Israel is falling apart. It has been a rough century. The Assyrian Empire had dominated that part of the world for centuries…and Israel has felt the brunt of its brutality during the 8th century BC… as the Assyrian army invaded their land, carted people away, murdered and raped innocent women and children, and destroyed their cities, destroyed the temple, and left them homeless. The Assyrians were the Evil Empire, to say the least. It’s helpful to remember that the book of Jonah was written about Assyria. Jonah was called to go to Ninevah, you remember…which was in Assyria. And this was the nation that Jonah so despised, that he refused at first to follow God’s command to bring God’s word to them…and then… when he finally went, after the whole big fish episode…and the people of Ninevah actually repented…Jonah despised God for forgiving them. They were…in Jonah’s eyes…unforgivable. Evil.
Like I said…Israel has had…not a rough year…or a rough decade…but a rough century. But finally, the Assyrians are starting to feel the pressure of the rising Babylonian Empire, and they have backed out of Israel…which felt like good news to Israel…at first. Until they realized that the Babylonian armies are just as much of a threat to their country’s peace and security as the Babylonians were. And this…is when Habakkuk comes along. He comes along when the people have discovered that the Babylonian armies…the Chaldeans…are fearsome as well. They are a people with no sense of meaningful dignity or justice….people who only care about themselves..and see Israel as simply raw material to be used for their benefit. They will be destroyed once again.
And Israel, at this point…is about to give up hope. So Habakkuk takes it up with God. Really, God…how long are you going to let this go on? How long will hatred and fear win…how long will cruelty be acceptable? Why don’t you fix this?
I am thinking this is the cry of many in our world today. How many people in our world live in situations of hopelessness…where one corrupt leader replaces the next. Where violence is rampant. Where gangs and armies terrorize families. We have refugees from all over the world who seek safety in our country for a reason. Their home has been invaded…by evil.
So Habakkuk raises up his voice for God’s people to ask…How long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry “violence!’ and you will not save? And what is God’s response? To their cries…their discouragement…their anger?
Wait for it. Wait for it.
Don’t lose hope. Don’t lose sight of the vision. Write it so clearly that people can’t miss it, no matter how fast they are going. Trust…in the face of everything that says differently… that God is good. Rejoice….anyway.
I have a hard time waiting for it. I want it now. I am tired of evil. I am tired of corruption and brutality and cruelty. I am tired of people who care only for themselves and for money…and are willing to discard and dismiss others as so much rubbish. I am tired of people justifying their indifference while children are tear gassed and incarcerated….while women are bought and sold –trafficked around the world as property for men to abuse. I am tired of waiting…while justice never prevails.
But dear friends….that is precisely what lies at the heart of Advent. Just as Israel waits for God to save…for a Messiah…for justice and peace to become realities…for kindness and mercy to shape the world. We wait. We wait in the midst of a broken and violent world…a broken and violent nation…in the midst of broken and violent lives. We wait for justice and peace…for kindness and mercy.
We wait…with families who flee violence, rape, murder and abuse. We wait with parents who grieve children whose lives ended with gunshots or needles or pills or bombs. We wait with children who are unloved, alone, abused. We wait with women who are routinely used and abused and violated. We wait with those who are victims of brutality and injustice simply because of the color of their skin. We wait with those who are starving in Yemen. We wait with those who are homeless in California after the fires…and in Indonesia after the earthquake and tsunami. We WAIT…and we wait….and we wait.
But this morning…as we wait…Habakkuk wants to make sure we don’t lose sight of the vision.
Make it plain on a tablet…so that a runner may read it, He says. And what is the vision?
Habakkuk wants to make sure it is clear…for us and for all the world…that God has not forgotten us. That God will bring salvation to all the earth. That in the face of everything that is wrong…fig trees that don’t bloom and fields that are bare, and herds that have been lost…we can trust God. We can rejoice in God.
Sometimes, it does seem like God has forgotten us. It does. Sometimes it feels like the darkness will overcome us. But during advent we light candles against the darkness and declare that Jesus has come….and that Jesus is still coming and will continue to come to us…again and again and again.
During Advent….we remember that Jesus is God’s vision, God’s word made plain for all the world to see. Jesus…in flesh….reveals the depth of God’s persistent love that comes down to us…right where we are…right in the midst of all that is so wrong in the world. Love lived out for low class shepherds and small town pregnant teenagers. Love embodied by parents who flee their home and country to go to Egypt to save their child’s life. Love expressed by a prostitute throwing away precious oil by pouring it over dirty feet. Love that impacts people of other faiths…astrologers who recognize God’s grace in a baby. Love that embraces Samaritans and Lepers and all manner of people who are “unclean” to our way of thinking. The love of God…lived out for those convicted unjustly and executed by their governments.
Jesus is God’s vision writ large. Jesus who bathes us all in excessive and undeserved grace…Jesus who loves us as we are. Who claims us. And who claims the world.
This is the vision…but we need to keep it in front of us. We need to keep our eyes on Jesus. To trust in the light of Jesus that shines in the darkest corners of our world and of our lives. To trust in God’s LOVE…that sees every life as God’s precious child. God’s Love that is not boastful or arrogant or rude….but love that feeds the hungry and comforts the brokenhearted. Love that will never justify what is evil and cruel…but will rejoice in every person who offers kindness.
We are here this morning…in the midst of a world that waits for redemption…to write God’s vision plainly with our lives….for all the world to see. We are here…to make it clear to the world…that nothing can deter God’s love. We are here…to light candles in the darkness…and to say to the person next to us….”Wait for it”. Wait for it. God’s love is as inevitable as gravity. God will ALWAYS come down…to us. For us. Amen.
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