Gentle Prophetic Witness

A sermon preached with the people of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Oakland, California.

The Prophet Hosea lived during a time when the world seemed to be burning. [i] Things were changing; the kingdom[ii] was falling; power was increasingly shored up into the hands of the elite. Greed led the way, and threats of violence were in the air.

And out of this context, Hosea does not witness to the people this morning with an image of a God in armor, or sword in hand. Nor of a God wrapped in silk and crowned with gold and gems. Nor of a political mastermind-God, world map at the ready. Hosea witnesses to the people with an image of a gentle God, showing love and care for her[iii] children. Full of grief, and kindness.

This God is remembering the days when her children were small.“When Israel was a child, I loved him,” she says. “I took them up in my arms.” Taught them to walk. Healed them. “I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks” “I bent down to them and fed them.” “I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love.”

But now, God says, “the sword rages in their cities … My heart recoils within me … my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger … for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.”

Hosea witnesses to a God who does not turn to the same vengeful impulses that cause her dismay, but models what she teaches her children; leading “with cords of human kindness, and bands of love.”

Gentle prophetic witness.

If you have spent any time with the toddler set lately, you will probably be familiar with Ms. Rachel. For those not in the know, Rachel Griffin Accurso is the creator and host of a children’s program you can find on YouTube and Netflix. She is an educator and songwriter, and her soft voice and signature pink headband and denim overalls seem to cast some kind of spell on her rapt young audience.

You might not imagine Ms. Rachel, whose latest episode is all about potty training, to be a controversial figure. And yet, for some, that is what she has become.

You see, a few months ago, Ms. Rachel saw a video of Rahaf Saed, a “3-year-old double amputee from Gaza who lost both her legs in an Israeli airstrike in August 2024.” In the video, Rahaf was “sitting on a couch and bouncing along to her favorite ‘Ms. Rachel’ song, ‘Hop Little Bunnies.’”[iv] When she learned that Rahaf was in the United States receiving medical care, Ms. Rachel asked to meet her and her mom, and invited little Rahaf to be on the show. The full episode won’t come out until later this fall, but a moving clip has already been released, and Ms. Rachel’s Instagram channel (for grownups) is also giving voice to children still in Gaza; hungry and hurting.

And, while she has a whole lot of support, some Americans are calling this advocacy “too political,” which is to say, partisan. Or worse.

There have been calls for the Attorney General to look into whether Ms. Rachel is being funded by a foreign party to spread a message of propaganda. There have been accusations of funding from Hamas. But of course, Ms. Rachel advocates for the wellbeing of children in Palestine as well as Israel, and Sudan and the United States, and anywhere that children are not allowed to flourish as they should. “Every child deserves to be fed, loved and cared for. No Exceptions,” she says.

Ms. Rachel offers us this morning a gentle form of prophetic witness; showing love and care for all children. Full of grief, and kindness.

Ms. Rachel’s hero — the man she “revere[s] as a saint” – Fred Rogers, was also subject to accusations of “too political.” She keeps close to her a still from the 1969 episode of  Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, where he “invited an actor portraying a Black policeman, Officer Clemmons, to share his wading pool, at a time when many White Americans were fiercely protesting the desegregation of public swimming pools.”[v]

This is gentle prophetic witness. Witness to the belovedness of all people. Teachers modeling what God teaches her children: “leading with cords of human kindness, and bands of love.”

That people feel deeply threatened by the gentle witness that insists on the belovednesness of all human beings, so much as to have it investigated, call for it to be boycotted and cut its funding[vi], should not be surprising to us. After all, this was the message of Jesus of Nazareth.

In his parable this morning, Jesus warns against hoarding excess material resources for ourselves, when there are those outside our doors — just as beloved — who do not have enough. Can’t you just hear the cries of “too political?”

The God of Hosea says, my “compassion grows warm and tender” — there’s a reason it is so easy to forget that all people are God’s beloved children. Because compassion can burn so hot it hurts.

So make no mistake: “the cords of human kindness, the bands of love” are soft. And, they are strong; capable of binding up that which is broken and holding us together when the powers and principalities of this world would pull us apart. A soft voice for justice is not a weak one.

God’s love is fierce in its tenderness. It is radical in its inclusivity. God’s love notices and names and, even in its heartbreak, does not look away.

Like Hosea, we live in a moment that calls for prophetic witness; calls for the truth of God’s love for all of God’s people, particularly God’s children, to be told.

This witness will look like a megaphone and booming oratory. It will carry signs and slogans. It will stand in and it will march.

And, this witness will look like a soft or even a singing voice. Will dance with a 3-year-old victim of violence. And claim her as God’s child. And all of it will be brave.

May we follow in the way of the prophets, fiery and gentle. And, always, the way of our deeply-feeling God-with-us Jesus of Nazareth. May we lead with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. And may we keep close that truth God  longs for us to remember: every child is God’s child. And every child is our child.

Postscript: Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe and Archbishop Hosam Naoum are “calling for the Israeli military to end the bombing of hospitals and the siege of Gaza; for the restoration of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza under United Nations supervision; and for Israel and Hamas to release all unjustly detained people and hostage.”And for “Israel to end its targeting of civilians in Gaza.” I join them!.

[i] “Hosea’s prophetic activity began sometime in the middle of the eighth century BCE, during the last years of King Jeroboam II of Israel, and continued through the troubled years leading up to the Assyrian conquest in 722 BCE. This was a politically turbulent era in the northern kingdom, marked by palace coups and multiple regicides, war with Judah, and a vacillating foreign policy, all of which opened the way for Assyria’s invasion. Meanwhile, the cult of sacrifice at the national shrines functioned as an arm of the royal administration, lending divine sanction to the monarchy and its policies. As a prophetic witness to the era, Hosea denounced the duplicity, faithlessness, and foolishness of Israel’s elite establishment.”

 Gale A. Yee. Fortress Commentary on the Bible: Two Volume Set (p. 1605). (Function). Kindle Edition.

[ii] The Northern Kingdom of Israel.

[iii] Though she/her/hers pronouns are always an appropriate choice when talking about God, the choice is made here because I interpret Hosea’s metaphor as a mother speaking about and to her children. Want to nerd out? Enjoy Helen Schüngel-Straumann’s chapter “God as Mother in Hosea 11 “ in the “Feminist Companion to the Latter Prophets (Feminist Companion to the Bible) “: https://books.google.com.fj/books?id=6H2tAwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA194#v=onepage&q&f=false

[iv]WaPo “Ms. Rachel grew up on Mister Rogers. Now she’s carrying on his legacy,” by Caitlin Gibson https://wapo.st/3H6Zoay

[v] https://wapo.st/3H6Zoay

[vi] This week we learned the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is shutting down, after  President Trump signed a law removing $1.1 billion in funding.. Here one of many pieces that discusses the impact on children that may have.

Kathleen Moore