The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
August 5, 2007
Vol. 10 no. 30

Everything But...
           Today’s sermon focuses on the Gospel Lesson, Jesus’ parable about a rich man who struggles with the problem of how to store all his wealth. This passage of Scripture is universally known as “The Parable of the Rich Fool.” As a footnote to the sermon I would offer a bit of trivia that the Hebrew word for “fool” is nabal. Why I offer this exciting bit of information will become clearer (maybe).
           The Old Testament Lesson, Hosea 11, is one of the Bible’s most poignant expressions of the relationship between God and the chosen people Israel. Hosea was one of the four 8th century prophets (the others being Amos, Isaiah, and Micah) who introduced new revelations about the nature of God, and what God expected of his people. Before their time the foremost attribute of Deity was power. If you offered a pleasing sacrifice or erected an acceptable shrine or Temple to God, then you could get that power working for you, and God would be with you to bring victory over your enemies and success in all your endeavours. That theology worked for Moses at the Red Sea and Joshua at Jericho. The kings of Israel and Judah never questioned that it might not always work for them.
           There were some hints from earlier prophets of what God expected, such as Nathan’s confrontation with David over the Bathsheba affair, and Elijah’s with Ahab over a vineyard. But it was Hosea and his contemporaries who articulated, clearly and uncompromisingly, that what God requires is justice and compassion. Hosea depicts God as a loving parent of a rebellious and unrepentant son and who agonizes whether to inflict punishment, as justice requires, or yield to compassion and pardon him. While a dilemma for God, such a choice would have been beyond the understanding of the rich fool of Jesus’ parable. Neither justice nor compassion were on his radar screen!
          - Howard Hanson