LIBERATION LECTIONARY

Hope is Our Help

“Our history is a living history, that has throbbed, withstood and survived many centuries of sacrifice. Now it comes forward again with strength. The seeds, dormant for such a long time, break out today with some uncertainty, although they germinate in a world that is at present characterized by confusion and uncertainty.” – Rigoberta Menchú Tum

Meditation from Habakkuk

Read this passage everyday this week and pray through the verses. Bring your questions to God. Ask the Holy Spirit to bring hope to your heart.

Advent Week One: Habakkuk 1.1-5 // “How long, O Lord, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save. Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight. Your holy law has become powerless, and there is no justice being done. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted.

The Lord replied, “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.”

Reflection: Hurry Up and Wait

Have you ever heard bad news? Suffered from endless challenges or questioned the quality of your life? You might want to imitate Habakkuk, who spoke some serious complaints to God. He then took up his post as a watchman on a tower, and waited to receive the response to his complaint. Habakkuk went off, and then he waited. Basically, let’s be more like Habakkuk.

Where do we put our hopes for help? Even the prophet who felt unanswered knew to go to God and no one else. Whatever angered him about his sense of God’s inactivity, Habakkuk still knew God to be the source for his answer. This week marks the beginning of Advent, a season of preparation for the Christmas season when we celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Nobody knows when exactly Jesus was born, but the traditions of Advent and Christmas can teach us a few helpful practices for health in our relationship with God. Advent is a practice of patience. Christmas is a feast of welcome. We have the right to keep a strong sense of expectation, because we already know that something we have been waiting for, someone we need, will surely arrive.

The Season of Advent leads us to focus on some fruits of the Spirit and one crucial aspect of our faith while we wait. In order of the season these are Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. While hope is not listed as a Fruit of the Spirit, it is a state of being that helps us to wait on God’s answer when we raise our petitions or file our complaints. Hope also helps us to lift our most sacred petitions inward and upward, to heaven, and to the Spirit who indwells us, rather that outward to - and at - other people.

Romans 15 says “the God of hope fills you in all joy and peace in believing, that you may thrive in hope, in the power of the Holy Ghost.”

Just like Habakkuk, we can feel emptied of hope, joy and peace. Just like Habakkuk, we are often “surrounded by people who love to argue and fight.” Lord help us! We cry out, help our people! Don’t be silent, answer us! The season of Advent teaches us that God does give an answer, but sometimes the response is wait.

Music: Dwell Among Us

In the Gospels, where the story of Jesus’s mother Mary is told, she is told that the Holy Spirit will indwell her, and that because of this, she will carry a son who is fully God and fully human. What Mary had to go through to become the mama of the King of Kings… is wild. How could she make this journey without hope? Usually congregations sing this song at Pentecost, but it is the work of the Holy Spirit that made Christmas happen. Listen to the song and experience the invitation of welcoming the Holy Spirit.

Use the Advent Devotional called Dwell Among Us, to learn more about welcoming God into spaces where we hope to feel at home.