The sacred scriptures of the Church preserve and reveal the moral structure of the universe. Psalm one summarizes the basic outline of that structure. The outline has no shades of gray. Sharp edges separate light and dark. With great moral clarity Psalm one presents man with three contrasts.
Sermon from July 22, 2007
The sacred scriptures of the Church preserve and reveal the moral structure of the universe. Psalm one summarizes the basic outline of that structure. The outline has no shades of gray. Sharp edges separate light and dark. With great moral clarity Psalm one presents man with three contrasts. Verses 1-2 present pathways in contrast. Verses 3-4 present consequences in contrast. Verses 5-6 present destinies in contrast.
By the way, the sacred scriptures of the Church did not invent the moral structure of the universe. God the Creator of all mankind has written the requirements of that moral structure on the heart of every person (Romans 2:15). That’s the reason Christians should expect to find common moral ground with Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and animists. It is a basis for meaningful and respectful conversations among people of different faiths.
When another faith disagrees with our Christian faith, then we are bound by conscience to believe that Christianity is right and the other faith is wrong. We do that with courtesy and respect for the representative of the other faith, and we are willing to have our understanding challenged and corrected by that person; but we never say that our differences don’t matter, or that our beliefs are just two ways of saying the same thing. That’s nonsense. All of which brings me to a second statement about Christian morality in particular and human morality in general.
The sacred scriptures of the Church preserve and reveal contradictions within the moral structure of the universe. The Psalms remain fresh for generations, because they express and engage these contradictions. They allow us to hear the voice of God’s people, when the moral structure of the universe didn’t work the way it was supposed to work.
For example, Psalm one says that the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. In actual experience the way of the wicked may have supremacy, and God seems to have forgotten the righteous (Psalm 13:1-3). Psalm one says the wicked are like chaff that the wind blows away. In actual experience the wicked prosper and are free from the burdens common to man (Psalm 73:3-5).
Unfortunately, these contradictions cause too many people to become skeptical and even to renounce faith in God. Anger, sadness and perplexity in the face of evil overwhelm their meager spiritual resources. But renunciation of God causes them two serious problems. First, they now have no one to blame but themselves for the evil they hate, and they have no one but themselves to look to for a solution to evil.
Second, renouncing God leads to self-hatred. Here’s why. Why does evil upset them so much? They seem to have very high standards for human behavior; where did their standards come from? They didn’t invent them, and they can’t get rid of them.
If you forget and jump into a swimming pool with your cell phone in your pocket, the loss of your cell phone is inconvenient, and you are unhappy. If someone steals your cell phone, you are unhappy, and it is inconvenient, but now you accuse the person of wrong-doing and feel violated. How is that possible without moral standards that say stealing is wrong, and which you and the thief agree with? But if there are valid moral standards, how can you renounce them without renouncing the deepest feelings of your own heart? Isn’t that a form of self-hatred?
Furthermore, if they are valid, how did they become an inescapable part of your humanity? The Christian faith teaches that our Creator has written those moral standards in the heart of every person (Romans 2:15). Did you ever think that evil grieves Him far more than it grieves us? And that maybe He knows more about dealing with evil that we do?
All of which brings me to a third statement about Christian morality in particular and human morality in general. The sacred scriptures of the Church preserve and reveal unexpected depths in the moral structure of the universe. Last Sunday, we noted the lives of three men, who experienced those depths: Job, Joseph and Jesus. Today, we look into another unexpected depth within the moral structure of the universe. We find it in the writings of an edgy Jewish prophet named Habakkuk.
A Lament to God and God’s Answer
Verse one characterizes the three chapters of Habakkuk’s prophecy. The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received. An oracle is a divine communication or revelation. It begins in verses 2-4 with the prophet’s righteous indignation.
How long, O LORD, must I call 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?
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.
Did you notice that line in the middle of verse three? The prophet said to His God, Why do you tolerate wrong? No human being in our lifetime, shattered by monstrous evil, ever put the question any better.
Verse four makes it clear that Habakkuk was lamenting the moral and spiritual condition of his people, Israel. Therefore the law is paralyzed. Verse four ends by saying that justice is perverted. Verse two points to a recurring scourge in human relationships: “Violence!”
Habakkuk wanted the God of Israel to do something about it. Verse two expresses that yearning: How long, O LORD, must I call for help? “Lord, you put the moral structure of the universe in place. You revealed it with clarity to Israel, your people, who are obligated by covenant with you to live within that structure. Why do you look the other way, when they violate the covenant? You need to act.”
So much for Habakkuk’s righteous indignation and his lament to God about the evil of Israel! God was about to introduce Habakkuk to another unexpected depth in the moral structure of the universe.
In verse 5 God seemed to respond favorably to Habakkuk’s righteous indignation.
“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.
“I’m going to answer your lament and do something about the sins of my people; it may not be quite what you had in mind, Habakkuk.” Verse six:
I am raising up the Babylonians,
that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth
to seize dwelling places not their own.
Verses 7-11 follow with a powerful and chilling description of the Babylonians. God’s message to Habakkuk said: “I have heard your cry for help. You accuse me of tolerating wrong, as if I don’t see what you see and as if I were a man like you. I am about to respond to the violence and injustice of my covenant people; I am bringing the Babylonians to Jerusalem. They will express my displeasure with my disobedient people.” Habakkuk verifies this understanding in verse 12: O LORD, you have appointed them to execute judgment; O Rock, you have ordained them to punish.
Last Sunday, we talked about the question people asked after the murder of the Amish school girls and the rampage at Virginia Tech: “Why didn’t God stop it?” It’s Habakkuk’s question to God: Why do you tolerate wrong? What if we are asking an important question in a shallow way?
We want to know why God didn’t stop the killings at Nickle Mines and Virginia Tech. But we don’t ask why God doesn’t stop the killings in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Both are on track to have a murder a day in 2007. I never hear people asking, “Why didn’t God stop it?” We note murder rates like a scorecard at a sporting event. Maybe we print it on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer or the Baltimore Sun.
Do we not ask why God didn’t stop them, because deep down we think that urban centers are crime cultures, and they get what they deserve? Do we really think that God cares more for children of privilege than He does for children of poverty? Do we really just want God to stop the killings that inconvenience us, or do we want Him to stop the killings – period? To do the latter He may have to send the Babylonians.
A Second Lament to God and God’s Second Answer
Habakkuk wanted God to deal with violence and injustice on Habakkuk’s terms, not God’s. But the Divine Potter had set His potter’s wheel a-spinning, and upon the wheel sat His people, Israel. His fingers pressed upon His handiwork to make it into something acceptable to Himself, if not to Habakkuk. At least Habakkuk lamented differently in verse 13.
Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrong.
There’s the same lament we saw in verse three: Lord, you cannot tolerate wrong. Only now, he says that the coming of the Babylonians against Israel is the wrong God is tolerating. It’s even more wrong than the violence and injustice of his people Israel. Listen to the rest of verse 13.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
“I’m not proud of my people, Israel, but the violence and injustice within her borders are nothing compared to the wickedness of the Babylonians.” In the verses that follow he compares the Babylonians to a fisherman with a giant net, and in that net they caught whole nations. Habakkuk never denies that the Babylonians are coming, but his question at the end of chapter one makes perfect sense:
Is he to keep on emptying his net,
destroying nations without mercy?
Chapter two opens with Habakkuk waiting for God’s reply to his second lament.
I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
and what answer I am to give to this complaint.”
The end of verse three gives the first bracing answer.
Though it (God’s judgment of Babylon) linger, wait for it;
it will certainly come and will not delay.
Verse four gives the second bracing answer.
“See, he is puffed up;
his desires are not upright –
but the righteous will live by his faith.”
“Dark days lie ahead, Habakkuk. I will deal with the Babylonians, but there will be times, when you will find that hard to believe. You have to live by faith in my promise.” The rest of chapter two give Habakkuk’s message for those who live by faith. Five verses take us to the heart of his message.
Verses six (line two), nine, twelve, fifteen and nineteen all say the same: Woe to him! Verse 16 summarizes the woe that was to come to Babylon of old.
“You will be filled with shame instead of glory.
Now it is your turn! Drink and be exposed!
The cup from the LORD’s right hand is coming around to you,
and disgrace will cover your glory.”
The Pastoral Center of Gravity
The moral structure of the universe has unexpected depths. Among them is another category that has almost disappeared from public discourse: judgment. When Habakkuk asked God: Why do you tolerate wrong? and when we ask after a tragedy, “Why didn’t God stop it?” we are asking God to act. But what do we expect Him to do? What do we think His action would look like at street level?
Habakkuk doesn’t give us the only answer, but he gives us one answer: the Babylonians were coming at the initiative of the God of Israel to address the violence and injustice of the His people, Israel. In like manner the God of Israel will address the violence and injustice of the Babylonians in a political and military way as was the case with Israel. The name for such action is judgment.
But political and military action takes place countless times in the world everyday. Are we to see the hand of God in all of them? That’s not our business. Can we see the hand of God in the events of our time and place? That is a question we need to address carefully next Sunday. With all due respect to the value of political science, it doesn’t tell the whole story. With all due respect to television’s almost obsessive coverage of the political and economic, it doesn’t tell the whole story.
For now, those who live by faith must let Habakkuk 2:20 have the last word. But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him. Whether we are ready for Him to act, or whether we believe that He does act in the affairs of man, He did bring the Babylonians to Jerusalem, and His actions answered all Habakkuk’s laments.
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