“IS GOD LISTENING?”
|
|
A sermon preached Readings: Habakkuk
1:2-4 and 2:1-3 |
“O Lord,
how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! (Hab
1:2)
Today’s
set Old Testament lesson comes from the book of Habakkuk.
According
to ancient tradition,
Habakkuk was the guy who God picked up by the hair
and transported to Babylon so that he could serve dinner to Daniel
whilst he was in the lions den.
I rather
like the image of the prophet
as a sort of celestial pizza delivery man,
but I doubt it is true –
and really we know next to nothing about Habakkuk,
who he was, when or where he lived.
But we can understand his concerns
–
which strike a chord in every age and place:
“O Lord,
how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear!
even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not
save!”
We can
hear Habakkuk’s words echoing
in the cries of Belsen and Auswitz,
on the streets of Palestine or Harare or Bagdhad,
or on the lips of the starving of Darfur.
And in
this Church, as in so many others,
how often have we prayed and prayed over the years for peace and justice
and still there is war and persecution:
“O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear!
So why?
Why is God so
often apparently deaf to our prayers
and our cries for help?
Often
people will say
“Ah, God does hear and answer our prayers –
but we must learn that often the answer is “No””
In other
words, we cannot expect God simply
to grant prayers that are wrong headed and inappropriate –
“O lord, help me win the lottery
jackpot
so that I can blow all the money on wine,
women and non-prescription drugs”
– there are of course many prayers
which don’t deserve a positive answer,
to which God may well turn a deaf ear.
But that
won’t do for lots of other cries for help.
When the
inmates of Auschwitz prayed for deliverance,
did God really say “I know better than you –
this carnage is really for your good and is what I want to happen”?
When we
pray (as we so often do) for the hungry and starving,
is God really ignoring our prayers
because he wants young children in the developing world
to die of preventable diseases?
Such
would be the response not of a loving God but of a thug.
So again,
why?
Is God
ultimately heartless and deaf to our cries?
No. And here is the Gospel: God is not heartless
– he is all heart.
When I
weep, he weeps with me.
When I
cry out, his heart breaks with mine -
that is what the cross is all about.
There is
simply no dark and lonely place where I can go
where God has not been before. –
be it the depths of sin, death or suffering.
God hears
and weeps with us.
But then –why does God not put
things right?
Basically
because he has given us freedom -
he will not act as a puppet master manipulating human history at whim.
He has
given us freedom to use or abuse as we will.
And if
(as we do) we live in a sinful word,
then the powers of evil in the world will abuse that freedom
so that in the short term they will win battles
against God’s wishes and desires.
Again,
the cross reminds us that sharing in God’s victory
over sin and evil does not mean avoid sin and suffering –
rather it means that we go through the heart of suffering with Christ
and them emerges victorious on the far side.
So how then in the meantime –
before his final victory –
how does God seek in this world
to heed the cries of those in need?
The
simple answer is: Through people like you and me!
There is a story of two young boys
who spend the night at their grandparents.
At bedtime, the two boys kneel beside their beds to say their prayers.
The youngest one began praying at the top of his voice,
"I PRAY FOR A NEW BICYCLE. I
PRAY FOR A NEW COMPUTER GAME…."
His older brother leans over and nudges the younger brother and says,
"Why are you shouting your prayers? God isn't deaf."
To which the little brother replies, "No, but Grandma is!"
God isn’t
deaf – that is not actually the question – but are we deaf?
Because time and again it is through our
use of our lives
that God meets the needs of his children.
You know the story of the man in the flood?
He sees the water rising, goes to an upstairs window.
As he watches the water rising up the side of the house below him,
he prays to God to rescue him.
As he prays, a man comes by in a rowing boat –
just level with his window – and offers to row him to safety.
No says the man, I’m OK –
I’ve asked God to save me and he will not let me down.
Meanwhile the water keeps rising,
and the man is forced up onto the roof of his house.
A rescue helicopter spots him and lets down a rope.
No thanks says the man, I’m OK –
I’ve asked God to save me and he will rescue me.
Finally the flood waters cover the house entirely –
the man is swept away and drowned.
When he reaches heaven, he says to God –
“I prayed and prayed that you would rescue me – but you did nothing.”
“Nothing?” replies God,
“I sent a boat and a helicopter – what more did you want?”
God hears
the cries of the needy,
and then empowers us to answer those cries in his name.
The
tragedy of our world is that so often God hears the cry
but he cannot get our attention – he cannot get us to hear the needy –
and then of course there is no boat, no helicopter…
Maybe we are the deaf ones,
deaf to God’s call to be the Body of Christ,
to be his hands and feet,
to answer the prayers of the needy in his name.
So why
does God let teenagers die
in the crossfire of gun battles in our streets?
or let millions die of poverty in the developing
world??
Is God to blame – for not caring,
or is the human race which has its priorities all wrong?
The new London rail link is going to cost $33B
4 years ago a Conference in London estimated
there were 840M chronically undernourished people in the world -
how much it would cost to remove half of those people from that list?
The estimate was $24B –
to remove over 400M people from severe and life threatening poverty.
And we
say God doesn’t hear the cries of the needy!
“O Lord, how
long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear?”
cries Habakkuk.
And God
replies –
“My child I do hear – it breaks my heart to hear -
but when will my people hear?
“How many times must a man look up
Before he sees the sky
Yes and how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry
Yes and how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died
The answer my friend is blowing in the wind
The answer is blowing in the wind”
(Bob Dylan, Blowing
in the Wind)
May the wind of the Spirit invade our lives,
May he open our ears to the needs of the world,
May God use even our poor lives
to work his miracles of grace!!
ORDER OF SERVICE
7 Oct 2007
10.30 a.m. Worship led by
Rev Andrew Sails
Welcome and
Notices
Hymn 29 “Thou
whose Almighty Word”
Opening Prayer
Prayer of Confession
for World Communion Sunday
All: God of mercy,
we confess
that we have not loved you
with all our being.
We have done things which we ought not to have done,
and we have left undone things
which we ought to have done
We have built walls between neighbours
and between countries,
and we have ignored the cries of those in need.
Forgive us and set us free,
that we may live into the hope of your calling,
that your reign may come on earth as it is in heaven.
Through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen
Leader: Thanks be to God: Jesus died for our sins.
We are forgiven!
All: We are forgiven. Thanks be to God.
Reading: Habakkuk
1:2-4 and 2:1-3 (page 940)
Choir: “How
lovely are thy dwellings” – Johannes Brahms
“How lovely are they dwellings fair: O Lord
of Hosts.
My soul ever longeth and fainteth
sore for the blest courts of the Lord:
my heart and my flesh do cry to the living God.
O blest are they that in thy house are dwelling: they
ever praise thee,
O Lord, for evermore. “
Brahms (1833-97), from A
German Requiem, Ps 84: 1-2, 4.
Reading: Matthew 7:7-11 (page 971)
Hymn: NHWS 43
“Christ Triumphant”
Sermon “Is God listening?”
Hymn NHWS 163 “I,
the Lord of sea and sky”
Prayers of Intercession and Lord’s Prayer
Peace
[the
young people join the main congregation]
Hymn 553 “Lord, speak to me”
[during this hymn the collection will be taken and
brought forward]
Holy Communion led by
Pastor Hwang
[The congregation remains standing.]
Minister: Lift up your Hearts.
All: We lift them to the Lord.
Minister: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
All
(sing) Halle halle halle – lujah! Halle halle
halle – lujah!
Halle halle halle – lujah! Hallelujah, hallelujah!
Minister: Creator God, you made humankind in your
image,
with varied hues of skin, hair and eyes,
of varied heights and widths,
with different talents and gifts.
Yet all of us are beautiful in your sight.
We give you thanks for calling us
to be your children.
All
(sing) Halle halle halle – luiah! Halle halle halle
– luiah!
Halle halle halle – luiah! Halleluiah, halleluiah!
Minister: We thank you for sending Jesus to live among us.
In his time on earth, Jesus reached out to all persons: poor and rich;
children, women and men,
sick and marginalized. He taught us
to do the same.
And he gave us this meal to remember him: taking a loaf and giving thanks,
he broke it and said, “This is my body
that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way he took the cup after supper,
saying
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of
me.”
We give you thanks for Jesus Christ and for this meal.
All
(sing) Halle halle halle – luiah! Halle halle halle
– luiah!
Halle halle halle – luiah! Halleluiah, halleluiah!
Minister: We ask your Holy Spirit
to come to the table
spread around the world today.
Bless each person and bless our partaking,
that we may grow into your body,
united in your love,
to bring your reconciling peace to the whole world.
For these hopes and for all your promises given and kept,
we give you thanks, Holy Trinity,
now and forever.
All
(sing) Halle halle halle – luiah! Halle halle halle
– luiah!
Halle halle halle – luiah! Halleluiah, halleluiah!
Minister: The bread we break is a sharing in the body of Christ.
All: Christ is the bread of life.
[Bread and wine are shared – please come forward when the steward
indicates.
All who so wish are welcome to receive bread and wine]
All: We thank you Lord, that you have
fed us in this sacrament, united us with Christ,
and given us a foretaste of the heavenly banquet prepared for all people. Amen.
[Communion
Liturgy from Robin Knowles Wallace, “Communion Services”, © Abingdon Press,
2006
“Halle Halle Halle” – World Praise no 48 Traditional]
Hymn 592 “Alleluia! Sing to Jesus”
|
1. 哈利路亞! 頌主耶穌! 2. 哈利路亞! 主雖離我, 3. 哈利路亞! 天上生糧, 4. Alleluia,
King eternal… Korean and English Blessing |
1. 알 렐 루 야
찬 양 하 라 예 수 왕 이 되 시
네 알 렐 루 야 주 님
만 이 홀 로 승 리 하 셨
네 평 화 로 운 시 온
성 에 찬 송 울 려 퍼 지
니 구 주 예 수 귀 한
보 혈 우 리 구 속 하 셨
네 모 두 지 나 갔 도
다 알 렐 루 야 주 님
께 서 우 리 곁 에 계 시
네 사 십 일 후 구 름
위 로 높 이 들 리 우 실
때 영 원 토 록 함 께
하 리 주 님 약 속 하 셨
네 우 리 도 우 시 는
주 알 렐 루 야 죄 인
들 의 외 침 소 리 들 으
사 죄 인 들 의 친 구
되 신 중 보 자 요 구 세
주 죄 악 없 는 천 국
에 서 기 도 들 어 주 소
서 |
Organ Voluntary – Fugue on BACH –
Robert Schumann