Readings: Habbakuk 1: 1 – 4, 2: 1 – 4; 2 Timothy 1: 1 – 14; Luke 17: 5 – 10
This is the week when Sam Allardyce resigned as England football manager after only one match and after having been entrapped by undercover journalists into potentially fraudulent deals. One could question the morality of the entrapment as well as of Allardyce’s behaviour. And only a couple of weeks ago a UN convoy carrying Aid to the besieged in Syria was bombed. The great powers are still squabbling over who did it, and the possibility of peace has further receded. Meanwhile too little is done for the endless stream of refugees. Looking at events at home and abroad we might well ask with the prophet Habbakuk “How long shall I cry for help and you will not listen? Or cry to you ‘Violence’ and you will not save? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails.”
When Habbakuk wrote these words, during the reign of Jehoiakim in the late 6th or early 7th century BC the people of Israel had abandoned the righteous order intended by God for their society. This despite the fact that only twelve years before in the reign of King Josiah they had renewed their Covenant with God and undergone sweeping religious reform. Oracles from Jeremiah, written at the same time as Habbakuk, tell us that even the priests were ignoring the Torah, the Scriptures which enshrined the religious tradition of Israel. False prophets preached their own opinions or the soothing words which the King or the people wanted to hear. The abandoning of God’s law leads to chaos throughout society – oppression of the weak, quarrels and deceitful dealings.
Habbakuk sees that there are faithful people still, but they are surrounded by the wicked. So when they try to set things right their intentions and actions are so distorted by the evil surrounding them that the result is only a perverted version of God’s order. In our own complex, ambiguous world, where even such everyday choices as what food or clothes to buy may affect people on the other side of the globe, how often our decisions are between the lesser of two evils – because there is no simple ‘right’ solution. We are caught up in a global economy which simply does not deliver justice for all. Doing the truly good thing becomes impossible.
Habbakuk’s faith, like ours, explains to him why the world is in such a mess, but raises more questions than answers. Why does the violence and injustice continue? Why no apparent answers from God? The prophet has no answers except to turn to God, to trust and to wait – just as we might pray – and do pray daily – “Thy kingdom come..” God alone is the source of Habbakuk’s wisdom. When the answer comes it is a call to persevere, a reassurance that despite appearances God is in control. There will be an end, a resolution and a reckoning even if it seems a long way off. Meanwhile “the righteous live by their faith”.
All three of our passages today engage with what it might mean to live by faith. It is certainly not simply to be passive and to wait for the coming of God’s kingdom on earth. It is rather to engage in the struggle to bring about that kingdom. So Paul encourages his protégé Timothy by reminding him of his faith inheritance, from his mother and his grandmother. He’s to rekindle the gift of God given when Paul commissioned him for service in the church. He’s to remember that God gives not a spirit of cowardice, but of power and love and self-control. The invitation is to join Paul in suffering for the Gospel. We’re not, of course, all called to this kind of ministry. But we are all called to exercise our faith by some service.
Continuing to today’s Gospel, it seems that the apostles felt that their faith was insufficient for the task in hand. Jesus’ reply is somewhat acerbic, suggesting that the smallest faith might be greater than theirs. It is not perhaps so much a question of the amount of faith one has, but simply of having faith at all. We can’t say we have faith and remain passive in the face of the needs of the world. Neither, however, is it acceptable to expect a reward simply for serving our master. Why should we expect our Lord to serve us?
Except, of course, that he does. There’s another passage in Luke’s Gospel which makes the opposite point. “Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them.” (Luke 12: 37) As we meet around His table week by week in the Eucharist, the Master does indeed come and serve us. In His infinite mercy, He hears our cries, he binds our wounds, he takes our anxieties and our fears, He feeds us with His very self, and He sends us out refreshed and restored to continue our particular work for Him in our difficult and complex 21st century world.
Send us out in the power of your Spirit to live and work to your praise and glory.
Amen