Pentecost 20C – BLC
October 2, 2016
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Here’s some
fun St. Martin trivia: on this Sunday three years ago, St. Martin celebrated
her 60th anniversary, remembering our forebears who had a vision for
a Lutheran church in West Webster. We also, you may recall, burned our mortgage
that day, which we had paid off in a capitol campaign driven by hope for the
future of this congregation. It seems appropriate, then, that today, we have
two events that show how our prayers on that day in 2013 – for our past and for
our future – are coming to fruition. First, we will celebrate a baptism. Paige
is the granddaughter of Bernie, a longtime member, and her daddy, Scott, grew
up at St. Martin. After the baptism, the rest of Paige’s family will also join
as members, as well as Thelma, who is mother to Cindy, and whose
grandchildren grew up here, and the Moore family – Katie is daughter of Nancy and sister to Amie. There’s this wonderful line in our reading from
2 Timothy today: “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first
in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in
you.” The way all these events have collided today has made so clear how
beautiful and
important it is to pass down the faith, and also gives us reason
to celebrate all the generations that have committed their lives to living
amongst the Body of Christ.
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| Three generations of faithful women in my family |
It’s a
beautiful thing to see how the faith is passed on from generation to
generation, whether through baptism of children and grandchildren, or through
family members moving home and rejoining the church where they grew up, or so
many other ways. It is one of the warm-fuzzy things about especially a small
church, in which everyone knows each other and grew up together, to see these
generations of faith all come together.
It’s warm
and fuzzy, yes, but… the thing about faith is that it is not always so warm and
fuzzy. Because even as we find so many occasions to celebrate together, so many
joyous events, faith also carries us through our dark times – illness, death,
job loss, divorce, and more. We frequently get prayer requests asking for
prayerful support during the dark times of our members’ lives. This, too, is a
part of being a family of faith that passes that faith down through the
generations.
But
sometimes, faith gets even harder than that. As in any family, sometimes
conflict arises in our family of faith. In families, people disagree, and
sometimes things escalate and people get hurt. I know this has happened in my
family, and I’m sure it has happened at some point in yours, and so it is no
surprise that it also happens in our faith families.
So therein
lies the real question that arises for me as I read today’s texts: how do we,
as a family of faith, confront together not only the joyous events, but also
the inevitable conflicts and struggles we face together?
Our texts
today have a lot to say about this. First, we hear from Habakkuk, as he
desperately cries out to God, “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you
will not listen?” Habakkuk is writing during one of the most challenging times
of Israel’s history: the years just before all of Israel and Judah were sent
into exile in Babylon. Leading up to that deportation, there was violence,
attacks, destruction of the city of Jerusalem and of the Temple that was the
center of their faith. It was an incredibly painful time in their history, and
Habakkuk’s cry echoed that of many of the Israelites. It is a cry that echoes
many of our own cries. Though most of us have never experienced the death and
destruction Habakkuk was seeing, we have all experienced loss of home, loss of
faith, loss of purpose, loss of trust. If we haven’t seen our church building
destroyed, we have all at least experienced emotional destruction and
hopelessness. We experience them on a personal level, in our families, in our
communities, and sometimes, yes, even in our churches. And we can relate to
Habakkuk’s cry, “O Lord, how long? Aren’t you listening?”
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| The prophet Habakkuk |
God’s
response to Habakkuk is so often the response we get: “There is still a vision
for the appointed time… If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely
come.” In other words: “Just hold on, and wait. God is listening, and it seems
like this is taking forever, but keep waiting. God’s vision will surely come.”
So much of faith is a waiting game,
right?? It seems like God’s answer is always “wait,” and you know, waiting gets
really old sometimes! But we see in the story of Israel, and in Habakkuk’s
response to it, that this waiting is a part of faith. It, too, is part of the
faith we pass down to our children and grandchildren: faith sometimes means
waiting. It sometimes means patience. And it always means that even in the
midst of waiting, we must trust God’s vision, which will come at the appointed
time. “If it seems to tarry, wait for it. It will surely come.”
I love that
word, “tarry.” It means “to delay, or stay longer than intended.” It always
makes me think of my college band director, Dr. Nimmo. As he worked with us to
draw the music out of notes on a page, he would sometimes point to a note and
say, “I want you to tarry on this note. Hold it just a moment longer.” And when
we did – oh, how the music came alive! That short, tarrying moment increased
the tension for the listener, as they longed for the resolution of the chord.
But
because of that tarry, that patient delay, the resolution was so much
sweeter, so much more satisfying. When we all tarried together, the result was
that we made something so moving and beautiful together. “If it seems to tarry,
wait for it. It will surely come.”
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| Gustavus Wind Orchestra, Dr. Nimmo at the helm (there I am, front row, far left!) |
Our reading
from 2 Timothy, after the lovely line about the matriarchs of Timothy’s family,
goes on to describe the faith that was passed from Grandma Lois to Mama Eunice
to Timothy. Paul assures Timothy that through the struggles we will face for
the sake of the gospel, we can trust the Lord. “God did not give us a spirit of
cowardice,” he writes, “but rather a spirit of power and of love and of
self-discipline.” He reminds Timothy that we must “[rely] on the power of God,
who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but
according to his own purpose and grace.” God gives us what it takes to work
through the challenges of this faith that we so joyfully pass down. With these
gifts, Paul assures Timothy that our faith will carry us through, telling him,
“Hold fast to [sound teaching]… in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit
living in us.”
And that’s
really the bottom line. No matter what we may face in our lives of faith –
either as individuals or as many generations of a church family of faith – and
no matter what joys or struggles or conflicts, no matter how much tension and
waiting we must endure, doing it in faith means we are never doing it alone. We
have the help of the Holy Spirit living in us. We have the promises God made to
those who have gone before us, and that God now makes to us. And we have the
enduring knowledge that it is by grace that we are saved, and that our failings
and struggles have no bearing on the power of God in Christ.
And so with
that hope and promise in mind, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray… Lord, increase our faith. Grant us a spirit
of power and of love and of self-discipline, a spirit of wisdom and
understanding, a spirit of patience with each other, and patience with you as
we wait for your appointed vision to become a reality. Help us to remember that
a part of faith is living in tension, and trusting you in the midst of it.
Guide and strengthen us to pass this vision on to our children and
grandchildren with confidence. In the name of the Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit. Amen.
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