The images of adultery and divorce may strike close to home for some of the people in
our pews. I know that in my congregation, for example, these are touchy topics. As a
preacher, I dare not treat them casually, for they represent the hurtful reality for a number
of my people.
Yet those are the images presented to us by the prophet Hosea, and they set the stage for
a sermon that is good news. Even as we tiptoe through the difficult matters of infidelity
and divorce, therefore, we do so with the ease and confidence that come from knowing
