we ashamed to talk about it, to do something about it? The problem is not drugs, or alcohol, or prostitution, or all the things we often blame as evil, but that all this stuff represent addiction, addiction to escape, to avoidance, to what can never bring joy or satisfaction. Week after week at weddings, I watch as Father's escort their daughters down the aisle and kiss them goodbye. I watch as they dance at their weddings. We treat one another as precious, as sacred, as a gift to this one in love. None of us could imagine committing to a relationship of “Yeah, whatever, I Guess.” Recently, I was in conversation with a health care tech caring for people with active HIV AIDS, and with a Hospice Nurse caring for those who are terminal and actively dying, and with a spouse caring at home for their partner with Alzheimer's. The AIDS tech described the dangers of a stray needle stick, or a cut. They spoke of how normal and ordinary their patients were, a lawyer, an engineer, a mother, a son, not the GRID that was feared and ostracized a few decades ago. The Hospice Nurse described being called any hour day and night. Named cleaning wounds and bed sores, and trying to provide comfort, closure, dignity; but that the hardest thing of all was the accumulation of so many deaths that you fear becoming numb to mortality, to suffering, to humanity. The spouse caring at home, named that doing stuff was the easy part, the hard was when the one you love cannot figure out who you are. One who had gone with us described Sudan, where nothing is clean, where cattle are everywhere, and feces and flies and smoke. Where just to survive due to poverty and climate is miraculous, but there are diseases and war that make us fear anyone who is different. Each one in turn described “You could not pay me a Million Dollars to do that.” And each one in turn realized, they did not do the work for money. One had a father who had died alone in a hospital, where everything seemed sterile, scientific and cold. One had a sister, lost to the family, maybe by caring for people with AIDS she might find someone who knew someone who knew her, or if not at least she had cared for one like her sister. The spouse had committed to better and worse and sickness and health, and believed that somewhere beneath that vacant expression was the one who still loved them. “Hard” does not begin to describe the level of commitment. In relationships like these, like Hosea's love for Gomer, like God's love for us, there come times when you say to yourself, “No more, I Cannot” but you see them struggle, you see their need and you have to care. It is scandalous, far beyond what any one imagines on their wedding day but that is the commitment of God to humanity, distracted. These passages this morning are about shameless relationships. Not only that Hosea loves Gomer with a love that cannot be returned, that God loves us wanting only love in return and we are instead distracted. We question the mechanics of love and marriage, like our questioning the mechanics of prayer. The disciples, as faithful students ask, “Teach us how, what, when to pray.” But prayer is not a magic incantation that if we do the right things and say the right words, will be guaranteed a desired outcome. The great pain of prayer is when our prayers go unanswered, was it that God did not care, that God was not able, or that we did not pray had enough, faithfully enough? What Jesus described to his disciples is that God loves us shamelessly, without any reserve, so we need to pray shamelessly without reserve! Prayer is not about following the right formula, or paying enough, or being more faithful than anyone else. Prayer establishes relationship. Not How, When, Where or What to Pray, but who are You and to whom do we pray? I am dismayed how often we get hung up on which is more correct “Forgive us our Debts, or Trespasses, or Sins” and whether to end “For Thine is the Kingdom, Glory and Power, Forever” or not. Luke is not worried about getting all the words right. First, who is God? Religions throughout time have identified God as Master, and identified with with different attributes, praying to a God of War versus God of Love. Judaism prayed to One God, Law-giver, Emancipator, who set us free in a Promised Land. But from Jesus we have an identity with God as being personal, even intimate. This God is not separate and objective, up on Mount Olympus, but messy, passionate and caring just as we are. God is to be honored and revered and Other, so Hallow God's Name. Recognize and claim from the outset that God's Will will be Done. We can plead and beg and shame, knowing that ultimately God's will will be done. That is our safety, like having a Moderator or Referee, we can try anything and everything available to us, confident God will keep us from going too far. Having recognized God as God, honoring and revering God's identity and that all life is God's will, WHAT DO YOU NEED? ...FOOD, FORGIVENESS, FIDELITY. Give us this day our Daily Bread. Forgive us our Wrongs. Although we may deserve it, Do not ever abandon us or lead us into temptation. The point of prayer is not whether we did it right or wrong, whether we prayed hard enough or enough times, whether we were worthy to pray. The point of prayer was without regard for Shame, did you pray sincerely for what you need and want to be in relationship with God. It is not about the needs, or the wants, or desires, but about being in relationship with God. From 1930s Sunday School Classes many of us have this iconic image of a Blonde Haired Blue Eyed Jesus in white robes smiling as he stands outside the door quietly waiting. THAT is not what Jesus himself described. In that culture even more than our own, demonstrating Hospitality was paramount. In an age before robo-calls and SPAM solicitations, before commercials selling us anything and everything, if someone was desperate enough to express need, we needed to be desperate to respond. Every person had obligation to respond when asked. If a neighbor appeared at your door at Midnight, asking even for a piece of bread for someone else, you needed to respond. We need to envision not Jesus gently tapping outside our door, but a neighbor, one who looks like us pounding on the door, and God in pajamas inviting us inside!