Mommymommymommymommymommy

24^th Sunday after Pentecost

Reformation Sunday

October 30, 2016

Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

(Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU9x-VqJr-4 )

Habakkuk:

·         Only time we read from this prophet in the lectionary

·         Contemporary of Jeremiah – prophesied in the period before the Exile, likely sometime between 626 and 622 B.C., when the Babylonians were beginning to wreak havoc on Israel

·         What’s different about Habakkuk is that it starts with words addressed to God, not first a message from God that Habakkuk delivers to the people

·         His complaint: “Lord, how long will I call for help and you not listen?” – He just wants God to listen to him! He doesn’t ask God to act; he asks God to listen

“I will take up my post; I will position myself on the fortress, I will keep watch to see what the Lord says to me and how he will respond to my complaint.”

·         Habakkuk decides to wait and watch and see; he knows God will respond

o   Zacchaeus takes up his post to watch from a sycamore tree – he knows Jesus is coming by this way

o   How do you wait? Impatiently? Doing your own thing as if no God? Preparing and ready for God’s answer?

·         2x this past week AJ up at 4 a.m. asking for breakfast and refused to go back to bed – he took up his position, not just to watch, but to constantly remind me that he was hungry

o   Me: wait! Not time to eat! – trust eating will happen, we will have breakfast

o   We know that as parents, do we trust/believe it as God’s children?

o   Easier from parent’s perspective – we know alarm will go off at 6, we know hunger lasts only for a little while

·         Habakkuk: “my complaint” – not request, not problem, not suffering – H admits he’s complaining; he trusts God will respond to him

o   Today is Reformation Sunday – last Sunday in October – marking the occasion in 1517 when Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany – Luther’s complaints

o   What would be on your list of 95 theses? Write complaints on index card and put on altar – what is your complaint to God? What is God not listening to you say?

[5 min or so to do this]

God answers, “There is still a vision. Write the vision, and wait for it.”

·         “There is a vision” – good news!

o   What is it??

o   Is the time right yet?? (Are we there yet?)

·         “Write the vision” – think about what God wants for our community, write it down, keep it simple, and work toward it – write your vision/dream on index card and bring to altar

[5 min or so to do this]

·         “Write the vision and wait for it” – Often God seems to delay – can’t rush a sunrise; God’s timing is not ours – patience is a fruit of the Spirit – take your post, prepare

·         Prayer