Life's Not Always Fair: But God Will Straighten It Out!
Sermon
A Word That Sets Free
First Lesson Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost (Last Third) Cycle C
Those of us who are old enough and socially concerned enough recall the 1960s with fondness. Troubled as the times were, it was a hopeful decade, a period when many of us dreamed that better days were on the horizon. We sang and dreamed of love and peace. We thought that the Civil Rights movement would put an end to racism, that the war on poverty might be won.
Today, nearly half a century later, those battles have not been won. The rich are getting richer; the poor are getting poorer; money from special interests buys elections; racism, prejudice, and sexism, have not been set aside. What has happened to our dreams?
In a sense the hopes and dreams of a just society do not even stir most Americans any longer. Those old hopes and dreams are said to represent the values of those "liberals" who are out of step with what America wants and is really like. Some even say that such dreams contradict basic Christian values. Besides we are too busy to address injustice and work for equality. It's bad for business, and we have become very entrepreneurial and productive. In addition, we are just plain burned out -- burned out answering the cell phones and our e-mail; burned out making those extra bucks to get the latest DVD player and the extra car. Justice for the poor will just have to wait. After all, it is their fault that they are poor (we say).
Do you feel the disappointment that I am feeling about the course of recent history? It is probably not unlike the disappointment many Christians experienced in the third, fourth, and fifth decades of the century just ended. The twentieth century began with such hope. It was to be the century when the world was to be Christianized -- it was to be the Christian century. It was also to be a century that promised human progress, what with science and the Industrial Revolution creating all sorts of increased opportunities for prosperity. As we know, it did not happen. The World Wars put an end to the optimism. The Church may have grown in some parts of the world, but in Europe and America it has been losing ground for some time. Hopes have been dashed. Life is that way sometimes.
Almost two centuries ago African-Americans liberated from slavery were given all sorts of promises in the hopeful times of Reconstruction. But Jim Crow legislation and the ensuing evils of segregation broke those promises. Life is not fair, is it?
This Sunday's First Lesson portrays the sort of despair that comes when life's promises are broken. Biblical scholars are not sure about the historical circumstances of when our text was written. It is a complaint psalm very typical of a lot of ancient Hebraic literature.1 Singing a song that reflected his despair about the injustices of life, the author of Habakkuk writes words that are timeless. The lyrics to his song capture the feelings you and I are likely to have when life deals us a tough time. Listen to his song now, because they could have been written for the injustice and lethargy of our times:
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 wrong-doing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails.
-- 1:2-4a
The law has become slack and justice never seems to prevail. Standards are down, the law is slack, but if you have money for a good lawyer and a Capitol Hill lobbyist, you get what you want. "And justice [it seems] never prevails." In another verse, Habakkuk's song continues: "... judgment comes forth perverted" (1:4b).
Has he not told it like it is? The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer, and nobody seems to care. Habakkuk understands our times. His song is about us. It is a song every one of us has sung when life gets tough, when it is not fair.
What do we do without disappointments and despair? Give up and retreat further into the private sphere, abandoning public agendas? A lot of so-called advocates of the '60s social justice and peace have done that. As one of the elders in my family has put it: "The [old] radicals are too busy on Wall Street today to care about the poor."
The author of Habakkuk did not let despair and lethargy prevail. He did not just sing that opening complaint psalm. He turned his despair to God: "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).
Oh, how we have a mouthful to say about God sometimes, especially when we have a complaint about life! "Where is God?" we ask when life does not go our way.
The author of Habakkuk had another song to sing, one that came from God. The Lord gave him, gave us, a vision (I would call it a dream), and it goes like this: "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" (2:3).
God's Word to Habakkuk, the Word of God for us in our despair, is a dream of the End. God points us to his final plans at the end of time, when the Lord's purposes for the world will be complete and when all the turmoils of life will make sense. "If that day seems to tarry," the Lord says, "wait for it." It will come. God is going to have his way with the world. All that fights against goodness and justice and happiness will not prevail in the final analysis.
God's way of giving us hope by pointing us to the End is typical of this Personal God of ours. When he sent us his Son, Jesus, the Son did the same. Think how often Jesus talks about the End Times and about the Kingdom of God. Mark, the writer of the oldest, and probably most historically authentic of the Gospels, was so taken by the emphasis Jesus placed on the End Times, that he summarized Jesus' whole ministry after his baptism this way: "Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news' " (Mark 1:14-15).
God always has been, is in Jesus, and will continue to be a God of the future. And that is a glorious word of hope! It is a glorious word, because when you have God's future, his kingdom in view, you have a perspective from which to critique the present. You are no longer chained by the heartaches, the dead ends, the insecurities, and the unjust structures of the present. You have an alternative. You have a new perspective on things and a hope that the way things are does not have to stay that way forever. And so the author of Habakkuk proclaims to us that even though the old dreams of justice and equality seem stillborn, even though we sometimes feel like we are on the treadmill with few alternatives, there is hope. New and better days are coming. God will see to it. Trust him.
The Black church in America has a long history of being sustained this way by a hope for the end times. (The technical term for this sort of hope for the end times is to call it an "eschatological hope.") Life may not be fair, but God is, and so the future has plenty of wonderful possibilities.
The slaves understood the Exodus story as a story about their future, about how God was going to set them free like the Hebrews were set free. And we all know about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream in his famous speech in Washington. In the midst of the injustices of segregation and all the turmoil of the time he proclaimed: "So I say to you, my friends, that even though we must face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream...."2 Can you and I dream that someday it will not matter if one is rich or poor, that one's children will get health care, that one day police racial profiling of minorities will end, that women will have the same per capita income as men?
Dr. King has other dreams. You know them:
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down at the table of brotherhood ... I have a dream my four little children will live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!3
I have a dream that someday 11 a.m. will not be the most segregated hour of the week; that Black and white will live in the same neighborhoods and really get to know each other. The vision of the End and dreams of a just society go hand-in-hand.
Why has it not happened? Why is there still so much injustice, apathy, selfishness, and anxiety. Why is life still so unfair? The author of Habakkuk had that question. It is our question too. Listen to the song he sang to the Hebrews. He is singing it to us in response to all our hopelessness:
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 in their faith.
-- 2:3-4
It has been 2,600 years since Habakkuk promised the end would not tarry. Jesus made that promise too. Were they wrong? Why are we still plagued with all of society's ills? Why is there still so much injustice, unhappiness, and lack of love among us?
Jesus, Habakkuk, and the Black church all say that the End is on its way. It is so close that you can catch glimpses of it! Martin Luther King, Jr., saw it the evening of his final speech. Here is how he put it:
Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop ... And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.4
When you have caught a vision of what God has in mind for the world, when you know and truly believe in God's plan of justice and forgiving love, then you do not have to fear anymore. And when fear is vanquished, when you have confidence and trust in the future, that's when great things can begin to happen -- because confident, trusting people are most likely to be society's change-agents. Such people are confident enough to act on their values.
How do we get that kind of confidence; how do we get to the mountaintop that Dr. King, Habakkuk, and Jesus talked about? I will tell you; these eminent Christians and our Lord can tell you; so can Martin Luther. If Jesus' words that the Kingdom of God has come near (Mark 1:15) are true, you and I have seen that Kingdom. Where? What does it look like? Martin Luther can tell you.
Writing in one of his most famous works for a general audience, Luther claimed that the Kingdom of God, that the End, is realized whenever we receive the Holy Spirit and that the Spirit is manifest in faith and in living godly lives.5 Did you get Luther's point? The mountaintop, the vision of the End Times, is not hard to find. You catch a glimpse of it every time you believe, do good works, or see somebody else do a good deed. Of course for self-centered, selfish people like us to do those things it has to be a miracle! They are only possible because of the Work of the Holy Spirit. But such deeds do happen. Celebrate them; learn from them; praise God for them; take hope! More are on the way.
In the midst of all the chaos, despair, and hopelessness, there are plenty of indications that God has not given up on us and our society. Just as Habakkuk heard God proclaim that the End was coming to relieve the time of trouble, so you and I have that assurance too. Take heart. The troubles, the unfairness of life, will not last forever. God is going to take care of it. He is doing so this moment. The more faithful people he produces, the more sinners he justifies, the more good works will be done. And the more godly people and work he produces, the more heaven is realized here on earth, the closer he and we will be to putting an end to life's unfairness here and now. People who have been to the mountaintop, who have seen the End God has in mind, will be the real change-agents of the present.
Are you down in the dumps about life? Have you found yourself giving up on the dream of a just society? I ask you, then, two more questions: Have you believed what I am saying? Do you believe that you are justified by grace, have been made righteous by God (like Habakkuk and Paul say)? Then, behold, a miracle is happening in your life and in the lives of those around you! You have been to the top of the mountain, and glimpsed the End God has in mind!
Take hope. It will be that way for everyone someday. Come back down from that mountain, dive into life's problems, and you will make a difference! Believe the miracle, justified sinners. Habakkuk and God promise that things are going to get better, that you can contribute to it.
In the Black church they say: God may not come when you want him, but he's always on time. I say: Life's not always fair. God may not straighten things out just the way and when you want it done, but justified sinners know that he's already solved the problem. Behold those miracles of life, friends. See the good deeds those around you do, believe the gospel, and you'll see how God's straightened things out. Miracle of miracles: God might even use you and me in the end! What a miracle.
____________
1. Childs, pp. 448-449, 451.
2. Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have A Dream" (1963), in James H. Washington, ed., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986), p. 219.
3. Ibid.
4. Martin Luther King, Jr., "I See The Promised Land" (1968), in A Testament of Hope, p. 286.
5. Martin Luther, The Small Catechism (1529), III.8.
Today, nearly half a century later, those battles have not been won. The rich are getting richer; the poor are getting poorer; money from special interests buys elections; racism, prejudice, and sexism, have not been set aside. What has happened to our dreams?
In a sense the hopes and dreams of a just society do not even stir most Americans any longer. Those old hopes and dreams are said to represent the values of those "liberals" who are out of step with what America wants and is really like. Some even say that such dreams contradict basic Christian values. Besides we are too busy to address injustice and work for equality. It's bad for business, and we have become very entrepreneurial and productive. In addition, we are just plain burned out -- burned out answering the cell phones and our e-mail; burned out making those extra bucks to get the latest DVD player and the extra car. Justice for the poor will just have to wait. After all, it is their fault that they are poor (we say).
Do you feel the disappointment that I am feeling about the course of recent history? It is probably not unlike the disappointment many Christians experienced in the third, fourth, and fifth decades of the century just ended. The twentieth century began with such hope. It was to be the century when the world was to be Christianized -- it was to be the Christian century. It was also to be a century that promised human progress, what with science and the Industrial Revolution creating all sorts of increased opportunities for prosperity. As we know, it did not happen. The World Wars put an end to the optimism. The Church may have grown in some parts of the world, but in Europe and America it has been losing ground for some time. Hopes have been dashed. Life is that way sometimes.
Almost two centuries ago African-Americans liberated from slavery were given all sorts of promises in the hopeful times of Reconstruction. But Jim Crow legislation and the ensuing evils of segregation broke those promises. Life is not fair, is it?
This Sunday's First Lesson portrays the sort of despair that comes when life's promises are broken. Biblical scholars are not sure about the historical circumstances of when our text was written. It is a complaint psalm very typical of a lot of ancient Hebraic literature.1 Singing a song that reflected his despair about the injustices of life, the author of Habakkuk writes words that are timeless. The lyrics to his song capture the feelings you and I are likely to have when life deals us a tough time. Listen to his song now, because they could have been written for the injustice and lethargy of our times:
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 wrong-doing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails.
-- 1:2-4a
The law has become slack and justice never seems to prevail. Standards are down, the law is slack, but if you have money for a good lawyer and a Capitol Hill lobbyist, you get what you want. "And justice [it seems] never prevails." In another verse, Habakkuk's song continues: "... judgment comes forth perverted" (1:4b).
Has he not told it like it is? The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer, and nobody seems to care. Habakkuk understands our times. His song is about us. It is a song every one of us has sung when life gets tough, when it is not fair.
What do we do without disappointments and despair? Give up and retreat further into the private sphere, abandoning public agendas? A lot of so-called advocates of the '60s social justice and peace have done that. As one of the elders in my family has put it: "The [old] radicals are too busy on Wall Street today to care about the poor."
The author of Habakkuk did not let despair and lethargy prevail. He did not just sing that opening complaint psalm. He turned his despair to God: "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).
Oh, how we have a mouthful to say about God sometimes, especially when we have a complaint about life! "Where is God?" we ask when life does not go our way.
The author of Habakkuk had another song to sing, one that came from God. The Lord gave him, gave us, a vision (I would call it a dream), and it goes like this: "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" (2:3).
God's Word to Habakkuk, the Word of God for us in our despair, is a dream of the End. God points us to his final plans at the end of time, when the Lord's purposes for the world will be complete and when all the turmoils of life will make sense. "If that day seems to tarry," the Lord says, "wait for it." It will come. God is going to have his way with the world. All that fights against goodness and justice and happiness will not prevail in the final analysis.
God's way of giving us hope by pointing us to the End is typical of this Personal God of ours. When he sent us his Son, Jesus, the Son did the same. Think how often Jesus talks about the End Times and about the Kingdom of God. Mark, the writer of the oldest, and probably most historically authentic of the Gospels, was so taken by the emphasis Jesus placed on the End Times, that he summarized Jesus' whole ministry after his baptism this way: "Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news' " (Mark 1:14-15).
God always has been, is in Jesus, and will continue to be a God of the future. And that is a glorious word of hope! It is a glorious word, because when you have God's future, his kingdom in view, you have a perspective from which to critique the present. You are no longer chained by the heartaches, the dead ends, the insecurities, and the unjust structures of the present. You have an alternative. You have a new perspective on things and a hope that the way things are does not have to stay that way forever. And so the author of Habakkuk proclaims to us that even though the old dreams of justice and equality seem stillborn, even though we sometimes feel like we are on the treadmill with few alternatives, there is hope. New and better days are coming. God will see to it. Trust him.
The Black church in America has a long history of being sustained this way by a hope for the end times. (The technical term for this sort of hope for the end times is to call it an "eschatological hope.") Life may not be fair, but God is, and so the future has plenty of wonderful possibilities.
The slaves understood the Exodus story as a story about their future, about how God was going to set them free like the Hebrews were set free. And we all know about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream in his famous speech in Washington. In the midst of the injustices of segregation and all the turmoil of the time he proclaimed: "So I say to you, my friends, that even though we must face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream...."2 Can you and I dream that someday it will not matter if one is rich or poor, that one's children will get health care, that one day police racial profiling of minorities will end, that women will have the same per capita income as men?
Dr. King has other dreams. You know them:
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down at the table of brotherhood ... I have a dream my four little children will live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!3
I have a dream that someday 11 a.m. will not be the most segregated hour of the week; that Black and white will live in the same neighborhoods and really get to know each other. The vision of the End and dreams of a just society go hand-in-hand.
Why has it not happened? Why is there still so much injustice, apathy, selfishness, and anxiety. Why is life still so unfair? The author of Habakkuk had that question. It is our question too. Listen to the song he sang to the Hebrews. He is singing it to us in response to all our hopelessness:
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 in their faith.
-- 2:3-4
It has been 2,600 years since Habakkuk promised the end would not tarry. Jesus made that promise too. Were they wrong? Why are we still plagued with all of society's ills? Why is there still so much injustice, unhappiness, and lack of love among us?
Jesus, Habakkuk, and the Black church all say that the End is on its way. It is so close that you can catch glimpses of it! Martin Luther King, Jr., saw it the evening of his final speech. Here is how he put it:
Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop ... And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.4
When you have caught a vision of what God has in mind for the world, when you know and truly believe in God's plan of justice and forgiving love, then you do not have to fear anymore. And when fear is vanquished, when you have confidence and trust in the future, that's when great things can begin to happen -- because confident, trusting people are most likely to be society's change-agents. Such people are confident enough to act on their values.
How do we get that kind of confidence; how do we get to the mountaintop that Dr. King, Habakkuk, and Jesus talked about? I will tell you; these eminent Christians and our Lord can tell you; so can Martin Luther. If Jesus' words that the Kingdom of God has come near (Mark 1:15) are true, you and I have seen that Kingdom. Where? What does it look like? Martin Luther can tell you.
Writing in one of his most famous works for a general audience, Luther claimed that the Kingdom of God, that the End, is realized whenever we receive the Holy Spirit and that the Spirit is manifest in faith and in living godly lives.5 Did you get Luther's point? The mountaintop, the vision of the End Times, is not hard to find. You catch a glimpse of it every time you believe, do good works, or see somebody else do a good deed. Of course for self-centered, selfish people like us to do those things it has to be a miracle! They are only possible because of the Work of the Holy Spirit. But such deeds do happen. Celebrate them; learn from them; praise God for them; take hope! More are on the way.
In the midst of all the chaos, despair, and hopelessness, there are plenty of indications that God has not given up on us and our society. Just as Habakkuk heard God proclaim that the End was coming to relieve the time of trouble, so you and I have that assurance too. Take heart. The troubles, the unfairness of life, will not last forever. God is going to take care of it. He is doing so this moment. The more faithful people he produces, the more sinners he justifies, the more good works will be done. And the more godly people and work he produces, the more heaven is realized here on earth, the closer he and we will be to putting an end to life's unfairness here and now. People who have been to the mountaintop, who have seen the End God has in mind, will be the real change-agents of the present.
Are you down in the dumps about life? Have you found yourself giving up on the dream of a just society? I ask you, then, two more questions: Have you believed what I am saying? Do you believe that you are justified by grace, have been made righteous by God (like Habakkuk and Paul say)? Then, behold, a miracle is happening in your life and in the lives of those around you! You have been to the top of the mountain, and glimpsed the End God has in mind!
Take hope. It will be that way for everyone someday. Come back down from that mountain, dive into life's problems, and you will make a difference! Believe the miracle, justified sinners. Habakkuk and God promise that things are going to get better, that you can contribute to it.
In the Black church they say: God may not come when you want him, but he's always on time. I say: Life's not always fair. God may not straighten things out just the way and when you want it done, but justified sinners know that he's already solved the problem. Behold those miracles of life, friends. See the good deeds those around you do, believe the gospel, and you'll see how God's straightened things out. Miracle of miracles: God might even use you and me in the end! What a miracle.
____________
1. Childs, pp. 448-449, 451.
2. Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have A Dream" (1963), in James H. Washington, ed., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986), p. 219.
3. Ibid.
4. Martin Luther King, Jr., "I See The Promised Land" (1968), in A Testament of Hope, p. 286.
5. Martin Luther, The Small Catechism (1529), III.8.
