{"id":4562,"date":"2021-04-18T12:57:36","date_gmt":"2021-04-18T12:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2021\/04\/18\/three-days-can-you-count-based-on-hosea\/"},"modified":"2021-04-18T12:57:36","modified_gmt":"2021-04-18T12:57:36","slug":"three-days-can-you-count-based-on-hosea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2021\/04\/18\/three-days-can-you-count-based-on-hosea\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThree Days? \u00a0Can You Count?\u201d based on Hosea 5:15-6:6 and Luke 36b-48"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

According
\nto the Gospels, Jesus was killed on Friday night. \u00a0Easter was on
\nSunday, and the first experiences of resurrection happened before
\nsunrise. \u00a0That is a difference of about 36 hours. \u00a0Which, if I’m
\nhonest, is a VERY WEAK definition of \u201cthree days.\u201d It is a
\nstretch to say, well, there was part of Friday, and all of Saturday,
\npart of Sunday, which is three different days. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Normally,
\nthree days is 24 hours times 3= 72 hours. \u00a0So Friday night to Monday
\nnight. \u00a0Or, you might say, Friday \u2013 then the next day is Saturday,
\nthe second day is Sunday, the third day is Monday.<\/p>\n

Am
\nI the only one who has been quietly annoyed by this for years? \u00a0Yeah,
\nI am? \u00a0I can live with that.<\/p>\n

This
\nhas made me curious though, as to why Friday night to Sunday morning
\nwas defined as 3 days, because doing so was DEFINITELY an intentional
\nchoice meant to fit Jesus’s story into an existent framework. \u00a0
\nOtherwise it wouldn’t feel so forced.<\/p>\n

(If
\nyou are already bored, I invite you to stick with me anyway, it isn’t
\ngoing to take that long and it is more worth it than you might
\nexpect.) \u00a0 It seems Luke was basing the 3 days off of the Hosea
\npassage\n<\/p>\n

\n\u2018Come, let us return to the
\nLord;
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0for it is he who has torn, and he will
\nheal us;
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0he has struck down, and he will bind us
\nup.
After two days he will revive us;
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0on
\nthe third day he will raise us up,<\/b>
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0that we
\nmay live before him. \u00a0(6:1-2)<\/p>\n

This
\nclearly lists 3 days, but the meaning of the passage seems a little
\nbit ambiguous. \u00a0However, if you either read all of Hosea to figure
\nout what this means, or trust the work of scholars who have done so
\n(I’ve done both), then it starts to make sense that what they’re
\ntalking about is the renewal of God’s covenant with ancient
\nIsrael. \u00a0This is the theme of the whole book of Hosea. \u00a0The
\nquestions of Hosea center around what God is going to do since the
\npeople have been unfaithful to the covenant. \u00a0The passage we read
\ntoday is about God choosing to renew the covenant, despite the
\npeople’s unfaithfulness.<\/p>\n

And,
\na reasonable person might ask, what does THAT have to do with 2 days
\nand 3 days? \u00a0And really, what does it have to do with Jesus, or say,
\nus? \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

I’m
\nso glad you asked.1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The
\nreference to 2 days and 3 days is based on the story of Moses sharing
\nthe covenant in Exodus 19. \u00a0Three months after the people had left
\nEygpt, they got to Sinai, and Moses went up the mountain to be with
\nGod. \u00a0God told Moses to say, \u201cYou have seen what I did to the
\nEgyptians, and how I bore you on eagles\u2019 wings and brought you to
\nmyself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you
\nshall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the
\nwhole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a
\nholy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the
\nIsraelites.\u2019\u201d (Exodus 19:4-6) \u00a0Aka \u2013 you are going to be a
\nsign of my love to the world. \u00a0 That WAS the covenant, and as it
\ngot expanded and explained more it becomes clear that living out the
\ncovenant is about how they treated each other, and the vulnerable in
\ntheir midst, and eventually even their neighboring nations.<\/p>\n

Exodus
\n19 goes on:\n<\/p>\n

\nThen Moses had told the words of
\nthe people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses: \u2018Go to the people
\nand consecrate them today and tomorrow<\/b>. Have them wash their
\nclothes and prepare for the third day<\/b>, because on the third
\nday<\/b> the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all
\nthe people. You shall set limits for the people all around, saying,
\n\u201cBe careful not to go up the mountain or to touch the edge of it.
\nAny who touch the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch
\nthem, but they shall be stoned or shot with arrows; whether animal or
\nhuman being, they shall not live.\u201d When the trumpet sounds a long
\nblast, they may go up on the mountain.\u2019 So Moses went down from the
\nmountain to the people. He consecrated the people, and they washed
\ntheir clothes. And he said to the people, \u2018Prepare for the third
\nday<\/b>; do not go near a woman.\u2019 (9-15)<\/p>\n

And,
\nat the end of those 3 days the people \u201cmet\u201d God. \u00a0The story says
\nthe experience was like the mountain being wrapped in smoke, and
\nfire, and earthquake, and thunder. \u00a0It appears it was quite awe
\ninspiring. \u00a0Then Moses gets called back up the mountain and that is
\nwhen Moses was given the 10 commandments and the rest of the
\nexpectations of God for how the people were to behave to each other
\nand in worship.<\/p>\n

So
\nwhy did the early Christians chose to tell the story of the
\nresurrection of Jesus as happening on the third day<\/b>? \u00a0Probably
\nbecause it was awe inspiring like that experience of the people of
\n\u201cmeeting\u201d God. \u00a0Likely also because it fit into this framework of
\nrestoration from Hosea, and Jesus’s teaching had been about restoring
\nthe relationships between God and the people and the people and each
\nother. \u00a0Likely, also, this relates to the early Christian
\nunderstanding that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was a
\nNEW covenant between God and the people, one the people couldn’t mess
\nup. \u00a0As such, it made sense to tell it in the form of the most
\nimportant covenant story of the Scriptures as they knew them. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Thus
\nthe choice to force Friday night to Sunday morning into a 3 day
\nframework.<\/p>\n

In
\nLuke we’re told that A LOT OF THINGS happened on that \u201cthird day\u201d
\nSunday. \u00a0The women found the empty tomb, they told the disciples,
\nPeter also saw the tomb, two other disciples walked to Emmaus \u2013
\nexperienced the risen Christ – \u00a0and walked back, and our passage
\ntoday starts with \u201cwhile they were still talking about this,\u201d
\nmeaning the story of those who’d walked to Emmaus. \u00a0Today’s passage
\nis still set on that \u201cthird day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The
\nstory wants to emphasize that Jesus wasn’t a ghost or an angel, but
\nrather than he’d been physically resurrected. \u00a0The idea is that
\nghosts and angels don’t EAT, but living beings do. \u00a0Having eaten, the
\nstory says, he explained, \u201cThus it is written, that the Messiah is
\nto suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that
\nrepentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to
\nall nations, beginning from Jerusalem.\u201d (Luke 24-46b-47) \u00a0As this
\nis a story of the early Christian community, we can use it to help
\nourselves understand how they saw this new covenant. \u00a0They did a nice
\njob putting the \u201cthree day\u201d thing there to help make sense of the
\ncovenant, right?<\/p>\n

This
\nnew covenant, at least in this passage, seems to be centered on
\n\u201crepentance\u201d and forgiveness of sins, right? \u00a0 Repentance makes
\neasy sense to me, it fits with the teaching that Jesus was sharing in
\nhis lifetime of ministry, \u201cRepent and believe, the kin(g)dom of God
\nis at hand.\u201d \u00a0That is, turn from the fear-filled ways of the world,
\nget centered in God, and participate in the kindom of relationship,
\nsharing, compassion, and abundance, and as you do so, the kindom will
\ngain strength until it comes in completion.<\/p>\n

However,
\nin the Jewish Annotated Bible it is mentioned that in Jewish thought,
\nGod is always ready to forgive the sins of the repentant.2<\/sup><\/a>
\n So, what is this about? Why did the early Christian community think
\nthat forgiveness of sins was so central? \u00a0This feels REALLY
\nimportant, because I still hear many Christians who think the entire
\nChristian story is one of forgiveness, and I’ve always struggled to
\nunderstand why, especially when God’s forgiveness was already
\navailable before Jesus.3<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

In
\nthe commentary on the Hosea passage, Dr. Gail Yee wrote, \u201cThe
\nperiod of chastisement when God rends the people is intended to
\nmotivate their repentance\/return. \u00a0This doctrine of correction is
\nparticularly characteristic of deuteronomistic and wisdom literature,
\nin which the period of the Babylonian exile was regarded as a
\ntraumatic time when the people recognized their guilt and returned to
\nGod.\u201d4<\/sup><\/a>
\nWhen I read that, a light went off. \u00a0The Jewish people in the time of
\nJesus lived a life of oppression under the realm of the Roman Empire.
\n This likely felt like a new form of Exile, an exile at home. \u00a0So, as
\ntheir ancestors in faith had done before them, they told themselves
\nthe story that their oppression was God’s chastisement, and that if
\nthey returned to God’s ways they’d be freed again. \u00a0Return and
\nrestoration in this story are dependent on both the people’s
\nrepentance and God’s forgiveness.<\/p>\n

And
\nsuddenly the Christian story itself makes sense. \u00a0They’re thinking
\nabout communal sin, and global politics, and trying to please God
\ninto making their lives better. \u00a0Which MAKES SENSE for faithful human
\nmeaning makers to do. \u00a0But knowing
\nthat frees me to tell my own faith story, which is that God was with
\nthem in oppression, and working towards freedom (including through
\nJesus) but hadn’t been punishing them to begin with<\/b>. \u00a0God’s
\ndesires for repentance were about wanting to gift the people with
\nfull and abundant lives and building the kindom, \u2026 not about proof
\nof worthiness.<\/p>\n

And
\nthat, dear ones, brings us to today. \u00a0We have been in our own \u201cexile
\nat home\u201d for more than a year now, and consciously or unconsciously
\nthere have been a lot of questions of \u201cwhy did this happen to us?\u201d
\n Those are normal, healthy, human questions. \u00a0I suspect there has
\nbeen some creeping fear that the answer is \u201cbecause we messed up\u201d
\nand challengingly, that seems true. \u00a0But that doesn’t mean anything
\nabout God punishing us. \u00a0We messed up by not trusting scientists, and
\nnot taking the long view, and not caring for the vulnerable, and not
\nputting lives before profits. \u00a0This pandemic isn’t God’s punishment,
\nbut it is reflective of our collective \u201csins\u201d so to speak.<\/p>\n

I
\nhope and pray that we, our communities, our country, and our world,
\nwill repent (especially the \u201cfirst world). \u00a0I hope we will learn.
\nI hope we will remember how interconnected we all are and that if
\nanyone is vulnerable to illness, we are ALL vulnerable to illness. \u00a0I
\nhope we will decide to transform the ways societies work, to care for
\nall and bring life abundant to all. \u00a0I hope we will remember all of
\nGod’s covenants, and work with God in building the kindom, the
\nbeloved community, peace on earth. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

The
\ngood news, is that the resurrection story tells us that what seems
\nimpossible (like global change into care and compassion) is possible!
\n May God help us, and may we help God! \u00a0Amen <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1<\/a> Can
\n\tanyone tell the Pastor misses preaching in person?<\/p>\n

2<\/a> Amy
\n\tJill Levine \u201cFootnote on Luke 24:47\u201d in The Jewish
\n\tAnnotated New Testament: New Revised Standard Version Bible
\n\tTranslation<\/i>, edited by Amy-Jill
\n\tLevine and Marc Zvi Brettler (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
\n\t2011), 151.<\/p>\n

3<\/a> Truthfully
\n\tI have a lot of critique of the idea, but not enough time to share
\n\tit. \u00a0I’m happy to talk it over if you’d like.<\/p>\n

4<\/a> Gail
\n\tYee, \u201cCommentary on Hosea 5:15-6:3\u201d in The New Interpreter’s
\n\tBible Volume <\/i>VII ed. by Leander
\n\tE. Keck et al, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), 249.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rev. Sara E. Baron
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
Pronouns: she\/her\/hers
http:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/<\/a>
https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FUMCSchenectady<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

April 18, 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the Gospels, Jesus was killed on Friday night. \u00a0Easter was on Sunday, and the first experiences of resurrection … Continue reading \u201cThree Days? \u00a0Can You Count?\u201d based on Hosea 5:15-6:6 and Luke 36b-48<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[38,28,39,33,1808,1810,1809,573,185,64,1811],"class_list":["post-4562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-progressive-christianity","tag-rev-sara-e-baron","tag-thinking-church","tag-umc","tag-basic-math","tag-easter-hope","tag-fitting-a-story-into-a-meaning","tag-fumc-schenetady","tag-season-of-easter","tag-sorry-about-the-umc-world","tag-week-3-and-i-need-the-hebrew-bible"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}