2021.11.28 | How Long?!
“How Long?!”
Jer. 33:14-16 & Habakkuk 1:2
Preached by
Rev. Marvin Lance Wiser
Eden United Church of Christ | Hayward, CA
28 November 2021
God’s peace all. Do you remember “Pandemic Time?” You know, when we couldn’t seem to get our bearings about us at the beginning of the pandemic? I don’t know about you, but I would have to have SIRI tell me which day it was. Well, it’s hard to believe, but our liturgical calendars today have been reset. We are now back at the start of the liturgical year with the first Sunday of Advent. How would we know this without seeing this in the church bulletin or in the e-Chimes? Well, the days are getting shorter. 96.5 FM is already playing Christmas music- before Thanksgiving. There’s signs that Christmastide is coming. But you, like many, might still feel like we’re stuck in “pandemic time” and can’t quite catch up. That’s Advent for you, the here and not yet; a waiting for something almost realized, but not quite.
From our scripture this morning, Jeremiah exclaims that a time is coming when justice and righteousness will reign in the land. That God will fulfill God’s promise of safety and security for all. This, all the while the Babylonians laid in wait to sack Judah and its environs. Jeremiah could imagine a time that was not yet, even amid pandemonium. If there ever were a prophet that could empathize with our pandemic time, it would be Jeremiah. Even though death was hovering at the door, Jeremiah could coax the imagery of a restoration. Despite the threats that lingered around Judah before her destruction, “good days are coming,” proclaims the prophet.
I juxtaposed today’s scripture reading with a verse from one of Jeremiah’s contemporaries, Habakkuk, probably also a resident of Jerusalem before it’s downfall. Perhaps his position at times more aptly captures that of our own predicament. When patience runs thin, and hope is obscured. He cries out, “How long O God, must we cry out for your help, and you not save us?!” Habakkuk is firmly rooted in the “here and now,” and less so in Jeremiah’s “yet to come.”
Habakkuk is telling a very different account from his ancestors, of how the Hebrews cried out for God to help them from Egyptian violence and oppression, and when God responded. Here Habakkuk lifts up a complaint to God of justice delayed, safety delayed, salvation delayed. All of Judah is waiting for deliverance, and in the meantime having to deal with life as life lived, violence and all. Have you ever felt as though you keep praying for something and God doesn’t answer? Have you too exasperatedly exclaimed, “How long, God, how long?” I’m sure we all have.
This past week we saw playout before our eyes, justice as bifurcated as a forked tongue. Kyle Rittenhouse, a white male, travelled across state lines with an illegally possessed semi-automatic firearm to instill order at a police brutality protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Kyle got what he was looking for at the protest: confrontation. It turned deadly. He eventually murdered two people at the protests, and with an AR-15 strapped to his chest, police officers originally let him go after being told by the crowd that Kyle had shot people.
The mother of one of the victims, Anthony Huber, languished on the day Rittenhouse was acquitted earlier this week, which also happened to be her murdered son’s birthday, “Today’s verdict means there is no accountability for the person who murdered our son. It sends the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence, and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street.” Meanwhile, black boys are murdered for possession of skittles bags, cigarettes, plastic toy guns, for coping with social anxiety. In Habakkuk’s here and now they are not afforded opportunities to explain, much less be let go or acquitted. Self-defense outside the home is not an option for many non-white individuals. Our lauded Second Amendment rights and open carry privileges that many have are in their totality only for whites in this country. Justice is perverted. We’re caught- all of us- in cycles of violence, systems of oppression, and racism. We’ve still yet to arrive at God’s justice.
Habakkuk goes on in the next verse to implore God, “Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?” Jeremiah counters with, “days are coming, when God will fulfill God’s promises.”
How many of you remember this time last year? Take yourself back- if you want to. You were probably either in your living room or office, as we were still very much in lockdown. We prayed fervently for the eradication of COVID-19. And then, through the miracles of God’s good creation and our understandings of it, that is science, during Advent a vaccine was approved for emergency usage.
A year later, we cry out with Habakkuk, “How long?!” We’re still in a pandemic. We’ve not yet transitioned to an endemic- we’re in the “here-and-not-yet.” Cases are at their highest levels ever in parts of Europe this week, national lockdowns are occurring again. Delta’s new subvariant is spreading. Germany’s predicament is telling for us as 71% of its total population is fully vaccinated, comparable to Alameda County’s 72%. Their case rate is now 420/100k and climbing, their current surge is 3x what it was last winter. Colder states back home here in the U.S. are beginning to see their winter surges as well, like Michigan. We’re told to expect more fully vaccinated cases, but we pray not as much Severe COVID. Pandemic time. Caught between pandemic and endemic. We feel like we’re stuck in the movie Groundhog Day and can’t get out. Here we go again.
Currently, California has the lowest positivity percentage in the country, testing and masking are making a difference. And this too will change very soon. We need to continue to be proactive, anticipate the coming. The coming surge. The coming endemic. The days when God fulfills promises. The coming safety, deliverance from calamity. But may our waiting not be an idle wait, rather an active waiting. Advent comes from the Latin adventus, an active arrival. We’ve got to do our part. May we be observant and raise a ruckus like Habakkuk, yes. But may we also be like Jeremiah and say to ourselves as he did later on, “buy land to build and restore, for days are coming”- the time to invest is now! May we play an active role in heralding in the days when righteousness and justice will prevail in the land. What are you doing this advent to herald these days? In spite of violence, pestilence, and perversion of justice, have the audacity to hope. Have the tenacity to act in solidarity with others to co-create mishpat utzedakah, justice and righteousness, or put another way, making way for the Lord. This is our tradition. This is the way of our ancestors. This is our calling during Advent. Add your voice to those seeking renters’ protections, help friends and neighbors schedule appointments for their booster shot before their immunity wanes, volunteer time at Alameda County Community Food Bank, dedicate yourself daily toward becoming an anti-racist. These are some ways that we ensure that we all live in safety, according to God’s justice as revealed in the name The Lord is our righteousness. There is much to do to make way for the days to come. May God grant us the audacity and the tenacity to critique the here and now and to receive and share the not yet. Amen.