Pleasing in God’s Sight

Habakkuk addresses the theological question of theodicy, justifying the righteousness of God in circumstances of great evil.

The first section of the book is a dialogue between God and Habakkuk. The prophet complains that the land is in turmoil. It is about 600 years before Jesus.

Israel, the Northern Kingdom, had fallen to the Assyrians over 100 years prior. Judah, the Southern Kingdom, was the sole surviving independent state in the area. So, the Judean king, Hezekiah, put in place nationalistic policies and religious reform aimed at recovering the state to a Davidic monarchy – let’s reestablish the good ole days. The Assyrians kept pressing, though. So, when his son became king, he submitted to the Assyrians and reversed all the reforms his father had instituted. The next king was assassinated and replaced by his son, who was 8 when he took the throne, Josiah. Josiah came of age and put back into place the nationalistic and religious reforms, and he centralized them in Jerusalem.

But then, the Assyrian capital of Nineveh fell, and Josiah tried to land grab. And in the process he got cross-wise with the Egyptian pharaoh Neco. The vision and hope of a restored Davidic king and empire were shattered and the independent Judean state was soon to be no more. The Egyptians installed Jehoiakim to the throne, and he was hated. And Judah became the object of a tug-of-war between Egypt and Babylon. Babylon finally won and Jerusalem fell. The upper classes and artisans were exiled to Babylon.

In the midst of this struggle, the prophet, Habakkuk, cries out to God.

God responds that unlike those who are arrogant, those who are righteous will live by their steadfast faith. Biblical scholar, James Mays, says that this steadfast faith “expresses reliability, confidence, continuity, and trust…it refers to the confidence of the righteous in God’s reliability and indicates that the righteous will continue to trust in God despite adversity.”

I really wanted to preach on Psalm 19 this morning. It is nestled comfortably between two royal Davidic psalms in Psalm 18 and Psalm 20. The theme of light plays throughout the psalm. The light across the universe, the light within the law that chases away any shadow, the luminous and mysterious wonder of the world proclaims God’s presence and God’s orderliness and balance, setting the stage for appreciating the law. The psalmist sings heartily, “The heavens proclaim the glory of God, the order of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul, the law of the Lord is more precious than gold and sweeter than honey, forgive my hidden faults and keep my temptations from ruling over me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

And I wanted to talk about children and teaching them how we see God even in the rising and setting of the sun. I wanted to preach on the intricacies of nature that reveal God’s order even in the midst of what may seem to us at first to be chaos. I wanted to preach on children’s wonder and the opportunity we have to show them how God’s order is perfect and to teach them how God’s law establishes God’s will being done on earth, as it is already done in heaven. I wanted to preach on how we teach children God’s mercy as we show them mercy.

But then those last words, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer, kept working on me. Because I could have preached on children and their innocence. I could have preached on children and their sense of wonder. I could have preached on children teaching us about forgiveness and teaching us how to love. But the meditations of my heart weren’t settled.
Because we are living in a world that causes my heart to cry out with Habakkuk, “How long, O Lord, must I cry for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?

There are 2.2 billion children in the world. 1 billion live in poverty.
1 in 3 lack adequate shelter
1 in 5 have no access to safe water
1 in 7 lack access to health care

Today, September 27, 2015, 22,000 children will starve to death. 6,000 children will die because they were not immunized. 3,800 will die from lack of access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation.

In the United States during the first 5 years when brain development is most critical, nearly 1 in 4 children is poor, and almost half of those children are living in extreme poverty.

A year ago yesterday a study was released revealing that the national poverty level was declining, but the poverty level in Memphis continues to climb, making it one of the nation’s poorest cities. Close to half of the children in Memphis are living below the poverty line.

And I find myself hearing God’s response, “Write this down, make it plain on the tablets so that even a herald running by can get the message and run with it. There are two kinds of people: the ones who are puffed up, who are greedy and never satisfied, they will feast and drink and become complacent…and one day they will be plundered by the ones who are left of the peoples they have plundered, and there are those who are righteous, who have confidence in God’s reliability and will continue to trust in God despite adversity.”

No neat explanation for why God allows evil in our world is given. What God says is that there are two kinds of people and that the faithful will live with confidence in God and will trust that justice will prevail. God’s vision will come to fruition.

For God has planted the seeds of justice in each of us. In 2011, a study was published on children’s sense of fairness. Scientists studied 15-month-olds, toddlers. They had them watch movies of an actor distributing food, either equally or unequally, between two people. Most of the toddlers spent more time looking at the unequal distribution, suggesting it surprised them by violating their basic sense of fairness. Next, every child was asked to pick a favorite between two toys. Then they asked the child to share one of the toys. Of the infants who shared the toy that was their favorite, 92 percent had also been surprised by the unequal distribution of food in the videos. (Lena Groeger, Scientific American, March 1, 2012, “Infants Possess a Sense of Justice”)

So which kind of person will I be? It is a question each of us is faced with every time we cry out to God, “How long, O Lord?” Will the words of my heart and the meditations of my heart bring light? Will they be pleasing to God? Will you nurture the seeds of justice that God planted in you? The answer “How long?” is up to us. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Benediction
As we go into the world, we go as God’s hands and feet, answering the question of those who suffer injustice, “How long, O Lord?” We go, to support a home for women who are victims of human trafficking at Moe’s, in the coming weeks we will be preparing to provide winter housing to homeless persons on Saturday nights and you will have opportunities to participate, the new Presbyterian Giving Catalog just arrived this week with opportunities to give gifts that make a difference around the globe – they are in the rack to the left just outside the Sanctuary, I encourage you to consider gifts like these for those people on your Christmas list who really don’t need anything. We go, listening for the cry of those who despair, “How long, O Lord?” to be a light bringing justice with urgency and persistence. Amen.