Sunday, October 5th 2025
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, Series C (Proper 22)
Text: Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Sermon Audio
As we gather… In a world with natural disasters, mass shootings, and other tragedies, where is God? It would appear Habakkuk wondered the same thing. In a world where there was violence and destruction, it felt as though the Lord was not listening or caring. Nonetheless, the Lord speaks to Habakkuk and tells him to wait for the appointed time. We see this appointed time fulfilled ultimately when Christ died for the ungodly. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God has worked to enact justice and to restore all things. One day, Jesus will come back to judge the living and the dead, but in so doing, He will end evil once and for all. Meanwhile, the righteous live by faith, trusting that all things are accomplished through Jesus Christ, and He will come again to make all things right, even as He walks alongside us in suffering and disasters.
In 1990, hip hop group Public Enemy penned the lyrics to the song “911 is a Joke.” Public Enemy, perhaps best known for artist Flavor Flav who characteristically wore a large clock as a necklace, used its songs to address serious topics. In the song “911 is a Joke,” Flavor Flav, despite his goofy attire, laments that those in poor and minority communities do not receive fair and timely treatment by emergency personnel compared to their rich counterparts.
It doesn’t matter how much money you have or what color your skin is, all people are equal when they’re lying on the floor with a heart attack or worse. When you dial 911, you hope someone is coming soon to help.
Habakkuk the prophet laments, “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?” It is as if Habakkuk is channeling Flavor Flav saying, “So get up get, get get down, 911 is a joke in your town.”
But it’s even worse than if the ambulance never came. Habakkuk is accusing even the Lord Himself of not responding or helping. 1. (oops!) It seems the Lord doesn’t answer cries for help.
It’s one thing to accuse fallible emergency personnel: EMTs, firefighters, and police officers of negligence or mistreatment. It’s a whole ‘nother level when Habakkuk accuses God Himself. But it gets worse, Habakkuk continues: “Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.”
It is the Lord causing Habakkuk to see iniquity. He stands before destruction and violence and nothing is getting any better. Justice cannot be done and the law is frozen like a police officer turned to stone standing outside a school where a shooting is taking place.
Habakkuk lived in a bad time in the country of Judah. The people were worshipping false gods. They were sleeping with temple prostitutes and thinking they were pleasing those false gods. They were sacrificing their children to false gods such as Molech. The poor were oppressed. When other prophets such as Jeremiah spoke up, he was put in a stockade, imprisoned, and thrown into a dry well.
The Lord’s solution was hardly any better. In the verses that our reading skipped over, the Lord has another promise, ““Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.” How inspiring! Not so much, the work that the Lord was doing was sending Babylonians to destroy and capture Judah. That hardly seemed any better.
Our world today isn’t much better. The sexual revolution promised free love, but the results were that true love has never been more costly. Our society views those waiting until marriage as somehow defective in a world where images of naked people are only as far as your smartphone. Women are tempted to sacrifice their children in the womb to the gods of money, convenience, or simply so that her guy will still love her. People believe in all sorts of ways to heaven, and false teaching is more common than the truth.
We live in a world where wars, mass shootings, and natural disasters are far too common. Despite advances in medicine, people still die from disease, cancer, and heart attacks. Many of us harbor grief and sorrow over the violence and destruction that the Lord seemingly has done nothing about.
Flavor Flav sings 911 is a joke in your town. But the deeper thing that haunts us at night is whether or not calling out to Jesus God’s son is a joke in your town. 2. (ugh!) The Lord doesn’t seem to care about violence and destruction.
But the Lord gives Habakkuk a word of hope: “For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.” There was plenty of evil in the day of Habakkuk, and so too there is plenty of evil in our day. Yet our Lord in His wisdom waits until the appointed time to act to make things right.
We read elsewhere in the Bible: “For while we were still weak, at the right time”—at the appointed time!—“Christ died for the ungodly.” We see that the Lord acted decisively in time by sending His Son Jesus. 3. (aha!) The Lord waits to answer at the appointed time. WE TRUST THE LORD WHO ANSWERS VIOLENCE AT THE APPOINTED TIME.
“So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.” And so it is at the appointed time that the Father saw fit to let the wicked surround Jesus Christ the righteous one and subject Him to crooked justice as false witnesses arose against Him. This puts the bogus speeding ticket you got into perspective. It even makes the latest Supreme Court decision seem like child’s play.
“Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.” The Father sat idly by as His Son faced the destruction of his flesh, and the violence of soldiers who spat upon Him, put a crown of thorns in His head, and crucified Him.
Certainly, the death of one ordinary man could not pay for mass shootings, lives lost in pandemics, and countless aborted babies. The suffering of one ordinary man could not make up for the sleepless nights on hospital beds, the pain, and the heartaches. But no ordinary man died.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God which means He is both a human who can suffer, but also God who has the power to end all suffering. In the infinite wisdom of God, He saw it fit to let all suffering, sin, and death be taken upon Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
We have a God who would rather convert sinners than kill them and would rather repair the universe than throw it into the wastebasket and start fresh. That fresh start both in our souls and in the world around us begins with Jesus taking on the destruction, violence, and injustice of the world and rising again.
And so it is that because of this great action at the appointed time, our God is the God who covers the shame of sexual sin with holiness even as He clothed His Son on Easter morning who hung naked on the cross. Our Heavenly Father sent His Son to die, forgiving the mothers and fathers who sent their sons and daughters to die, even if those were teeny tiny embryos in the womb.
Our God is the God of paramedics, firefighters, and police officers, who comforts them even when they wonder if things would have been different if they had gotten down the firepole in a few less minutes, or shot first and asked questions later. “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.” Our God is the God who provides for the poor, downtrodden, and those who may think that not even the police or paramedics care about them. 4. (whee!) We trust the Lord acted at the appointed time to address violence.
What’s more, we know the rest of the story. We know Christ is coming again to make all things right. He has acted in history to rescue His people. Even if destruction and violence have their day, the Lord sends rulers and other helpers to fight against the results of sin, death and the devil. He sent the Babylonians to save the people of Judah from themselves, and He sent Cyrus the King of Persia to send God’s people back to Jerusalem.
No Flavor Flav, 911 isn’t a joke, and although people make mistakes, and there’s always room for improvement, emergency personnel save many lives daily. Modern medicine has prolonged our lives, and God still sends His holy angels to protect us in ways that we may not even be aware of.
““Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.” Until Christ comes again, we walk by the faith and trust that Christ has made all things right, and He will make all things right, defeating evil once and for all at His return when He comes to judge the living and the dead. Let it never be said that the Lord is slow to help or uncaring. Our Lord is no joke, but our God and savior! 5. (yeah!) We trust the Lord acts at the appointed time to address violence.