The Vision Will Surely Come
Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-5; Luke 19:1-10[1]
One of the challenges
facing the church today is that we live in a marketplace that is filled with
very different perspectives on life. I mentioned last week that we all search
for meaning, purpose, and a sense of belonging in our lives. But the fact that
there are so many different options for finding that sense of meaning, purpose,
and belonging makes our choices all the more complicated. We no longer live in
a time when everyone shares a common vision for what life is about. It’s hard
to find a way to figure out how the church can be relevant to people searching
for meaning in life when the very definitions have changed so dramatically. All
of that means that it’s not so easy for people to find meaning, purpose, and
belonging in our world.
Part of the reason for
this is there are so many different versions of what it looks like. Some people
are just trying to make ends meet, hoping not to run out of paycheck before
they run out of month. Others are hoping to make a mark in this world, to
ensure that people remember their name for their great achievements. Some want
nothing more than to raise a family that’s healthy and happy, and they devote
most of their time and energy toward achieving that goal. Others are simply fighting
like crazy to fend off the boredom or the loneliness that threatens to engulf
them most days. Some people are trying to juggle multiple options for making sense
out of life, because they’re afraid of putting all their eggs in one basket.
It’s all quite a bit more than confusing.
In our lesson from
Habakkuk for today, the prophet was trying to figure out the meaning of what
was happening in his world as well. His problem was that Israel and Judah were
being effectively dismantled by powerful empires like the Assyrians and the
Babylonians. What troubled him is that this was a judgment from God. The
Assyrians and Babylonians were some of the most violent people in the world of
that day. It didn’t make any sense to Habakkuk that God was using such violent
and ungodly people to carry out his judgment. So Habakkuk questions God’s
fairness and then basically decides to watch and wait to see how God would
answer.
God’s answer to
Habakkuk is that even though it might seem like the events around him
invalidated his faith in God as well as his hope for any future for his people,
God did indeed have a future in store for them. It might not look like exactly
like what Habakkuk expected, but that didn’t mean there was nothing left to
hope for. God’s vision for what he planned to do in
this world was still very real, and his message to Habakkuk was to write the
vision so plainly that it could be read at a glance and carried by runners to
all who needed to hear it. And the reason for this was the promise that “This
vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If
it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place” (Hab
2:3, NLT). In spite of the people’s continual unfaithfulness to God, God
would remain faithful to them.
As we’ve been working
through Luke’s Gospel this year, we’ve seen a unique perspective on the vision
of the kingdom of God. It started with Jesus’ announcement at the synagogue in
Nazareth that the promise of Isaiah had been fulfilled: “The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has
sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free” (Lk. 4:18). In our Gospel lesson for today, we
see that God’s “salvation” is extended even to Zacchaeus, who was one of the
most despised of the despised. In fact, Zacchaeus was so despised that all who
witnessed his encounter with Jesus “grumbled” about it. In Luke’s Gospel, this
includes not only the crowds but perhaps also the disciples themselves!
The point of this
story is that it’s a kind of “finale” to all that Luke wants to convey to us
about Jesus and the kingdom of God. Luke’s story of Jesus began with the
promise that the poor, the blind, and the captives were all included in God’s
salvation. As Jesus’ ministry progresses, we find that the despised are
included as well—Samaritans, tax collectors, and all who were considered
“unclean” for any reason. Jesus encounters misfits and outcasts, those whom
both society and religion had rejected as “unworthy,” and he embraces every one
of them with the love of God that never fails. And in our lesson for today, we
learn that this was all intentional: Jesus as the “Son of Man” came “to seek
out and to save” every one of them (Lk. 19:10), especially the least and the
last and the left out.
Trying to be the
church in our world gets harder every year. There are so many different
versions of “a meaningful life” that compete with the message of the gospel. It’s
hard for the church to stay relevant when the meaning of the word “relevance”
keeps changing! And as our traditional measures for how well the church is
doing in our world continue to diminish before our eyes, all of this can create
a crisis for us as well. Some may find it too discouraging to keep on trying.
Some may think they have to go out and find a “better” church somewhere. Some
may wonder whether supporting this or any other church is throwing away good
money for a lost cause. But the vision of the kingdom of God that Jesus
proclaimed and enacted in the lives of people like Zacchaeus is still just as
real as ever.
As we approach our
stewardship campaign, some of you may be asking whether God has a future for
this church. I would answer with the words that God gave to Habakkuk: God does
indeed have a vision for the future of this church, and “if it seems slow in
coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place.” God’s vision for this
church may not look like what we expect, but it is real nevertheless. It’s the
vision of the kingdom of God that brings salvation to all who would trust in
Jesus, including the poor, the blind, and the captives; including the despised
people of our world; and including especially the least and the last and the
left out. That’s what motivates me to give as much as I can to support the work
of this church and of the larger church in the world. This vision gives meaning
and purpose to what we do, and I believe it will surely come in God’s time.
[1] ©2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 10/30/2022 for Hickman
Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.For a video recording of this sermon, check out my Pastor Alan YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/XU-xHhcPxYg
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