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February 26, 2006 Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) Rev. Timothy P. Schehr Hosea 2:16-22 X 2 Corinthians 3:1-6 X Mark 2:18-22 The book of Hosea the prophet may remind us of one of those sad love-songs we hear on a country-music station. As the book begins we learn that Hosea’s wife Gomer has “done him wrong.” But the prophet is determined to give love a chance. He plans to lead her into the desert where they can have a heart-to-heart conversation. He is confident everything will turn out right and they will be a happy family again. Hosea’s love for Gomer is of course a sign of God’s love for the people of Israel. Israel did God wrong by straying away from the ideals of the covenant, but God is determined to speak to Israel’s heart and so rekindle the love that bonded God and people in the days of the Exodus when their relationship with God was new. God is determined to make the relationship work. It will be a love that lasts forever; it will be remarkable for its loyalty, mercy, justice, and love. This promise of a happy ending in Hosea’s oracles leads us right into the gospel text for this Sunday. People come up to Jesus and wonder why his disciples are so different from the disciples of John the Baptist. What bothers them is that the Lord’s disciples do not fast like the disciples of the Baptist. Jesus tells them his disciples do not fast because they are celebrating a wedding. From what Jesus says it is clear the joyful reunion that Hosea wanted between God and people is at last being accomplished by the Lord. Jesus is the bridegroom. His presence in the world means that God is restoring the relationship between heaven and earth long shattered by the wayward hearts of God’s people. No wonder the Baptist’s disciples fasted. All they could do was wait and hope, but the disciples of the Lord are watching it happen right in front of their eyes. This wedding theme seems to carry over into what Jesus says about things new and things old. In the first example Jesus observes that it is not wise to sew new cloth onto old cloth. When the new cloth shrinks it will make a tear in the old. It is clearly better to keep the two separate and make an entirely new garment from the new cloth. And what better occasion for new clothes than a wedding! We might recall the Lord’s parable of the marriage feast and the one who did not bother to wear a wedding garment. In his second example Jesus talks about pouring new wine into fresh wineskins. This example might seem odd to us since we see wine in bottles. But in the Lord’s time wine was kept in containers made of animal skin. A new skin could expand to accommodate the new wine; an old skin had no more elasticity. Once again the obvious lesson is to keep the old and new separate. And what better occasion for new wine than a wedding feast! It is worth noting that, with Lent just around the corner, this Sunday will be our last Sunday to sing Alleluia. We have plenty of reason for alleluias when we think about the wonderful bond between God and people won through the saving work of the Lord Jesus. In the second reading, Paul says he and the believers in Corinth have no need for letters of recommendation because they have the Holy Spirit. If they allow the power of the Spirit to guide them they will always speak heart-to-heart.
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