October 7, 2007 – Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 and Luke 17:5-10
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Let us pray: “Dear Creator: We have entered into Your sacred space and now have heard the Holy Word. We ask You to use this message to stir our hearts. Amen!”
Just Imagine… You FINALLY got assigned that BIG Project! It is Monday morning and you have entered work and the group is there gathering. You know a big project starting up TODAY. As the conversations start up, there is a little bit of tension in the air… no one quite feels ready. In fact, they are sure that this is going to be the most difficult challenge of the month…But just then, the Manager walks into the room…there is a level of excitement and others around you quiet to hear just what the person is about to say. Yes, the Project is laid out and the group is correct… it IS the biggest challenge of the whole year! Now instead of answers, the Manager begins asks you questions:
- What resources would you use?
- How would you gain the rest of the needed information?
- What is the main obstacle that faces you?
- Why don’t you know what to do?
Then the conversation among your peers turns from concern to an even higher level of anxiety. And you find yourselves demanding, “Give us more resources Or we get this project done!”
The Manager simply stands up and turns to walk out of the room. And then there is a look of astonishment on the faces of those around you… when you hear “You have what you need…Just get on with what you have to do! Just get on with your J-O-B.”
Have you ever felt this kind of overwhelming CHALLENGE and not sure you are ready? Well, you want to be ready but …And maybe you may question yourself and think… AM i ready? am I ready? am i READY? As Christians, do we ever find ourselves being caught between being hesitant to take the bold action that we think God is calling us toward OR thinking that we desperately want to take action, but it doesn’t seem like the right timing yet? This question could simply be framed as a faith struggle.
Today I hope to share with you a few glimpses of my simple (yet a bit undisciplined) journey of a person who after age 40-something heard the call to become an ordained pastor and my faith struggle to figure it out how to best respond. This struggle is something that most seminarians have felt and it seems to come from a very deep place in our souls…seems like an easy question to answer, but to tell you the truth it is one of the biggest challenges ever laid before me in my life.
To provide you some illustrations of “possible responses”, we can take our lessons from Biblical characters responding to BIG PROJECTS, and we don’t have to look very far…
In reading the Lessons for this week, our Monday night Bible Study group was struck by the range of responses that Habakkuk and the Apostles gave when sizing up their CHALLENGES.
From our First Reading today, we find Habakkuk who just can’t wait to get on with getting things done…Now he was READY. We were struck by his impatience…his yearning to live life differently. He was an individual wrestling with his own spirit. And he was in a faith struggle. He had already acknowledged his dependency on God but also had great expectancy that God should fix the oppression and injustice of the times…and do it right away! He had a strong faith AND wanted God to take care of things in Habakkuk’s own timing and we would anticipate, in his own plan, not God’s plan. To him, it didn’t look like there would be any relief from God. He fully thought God was not going to pay him any heed, so he cries out to God, “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you won’t hear me? Or cry, “Violence! And you will not save?” He is building up, planning what he will boldly reply to God when he expects God to just simply abandon the situation, abandon his people.
And looking into our Gospel reading, we might also imagine that there could be a very different kind of reaction, a very hesitant one, from the Apostles in today’s Scripture when they asked Jesus to “Increase their Faith.” He reminded them that if they had faith as small as the mustard seed, they could take on their BIG CHALLENGES. Then he went on to ask them questions about expectations they would have of a servant. Then expecting a servant to do what the obligations of a servant are to do – “plowing or keeping sheep, then coming in and preparing supper”…and at the end of it, there were still things the Apostles could not do without God. But it was the faith in God that helped them get past the impossibilities. Jesus just was inviting them to get on with what they had to do!
So we see 2 different reactions…hesitancy from the Apostles and the one response could be deemed THE ‘Habakkuk moment’ (Yes, different than one of our stellar Kodak moments where the lighting is always right and our good side is showing) Do you know this one…it’s where we get in God’s face and explain exactly what, when, how, who, and where we will take on this BIG PROJECT for God but on OUR TERMS.
And what I found even more intriguing…from the OT reading is that God did come back with an unexpected answer: The Lord answered Habakkuk that there was a vision, it would be made public, and it will await its own time. God reassured him that God would not abandon him or his people and that there are unchangeable things which God upholds:
- The Righteous would live by the gift of Faith
- Righteousness would be rewarded
- God would give peace especially in the waiting, as Habakkuk had to await the vision and the right timing
Timing? Yes, GOD has a slightly and sometimes hugely different plan. (You might know of and remember stories of individuals working through a faith struggle while they worshipped here with us at Advent: Pastor Dave Whetter, or Seminarians Ted Mosher, Brenda Crossfield, or Vicar Joel and be reminded that God’s plan superseded their plans along their Seminary journeys.) Timing is part of the plan God offers us.
Let us return to the struggle of faith question I asked earlier…by the way, it is not just seminarians who face it. Many of you seek faith-filled responses in your lives when you facing your own callings from God and the CHALLENGES look larger than life. So let me ask again: As Christians, do we ever find ourselves being caught between being hesitant to take the action OR thinking that we desperately want to take action, but it doesn’t seem like the right timing yet?
You might be hesitant to accept what you think God might be asking you to do? Maybe it’s the large amount of time we’d have to commit to or the sweeping change that we think God would intend for our lives…(those are the kind of excuses I’ve used.) Maybe even on a deeper level, not being sure or feeling inadequate to be to be invited into God’s holiness for an overwhelming task… it is easy to back away from recognizing the gifts God has instilled in us when we might be thinking that we’re being asked to do more / invited to do more. And we struggle with our own faith? We struggle because we desire to do God’s will and it means letting go of our own wills.
But the Good News, though, comes when we recognize that these faith struggles of the Apostles and Habakkuk were not over until a ‘divine dialogue’ took place. With joy and confidence, Jesus encouraged the Apostles, reassuring them. And like them, Jesus invites us to reflect on our God-given gift of faith and recognize the DIVINE power in it. Habakkuk learned in listening to God, that there is in a deep and abiding peace. We can open up our hearts and come closer to God’s vision by simply calling upon our Lord and listening for that Divine dialogue to answer our faith struggle. This will help create in us an understanding of God’s timing for the work God is setting out for us to do. As servants in this great Creation, you and I can continue to look around here at Advent or out that front door and find the ministries, opportunities, and missions that call specifically to each one of us.
Hey, I have to get going…I have a seminary to contact. Then with our minds and hearts attuned to God’s timing, we can muster up our gifts and get on with our servant J-O-Bs. THE BIG PROJECT IS WAITING FOR each of us! And it can be All for God’s Glory! Amen.