I will read the scripture from Habakkuk in a few minutes, but first a story. It comes from my old friend Ed Middleton, a UCC a pastor in Dallas, who baptized me, presided at my wedding, preached my ordination and promises to bury me free of charge.
Some of you have heard me talk about one of my favorite vacation spots from days gone by. It was a hunting lodge in north central Pennsylvania in the middle of nowhere. Nestled on the side of a mountain and framed by tall pines on three sides, the lodge had a great view from the back porch of several acres of mountain pastureland. I would sit out on that porch swinging, sipping libations, and observing herds of deer and flocks of wild turkeys. Then about dusk, I could hear the plaintive howl of a fox down toward the springhouse. Once my oldest daughter and her friend were playing 100 yards away in a deer stand when a huge black bear ambled down the hill right by them and they missed the whole drama.
The closest village with a grocery store was twenty-eight miles away but one could hike, bike or drive six miles along the river to Cross Creek. Here stood a small group of bars and shady looking tourist cottages, which serviced the hunting population. It also served as the official check-in station for the Pennsylvania Rattlesnake Hunting Tournament. One of the bars carried milk, bread, chewing tobacco, beer and newspapers.
One Friday I road my bicycle down to the bar to pick up a paper; an old codger was leaning up against the wall, one strap of his overalls broken off and hanging down, snuff dripping from his chin, three days beard growth and a deep scar under his eye. He looked like a fat version of Mayberry’s Earnest T. Bass. I squeezed around him and asked for a paper. The woman behind the counter, who could have been Granny Clampett’s twin sister, passed one across the counter. “You gonna want one of them on Sunday?” she asked with a tone of complete indifference, “cause I only order what I need.”
I indicated that I did want a Sunday paper if possible. The old man looked at me with some curiosity and queried, “Ya kinda wondrin what’s going on out there ain’t ya?” I “fessed up” that I was. “Not me,” he said, I don’t give a d---, that’s why I live up here.”
I knew that he meant it and for a second, just a second, I envied him. What would it be like to live in a world full of millions of people with war, starvation, political coups, diverse economic and religious systems, ecological challenges and even more; and simply not want to know about any of it?
I thought of Ed’s story when I read today’s lectionary text from the book of the prophet Habakkuk. This is the only day in the three-year lectionary cycle that Habakkuk appears, a minor prophet made even more minor. Habakkuk might have wished that he didn’t have to see what was going on around him either and might have envied those who led insular lives. But he was called by God to be a prophet. And he lived in the twilight years of the southern kingdom of Judah, a time of corruption and injustice and war. In other words, a time like ours.
Hear the words of Habakkuk: “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.”
I find some days I do not even want to pick up the paper. One day this week on the front-page cover is the anguished face of CARE worker Margaret Hassan with a plea from her husband, Tahsine Ali Hassan, “My wife has worked almost all her life for the Iraqi people and considers herself an Iraqi. If this was for political reasons, I want to say that CARE is a humanitarian organization and has nothing to do with politics. My wife is apolitical; she is a humanitarian worker, and I ask you to release her.” Here is a woman who is an Iraqi citizen, has lived in Iraq providing charitable assistance to the people of Iraq for the past 25 years, and being used a political pawn just because she is seen as a Westerner. On another page is a photo of a bombed out café with dead bodies covered, all innocent Iraqis killed by other Iraqis who murdered them supposedly to help free them from the infidels.
And then as I glance through the paper there is an article about a survey of Iraqi households that estimates as many as 100,000 civilians may have died since the U.S. led invasion, the majority of them women and children. (Survey by Johns Hopkins, Columbia University and Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad see www.thelancet.com) There is too much chaos to have any official figure, but even by the most conservative estimates at least 10,000 innocent people have been killed by coalition forces. Even if the truth lies in the middle, that’s some 50,000 innocent dead. Our military says that it does not keep up with civilian deaths, as if they have no responsibility whatsoever.
Closer to home, on Tuesday Georgians will vote for a so-called marriage amendment. These words will appear on the ballot: “Shall the Constitution be amended so as to provide that this state shall only recognize as marriage only the union of man and woman.” What is deceptive is that this is already redundant to the existing Official Code of Georgia. What will not appear on the ballot are the 100 other words which could wipe out domestic benefits for gay couples, adoption rights, visitation rights for adoptive grandparents, hospital visitation rights, and who knows what else. Several weeks ago, we heard from Becky England how this could harm her family. Richard Cruce wrote me a letter about how the health benefits his partner of 27 years finally received this past January could be wiped out. Richard said, “The hidden agenda behind Amendment 1 is to do away with the limited basic family rights enjoyed by everyone else. And even those are severely limited, often difficult to obtain and sometimes at added expense.”
“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.”
Sometimes it does seem easier to move to Cross Creek, Pennsylvania or a gated community in Henry County or some other place to hide from reality. But as people of God, we do not have that choice. And as the church of Christ, God’s body in the world, we are called to cry out for justice. One of the most important things for the church today is to be a community that resists the numbing influences of our time which cause churches to do nothing but hide like some old codger in a hollow. Habakkuk looks around and all he sees is destruction and violence and injustice. But he does not hide. Instead, he climbs up on a watchtower. And stations himself there. It is a metaphor of taking the long view, looking beyond the immediate circumstances for God’s view of things. Habakkuk says; “I will stand at my watch post, and station myself on the ramparts; I will keep watch to see what God will say to me:” Habakkuk had no qualms about crying out to God when God seems absent or uncaring. But Habakkuk does not stop there. He also listens attentively for God to answer. “I will keep watch to see what God will say to me, and what God will answer concerning my complaint.”
Habakkuk’s active listening is rewarded. He says, “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 forth at the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and it 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.’”
Like Habakkuk, we cannot pretend that all was well when our world is wracked by destruction, violence, and injustice. When we do, from the ground view, it can look pretty hopeless. But as people of faith, we have a view from the tower and trust that the reign of God, “will surely come, it will not delay.” As Jesus pointed out, it is not on its way, but already in our midst.
Today we celebrate the courage of one who stood on a tower and saw the long view. Martin Luther was a priest serving as a professor in Wittenberg, Germany. He began to grow disgusted with some of its practices. He was especially angry about the Church's sales of indulgences, which were said to decrease the time a person had to spend in Purgatory, and took advantage of the poor. He also attacked other abuses of the clergy.
Luther’s views were revolutionary, especially his idea that a person could come directly before God without a priest as an intermediary.
On this day in 1517, “Luther posted
ninety-five theses to the door of his church. There were thousands of peasants
and pilgrims in town to observe All Saints Day, and the pamphlets caused a
sensation. They were originally written in Latin, but they became so popular
that people demanded they be translated into German, and so they were. Hundreds
of copies were printed up on a printing press, which was still a fairly recent
invention, and Luther's message spread throughout Germany and Europe. Luther
was threatened by church leaders, but he continued to publish controversial
writings that attacked the church hierarchy. He was indicted by the Pope and in
1521, a group of Roman princes pressured Emperor Charles V into forming an
assembly to try to get Luther to reject his writings.
Luther had to appear twice before the emperor, and each time he was told to
take back his teachings. He said, ‘Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain
reason .my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not
recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.’”
(From The Writers Almanac, with Garrison Keiler, National Public Radio.)
In our time, another great reformer arose, named after Martin Luther, that is, Martin Luther King, Jr. Ken Sehested once preached a sermon on today’s text from Habakkuk, connecting his plea of “How Long?” with King’s use of those very words in his “I Have A Dream” speech. Perhaps the greatest reformer of our time, King also was able to take the long view. Like Habakkuk, King experienced uncertainty and exhaustion. But also like Habakkuk, King’s prophetic strength came from the reassuring vision of God’s plan. “Before the victory is won,” King said, “Some may have to be scarred up, but we shall overcome…Before the victory is won, some will lose jobs, some will be called communists, some will be dismissed as dangerous rabble rousers and agitators merely because they’re standing up for what is right, but we shall overcome….”
Ken concluded his sermon comparing the visions of Habakkuk and King with a question: “Are we ready for such a vision? Are we prepared to let God get a grip on us? When the weak, the crushed, the forgotten scream out, ‘How long.’ Are we prepared to say, ‘Not long.’” (Lectionary Homiletics, Volume XV, Number 6,p. 46.)
How long? When the lives of every innocent Iraqi killed by terrorists or our troops is as dear to us as any one of our troops or anyone who died in the twin towers of 9/11. That’s how long. When every gay person’s rights are as important to straight people as our own. That’s how long.
I was encouraged on Wednesday when I went to the rally at the Capitol against Amendment 1. There was Thomas Reuter, Paula Buford, Bea and Harold Hoffman. Soon Nathaniel Greene Reuter showed up with a bunch of students from Grady High School. None of us from Oakhurst were gay, yet we realized that injustice for some is injustice for all.
As God’s called people, we cannot turn a blind eye or hide in some hollow but we can also not lose hope, “something that can be seen only with the eyes of faith.” (Sehested) ‘Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision forth at the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and it 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.”