August 3, 2025 Rev. Valerie Hart

August 3, 2025

Saint Thomas of Canterbury

The Rev. Valerie Hart

In our first reading today, the prophet Hosea, like most prophets, presents God's complaints about the people of Israel. God is angered and grieved because the people have turned to idols. Instead of honoring and listening to the God that deeply loves them, the people are sacrificing to Baals and offering incense to idols. Instead of putting God first, they have made something else more important, thinking they can find peace and a meaningful life based on inanimate stuff. God predicts terrible things for such a people, but then out of love and compassion offers the hope of the People of God turning around and returning to God and to their homes.

In the second reading Paul writes to the Colossians about how they should live now that they have become Christians. As he often does, he writes a list of what one should not do. He ends the list with the word 'greed' which he describes as idolatry. To be greedy, to want more then you need for yourself, is like worshiping an idol. It puts something ahead of one's relationship with God.

And then we get to the Gospel reading.

Can you imagine being part of a crowd surrounding Jesus. If you had a chance to ask a question, or make a request of Jesus what would you say? You might ask for healing of a friend or relative. You might ask for a bit of wisdom. You might ask how you could best be of service.

But in this reading, someone in the crowd yells out, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." It reminds me of the story a couple of weeks ago where Martha asks Jesus to tell her sister to help her in the kitchen.

Now to understand this reading one must remember that at the time of Jesus, the Jewish law concerning inheritance was that when the father died everything went to the oldest son. A brother could be invited to share in part of the inheritance, but it wasn't demanded or really expected.

Jesus' response is basically, what does that have to do with me? I'm not your brother's judge.

Jesus then says to everyone gathered, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."

Then he goes on to tell one of his stories that we call parables.

A rich landowner had a particularly good crop one year, and had no room left to store it. So he tore down his existing barns and built larger ones and filled them with his grain and his goods to keep them safe so he could retire, and "eat, drink and be merry." But ironically, he dies that very night. God asks him "All these things you have prepared, whose will they be?"

Jesus' summary is "So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."

So, if Hosea lived today, what do you think he would tell the people of our land. What would he say to us?

We may not worship Baals, but what is the focus of our culture? What is the goal of most people most of the time? How do we evaluate how our lives are going? What would be 'success' for our children?

It's all about wealth, isn't it. We are doing well if we are making a lot of money, and then the goal is to make more money. Drive around and you will see large areas where you can rent storage space to keep all the stuff that you can't fit in your home. And watch any of our media, for even a few minutes and we are bombarded with more stuff that we "need." We, as a culture, are the famer in the parable. We work hard to gather more so we can store it away and at some point be able to stop working so hard. From the child in elementary school who is put into the right activities to be able to get into the best college, to the high schooler who is continually asked what do you want to do when you grow up and is encouraged to be sure they get a well-paying job. To the college student evaluating what to do after graduation and looking for the most lucrative offer. To the young adults who work long hours in order to save up for a home for all the stuff they have. To the middle-aged people who work extra hours in order to save for their retirement.

And we compare ourselves with others based on our money and our stuff. We want a bigger home in a nicer neighborhood. We buy a new car, not because the old one doesn't work but because the new one gives us a sense of meaning. We look for joy from buying things. In this culture, human beings are called 'consumers'.

In America today instead of saying, 'I think therefore I am', we seem to say, 'I consume therefore I am.'

What would Hosea say to us, to our culture today. My guess is that he would say that our God, the one true God, who loves us beyond our possible understand, grieves because we have made money and things into idols. We look to them for security and satisfaction. We spend our time and energy seeking more and more, while forgetting the primacy of the call to love - to love God and to love our neighbor. This greed is not, cannot be, the basis of a healthy society.

But, there is good news. Hosea also writes: "I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath." God loves us. All of us. Hosea describes God as parent who  says "I took them up in my arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them."

The good news of Hosea is that in spite of turning away from love and treating something else as more valuable and important than God. God's love never wavers. We are always, ALWAYS invited to return to God.

In the world that God wants for us, we see ourselves not as consumers, but as servants, caregivers, lovers. In the world that God wants for us, when the farmer's barns are full and he is wondering how to handle his abundance, he would give the extra away to those who need it. In the world that God wants for us we trust in God that we will have enough for the next day, and we share the gifts of God with others. Like in the early Christian communities where everyone pooled their resources and shared with one another.

But that is not the world we currently live in. Not all of us can be like St. Francis and live in total poverty. We have families, responsibilities.

God is not looking for perfection. Christ is well aware of our limitations. But we are invited to do what we can to move toward love, toward trust, toward generosity. We can try to only buy what we really need. We can trust a little more in God's abundance and worry a little less about the future. We can be thankful for what we have, keep a little less for ourselves, and give a little more to others.