Rev Sheila Cameron’s sermon on 2 October pulled together another difficult gospel (Luke 17:5–10) with passages from Habakkuk (1:1–4, 2:1–4) and Paul’s second letter to Timothy (1:1–14). Here is an extract …

Habakkuk stands at his post, ever the faithful servant, waiting for God to intervene. Then suddenly there is a reply, and God tells Habakkuk that his vision is limited – he isn’t seeing the whole picture. The tyrants who seem to be in control aren’t really; the prophet needs to look more closely at the controllers and see that things are not exactly right with them. He needs to see the big picture, not just what is happening in his own narrow field of vision.

Habakkuk is commanded to write this message on a hoarding big enough so that even someone running past it can read it. The proclamation is to be patient and to wait for God to act, a God who is never deaf to a cry for help, although no precise time can be expected for this to be fulfilled. And how familiar is this? So often we ask God for something desperately important to us, certain that it must happen now; we ask again and again because we want an answer right away. But prayer is answered in God’s time, not in ours, and astonishingly enough, when we view the scenario retrospectively, we can see that our heartfelt, genuine prayer has been answered if not exactly to the letter, at least in the way that is best for us. This is the life of faith and patient faithfulness that we are called to.

Do read the whole of Sheila’s sermon at this link.

Photo by Joshua Lanzarini on Unsplash.