Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4 2^nd Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14 Luke 17:5-10

Today’s first and third lessons are without the usual connection between the Old Testament and Gospel lessons. The second reading is the first of four from 2^nd Timothy.

The Habakkuk lesson is woven from the prophet’s initial profound questions to God and his perception of God’s reply. Habakkuk is one of the lesser known prophets. From indications in his short, three-chapter book, we glean that he ministered in the years immediately before the fall of the Southern Kingdom of Judah when Babylon was at the apex of it’s imperial powers. He was witnessing the overwhelming destructive power of that pagan empire and cried out to God that seldom-answered question, “Why?” His sense was that evil and destruction were and are without sense, without justifiable reason, evidence of what 20^th and 21^st believers might call genuine insanity. He wrestled with the issue theologians call “theodicy,” i.e., how to explain and justify actions attributed to God when those very actions make God appear to be the cause, promoter or user of violence, condemnation or overwhelming destruction. The assumption on the prophet’s part (and on the part of many believers throughout both Judaism’s and Christianity’s history) was that God is good, and cares for and safeguards his faithful ones. The lectionary editors use one of the lines which Habakkuk attributes to God to reiterate this at the end of today’s text. The trouble is, of course, that the issues and questions around theodicy are unanswerable since and because we consider God to be pure goodness. That divine goodness includes perfected or full compassion, mercy, justice, wisdom and all those positive and virtuous attributes we place upon our well-imagined personification of the Great Divine Mystery. Habakkuk (and the rest of us) long for and search for a reasonable and sensible explanation of reality. In fact, while we may indeed discover new and greater insights on a regular basis, the nature of the created universe is like it’s creator, i.e., it is essentially and practically a huge, inexhaustible mystery! Thus we will be able to discover new (“revealed”) insights into both spiritual and physical dimensions of the world, but we will never run out of new insights or revelations to discover. The problem is not with the nature of God. The problem is with our limited (and sometimes unwilling) human abilities at engaging, appreciating and understanding our mysterious God and the mysterious reality in which we find ourselves. Bad things happen. Good things happen. Our intuition wants to attribute some blame, cause or reason to every event. Sometimes, however, we simply don’t know or we are unwilling to admit the truth. To attribute earthquake, famine, cancer or heart attack to God is to diminish God’s goodness. Let us propose that our oft-used assertion that “God is in control” needs to be reconsidered and re-thought. Modern people wrongly attribute natural evil to God. Habakkuk, whose senses are overwhelmed by the destruction he has witnessed and heard about, could only embrace hope in the present and trust that “the vision [i.e., of God’s peace and salvation] still has its time.” We, too, must hope in God’s saving power and engage in life with precisely that same confidence. But we have all the modern advantages provided by Wisdom and Gospel insight!

Jesus’ parable about the master and servant and who benefits at certain times seems unremarkable, except that it is a parable which we, the hearers of God’s Word in the 21^st Century, risk not hearing! While disciples of the Gospel are indeed servants of God, the job description of servant has evolved, grown, developed and become ever-larger since that first generation of disciples. The former description of disciple and servant was one founded in an ancient tribal, imperial, primitive and other ancient societal settings. Today, we thrive with far less tribal connectedness, in a more democratic and modern (read: complex) society, with a social sophistication which has some remarkably significant differences from the ancients. To be a good and faithful servant today presumes a somewhat deliberate level of freely embraced altruism and conscientious thoughtfulness, along with significant personal initiative, intelligence and wisdom. The ancient model was founded on obedience; the modern is founded on responsible freedom.

The 2^nd Timothy text is a powerful reminder of what Gospel faith is and is not. It is not passive, disengaged, groveling and diminishing. It is, rather, the fruit of God’s Holy Spirit, the Spirit of “power, love and self-control.” Power here connotes strength to engage and to do something (as distinct from autocratic and arbitrary power over others). Love is that profound compassion which is larger than all other emotions. Self-control here is that prudent self-discipline which allows one the best of responsible freedom and integrity; in a word, wisdom. Thus, how are we to engage life, we who have been baptized in this same Spirit which Paul convoked onto Timothy? We are to be people who are strong, loving and wise. We have been provided a similar “rich trust” of life filled with Gospel faith. Our faith is not a static treasure good for nothing but to be locked away; rather, ours is a faith to be announced, demonstrated, celebrated, sung, rhapsodized over, and wrapped around ourselves for that security and peace which can only come from the Good God. Priests, bishops and deacons ought take their ministerial temperatures to see whether they are sufficiently prophetic for them to be multifaceted, dexterous and effective leaders. If any are mere ideologues, single-issue advocates, institutionally over-loyal, insensitive to the human condition or short-sighted, or dull and boring preachers, then the messages from Habakkuk and Jesus must be heard anew. All other Church members likewise need to be as adult, participatory and intelligent as modern society expects and demands. Whining, complaining, excuse-making, resisting change and growth, preserving the faith’s less significant practices of a former era – all these are ways of neutering the Gospel and turning the Church into a mere association of silly persons. The Gospel is an adult call to life and engagement. It is the fruit of the Holy Spirit that came down on Jesus of Nazareth in the waters of his baptism and at his Transfiguration, the same Spirit that descended upon the apostles and disciples at Pentecost. This same Spirit fell upon the members of Cornelius’ household even before their baptisms in Acts 10, and is the same Spirit that enables Paul and James and the others at Jerusalem in Acts 15 to reform the infant Church into a radically new direction from Jewish cultural exclusivity into Gentile global pluralism.

Culture incarnates Gospel and Gospel critiques culture. Today’s texts all demand a critical posture, one that is strong, loving and wise. Self-critique is infinitely more effective than any other, at least for the wise. May you be wise in the Spirit!

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and enkindle in us the fire of your Divine Love!