Sermon

Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

Evangelical Patience

The Rev. Dr. James D. Kegel

GRACE TO YOU AND PEACE FROM GOD OUR FATHER
AND THE LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST. AMEN.

“Don’t just stand there, do something!” We are uncomfortable with inaction—at least I should say I am uncomfortable with inaction. Sometimes we have to go beyond just talking to doing. Halford Luccock once said, “It is easy to bark. That is why so many meetings, with a long list of speakers, are like an aquarium at feeding time, with a barking of seals that almost raises the roof…the main trouble with barking is that if one barks ferociously enough, it brings on the delusion that one has actually done something about the matter. Wouldn’t it be nice to trade a hundred ferocious barks for just one little bite?”

We admire men of action and women of decision. We look up to those who get things done. It is the American way. I reminder a Pogo comic strip where Pupdog was drowning and the key figures of the Okefenokee Swamp convened a meeting to discuss how to save Pupdog . All sorts of suggestions came to the table. Meanwhile Pogo proceeded to get an old inner tube and a piece of rope and rescued Pupdog . The committee was elated that Pupdog was rescued, but got angry at Pogo for circumventing the process and rescuing him. Then they congratulated themselves on a committee meeting well done. This particular strip was entitled with the famous words, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” After an almost three hour executive board meeting this week—and without anything to eat—I almost felt that way: Let’s just do something! Do something—anything!

There are times when God’s will is clear for us as individuals and a congregation. Then we should certainly take action. Whenever there is a clear choice between God’s way and the world’s we should echo Joshua, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” When Jesus calls us to follow him, then we should leave father and mother and kindred and house, to take up a cross and follow. When God says, “Go,” then we should go.

Some years ago in a rapidly growing area in south Fargo, all the denominations seemed to be planting new churches. Our Evangelical Lutheran Church was innovative and instead of starting a little struggling mission congregation with heavy debts and an inexperienced staff, they just asked one of the largest congregations to develop a branch. Hope Lutheran Church South Campus used the large and talented staff of the existing congregation. The second campus grew to be as large as the original church. The Episcopalians actually moved their cathedral to the growing part of town—it is much like what First Baptist Church did in Eugene and they both experienced explosive growth when they moved out of downtown. The Presbyterians in their inimitable way formed a task force to look at the mission potential. They studied the issues and debated them but never got around to starting the church. By the time they were ready to decide it was too late. I guess all the people had already joined the Lutheran Church or the Methodist Church or the Episcopal Cathedral. We may have our own examples of waiting too long until the right moment is past. We often just stand there when we should be doing something. Instead of seizing the day, we dither and fret and nothing much happens.

But there are also many times, when God’s word is not clear and we do not understand God’s will for us. Then what? Don’t just do something, stand there. Those are just the times when we should not do something but stand and watch and wait—and pray. Moses said to the people of Israel, “Stand firm and see the deliverance of the Lord. The Psalmist wrote, “My soul waits for the Lord, more than they who watch for the morning,” and “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.” The prophet Habakkuk, in our lesson this morning, talks of standing on the watchtower and stationing himself on the rampart keeping watch and waiting for the word of the Lord. There is a time to watch and wait and not to do.

Week before last, Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson installed Pastor David Brauer-Rieke as the Oregon Synod bishop. In Bishop Hanson’s address he talked about being Evangelical. It is our name, theEvangelical Lutheran Church. He laughed and said we Lutherans tend to think the term is what we arenot —we are not those Evangelicals who buy into right-wing politics and revival-type worship. Some Lutherans are even embarrassed by our title. But Lutherans are Evangelical because the word means “Gospel.” We are Gospel Christians who believe that we are saved by Jesus Christ alone not by what we do or say or are. We are Gospel Christians who confess that God’s grace in Christ reached out to us––it was not our own reason or strength or decision that we follow Jesus Christ our Lord. We are Gospel Christians who proclaim we saved by faith not works of the Law. God has first loved us and then we respond to God’s love by loving others. “We love because God first loved us,” I John puts it. We are Gospel Christians, Evangelical Lutherans.

Then Bishop Hanson talked to us about being Evangelical. We witness to our faith by reaching out to others with the name of Jesus Christ. We serve others—”we are doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving ourselves;” that is the Epistle of James. Then the bishop used a phrase I found quite surprising—having Evangelical patience. We live out the Gospel by being patient, watchful and waiting for a word from the Lord. As the Psalmist wrote, “Be still and know that I am God!” We stand upon the watchtower and wait upon the ramparts for God’s Word. This is not passivity in the face of challenges but prayerful listening for the still small voice of God. It is bringing God our needs in prayer and waiting for God’s answer. As John writes, “And this is the confidence we have in God, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.” God promises to hear and answer our prayers.

God answers prayer; God will make the divine will and purpose known. But not always as quickly as we would like or even as we want God to answer. As a woman said in our Bible class this week, “Sometimes we just have to tread water.” Like Habakkuk, we can pray and still feel that God is not giving us the answer: “O God, how long shall I cry for help; and you will not listen?” The theme of this book could be “I have a quarrel with Yahweh.” Habakkuk was prepared to argue with God and remind God of the promises made to Israel.

The first part of our text is a passionate prayer from a desperate man: he looks at his world and sees violence and wrongdoing and trouble. Destruction and violence, strife and contention are all around him. The Law, Torah, has become slack and justice never prevails, the wicked surround the righteous and judgment comes forth perverted. The quarrel is with God, not with sinful human beings. It is with Yahweh who commands justice and righteousness and in Deuteronomic theology promises that goodness is rewarded and wickedness punished. Habakkuk’s query is profound—why is God silent when the wicked swallow those more righteous than they? Habakkuk’s prayer is a complaint against God. He has already pleaded and petitioned God for too long and finds God’s unresponsiveness not only intolerable but irresponsible. What kind of God is this? Why does God allow the wicked to flourish and prosper and the righteous to suffer? We ask the same question over and over again, “Why do bad things happen to good people?

There may be an answer here that there are really no good people. All humankind is sinful and selfish. Who is the righteous man? Where is the godly woman? We are reminded of Abraham’s pleading with God to save the Cities of the Plain: If there were only ten righteous out of the population of Sodom and Gomorrah, then God would save the cities. We are reminded of Jeremiah’s search for one righteous person among the inhabitants of Jerusalem or Ezekiel’s dismay that even if the three most righteous people of all times were living in the city, it would still be destroyed. We are reminded of the Psalmist’s opinion that God was searching for one righteous person without success: “There is none righteous, no not one.” God is sovereign and God will do what God wills. We do not passively accept injustice and wrongdoing; we can work for the justice. We can pray forcefully, asking God to work out God’s gracious will, but the answer may not be an easy one for us or come quickly. The answer may be that we all of us have abandoned the Law and are part of a web of sin from which we can not free ourselves.

Habakkuk was answered by God—this is the second part of our text. After watching and waiting and praying, God gave an answer that Habakkuk did not want to hear: The Babylonians would come and destroy Judah. The Lord did answer the prophet and with a clear message. Our prayers will also be answered. Our Evangelical patience, praying and watching and waiting, hoping and believing is our response now. The answer will surely come. It may be the answer to Job—God’s ways are not our ways. Who are we to question the author of the universe, the creator of heaven and earth? When we want a yes, we may be given a no. But remember, God’s answer is always Jesus. Christ is the final answer to injustice and evil, God’s own decision to take upon Himself our sin and to give us His righteousness. The clearest word from God is Christ. The purest example of God’s saving will is the Savior.

So we believe and trust God as we wait patiently for the word of the Lord, for ourselves and our congregation. Habakkuk was commanded to write the vision on tablets: The righteous shall live by faith. The people of Israel were called to live by faith; we are called to live by faith. God will answer our prayers and give us direction in our lives. When the answer is clear then we are reminded, “Do God’s will, follow God’s direction.” Don’t just stand there, do something. When the word is not so clear to us, then pray and wait and believe. Then we need Evangelical patience, “Don’t just do something, stand there.” The answer will come. Amen.

Scripture quotations from the World English Bible.

Copyright 2007, James D. Kegel. Used by permission.