Rochester, MN UCC - "Live By Faith" - Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

In the past year, to protect my mental health, I have made the choice to read the news only twice per day. At first, my addiction to instant information kept reaching for my phone but I knew I needed a break. Every day we get more bad news from the farthest corners of the and it affected my spirit to be reading about the horrors in the world constantly. I found that I wasn’t becoming better informed by constantly reading news updates, rather I was becoming weighed down and disheartened by what I saw.

 In this place, I encountered the prophet Habakkuk’s words to God amidst the struggle in their life and world and it felt so familiar. How long do we have to cry for help? How long must we live with violence and suffering before God does something about it? It can be easy to look at the chaos and question where God is, but the Lord reminded Habakkuk that help is surely coming, that God is bigger and broader and more powerful than our imaginations can conjure, and though it may look bad now, have faith.

 As the world feels upside down and uncertain, we are called to cling to our faith that love is more powerful than death. We are not charged to search for God’s power at work in the powers and structures of this world, but in those places that we might call weak or foolish or naïve. As people of faith, let us look to those places that value gentleness over might, generosity over greed, meekness over boasting, and mercy over fairness. This is the way to a different world. This week, let us consider our hope in hard times and ground ourselves once again in the kingdom that has come near.

 Peace, Pastor Shannon Smith