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Category: Bible

Does Walmart Help Write Our Story?

Published by Jeff Kennon on May 31, 2021
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Photo by Oleg Magni on Pexels.com

You want to know what time of year it is? Just walk down the aisles of your local Walmart. Or any store like it. New Year’s Day. Super Bowl. Valentine’s Day. St. Patrick’s Day. Easter/Spring. Mother’s Day. Memorial Day. Father’s Day. Fourth of July. Back to School. Halloween. Thanksgiving. Christmas Holidays. And the cycle repeats.

It’s all quite liturgical is it not? What I mean by liturgical here is that the “seasons” listed above, along with a few others, are the ceremonies by which our lives are run. You walk into Walmart and you see the chips and dips set out and you remember, “Oh yeah! It’s time to get ready for a Super Bowl party.” Or you see red, white, and blue cookies along with USA cupcakes and of course, barbecue sauces and you immediately begin to think, “So wonder what we should do for a July 4th cookout?”

I realized these days and seasons are part of our culture. It’s the things we do as folks living in America. But I want to push back a bit on these things however. Why? Because these events are forming our life story. Whether we want them to or not, these yearly habits are making us who we are. Is this a problem? Possibly. Why? Well, according to James K. Smith, our “cultural practices can be dangerous when we fail to realize that these aren’t just things we do but things that do something to us.”

Think about what Smith is saying here. Our practices are things “that do something to us.” Now Smith is specifically referring to daily habits here, but no doubt our yearly rituals are just as formational as we pattern our year by the various seasons and holidays. So the question I have for us is to what are we being formed in to? What story is being written for us by our culture? Now I realize that Christmas and Easter are in our societal milieu, but I dare write that the Christmas and Easter promoted in local stores are from a much more consumeristic mindset.

So I think we have to acknowledge that there is an “American liturgy.” One that is to make us more…well…American? Now is there anything wrong with being American? Of course not! Though I will have to acknowledge that American exceptionalism is going way too far. We as Americans should not be the people by whom we measure the success or failure of every other country or nation.

However, for those of us who follow Christ, there is another story we are to be formed by. And it’s not dictated by what’s in the seasonal section at Walmart. Nor is it the American story. It’s the story of the God who creates, sustains, rescues, restores and renews. It’s the story of a God who not only forms everything by his very word, but enters that which he has made by becoming a part of it. And why does he do this? To save it! In fact, he does the unthinkable by allowing himself to be pushed into the most heinous death and humiliation possible in the first century; death on a cross. But it doesn’t stop there. From his death comes a resurrection. New life enters the world. Heaven has come to earth. That which had run amuck is now being released from the evil that had covered the earth for centuries…no thanks to us as humanity. So this is OUR STORY! And this is what the church needs to base its yearly calendar upon.

So here’s the question: Am I saying that churches should become more liturgical? And by that I mean follow a systematic reading and study of Scripture from Sunday to Sunday that tells God’s story from year to year? Well, I’m a baptist and so I’m conditioned to get a little worried about following anything too sanctioned, but I do think we should give it some thought. And the reason why is because the story that needs to rewrite our lives is not the one on display at our local stores. But this isn’t going to happen unless we as a church learn to celebrate and give attention to “our seasons.” And I feel we must do so because if not, the story that Walmart tells might just form us more than the story of Scripture.

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What’s the GREATEST Chapter in the Bible?

Published by Jeff Kennon on April 16, 2021
photo of person holding a bible
Photo by Luis Quintero on Pexels.com

So what’s the greatest chapter in the Bible? Surely it’s John 3. This is, after all, where perhaps the most well-known verse in the world appears. Or is it 1 Corinthians 13? Many call this the “love chapter” of which Paul expounds on the actions of true love. But what about Romans 3? Many scholars have commented on the theological depth Paul writes of our salvation in verses 21-26 of this chapter. Personally, I really like Luke 15. You might recall that it’s in these verses that Jesus tells the story of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost sons.

I’m not really sure there is an answer to what the greatest chapter of Bible might be. Or at least there is not an objective one. But I want to make a proposition. Could it be that the greatest chapter in the Bible, or at least one of the greatest chapters, is Hosea 3? It’s only 5 verses so it could be easy to miss. Plus, it’s located in one of the prophetic books of which we don’t examine very much these days.

Let me set the scene a bit before you read this chapter. God has called Hosea. He is to be a voice for God to the nation of Israel, the northern tribes. But first, before he is given a word to speak, he is told to go take a wife. Sounds good so far. Nothing wrong with getting married. But God warns Hosea that this wife who he is going to commit to is going to be unfaithful to him. She is going to “lay with another.” And as if it couldn’t get any worse, she is going to have children with this “other.”

Though the text doesn’t say so, I’m guessing Hosea is a bit heartbroken because of this marriage. And perhaps he is also humiliated. In an honor/shame culture, what Gomer (Hosea’s wife’s name) did was bring disgrace to him and all his family and most likely all the community as well. This was not a private affair. So Hosea had every right to defend his honor and to discard her for her unfaithfulness. And this is what he does.

So now we turn to Hosea 3. The first verse tells Hosea to take his wife back. What? He’s been humiliated. Besides, Deuteronomy 24:1-4 seems to imply that this shouldn’t be done. Yet here is God telling Hosea to do whatever it takes to bring Gomer, who is now found to be someone’s slave, back into his life. And she is to come back not as an object of Hosea’s wrath, but as his full-fledge wife whom he will adore and provide for.

Here’s why Hosea 3 is so great a chapter. It’s because the story of Hosea finding a wife only to have her abuse his love, character and provisions and then take her back is the story of God with Israel. God rescued Israel from Egypt. He made them a people. He provided for them in the wilderness. He gave them a land. He blessed them with his presence. But they began “cheating” on him with other gods.

God, in speaking through Jeremiah said, “Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:12-13). God’s people had left the living God for idols made of wood and stone. So what is God to do? Divorce them as they had brought shame upon the goodness of his name? According to Hosea 3, he goes after them. He does what it takes to “remarry” them. He brings them back into the family not as slaves, but as “marriage partners.”

This is not just the story of Israel. It’s our story as well. And this is what makes Hosea 3 one of the greatest chapters in the Bible. We, who have gone our own way and departed from the goodness of God and who have become trapped and enslaved and dismantled by those things we thought could bring life, are not abandoned by God. He doesn’t divorce us. He is instead broken over us. And he does whatever it takes, yes, even death on a cross, to get us back. God loves you. Hosea 3 says so! 

Then the Lord said to me again, “Go, make love to a woman who has a lover and is involved in adultery, just as the Lord loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.”  So I bought her for fifteen pieces of silver, a large amount of barley, and a portion of wine. I said to her, “You must stay with me for many days; you won’t act like a prostitute; you won’t have sex with a man, nor I with you.” Similarly, the Israelites will remain many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred standing stone, without a priestly vest or household divine images. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king; they will come trembling to the Lord and to the Lord’s goodness in the latter days.
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