Write the Vision.

Service of the Word, Marquand Chapel, April 23, 2024.

I will stand at my watchpost
    and station myself on the rampart;
I will keep watch to see what he will say to me
    and what he will answer concerning my complaint.
Then the Lord answered me and said:
Write the vision;
    make it plain on tablets,
    so that a runner may read it.
For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
    it speaks of the end and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it;
    it will surely come; it will not delay.
Look at the proud!
    Their spirit is not right in them,
    but the righteous live by their faithfulness. (Habakkuk 2:1-4)

What more do I have to say? What more do I have to say that hasn’t already been said What more do you need to hear from me that isn’t already clear? It is clear and plain as day.

Write the vision. Make it plain. Even if it tarries, wait for it, for the righteous live by their faithfulness.

Friends, I’ve got nothing. All this week, I’ve thought about what should be said, what indeed needs to be said, and frankly, what more needs to be said? The cup’s runneth over. The tank is beyond empty. We know where we’re at. We’re living in death-dealing moments, in suppressive spaces and carceral practices, where the sounds of silence are booming, shaking this ground, this community, this moment. We know exactly where we’re at. You don’t need my assessment or exegesis.

And yet, amid the cries, the protests, the arrests, there is no ceasefire, there is starvation in Gaza, there are still hostages waiting to be rescued. At this moment, our LGBTQ+ siblings’ wait to see if their own denomination will deny them home, there is bird flu that’s killed over 24,000 sea lions, the UN climate chief says we’ve got TWO YEARS to save the world from irreparable damage— here we are.

There IS SO MUCH. When I sit with what is in front of us, it just makes me want to shout like our prophet today:

“O Lord how long shall I cry for your help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you, “Violence!” and you will not save?” (Hab 1:2) “Look at the nations and see, [God]! Be astonished! Be astounded! For a work is being done in your days that You would not believe if you were told.” (Hab 1:5)

ASTOUNDED. ASTONISHED. Habakkuk knew that the world he was living in made no sense. This was NOT THE WORLD AS IT SHOULD BE. This was NOT the world that was promised. And he wanted God to know it too!

This was a prophet who knew all too well what it meant to live amid violence, corruption, and evil. And I think, like many of us, have turned to God, wondering, “WHAT ARE WE TO MAKE OF THIS?”

God, “Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, and you cannot look on wrong doing;  why do you look on the treacherous, and are silent when the wicked swallow those more righteous than they?” (Hab 1:13)

Habakkuk is asking all the right questions, folks! Answer us, God!  Show us where you’re at! TELL US. Because you know what? We are tired. We are tired of waiting, expecting, anticipating, only for things to stay the same.

All around us –  we are EXPECTED to move on, to move away. But frankly, friends, I don’t know if we can move on. I don’t know if we can look away, if we can silence or suppress, pretend, or posture. But it is exhausting. More than that, we can’t expect God to do the same. Habakkuk didn’t. So what does he do?

Even in his exhaustion, frustration, and resignation, the prophet sets himself onto the watchpost.

He sets himself on this tower and gets as close to the heavens he can, and he waits.

“I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart. [and] I will keep watch to see, to see what the Lord says to me.”

More importantly--- most importantly, amid all the chaos and the turmoil, the prophet waits. The prophet waits for God, not just out of faith, not just out of devotion, but trust,  and dare I say, hope. Hope that his insights about the world are right, hope that the world can be different, MUST be different, hope that God not only hears him, but will respond.

So on that hope, Habakkuk leans in and plants himself: I will keep watch to see what You tell me, O God. I will keep myself set.

I imagine, that God felt some type of way; God saw not just this mere mortal, but God’s own image, own creature, looking up and wanting to be known, to be seen, to be heard. To know that Creation is groaning for God’s reply.

Scripture doesn’t tell us how much time passed, we don’t know the time between the call and answer – and that my friends, can be the hardest part of all of this: the waiting. The in-between.

But the waiting doesn’t compare to what God says next, because when God responds, God responds with vision. Write the vision.

Vision?

As I sat and prayed with this, I wondered what vision are we being asked to create?

Friends, this is no simple vision. This is not the kind of vision that gets us through the day, week, or semester. This is not the kind of vision that relies on physical sight, no, this is something else. This vision asks us to engage our souls, our imaginations, to think beyond the world we know, to conceive a different kind of future, a different kind of world.  

This is different from what we’re used to, different from what we wake up to, different from what we’ve been so used to keeping up.

Make no mistake: Maintenance is not a vision. Stability is not a vision. The status quo is not a vision. Business as usual is not a vision. The world as it is, is not the vision.

But what is the vision, then Mike? What are we being asked to imagine?

My friends, let us remember that God does not tell Habakkuk to create the vision, or start from scratch, but to write it down, write it down and make it plain. The vision has already been made clear, God’s vision is on the way. IT’S ALREADY BEEN MADE.

The vision is not just solidarity with one another, but care for one another.
The vision is not just safety, security, or refuge, but liberation for the downtrodden, the oppressed, the occupied, and the captive.
The vision is not just being seen as we are, but being known, being held for all of who we are, who we love, who we will be.
The vision is not just the beloved community, but a flourishing one, that basks in the promise of God’s divine desire, and that this world we share belongs to all, for all of God’s children.

This kind of vision, the vision that God gave Habakkuk is bigger than anything we know to be possible, this moves beyond our reality. Beyond our everyday rhythms, beyond the colonial, militaristic, suffocating, death-dealing systems of our world.

This vision is not just for today, but for tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. And my friends, tomorrow will come.

So, what do we do in the meantime, my friends? Because we still must deal with today.  And if we are being honest with ourselves, the hardest part of today is not just the waiting, it is not just the patience, but it is the realization that this vision, of a grand, just, beautiful, boundless, and beloved world, it may not, probably not, will not include us.

So, get on the watchpost, plant yourself, and WRITE IT DOWN, FRIENDS. Write it now. Write down God’s vision for this world. WRITE IT DOWN in your papers so that your professors will know, write it down in your classrooms, so your students will imagine, write it down so that your descendants will know what love looks like in public, write it down so that the children will keep pressing, write it down so that their children can keep on pressing, KEEP ON WRITING. I NEED YOU TO HANG ON AND WRITE ON.

We have a responsibility to make sure that the vision no longer becomes imagination, doing so with the hope and trust that God’s vision will be made real.

Because we know that anything, anything that God gives, anything that God creates doesn’t lie in uncertainty, but will arrive. Because that’s just what God does.  

God’s vision for this world this vision is for this appointed time, and we faith-full people know that God’s vision does not lie, though it may tarry, It will arrive.

Stay on your watchpost, my friends. Plant yourself in the hope that the world is not what it should be, and imagine with me a world beyond. Write down God’s vision, make it plain, and bring it forth, for you, for me, for your descendants and theirs, for all of God’s children. Amen.