By Erin Wiens St. John for prayr.cc (CC BY 2.0)
Proper 26, Habakkuk 1:2-4: Yahweh, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you “Violence!” and will you not save? Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.
As I write this, I’ve just finished watching the latest news on impeachment. Predictably, I saw both Congressional Democrats and White House Republicans rolling out their latest talking points. Each decried the perceived injustice of the other side, denouncing the villainy of their political enemies in a 21st-century version of Habakkuk’s rant to God.
Anger at the injustice of our world, especially of our political leaders, isn’t new. Prophets both before and after Habakkuk complained to God of corruption, greed, and rampant self-interest among the kings of Judah and Israel.
Jesus spent much of his ministry railing against religious leaders’ insensitivity, ego, and self-righteousness. Christians in the first few centuries defined themselves by pushing back against Roman tyranny.
If you feel anger at the injustice of our leaders, whatever side you’re on, you’re in good company.
After watching the news, I find myself with a motley mix of righteous anger, bald terror, and, somewhere deep down inside, a little seed of hope. Maybe you feel that way sometimes, too.
I used to think those feelings were so far away from anything divine. That they were too concentrated on the worldly, too filled with confusion and raging uncertainty to be sacred.
Or, sometimes, the feelings themselves would just swallow me up, and I’d completely forget to look for God at all.
But in response to today’s readings, I want to suggest that this sensation is holy to God. Habakkuk and the rest of the prophets declare that our response to injustice matters. When we turn off the news at the end of the day, God uses our emotion to draw us to prayer and action.
Let us be faithful to that call.
Related Scripture
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 (World English Bible, Public Domain)
1 The revelation which Habakkuk the prophet saw. 2 Yahweh, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you “Violence!” and will you not save? 3 Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up. 4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.
2:1 I will stand at my watch and set myself on the ramparts, and will look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
2 Yahweh answered me, “Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who runs may read it. 3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hurries toward the end, and won’t prove false. Though it takes time, wait for it, because it will surely come. It won’t delay. 4 Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith.