Good News in Tough Times

• 24th Sunday after Pentecost
with Habakkuk 1:1-4 & 2:1-4  and   Luke 19:1-10
www.FirstChurchBville.com    @FirstUMCBville   @kerrfunk

• The prophet Habakkuk gives voice to one of the most common questions, one that we visited in August, What’s up with disasters?

Since August we saw Haiti -- which was still recovering from 2010 earthquake that killed tens of thousands -- experience the greatest hurricane in fifty years, Hurricane Matthew 10/4, leaving thousands dead. Where is God?

And why doesn’t God stop the fighting in the Middle East,
and the Syrian refugee crisis in which more than 11 million people (that’s the population of Ohio) have been killed or forced to flee their homes. 

Meanwhile we deal with opiate epidemic and an election unlike any before it. Polarized and divided, next week half of country may feel like the world is ending and half the country may be on their knees thanking God for answering their prayers.

• (read Habakkuk 1:1-4 again)
Habakkuk is in the southern kingdom, the north fell to the Assyrians 120 years ago and things are not looking good for the home team. Destruction is on the horizon.

And God replies (in the part we didn’t read but you can) if only you’d been living by our covenant which I gave you so that things would go well with you. But I’ll give you a glimpse of what will happen later: the invaders will also be destroyed.

Though the sorrow may last for the night, the joy comes with the morning (Ps 30:5).

• And there’s a bigger picture, God says. Another issue that we visited recently when God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah and said I will inscribe my word on their hearts and I will make with them a new covenant – which many Christians see as fulfilled in the arrival of Jesus. I will live in them.

• Consider the God/human relationship like a marriage relationship. Our "Where is God" question is marital distress. Check out this author's thoughts about relationship distress:

…most fights are really protests over emotional disconnection.
Underneath all the distress, partners are asking each other 

Can I count on you, depend on you?
Are you there for me?
Will you respond to me when I need, when I call?
Do I matter to you?
Am I valued and accepted by you?
Do you need me, rely on me? 

(p. 30, Hold Me Tight, Sue Johnson)

• You can count on God. In God’s time. And in God’s way. But God will not abandon.
Nothing can separate…

• Fast-forward to Luke 19 and Jesus and Zacchaeus.
Good news: It’s possible to seek God and find.
It’s possible to be found by God.
It’s possible to have a change of heart.

• Therefore two times to practice faith & righteousness…
When you feel like it, and when you don’t.

• Hymn 540 I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord

Luke 19:1-10 (NIV)

19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ² A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. ³ He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

⁵ When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So Zacchaeus came down at once and welcomed Jesus gladly.

⁷ All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

⁸ But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

⁹ Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”  X

Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4 (The VOICE)  

1 This is the vision with which the prophet Habakkuk was burdened.

² How long must I cry, O Eternal LORD, and get no answer from You?

Even when I yell to You, “Violence is all around!” You do nothing to save those in distress.

³ Why do You force me to see these atrocities?
    Why do You make me watch such wickedness?

Disaster and violence, conflict and controversy are raging all around me.

⁴ Your law is powerless to stop this; injustice prevails.
    The depraved surround the innocent, and justice is perverted.

2 I will take my place at the watchtower. I will stand at my post and watch.
I will watch and see what He says to me. I need to think about how I should respond to Him
When He gets back to me with His answer.

Then the Eternal LORD replied to Habakkuk: ² Write down this vision.  Write it clearly on tablets, so that whoever reads it may run swiftly to tell.

³     For the vision points ahead to a time I have appointed;
        it testifies regarding the end, and it will not lie.
    Even if there is a delay, wait for it.  It is coming and will come without delay.

⁴  Look at the man of pride: Something in his soul is not right; he is not honest and just.
But the righteous one will live by his faithfulness. X