Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-5
17th Sunday after the Pentecost
October 5, 2025
Williamstown, MA
Scripture: Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-5
Almost every morning I read the news among three newspapers. I’ve been a news junkie since junior high. These decades of news consumption have given me a long view of this world’s goings on. I’ve always had concerns about various issues, some of them more pronounced than others. Some concerns stick with me, and others fade over time.
I’m not sure if what I’m feeling now is the culmination of almost 60 years of daily news consumption or a perfect storm of events and issues which leave me struggling to make sense of this world.
It’s not just Congress’s incapability to fund our government, especially when they are arguing over $0.20 of a dollar because $0.80 of a dollar covers mandatory spending and defense. It’s not just armed troops in our cities doing civilian law enforcement as many political issues, bother me.
Economically, income and wealth disparity are growing, leaving broad swaths of our population struggling for their basic needs such as food and shelter. Furthermore, wealth has also concentrated power such that companies have decoupled themselves from the lives of people in their communities to pursue greater profits abroad or de-fanged news operations as their media corporations seek even more global influence, power, and profits.
I can’t keep up with technology. Frankly, I’m clueless to understand how to use social media effectively to reach a much younger demographic with our message. I also cannot express the depth of my worry over AI’s capabilities. Tilly Norwood is a young, beautiful woman who some entertainment companies want to put under contract. She is AI generated, meaning she physically doesn’t exist. Lately, I’ve begun to question our wisdom to put our services on YouTube when the preacher’s image and audio can be scraped and through AI be made a virtual person to say things the preacher never intended. Furthermore, Thursday’s New York Times reported on Sora, a smartphone app, which can use a person’s image and voice to generate a virtual person.[1]
Furthermore, my confusion, disorientation, or whatever is not just what’s happening in this country. The New York Times had two pieces this past week noting institutional destabilization abroad. Courts in Brazil, France, and South Korea[2]. The government of Brussels.[3] Then, there’s war and its accompanying suffering now and in the future as war’s children will carry its scars into their adulthood, whether they be in Gaza, South Sudan, or Ukraine.
As I said, I feel unstable, uncertain, uneasy… maybe they’re interchangeable. While I’m not sure which, I am confident that I am not alone with these feelings.
Habakkuk offered a lesson to get us through.
Though this prophet’s biography is scant, scraps gleaned from other parts of the Bible indicated that he lived towards the end of the 7th century BCE. A very brief history for context. At the end of Solomon’s reign in 931 BCE Israel split to become two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Israel’s first capital was Schechem and later moved to Samaria. Judah’s capital was Jerusalem. Israel, the northern kingdom, fell in 722 BCE to the Assyrians. Judah, however, remained until it fell to the Babylonians in 586 BCE, which was the beginning of its exile. It ended in 536 BCE when King Cyrus released them enabling them to return to Jerusalem.
The years leading up to Judah’s downfall were marked by a highly unstable political climate. Squeezed between Egypt and Babylon, Judah’s kings tried to appease them both. This policy created instability and, ultimately, didn’t work.
Habakkuk’s described the circumstances in his oracle:
“Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
So the law becomes slack,
and justice never prevails.
God responded to his complaint and following that, Habakkuk registered another complaint. This one was about the Chaldeans’ oppression. Then, God responded to the second complaint:
Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so that a runner may read it.
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.
Amid strife and contention, where the law is slack, and justice seems never to prevail, the world is unsettling without any discernable path to resolution. Habakkuk might ask, “How is it that God can’t take control?” For us, we might ask, “What do we do?”
The answer? Wait. That’s what God replied to Habakkuk. How long? God didn’t say. That seems like worthless advice because we like to have some modicum of certainty. Then, we can make plans and have a feeling of control.
However, we delude ourselves when we think we have control. As proof, consider the world in which we live. At best, we can control how we respond to our present situation. We, however, cannot control the responses of the people around us or how the situation will change in response to our actions.
During times of uncertainty, waiting is counter-intuitive because we want resolution. However, uncertainty is precisely when God shows up, providing we open ourselves to God.
When we have certainty, we don’t wait for God because we already know. When we know we don’t look for God’s wisdom. It’s only when we don’t know that we pray, “Help me, help me.” Waiting, then, is not inaction. Waiting is not passive.
We act in three ways. First, we ground ourselves with devotions such as prayer, meditation, worship, journaling, or other spiritual practices. Their common denominator is opening space in us for God to enter. We stand on firmer ground when our devotional life is a regular discipline because discipline strengthens our faith. Personally, I devote every morning to reading a psalm. I read them sequentially beginning with Psalm 1 and ending 150 days later with Psalm 150. I, then, close with prayer, a conversation with God. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Prayer does not mean simply to pour out one's heart. It means rather to find the way to God and to speak with him, whether the heart is full or empty.”[4]
Second praxis, putting our faith into practice. Basically, being like Jesus. Here, we have two general possibilities, each has its own multiple possibilities.
One is advocacy. We can protest, making clear that what we are enduring is unacceptable. Like Jesus we can speak truth to power and challenge the ethics and morals of actions and decisions, such as writing letters to editors or to legislators. We can protest whether we hold up signs at the roadside or take up non-violent actions, like the civil rights demonstrations in the 1950s and 1960s. We can register people to vote. We can choose how we use our money, as demonstrated by the recent uprising against Disney, which returned Jimmy Kimmel to late night.
Second is openly living out the ways of Jesus by attending and supporting our neighbors in their daily struggles. We can listen to their lamentations as Jesus did with the woman at the well. We can pray with them as Peter did with the women who surrounded Dorcas. We can serve the widows as Stephen and the Hellenists did. Essentially, by living out the ways of Jesus we are purveyors of hope and a healing balm for people who are wounded, alone, and afraid. We reassure them that they are not forgotten, they matter, and they are loved.
For us, praxis does two things. First, we remind ourselves that amid today’s struggles and challenges, we have agency. We are not powerless. Second, we proclaim to all who can see that the situation in which we live does not have to be. Our proclamation is a counterpoint to cruelty, oppression, hubris, greed, and nihilism, which are the deathlike ways of this world’s unchecked passions. Openly living out the ways of Jesus proclaims that kindness, generosity, empathy, humility, and patience are lifegiving because they are the building blocks to a world where true justice and peace abide because they are born of love.
Lastly, live with mindful gratitude. Be thankful for moments of awesome beauty, such as a stunning sunset or beautiful art. Be thankful for kindness extended by family, friends, and even strangers. Be thankful for humor, which can leaven a difficult circumstance. Be thankful for moments of surprising grace because they will be a glimpse of what will come.
All of this is the vision we hold out in our waiting. This is the vision we write plainly on tablets so the runner can see it. This is the vision that another world is possible. This vision is lifegiving hope. Hope’s fulfillment comes when we actively wait because it will surely come, it will not delay.
