October 2024
‘I am God ... the Holy One in your midst’
Hosea 11:9 (NRSV)
The prophet Hosea, despite facing challenges in his own life, is called by God to
speak to the nation and tell them that ‘there is no faithfulness, no love, no
acknowledgment of God in the land’ (Hosea 4.1).
Hosea's message to Israel is that the nation needs to repent and stop
disobeying God. After their repentance, God will be merciful towards his
people and, even though he will correct the nation, God will not consume
them. Repentance and reconciliation are necessary before God will restore and
heal his people: ‘I will heal their waywardness and love them freely’ (Hosea
14.4).
The prophets continually look back to learn lessons from the past, to see the
tendencies of the present moment and to declare what God will do in future. In
Leviticus 19.2 the people are called to ‘be Holy for I the Lord your God am Holy’.
In the Gospel of Matthew (18: 19, 20) we hear Jesus echoing this theme from
Hosea. He says ‘when two or more are gathered together, there am I in the
midst of them’.
This indwelling is reassuring and essential for us mortals. We need God's
presence surrounding us to guide our daily lives as we face its challenges. We
recognise times when we have felt God's spirit in our midst. We refect on times
when we have been in great need of guidance and we have found the spirit to
lead us forward. We may consider those challenges that come to us as external
forces interfering in our lives. Or it may be that interior states of consciousness
and emotion affect our lives even more profoundly than outside pressures
from the world. Often it is easier to escape the diffculties that can surround us
in the world than it is to face interior feelings of anger, jealousy, impatience,
guilt, or other negativities that might assail our inner lives and souls.
May we find a firm rock sustaining us as we wait and wonder what the rest of
this year will bring and see what God will do. We continue to encourage each
other to listen for God's voice knowing that his love, mercy and compassion
will help us as we journey forward: ‘I am God ... the Holy One in your midst’.