Guest Blogger: Pastor Megan

As many of you probably know, I have an incredibly talented little sister. I continued to be amazed by her every day. I still think back to when she was just a little girl and was SO shy. I mean, so shy. She wouldn’t talk to anyone! Not even grandparents on the phone! Much less talk in front of a group of people! But that’s who my sister was, shy Megan. So I can still very clearly remember the day… it was at a TEC meeting, Megan and I were both working at an upcoming meeting and Megan was going to give a talk. And so when she stood up in front of the group of teens and adults at the meeting and spoke so passionately and eloquently, I think I went into shock! Where was my shy little sister? She had disappeared! And before me stood a woman of God. God so clearly had (has) this great plan for Megan. She is meant to help lead people. She is meant to be an instrument that God will talk through. She is going to do great things. I’ve seen this over and over in the past few years and once again, more recently. My mom forwarded me Megan’s sermon from a Sunday in October and I would have sworn it was written just for me. It was just what I needed to hear at that time in my life. And so I wanted to share it with you. Maybe it’s what you need to hear right now. Maybe you know someone else that needs to hear it. Or maybe I want to share it to brag about my talented sister. :) Either way, read. And enjoy. 

Grace/Effie Services 
October 6, 2013 20th Sunday after Pentecost 
Texts: Habakkuk 1.1-4; 2.1-4 and Luke 17.5-10 

Have you watched the news lately? Or read a newspaper? Or listened to the radio? Then you’ve seen it, heard what’s going on, read about it; all the chaos and brokenness, the destruction and violence in our world. There’s the chemical weapons and fighting in Syria, the ever present conflict in Israel and Palestine, the terrorist attack at the mall in Kenya, all over the world there are people who are starving, who are homeless, who are facing illness and disease with no access to medical care. Our government is partially shut down because our leaders can’t figure out a way to work together and reach a compromise and as a result of the shutdown there are people not getting paid, whose jobs are furloughed, the national parks are closed, the justice system is getting backlogged, among so many other consequences and the fragile recovery that our economy has made might not hold. And who can forget the natural disasters in recent weeks, wildfires, floods, tsunamis, and earthquakes. It’s no wonder that Habakkuk’s cry feels so familiar; that it resonates so deeply with us. “Habakkuk’s cry is our cry.” (Audrey L.S. West, NP)

And it’s not just the chaos and brokenness and destruction and violence on a global scale that makes Habakkuk’s cry so familiar. It’s the stuff going on in our own lives, in your lives that makes Habakkuk’s cry resonate with in us. Maybe money is tight this month and you’re struggling to make ends meet, maybe you or someone you love is facing an illness or waiting for test results or diagnosis. Maybe you or someone you love is facing addiction or mental health problems. Maybe there is strain or conflict or brokenness in a relationship with your spouse, a significant other, a child, another relative, a friend. Habakkuk’s cry is our cry; is your cry. (Paraphrase of Audrey L.S. West, NP)

Habakkuk’s cry is born of the destruction and violence he sees all around him. God’s people have all but lost their moral integrity and things have gotten out of control. So God sends in the Chaldeans to fight against God’s people in the hopes that the fight will help God’s people get their act together. The plan backfires, and things get worse instead of better. The peoples’ ways have become even more perverted, they act even more unjustly toward one another and there is destruction and violence everywhere. And the prophet Habakkuk has had enough; so he cries out to God. “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous—therefore judgment comes forth perverted.” (1.2-4) 

Maybe, like Habakkuk, you have reached your limit,  you’ve had enough of the destruction and violence, the brokenness and chaos. Maybe, like Habakkuk, you cry out to God. How long are you going to let this go on God? Are you paying attention God, do you see what’s happening? How long do I have to put up with this? Why do I have to go through this God? Why does this person that I love have to go through this? When will you make things better? Where are you God? Are you even listening to me God? Do you even care God, because right now I’m not sure you do.

After Habakkuk files his complaint with God he settles in to watch and wait for God’s response. “I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint.” (2.1) When I read this verse I find myself picturing Habakkuk as a petulant or maybe defiant child who has expressed his discontent and then stands with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face to wait for a response, wait for what ever has caused his discontent to be changed.

Fortunately for Habakkuk he doesn’t have to wait long for God to respond. “Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.” (2.2-4) I can’t help but think that this wasn’t the response that Habakkuk was hoping for...at all. After all, this response doesn’t solve any of Habakkuk’s current issues, it’s not a solution to any of the problems of Habakkuk’s time or our time for that matter, but an instruction, to wait and be faithful.

“...in the midst of society-destroying violence God’s word that Habakkuk receives and is to broadcast is this: ‘Live by faith.’” (Gary E. Peluso-Verdend, NP) “God makes a critical promise to the prophet and the prophet’s people, waiting to hear God’s answer: There is still a vision for the appointed time. ... The people are told to wait for it, and in the meantime to be faithful.” (Karl Jacobson, WP) There is still a vision for the appointed time, God tells Habakkuk, things will get better but you’re going to have to wait because it is not yet the appointed time. And the appointed time might not come as quickly as you would like but keep waiting and be faithful. It will come.

So that is where Habakkuk lived and where you and I live, in the waiting. You live in the waiting, the in between, in the anticipation of the appointed time. Commentator Karl Jacobson describes it this way writing, “And this is the life of faith, is it not? To live in between the complaint and struggle on the one hand, and God’s right time on the other. This is where we live as people of faith, active and alive in this world, struggling with injustice against perverted judgments and the slackening of God’s Law, and waiting for God’s promised time, for the promise that God makes, that God has answered us, and will again; that God has saved us through Jesus Christ, and so we are saved.” (Karl Jacobson, WP)

But living faithfully in the waiting, while things are still hard, struggles still present, suffering and pain still felt is hard. We live in a society that thrives on instant gratification so the idea that we have to wait, patiently, faithfully, and trust that in God’s time things will get better doesn’t work well for us. It’s this instruction to wait and the other demands of being a believer, a follower of Jesus Christ that has the disciples asking Jesus to increase their faith in our gospel lesson. But Jesus reminds them that even faith the size of a mustard seed is enough, it’s more than enough. It’s hard to live faithfully in the waiting, but not impossible; because God has promised that the appointed time will come, and God has saved you through Jesus Christ, and God is present with you even in the midst of your deepest darkness and hardest struggles.

And when it gets too hard, when you want to give up take a look at how Habakkuk ends his book. Things haven’t improved, he is still waiting for God’s appointed time and instead of complaining again Habakkuk rejoices and praises God and continues to wait. “Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights.” (3.17-19) Amen.