Let me tell you about
the prophet Habakkuk.
First,
awesome name. Tried and failed to name my youngest that.
Second,
his book is very violent
—apparently
using up 10% of all the uses
of
the actual word “violence” in the Bible.
There
are other books arguably more violent,
but
Habakkuk’s book is short
and
has little comfort to balance it.
His
basic point is that invading armies are a punishment from God,
but
for what?
He
doesn’t say clearly.
And
in the end, the good news
is
that God will destroy those invading armies.
It’s
not bad news, to be sure,
but
how many of us find a bloody battle to be good news?
It’s
even less clear on what it is God or even Habakkuk
wants
us to do with it all.
It’s
more the Cliff’s Notes of biblical prophecy
—y’all
are terrible sinners for keeping your wealth to yourselves
so
imma gonna smitcha.
Let’s talk then about
biblical prophecy.
Lots
of people both inside and outside the church
think
prophets are like Nostradamus, seeing the future,
prognosticating
events through the veil of time.
Lots
of folks then think they can correctly interpret various prophets
or
apocalyptic scripture to tell them
when
the Antichrist is coming or the Rapture or whathaveyou.
But
that’s not the point of prophecy.
The point of biblical
prophecy is this: WAKE
UP.
When Hosea writes that
God commanded him to take a prostitute as his wife
and
to name his kids Punishment,
No
Pity,
and You Are Not My
People,
(I
didn’t try to name my youngest any of those)
whether
or not he actually did it is beside the point.
Hosea
is saying to the people of Israel WAKE UP,
you’re
asleep, you’re comfortable in your nice houses
and
you’re missing it.
When Ezekiel cuts off
his hair and burns some and cuts some up with a sword
and
releases some to the wind and binds some in the hem of his robe,
he’s
not just being weird.
He’s
saying WAKE UP, people, you’ve fallen asleep.
People
are dying.
You
are obsessing about reality TV or what color the drapes are
or
which school to send your kids to
and
you don’t even know you’re asleep.
They
say that no one translates Ezekiel accurately
because
he had such a foul mouth.
Consider
what it would be like if I stood up here
and
released a flood of swear words about you,
your
mom, and everything you hold dear.
And
don’t even get me started on Ezekiel’s poems
about
Israel as God’s lover—puts Miley Cyrus to shame. A lot.
The prophets use
extreme, violent, sexual, bizarre language
to
talk about God, about what God wants from us,
about
what it’s like for God to draw near,
about
what will happen when we don’t pay attention
—because
that’s how to get through our thick heads.
You
think we’re inured to violence in the media now;
it
was the same back then.
—they
talk about rape and human excrement
and
widespread destruction of cities
to
jolt us out of thinking everything’s fine.
Because
everything’s not fine.
It’s
meant to be a slap in the face.
“You
can’t talk about rape in church!”
And suddenly, just for
a second, you’re awake to the world,
to
the women in India who live in fear of rape on the commute to work,
to
the men and women here in America who fear their spouses,
to
the violence we perpetrate on one another
from
something that big to something small like a lie.
For
a moment, the prophets insult your sense of what’s proper
and
you’re awake.
Here’s what a 20th
century prophet said about that.
His
name was Anthony de Mello, a Jesuit priest who died in 1987.
He
says,
“Spirituality means waking up. Most
people, even though they don’t know it, are asleep. They’re born asleep, they
live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep,
they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the
loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence…Most
people tell you they want to get out of kindergarten, but don’t believe them.
Don’t believe them! All they want you to do is to mend their broken toys. ‘Give
me back my wife. Give me back my job. Give me back my money. Give me back my
reputation, my success.’ This is what they want; they want their toys replaced.
That’s all. Even the best psychologist will tell you that, that people don’t
really want to be cured. [advance slide] What
they want is relief; a cure is painful.”[1]
Ain’t that the truth.
Two
of the Edge House students who are in addiction recovery programs
would
be nodding vigorously right now
—their
addictions were their minds trying to create relief.
Being
cured of their addictions is much more difficult
and
much more painful.
What
are you addicted to? What do you need to wake up from?
I’ve started a morning
practice of the Ignatian examen
—it’s
a form of prayer where you slowly consider
the
day that has gone before,
what
you did, who you talked to,
and
notice when you felt particularly grateful or loving.
You
also notice the other side, when you were not grateful,
when
you were not loving.
You
spend some time confessing those last ones
as
well as time dwelling in the more positive ones.
The
more I practice it, the more I notice these things during the day
—being
more present to what I’m saying and doing
when
it’s happening.
It
feels like I’ve been asleep and I’m groggily looking around
after
a late night.
It’s
a calming yet uncomfortable feeling.
“Why
did I say that?” I think.
Reread Jesus’ words and
you’ll find that
we
Christians are not called to be comfortable.
God
calls us to be faithful not successful,
to
be fruitful, not productive.
These
are the language of the world
—success,
productivity, prosperity—
not
the language of the spirit.
Jesus
tells us in his every word and every action
up
to and including the empty tomb
to
wake up from the nightmare of things being comfortable.
Did you see the video
that was going around recently
of
comedian Louis CK on Conan O’Brian?
It
was brilliantly truthful but too much swearing for church
—ponder
that for a moment…
Louis
CK spoke about how addicted we are to our cell phones,
though
I imagine there are other things in your lives
which
might follow this same function.
He
said, when he’s feeling sad, he immediately texts a bunch of people
and
suddenly he doesn’t feel sad anymore.
But
that’s the problem.
Everything’s not fine.
We
don’t feel sadness in any deep way.
We run away from it,
refuse to allow grief
for
the ordinary bits of our day to be real.
When
there’s a big tragedy, there’s a bit of an emotional relief
because
it’s okay to be sad about that.
But
just existence being sad—nope.
And
he says we go through our lives just being comfortable,
but
not really experiencing what’s really happening.
Don’t
get too excited about things because they could fail.
Don’t
get too sad about things because no one wants to see you cry.
We’re
asleep.
The
lives we’ve been given by our Maker are terrifying and invigorating
and
we’re standing on a ledge
struggling
to maintain balance.
This [I used slides throughout and here I put up some of his photos.] is photographer KerrySkarbakka who photographs himself
in
perilous situations.
He
calls the series “Struggle to Right Oneself”
and
this sense of being entirely off-balance,
being
about to crash
is
exactly what we hide from ourselves.
Everything’s
not fine.
We
construct elaborate facades
so
as not to let anyone in to the messy, empty, angry, unattractive
real
self.
We
set up safety nets so we don’t have to see
the
depth of the pain of the world.
Maybe
you’re one who feels that pain deeply much of the time.
Good.
And yet not good.
That
sadness might itself be a façade
to
keep you from seeing the great joy of the world.
I
still haven’t seen any images
from
the earthquake in Haiti several years ago
—I
couldn’t bring myself to.
It
was too overwhelming.
And
did I respond to that situation at all? Nope.
I
mean, I cried. And we sent a little money to the Red Cross.
And
then I went back to my life. Went grocerying.
Do
you see? Do you do that as well?
We’re
all teetering
on
the edge but we convince ourselves
that
it’s a comfy armchair. Wake. Up.
Who calls to you now?
Who
makes you uncomfortable when they talk about what you hold dear?
Liberal
comedian John Stewart?
Conservative
columnist Mark Steyn?
Atheist
Christopher Hitchens?
Activist
Dorothy Day?
Or
is it that much easier now to just change the channel
and
not listen to someone with whom we don’t agree?
What is God calling
you to do or be?
How
do you tell that’s what’s happening?
What
have you loved for years but never did?
What
have you noticed coming up in conversation or on the radio a lot
that
has gotten you thinking?
What
do you avoid thinking about?
Maybe
that’s God calling you.
This is your 8am
wake-up call, friends.
This
is your 2013 wake-up call.
Wake up from our
partisan political assumptions that we have the answers.
Wake up from
resentments
Wake up from our need
to be liked and do what is right rather than what is easy.
God’s calling, what
are you going to do about it?
[1] De
Mello, Anthony. Awareness: The Perils and
Opportunities of Reality. Doubleday, NY:1990. pp. 5-6.
