I did not put my pre-sermon notes on the blog due to schedule. I spent the week as the CE person at Kirkmont Camp and Conference Center (I did preach four vesper sermons during the week). My schedule also meant that I relied more heavily on resources this week than I might normally do, although I have done a lot of outside work for this preaching series on the minor prophets.
I intentionally try to preach sermons in broad strokes on the minor prophets since I am only spending a week on each prophet. With Habakkuk, it might have been nice to spend several sermons exploring different themes, or to have just hit one of the points. Each of these topics seems worthy of their own sermon: the watchtower image (I wish the ladder had still been up from VBS so that I could have climbed up the ladder as my watchtower); working through the "appointed time language; the Hebrew parallelism in the 1:4 with "justice/judgment" and "come forth;" the personal style of Habakkuk; complaining as an act of faith, or at least a sign of believing God is relevant.
Confession: At the Chapel service I was a bit low energy with the sermon and sort of just preached it. We had a couple visiting who happened to be Presbyterians from Ardmore, OK. As we talked, he noted he was the minister there. My first thought was, "Richard, you preached a lousy sermon for him to hear on his week off!" My second thought was, "Richard, if you didn't like the sermon for him, why would you like it for anyone else?" I didn't really change much for the Sanctuary service (I did take out the mention of Paul's justification by faith connection), but I became much more energized and focused for the Sanctuary service. I believe it made the sermon better for the Sanctuary service.
“Living
by Faith” FPC, Troy; 7/26/15; Minor prophet series; Habakkuk
Introduction:
Late
7th century, early 6th
century. Imagine a time between King Josiah, who had come to power
and re-instituted doing things right, obeying and trusting God and
the fall of Jerusalem, which has not quite come yet, but is still
looming.
Particularly
frustrating those who were watching what was happening in the world
around them was the reality that King Josiah had been in right
relationship with God; king Josiah had led the people back to God;
and for all that effort King Josiah had been killed in battle by the
Egyptians, Judah had become a puppet government again to the
Egyptian, and the Babylonian threat looks stronger than ever.
a. Habakkuk introduces a new innovation – the prophet having a conversation with God.
1. Do not want make of this.
2. maybe a stylistic.
3. Habakkuk is the only pre-exilic prophet who calls himself a prophet, which may mean he was a professional prophet.
4. On the other hand, it also shifts the focus from how Judah looks to God and invites the listener to personalize the conversation and think about how the individual is looking at the relationship he or she has with God.
b. If you could get personal with God, what would you ask?
1. If I could give you five minutes when you could ask God anything you wanted and you hear an answer, what would you ask?
2. Would it be a scientific question – how in the world did you imagine creating this or that or how it works in a particular way?
3. Really personal question – i.e. why did this particular thing happen to me, or what particular thing is going to happen in the future?
4. would you ask a question for two trying to get a handle on our world and all its issues?
b. Habakkuk basically has two questions for God. (if you want a hint about their content, you might note that in the pew Bible – the NRSV – the section that opens Chapter 1 is labeled as “The Prophet's Complaint”).
1. First question: Why are you not hearing the cries of the people or acting as God should?
2. How long it will be before God will act?
3. The crux of the prophet’s complaint comes in 1:4:
So the law becomes slack
and justice never prevails.
The wicked surround the righteous --
therefore judgment comes forth perverted.
4. Translation issue: In Hebrew two words are used twice, in 1:4a and 1:4b, mishpat and yatsa. In the NRSV, these two words are translated differently each time. This translation is not wrong; in fact it is quite good.
5. So the law becomes slack and judgment (mishpat) never comes forth (yatsa).
The wicked surround the righteous --
therefore judgment (mishpat) comes forth (yatsa) perverted.
6. Whichever way one would choose to go (judgment or justice) the key is that it is the same word used. Habakkuk laments first that judgment/justice does not come about, and then in classical Hebrew parallelism that judgment/justice does come forth, but it is perverted and twisted, a mockery of justice (Karl Jacobson Associate Pastor Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd Minneapolis, Minn; http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1875
Move 2: Habakkuk turns to God with the lament and complaint.
a. Habakkuk is not the first person to ask these questions in the biblical story, nor is he the last.
1. Remember Moses and the Israelites in slavery in Egypt?
2. They cry out to God, “how long?”
3. When the Israelites are wandering in the wilderness hungry and tired, they ask God again and again, “why are you letting this happen to us? Why aren't you doing something about this?
4. The Psalmists often complain.
5. Job – why is this happening to a righteous person like me.
6. Even Jesus on the cross quoting Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
b. I do not think that I hear people complain about God or lament as much these days as they do in the Bible.
1. Maybe that's a sign of trust and faithfulness.
2. But on the other hand, think about the statement being made when Habakkuk, or Job, or the Psalmists, or Jesus complain and question – they are saying that they believe God is relevant. That God can make a difference in their world and their lives.
3. The Israelites cry out to God from slavery because they believe God can and will lead them out of slavery. And God does.
4. The Israelites moan and complain to God about the lack of food in the wilderness because they believe that God can provide for them. And suddenly they have manna from heaven.
5. The Psalmists, Job, and even Jesus complain and question God because they believe that God can make a difference.
6. Maybe not complaining and not questioning really means that God has become irrelevant in our world.
7. Why ask God about what is happening around us, why complain about it to God, if we not longer believe God is relevant to our world?
8. In someways, the questions and complaints can only be asked through the lens of faith – a faith that believes that God still matters and God is still at work in our world.
Move 3: In response to the questions, Habakkuk has an answer from God: wait and watch.
a. “There is still a vision for the appointed time” Habakkuk 2: 3)
1. the Hebrew word for “appointed time” (moed) is also used to) is also used to designate festival times in Israel’s worship (Leviticus 23:2), a time of birth (Genesis 17:21; 18:14; 21:2), seasonal migration (Jeremiah 8:7), and, yes, the end time (Daniel 8:19).
2. “Appointed time” here means the right time, God’s time, the time in which God’s promise will come to pass. Rolf Jacobson, Associate Professor of Old Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=753
3. That is not only a promise for the future but a reminder that God's time is not always our time.
4. AME Church in Mt. Sterling, KY Preacher: God may not be there when we call, but God is always there on time.”
b. Waiting means having faith in the future possibility of God to act in the future.
1. Watchtower image – goes back to the role of gatekeepers who stand watch at the gates to Jerusalem to watch for who is coming and determine if the gate should be opened or not.
2. old westerns: fort. Look for the cloud of dust in the distance; on alert; is it someone riding in to find safety or the enemy arriving; or sometimes it is one followed by the other.
3. child looking out the window waiting for his parents to return home.
4. the life of faith – living in the present, being faithful in the present, but also waiting and watching for the God who comes in the future, appointed time.
c. Introduces a theology of the cross.
1. An Old Testament Theology of the Cross: In essence, the book of Habakkuk proclaims an Old Testament version of the theology of the cross. It says God is not found only (or even primarily) in the high points. Rather, God meets us in our suffering.
2. To look around and see justice perverted does not mean that God is not present, but instead sees God is there in the midst of the suffering.
3. To be faithful in the moment is an act of righteousness or as Habakkuk puts it in 2:4 “but the righteous live by faith,” not by how great everything is in their lives.
4. this, of course, becomes the foundation of the Apostle Paul's theological concept of the justification by faith.
Conclusion: Habakkuk finishes with a song of thanksgiving in response to God's promise of faithfulness.
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 (3:17-18)
Living by faith.
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