Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary TimeHosea 1:2-10 OR Genesis 18:20-32
Colossians 2:6-15
Luke 11:1-13
When I was in college I read
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, a modern retelling of the book of Hosea. I was terribly curious what all the fuss was about, and was rewarded 400+ pages later with an icky feeling. Either I was supposed to feel like a well-loved slut or this book smelled like kitsch religious patriarchy repackaged in 1850's stereotypes.
It has been so many years that I almost forgot the book existed, until I came across the readings for the Tenth Sunday After Pentecost (Year C). There we find Hosea's prologue staring at us, waiting for a response. I went back and revisited the amazon.com page for
Redeeming Love to see how it was currently being received. Of most interest were the one-star ratings, and the reasons given. I naively expected that some sane people would read the book and reject it on the grounds that it denigrated women. I was instead shocked to find that the only people who seemed to hate the book hated it on the grounds that there was too much flesh and sex, which made it dirty and sinful, like a trashy romance novel disguised as Scripture.
So I go back and re-read the text from Hosea, looking for some way to wiggle out of the tension. But again I read "whoredom, whoredom, whoredom." It was nice of the lectionary council to give us until v. 10, so we have a little sunshine on the otherwise dark passage.
The term "whore" carries so much emotional freight still, but we have come up with new words better suited to the time. If the writer of Hosea were composing today, he would likely prefer the word "slut." It is summer, with all its brutal heat. It is the season of youth camps and beaches and swimsuits and summer love and the unbottling of urges and fears and passions and hormones. If you find your way to a church youth camp, you can see this play out on the bodies of our youth. I recall a conversation I overheard where a counselor was bemoaning the length and tightness of the female shorts. A gender-specific meeting was being scheduled. This had to be addressed. I asked whether they had to police the bodies of boys like they did girls. Since "sagging shorts" was not a problem for this group, they said "no."
If you want to see what slut shaming in the name of Jesus looks like, go to youth camp. Almost any youth camp with females. The whore/slut has always been the perfect vehicle to unload cultural fears and anger. The ones we send off into the wilderness bearing our sins.
"If those young men lust, it is the girl's fault for wearing that skirt."
"If she was taken advantage of, she must have been asking for it."
"He's a stud; she's a slut."
We could keep going. Everyday a new headline or study reminding us how far we have left to go.
So when I read the passage from Hosea I am left with nothing to say. This entire reflection has been about how this text has too many edges for me to handle at this time. That is okay. Sometimes a piece of Scripture can go without an explanation or justification. Maybe Wittgenstein's words are best here: "What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence."
So I urge those of you preaching this week to pass over Hosea for now. It will be back in three years. But tread carefully, for hearts are tender around these words.