It is, for the 230th time, Thanksgiving – or the 218th time depending on whether you count from the 1st year, 1777, when the 13 Colonies celebrated it at the same time, or 1789 the year George Washington declared it a Holiday.
So what do we do?
Some of us eat ‘til we’re engorged and near comatose and call it “Turkey” day. I’m never sure whether the “turkey” is the fowl or the fool spread eagled on the couch.
Others of us go through a kind of quasi religious exercise by which we attempt to project some appearance of gratitude.
Many of us grope for some sort of authentic observance of festivities that seem almost incongruous.
If you’re sensing skepticism in my tone you’re perceptive. I’ve been reviewing the 360 plus days since our last “T” day and many of the things I’ve heard and observed are troubling. I have Friends who’ve suffered through the death of a Child. A young woman, who’s harassed by influences that must be devilish, is battling an obsession with self-mutilation. Colleagues are crippled by an economic downturn, inflated energy prices which have pushed up the cost of just about everything else, and back breaking mortgages coming due as the bubble of a delusionary housing boom busts around them. We are feeling the monetary crunch personally. Families we know have lost their Homes in the wildfires. A man I’ve provided with periodic guidance is literally just days away from homelessness and desperately hopeless. The endless cacophony of radio, television, newspapers, signboards, and pubic conversation relentlessly bombards us with politically correct predictions of doom, partisan prophecies, empty promises, and mindless offers of health and wealth to the tune of rapid fire recitations of sinister “side effects.” Folks are bewildered to the point of despair.
Disturbed by all of this I was drawn to the reflections of an ancient prophet. Habakkuk – not a name you’d want to give to your Son – lived in a time much like ours. He was bewildered too. Being a man of faith he took his complaint to his God. “How long, O LORD, must I call for help? But you do not listen! ‘Violence!’ I cry, but you do not come to save. Must I forever see this sin and misery all around me? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight. The law has become paralyzed and useless, and there is no justice given in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, and justice is perverted with bribes and trickery.” (Habakkuk 1:2 – 4 NLT) Sound familiar?
Interestingly, God replies. The way Habakkuk tells it the response was immediate. God told the prophet he’d be astounded at what he was about to hear. Sure enough God’s words were as far from what Habakkuk was expecting as they could be. “Look at the nations and be amazed! Watch and be astounded at what I will do! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it. I am raising up the Babylonians to be a new power on the world scene. They are a cruel and violent nation who will march across the world and conquer it. They are notorious for their cruelty. They do as they like, and no one can stop them.” (Habakkuk 1: 5 – 7) Habakkuk’s call for help is answered with a promise of more trouble.
He can’t understand why his God would do such a thing and He says so. “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?” (Habakkuk 1:13) He doesn’t just protest. He takes action. His action is virtually a one man protest movement. “I will stand like a guard to watch and place myself at the tower. I will wait to see what He will say to me; I will wait to learn how God will answer my complaint.” (Habakkuk 2:1) This is a protest vigil.
True to His nature God comes out and talks with the protestor. He reminds the exasperated prophet, “people’s labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?” (Habakkuk 2:13) All that is going on in the kingdoms of men is futile and burns itself out. Babylon will be just one more nation, “full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” God makes a promise to His messenger. Things that last will ultimately appear and “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14) “But the LORD,” God declares, “is in his holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before him.” (Habakkuk 2:20)
What follows is dramatically illustrative of what “faith” is all about. Habakkuk says, to his God, “I’ve heard what our ancestors say about you, and I’m stopped in my tracks, down on my knees. Do among us what you did among them. And as you bring judgment, as you surely must, remember mercy.” (Habakkuk 3:2 THE MESSAGE) He proceeds to summarize what God did “among” his “ancestors.” And then he concludes, “I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones – they felt like liquid – and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights – the high places.” (Habakkuk 3:16 – 19) ... There's more ...
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