The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.
O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not listen?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
Why do you make me see wrongdoing
and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
So the law becomes slack,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked surround the righteous;
therefore judgment comes forth perverted. (Habakkuk 1:1-4)
There are days when I wake up and already the whole world feels rotten. It's like before your feet even hit the floor as the alarm goes off, the cruelty, violence, crookedness, apathy, and avarice of the world have already been up long before you and making a mess of things. I don't know about you, but it often feels to me like those rotten days come more frequently and more ferociously than they used to, even if I can't quite put my finger on why or when it all started.
On those days, between the moment I silence my alarm and grope in the dark to put my slippers on, I often remind myself that God is also present in the world, and has been up and at work while I have been sleeping. And that gives a certain kind of hope and comfort, I'll concede; it is a good reminder that the world's restoration does not rest on my shoulders, nor any of our shoulders alone.
But then a second thought comes to me, there in the dark before the dawn: if God has already been at work in the world before I woke up, then why is there so much of all the rotten stuff still doing its damnedest to ruin the world? Why, if God cares about justice, does it so often seem like the villains and crooks get away with their villainy and crookedness? Why, if God cares about compassion, is the world so full of meanness? Why, if God is truly good and powerful, does deception and bitterness and selfishness seem so strong? Have you ever been there, standing in the dark at the start of a new day, wondering what to do when the world feels broken?
Well, for whatever it's worth, at least we have some company: the prophet Habakkuk knows what that feels like. Many of us heard these words in worship this past Sunday, and even if you didn't know the particulars of Habakkuk's situation or place in history, you might find yourself nodding along in sad disagreement. We look out the windows, listen to the news, or scroll the comment section--and then we also find ourselves wondering why God can seem silent when we cry out about the violence and wrongdoing around us, or when we lament how "strife and contention" seem to win out and "justice" seems to lose.
On those days, I feel in my bones the words of that poem of Langston Hughes, "Tired," from 1931, which goes:
"I am so tired of waiting,
Aren't you,
For the world to become good
And beautiful and kind?
Let us take a knife
And cut the world in two -
And see what worms are eating
At the rind."
That's where Habakkuk is. He sees crookedness, ugliness, and meanness all around him, in his own society (which is "supposed" to know better, and to have God's own instructions for practicing justice, mercy, and humility in the Torah's covenant), and his biggest concern is aimed at God: "Why aren't you doing anything about all this?" The prophet knows what it feels like to wake up and discover that the ones in power who were supposed to promote justice, peace, and the common good have been tirelessly doing the opposite, and he has been asking God, "Why haven't you stopped them yet?" If you've been in Habakkuk's sandals before, maybe that question has been on your lips, too.
When you are in a place like that, and you find yourself questioning why God is allowing awful things to happen to people in the world (especially when the awful things are being perpetuated by the authorities who were entrusted with promoting justice and the common good), it can even make you wonder whether God is even there. Sometimes it seems easier to believe that there just is no God than to come up with an explanation for why a God who is supposed to be good permits the powers who are tasked with maintaining justice to thwart and undermine it.
That was actually where the famous British Christian writer of the early 20th century, C.S. Lewis, found himself before his own coming to faith. He felt for a time like the injustice in the world--its cruelty and violence--was evidence that God could not be real (or good) given the brokenness of the world itself. He wrote, "My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such a violent reaction against it?" And that actually began a journey of faith for him, ultimately leading him not only to become a Christian, but eventually to become a prolific writer of Christian theology and apologetics (trying to make the case for the plausibility or truth of the faith for outsiders). But it is worth noting that Lewis, like the prophet Habakkuk, could only get to a place of deep faith in God by being honest about how far away and distant he felt from the idea of God in the face of the world's brokenness.
All of this is to say that when you and I are feeling overwhelmed at the cruelty in the headlines or the crookedness in the news, we are invited by prophets like Habakkuk and voices like C.S. Lewis to be honest in bringing those questions and frustration to God. Neither of them pulled punches or stifled themselves by saying, "I'm not allowed to ask questions or have doubts," and neither of them settled for simplistic non-answers like, "It must all be part of God's plan," or "Everything happens for a reason." Instead, when the world feels broken, people of authentic faith know they are invited by God to bring those accusations directly to God. We are invited, even when we feel far from God like we are out on the margins away from the other "religious" people who don't seem upset about the world like we are, still to bring our questions, our doubts, and our cries for the world to be put right. God can not only take whatever verbal punches we have to throw, but often in the Bible God is the one prompting people to recognize and name the injustice around them, and to seek God's action to do something about it!
So, okay, our first thing to note is that when we feel deflated or discouraged by the rottenness around us, we are not only allowed, but encouraged, to bring those feelings to God, including the accusations, angry prayers, and bitter doubts that come with them. All of that is fair game. And then, where we go from there could take several different forms. For Habakkuk in today's verses, the next step is God's answer to be patient for the moment because he doesn't have all the facts and doesn't see the next thing coming that will radically reframe the situation. And yes, sometimes that is the word to us, too--that our calling for the moment is to wait with our eyes open, because, like the old Sam Cooke anthem put it, "A Change Is Gonna Come." But that's not the only possibility. Sometimes, God's response comes like it does through Mordecai to Queen Esther (in the book of Esther), with the challenge for us to do our part to answer evil with good and to take the risks of speaking up and stepping out in our own times. So sometimes God's answer isn't so much, "Just keep waiting, and eventually it will get better," but rather, "Use YOUR platform to speak up and protect those who are most endangered and at risk in your time!" Sometimes God's answer to our prayer includes us as the means by which things are put right, or the hurting are given comfort, or the powerful who are abusing their positions are called to account. We should be prepared for that possibility, just as much as the possibility that we may have to be patient.
To be sure, there are plenty of other ways that conversation with God might go, too. Each of us living our own version of that conversation right now day by day, and each of us may be led both to be patient in some situations and to press forward in others. But what I find so helpful and encouraging from these words of Habakkuk is that even his deepest doubts point him, like C.S. Lewis, to a point of confidence that God really does care about putting the world right. We only ask God, "Why aren't you doing something about this injustice and cruelty?" if we really believe that God does care about justice and compassion. And that's why it is so beautiful to me that these heartfelt, desperate words from Habakkuk were preserved in our Bible--their presence, which the church confesses to be inspired by God, no less--is evidence that sometimes God is the One provoking us, like the prophet, to see where things are rotten rather than to ignore them, and to be upset about them. God, in other words, is the One prompting Habakkuk to cry out to God and ask, "Why aren't you doing something about this?" God is the One who is first outraged at the cruelty and violence of the world, and at least sometimes, God is the One provoking us to see it all, too, when we had been comfortably indifferent. Maybe part of God's way of mending what is broken begins by stirring us up to care about it, too, rather than turning away.
I know it is tempting in such times to bury our heads in the sand or turn off the news to live in the bliss of ignorance. Habakkuk would counsel us not to do that, but instead to bring all of our heartache over the meanness and selfishness in the world and the seeming triumph of the bullies and blowhards to God directly, and then to see how God leads us to respond. At least part of faith is trusting that God will lead us to respond to it all, even if we can't see how yet.
Lord God, we lift up to you all the ways our hearts are in turmoil over the brokenness of the world. Mend what is broken, thwart what is evil, change in us what is turned away from you, and give us the patience and open ears to be ready for when you call us to be a part of your work to set things right.
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