SUMMARY KEYWORDS

habakkuk, god, jesus, injustice, edge, lord, friend, standing, unjustly, hold, church, violence, sunset, declares, grand canyon, light, righteous, faith, good, paul.

SPEAKER

Cheryl Fletcher

‍

Good Morning. It is good to be with you. My name is Cheryl, I'm one of the pastors here at Menlo Church and it is a delight to kick off this year together. We are one church in many locations, and so greetings to my friends at Saratoga, and our San Mateo campus in Mountain View, those of you joining us online, and right here in Menlo Park, it is good to be together.

Before I jump into the sermon, I do want to pray again. And maybe if you feel comfortable, you might open your palms up and just as a physical posture of what our hearts and our minds long for; that we would receive from God today.

Father, we do pray that. That we would receive from your word, the word that you have for us. That we would receive your presence, by your Holy Spirit. That we would receive your goodness, and your truth, and your grace, and your kindness towards us. And I pray, Lord, with the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be pleasing to you. My Lord, my King, my God, my Savior, my friend, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A number of years ago, I was working at a church in LA, and a coworker and friend of mine, we were working on some kind of long term strategic planning, and a project that we needed to get out ahead of. And so a friend in the church lent us their place in Sedona, Arizona. So we drove from LA to Arizona, and along the way, I discovered that my coworker-friend had never, never, never, never been to the Grand Canyon. This is unacceptable.

Some of you have never been to the Grand Canyon. This is unacceptable. And I told her this. And so one of the days I said, you know, when we get done working, we're gonna head to the Grand Canyon, and we're gonna see the sunset. And she was “okay, you know, kind of like, okay, it's a big ditch, whatever.” And we get there. And it's not high season, but the people are lined up, they got their camp chairs, their adult beverages. It's like Taylor Swift at So-Fi. It is like the Rose Bowl. It is the Super Bowl of sunsets, you know. And so everyone's lined up and we have our chairs and we go, and we stand over the edge of the Grand Canyon. And it's awe. It's wonder. My friend says to me, she goes, “Okay, I get it, I get it.” And especially because if you've ever been to the Grand Canyon for sunrise or sunset, you know, it's about an hour long show, because every few minutes, it's changing the way that the light shines on the canyon, the reds and the yellows and the purples, and the greens and all the things.

We were in awe, we were in wonder because we're wired for wonder. Literally, we are wired for Wonder.

In the mid-2000s, Semir Zeki, a researcher began to study what happens in a person's brain when they look at or listen to something that they deem to be beautiful. And what he found was that - y'all know the terms for all this stuff, but I've peaked in earth science in eighth grade - but the whatever that part of your brain is right behind the eyes. What he found was that when people were looking at or listening to something they deemed as beautiful, it lit up in the scans, right? They literally, their brains were lighting up, and that's what we want to consider over these coming weeks. “What causes us to light up?” “What causes us to wonder?”

And we're grounding this conversation in the book of Habakkuk. Now Habakkuk is a little book is called a minor prophet, not because it's less than but because it's short, or as someone said to me after the last service, it's concise. It's a concise prophet. Habakkuk was a prophet, and prophets were messengers of God. But what was unique about Habakkuk is that typically, a prophet would be speaking on behalf of God, to the people of God to give them a warning, to give them an affirmation, but Habakkuk instead of talking on behalf of God, Habakkuk was talking to God.

And what we find in this little book is this conversation, because Habakkuk was not standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon, looking at a sunset. Habakkuk was actually standing on the edge of a great horror, he was looking into a canyon of despair. His wonder would ultimately be ignited by engaging in the living God. And maybe like Habakkuk right now, you feel like you're standing on the edge of chaos. You're standing on the edge of a diagnosis. You're standing on the edge of a broken marriage or relationship. Maybe you're standing on the edge of fearing that you'll always be alone. Maybe you're standing on the edge of disorientation at work, conflict, maybe you've lost a job, or you didn't get the promotion that you felt you were deserving of.

Maybe you're standing on the edge of betrayal, and wounding from friends at school. Or maybe it's a deep grief, from loss through death, or through some form of rebellion or maybe abandonment. And you're wondering, you're wondering how you might ever have an encounter with wonder again.

It's been a long time since you've experienced that part of your brain lighting up. And if you're honest, you might even say that you aren't sure you want to engage with God on this. There's been too much disappointment. He hasn't shown up, He hasn't come through for you. And if this is the case, then Habakkuk is for you. Habakkuk’s for me, for sure.

Habakkuk is standing on the edge of his community, entrenched in neglecting God's word. He's standing on the edge of a community that is entrenched in immorality, religious hypocrisy, violence, there's injustice, there's corrupt leadership, and he's having a hard time believing that God is good when there is so much tragedy, when there is so much evil in the world. Maybe you felt that. So this is what Habakkuk does. What Habakkuk does is something that religious people aren't always very good at. What Habakkuk does is something that some religious people don't even think you should do. What Habakkuk does is he begins to argue with God. He enters into a debate with God, he has a dialogue ,he laments, he yells, he demands that God does something. He questions.

So in Habakkuk, chapter 1, verse 2, this is what this prophet says to God. He says, How long? “How long Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, Violence! but you don't save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?

Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.”

How long he could cries. Why? These are the questions of an honest wrestler. This is someone who isn't moving away from God, but is actually hanging in with God. And then God answers and it only adds to Habakkuk’s horror. God says verse 5, “Look at the nations and watch - and be utterly amazed. For I'm going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. I am raising up the Babylonians that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own. They are feared and they are dreaded people.”

God is raising up the Babylonians. As He says they're ruthless, they're bloodthirsty. They're worse than Israel. They're gonna devour Israel, He says, and Habakkuk is like, that is not an answer. That is not an answer. And he contends even harshly - the language kind of demonstrates in the Hebrew - he contends harshly with God boldly with God, verse 12.

Habakkuk says, “Lord, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, you will never die.” He's saying, Lord, I thought you were infinite. I thought you were great. I thought you were wise. I thought you were wonderful. But I'm not seeing it.

He goes on, “You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment; you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish. Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?”

Habakkuk approach to God is not tentative. It's not polite. It's not apologetic. He is in anguish. He is mad. He does not like God's answer. It is not satisfying for him. And this is what I want us to see. Habakkuk doesn't put his rage out on Tik Tok or Instagram. He doesn't do this big deconstruction thing, peace out God I’m having none of you. What he does is he actually engages with God. He relates with God. He's not just writing an account of God's actions. But he's praying. And prayer is a conversation. And a conversation with someone you belong to and belongs to you, that kind of conversation demands uncompromising authenticity, and vulnerability, and honesty. Habakkuk is faithfully wrestling with God. He challenges Him, he questions Him.

You see, I don't get nervous anymore. I used to, but I don't get nervous or concerned anymore when I hear someone doubting or questioning God. Because in almost 40 years of pastoral ministry, what I've found is that when someone cares enough to wrestle with God, when someone cares enough to name their doubts about God, even somebody who cares enough to declare an absolute unbelief in God. They are usually on the edge of receiving the love and the beauty of God. They don't even know how close they are to God.

Here's when I get nervous. I get nervous when people don't question or wrestle with God. How do you deeply and intimately relate to anyone, if you are unwilling to dialogue and debate, and enter in to disruptive conversations.

Habakkuk holds court with God, but he also holds onto God. Habakkuk holds court with God, he goes after him, but he's also holding on to him. You see, I believe that we will not hear the hope of God, and God is going to deliver hope to Habakkuk, but we will not hear the hope of God if we don't engage with the person of God. And if we don't open the Word of God. If we don't engage with the person of God and open the Word of God, you see, we like to read books about God. We like to listen to podcasts about God, we like to look at people's posts about God. But we need to engage with God. We need to open the Word of God. So back and forth Habakkuk, and God will dialogue. God declares that He will bring justice, and He will bring salvation, He will bring a rescue, but Habakkuk can't see it. And he tells God that, and God says, the righteous shall live by faith.

And this is a theme of the book of Habakkuk, that the righteous will live by faith. But what Habakkuk does for us is it doesn't just tell us to live by faith, it actually shows us, Habakkuk shows us how to live by faith, and it's not putting on some Pollyanna, chirpy, oh, God, is gonna be worked out in the end, I love God, he's so rainbows and unicorns, no. He lives out his faith in God, by holding court with God, and holding onto God. His wondering, his wondering about God leads him to the wonder of God.

He moves from the edge of despair, to the edge of hope, by faith, his brain starts to light up, because he's seeing God, no one more beautiful. He will trust in the chaos that he sees. And the answer he does not understand. He will trust that it will lead to good because God is doing the work. He has seen God do good in the past. And by faith, he trusts that God will do good in the future.

Now one of the benefits we have is that we actually are in the future and get to look back at what God did that Habakkuk didn't fully see. I wish we had time to unpack all the history of this, but the Babylonians did sweep through, and the Jews were taken into exile. And Pastor Tim Keller points out that because the Jews were dispersed, they carried the message of the God of Israel, throughout the whole Roman Empire. This would not have happened [otherwise]. In every city throughout the ancient world, Jewish synagogues were built, and Gentiles who were not God worshipers, began to show up at these synagogues, or be influenced by those who were in the synagogues. And they became interested in the God of Israel. And they began to study God's Word. And then jump ahead when Christianity began to spread, the most receptive people to the good news of Jesus were the Gentiles who were part of those synagogue communities or influenced by those synagogue communities. And it was through them that Christianity spread throughout the world.

And Christianity, here's the uniqueness of Christianity. Christianity was and it is the worship of a God who broke the barriers of nationality. Who broke the barriers of ethnicity, language, culture and place. There's a great book called the Air We Breathe, how we all came to believe in freedom, kindness, progress, and equality, great book. And the author notes that human sacrifices, violent and public spectacles of killings, think Rome, think the Colosseum - infanticide, and slavery - these were complete givens in the ancient world. These were acceptable practices of human society until, until the way of Jesus disrupted everything.

And those who actually follow Jesus said, no, no more. No more infanticide, no more human sacrifices, no more injustice, because Jesus had change their view of the world. The early church leader Paul, in a sermon that he is recorded in Acts chapter 13, Paul actually quotes from Habakkuk. He quotes that verse in verse five. He says, “Look at the nations and watch - and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” And what Paul is doing is he's connecting. He's connecting the horrors that Habakkuk heard, with the good news of Jesus.

Right before quoting Habakkuk, Paul says, in Acts 13, in this sermon, he says, “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the Law of Moses.” Paul doesn't want them to miss that what God has done through Jesus - something they could never do for themselves – even though how Jesus came is not how they could have ever imagined it. The coming of Jesus and what Jesus accomplished, was gonna look like the violent perpetrators were winning not God, just like it did in the day of Habakkuk.

Paul is saying, don't miss, that God has come in the person of Jesus, fully God, fully human, and Jesus will bring justice; it will look like chaos, and violence and injustice at the time, but Jesus will bring justification, that is not accomplished by our good deeds. He will bring dignity that is not accomplished by our good deeds. He will bring about a rightness that with God that is not accomplished through our good deeds, but by His willingness to not just stand at the edge of injustice, but to step into the canyon, to step in, to experience to absorb injustice.

Jesus, who in his humanity lived a perfect life was unjustly betrayed. Jesus was unjustly accused, Jesus was an justly convicted, Jesus was violently and unjustly crucified. And Peter, one of Jesus' friends, who was a follower, a disciple of His who was close to Him. When the injustice came down, when the violence took place, Peter and the other guys took off. It was Peter, who, in that moment of violence and injustice, says, “I didn't even know that guy, Jesus. Oh, no, no, that wasn't me. I'm not associated with Him.” Well, later, Peter would reflect back and write in his letter to the churches. In 1 Peter, [chapter] 3, he said, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.”

Jesus stepped into the injustice, so that we could have justice, and to take in this truth, to see its beauty, that this part of our brain would light up. Could we comprehend the beauty of what Christ is then, that is to be Christian. That's to be Christian; to hold court with God, while somehow holding onto God. When you're able to do that - what I find and this is true of my own life, and it's true of the lives of so many people I've worked with over the years - that if you can hold court with God, and you can hold onto God, you ultimately discover this mysterious thing, that it was God who was actually holding on to you, who was all ultimately taking hold of you, to bring you to God.

That's what God does. It's the psalmist declaring “God there is nowhere I can go from your presence. You're always here.” It's Paul who was scourged and stoned and shipwrecked and imprisoned, saying “there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Nothing can separate us from His love, not the shipwreck, not the scourging, not the stoning, not the injustice, nothing can separate us from His love.” It's Joseph in the Old Testament, who was so unjustly treated by his family. Been there? It's Joseph, unjustly treated by his family, but ultimately he says to them, “what you intended for evil. God intended for good.” It's Habakkuk. In his final declaration and demonstration of faith, in Habakkuk, chapter 3, when he declares, “though the all of crops fail and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls…” when it feels like everything is falling apart, when it feels like you are not providing God, when I cannot see you. Yet I will rejoice. “I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior….” Not in a chirpy way, not in a Pollyanna way. But in a way that has wrestled with this God. A way that has entered into relationship with this God. And then he will say, verse 19, “The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.

So Menlo, will you hold court with God while still holding onto God? So that you might find God to be the one who first was taking hold of you. For Christ also suffered once for sin; the righteous Jesus, for the unrighteous me, to bring you to God. To take hold of you, and bring you to himself.

Maybe you might sit for just a moment. What is that thing for you? Where you need to rage against God a little bit. You need to enter into dialogue with Him. Maybe you need to reach out to a life group, or a staff at your campus to have them help you with this. To a friend who also is holding on to God that you might experience Him taking hold of you.

Lord, I pray that would we experience that you are not waiting for us to take hold of you, that you are not waiting for us to get it right. That you are not waiting for us to have the right answers, that you are not waiting for us to do better, be gooder. But that you are taking hold of us and pulling us towards yourself. As Peter said, and I think he was so stunned at Jesus, at how he could deny you and yet you would never deny him. That you would come to him and pull him towards you.

Oh Lord, that we will know this truth that you Jesus suffered once for sins. You were righteous, and you did this for us the unrighteous, and you brought us smack-dab before God the Father. We thank you. In Jesus name, Amen.

‍