Hosea 11:1-11 Meditating on this passage of prophetic imagining surfaces the tension that characterizes the relationship between God and Israel. Both parties bend their backs, but God’s bending nourishes while the peoples’ bending isolates them from infinite sustenance. The poet paints a picture of YHWH—the God of their ancestors—who calls out to them time and…

Hosea 11:1-11 It is striking to see the emotional vulnerability and passion of God in this passage. Forget any notion of God as a distant, unaffected observer. God desires us with a powerful passion. Israel is the wayward son who continually breaks relationship with God, and God’s heartache is almost palpable in today’s passage from…

Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23 All is vanity, all is vanity. This reading seems similar to an episode of Oprah. Your work is vanity, my work is vanity, everyone’s work is vanity! Even so, it makes a valid point about our concern for the world. When we labor, we know that our labors, in the end,…