27th July 2025
Reflection with readings below
Names are important in the first reading because names can have meanings.Hosea means salvation. Gomer means completion. And as we hear, each of Gomer’s children have names with meanings.
Hosea is a prophet who, rather than passing on God’s message through words spoken to the people, is called to enact God’s message – to demonstrate it in a very physical way. And it would have been a message that took several years to deliver.
God’s message delivered to the people is a stark reminder that they have been unfaithful. They have not stuck to the promises – to the covenants – made between God and people. They have not been monogamous in their relationship with God. They have not followed the ways of God. Rather they have pursued other gods and other ways of living. And likewise with Gomer. It would seem as if Gomer’s first child is Hosea’s son but the other two children may not. Even though Hosea has rescued Gomer once by marrying her, still she sins.
The consequence of the people’s unfaithfulness is ruin and destruction. Yet the text suggests that it is not just the people who are caught up in this sinfulness – “for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” The word used does mean land or earth. Is the land, like Gomer’s offspring, an innocent victim? Has the land suffered because of the waywardness of the people who should – in accordance with God’s will – have been tending and protecting it?
Or would kingdom be a better – if not accurate – translation? The kingdoms of both Jehu and Judah both suffer and will ultimately be taken over by the Assyrians and the Babylonians.
This last week the world past Earth Overshoot Day – 24th July – being the day when globally we have used up a full year’s supply of resources and services that the Earth provides. Some countries – the poorest, least developed – will not have used even a half of their share whilst other richer highly developed countries will have used their share many times over. And the latter is even more criminal in that those countries have been able to do this because they have unfairly used resources that belonged to someone else, and because their over consumption is also at the expense of generations to come.
Have we been unfaithful to God? Has the world failed to follow God’s will? Have we pursued other gods – profit, wealth, capitalism, egotism and self importance?
Are we any different from the recipients of Hosea’s message? Are we failing to hear or to pay attention to the warning of the prophets? Are we not polluting the land by ignoring God’s will?
Today’s gospel tells how Jesus gave his follower the Lord’s Prayer. It is a prayer which we use frequently. But do we pray it with intent?
Do we see all of humanity as our brothers and sisters, for whom God is Father and Mother? Or do we see some as being less important, not worth treating as God’s children?
Do we honour God’s name? Or do we forget or belittle God as a less than worthy partner?
Do we strive to do what God wills? Often we take ‘your will be done’ as a get out clause. What ever happens for good or ill (and usually this is reserved for the latter) we meekly say that whatever has happened has happened because it was God’s will. The flood that washed away the village; the person who died prematurely; the lightening strike that destroyed a tree – all God’s will. I don’t believe that God wants floods to destroy villages, people to die prematurely or lightening to destroy trees – for God’s nature is love. That these things happen must grieve God. That sometimes they happened because we humans have not done what God would want, must grieve God even more.
‘Your will be done’ is about us undertaking to do that which God desires, to do those things express God’s love, to undertake to live as citizens of God’s kingdom, as subjects of God’s reign – to do God’s will. Thus will the world be healed. Thus will we find salvation.
I wonder how the listeners of Hosea’s message responded?
Puzzlement, derision, anger, disbelief? Did they listened or did they simply ignored the protest and carry on as before?
I wonder how we may and our communities, responded to the prophetic warning of Earth Overshoot Day? I wonder how we may and our communities, respond to the daily reports of the effects of climate change, of the impacts of capitalism and globalisation on the poor, the suffering of those treated as being less than human, less than God’s children?
Rebalancing our global consumption of the Earth’s resources and services will take more than just making major adjustments to what we consume. To overcome inequality we will need a major overhaul of systems of trade and taxation. To overcome poverty will need a major focus in redistribution and better distribution of resources. To over overcome war and oppression, apartheid and genocide will need humility and empathy, discernment and good communication, cooperation and a willingness to seek justice. And we all need to engage with this for we are called to be citizens of God’s kingdom as we pray, with the help of God, ‘your will be done!’
Hosea 1:2-10
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
And the Lord said to him, “Name him Jezreel; for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.”
She conceived again and bore a daughter. Then the Lord said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them. But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God; I will not save them by bow, or by sword, or by war, or by horses, or by horsemen.”
When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people and I am not your God.”
Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered; and in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”
Psalm 85
1 You have been gracious to your land, O Lord, *
you have restored the good fortune of Jacob.
2 You have forgiven the iniquity of your people *
and blotted out all their sins.
3 You have withdrawn all your fury *
and turned yourself from your wrathful indignation.
4 Restore us then, O God our Saviour; *
let your anger depart from us.
5 Will you be displeased with us for ever? *
will you prolong your anger from age to age?
6 Will you not give us life again, *
that your people may rejoice in you?
7 Show us your mercy, O Lord, *
and grant us your salvation.
8 I will listen to what the Lord God is saying, *
for he is speaking peace to his faithful people
and to those who turn their hearts to him.
9 Truly, his salvation is very near to those who fear him, *
that his glory may dwell in our land.
10 Mercy and truth have met together; *
righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
11 Truth shall spring up from the earth, *
and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
12 The Lord will indeed grant prosperity, *
and our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness shall go before him, *
and peace shall be a pathway for his feet.
Colossians 2:6-15
As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.
Luke 11:1-13
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, `Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, `Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
The Green Tau 