Harvesting Air

Preparing for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost: Three Days before Sunday (Year C)

Scripture (semicontinuous)

Psalter: Psalm 107:1-9, 43

Old Testament: Hosea 8:1-14

Epistle: Romans 11:33-36

Scripture (complementary)

Psalter: Psalm 49:1-12

Old Testament: Proverbs 23:1-11

Epistle: Romans 11:33-36

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Prayer

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Reflection

For they sow the wind,

    and they shall reap the whirlwind.

The standing grain has no heads;

    it shall yield no meal;

if it were to yield,

    foreigners would devour it (Hosea 8:7).

We reap what we sow. The chickens come home to roost. Our actions have consequences. You made your bed, now lie in it.

Most of us have said one of these little proverbs of wisdom or something like it at one time or another. They are ways of reminding us and others that we tend to receive what we give, and at times the receiving is not good because what we gave is not good.

In the Prophet Hosea’s day, the army of the Assyrian Empire is threatening to destroy the northern kingdom of Israel. Hosea sees the impending doom about to befall God’s people as a direct result of their failure to keep the covenant and to live in God’s ways. They have transgressed time and time again. They have acted on their own, acted according to what they believed best and ignored the counsel of God’s prophets. Time had run out.

One of the most important times of the year for any people is the time of harvest. In today’s Western world of privilege, a bad harvest means higher prices. In Hosea’s world, it meant it meant hunger and starvation. For Hosea, the life of sin reaped nothing of value. It was equivalent to harvesting the air. What is sown in sin is of no value, what is harvested from sin is of no value.

What are we sowing in life? What are we harvesting? Are we planting the seeds of faithfulness to God in our way of life and harvesting all the goodness God wants to bring through us, or are we sowing wind and harvesting air?

It’s our choice.

PRAYER: Generous God, in abundance you give us things both spiritual and physical.  Help us to hold lightly the fading things of this earth and grasp tightly the lasting things of your kingdom, so that what we are and do and say may be our gifts to you through Christ, who beckons all to seek the things above, where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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