Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4, 2 Timothy 1:1-14
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
Habakkuk gives us a discouraging image of his world. You get the same feeling by reading the Gospel from Luke for today (though for different reasons) and from our reading from 2 Timothy. Yet none of these readings end with a feeling of hopelessness. The Lord promises Habakkuk that he will set things right, Paul reminded Timothy that God will shepherd him and the Christian community thru their persecution and in the Gospel, Jesus spoke of a kind of justice; these passages along with the Psalm end in such a way as to bring to a sense of hope. Anyway, these readings were speaking of a time long ago, still as I look at the world around us now, the words of Habakkuk ring true for us today. Wars abound; terrorism is all around us; senseless street violence is a daily event; families around us, maybe even our own, are torn apart by disagreements; I see in other congregations’ contention and discomfort; we too here at St. Peter’s have our moments of disagreement and dissatisfaction and worry. How long, oh Lord, shall we cry for help? How long before there is peace and those around us find acceptance, even in disagreement?
Things may be no worse than centuries before, but I hear young couples questioning whether it is right to bring children into the world, with all the questions of unrest and violence. I also here young mothers and fathers speak of their worries for their young children’s futures. The truth is, and we need to be reminded of this, our time is no worse than the times of Habakkuk, the Psalmist, Jesus and Paul; the truth is, as bad as things appear, it’s never as bad as it looks. Philadelphia for example, by watching the news, appears as a war zone. We see on the news that there are a lot of shootings; there is lot of violence. However, Philadelphia is a big city and most of the city is not subject to the violence reported in the news. I’m just pointing out that we are wrong to paint the whole city with such a broad brush. Thursday morning, I awoke to the news and the story of violence involved the death of a police officer in Paris, France; Philly, Pennsylvania, our country must have had a quiet and peaceful night if the lead story is out of France; thankfully though, we see very little violence of any of this kind in our local communities. But what about what we don’t see; unfortunately, there is violence around us that often takes place behind closed doors: domestic violence between spouses and between parents and children, the poor, some of whom are refugees and immigrants are mistreated, employers and landlords sometimes abuse or ignore the needs of those that work for them or live in their buildings. And then there is racism, sexism, prejudice, both institutionalized and personalized, that causes unrest and occasional violence. So, even in Chester Springs, in our time, we could sit with Habakkuk, the Psalmist, and the Apostle Paul and say much the same things.
But, and this is so very important, the Lord made it possible for Habakkuk and the Psalmist to find hope and Jesus (not really in today’s reading, but evident in 2 Timothy, Jesus achieved for us through his death, forgiveness and salvation) so even amidst persecution Paul’s reassurance could help the persecuted to climb above their feelings of hopelessness, and by faith in Jesus, find joy. This hope, this joy, begins for all of us on our day of baptism. It doesn’t matter that violence is a part of the world around us, in Jesus there is much love and hope. Jesus took away the power of evil and violence. Evil, violence and killing are still here, much like an annoying fox that raids the chicken coop and harms some of the chickens and that lone mosquito that gets into our bedrooms and buzzes around our ears and bites us, making us itch. They cause us trouble, they make us uncomfortable, they may even do us harm, but we know that through Jesus the evil of the world cannot overcome us, for we have God’s help, love and forgiveness, along with the promise of salvation. We know that through the Holy Spirit, we are given strength and wisdom to face whatever threats may confront us.
Paul makes the point in 2 Timothy that “God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.” We who are baptized can stand boldly for what is right, for justice and mercy; we can stand up with the poor, the disabled, the sick, the oppressed, the stranger and help them as the Spirit gives us the ability, offering them the love of Jesus Christ, in deed and in our words. We can be an oasis in a desert of violence. This all begins at our baptisms; we as adults, help with this, as we fulfill our vows for our children. As we grow as baptized children of God, we more fully live into our faith, allowing the Spirit to strengthen us, give us courage, stand up against evil and share the love and word of Jesus. As the people of God, as the church of Jesus Christ, we stand, first and foremost for God’s will and love, regardless the position of any political system. Our calling as Christians is a higher calling, a calling that is not limited by national, political, sport, club, race, or language loyalties. As we baptize David, let us each of us renew our baptismal vows for our children and as confirmed/adult members of the Lutheran/Christian Church; and let us renew our commitment to the confirmation/membership vows we have taken before the Lord our God.