27th Sunday of Ordinary Time [C]

 


27TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME [C]


Do you ever catch yourself complaining against the Lord? If so, don’t feel alone. It happens. It even happens within the pages of Sacred Scripture. This weekend we get to listen in as the prophet Habakkuk complains against the Lord. It’s a desperate situation, as far as the prophet is concerned. He wants to know how long this will be allowed to go on (1:2)? It’s being suggested that the Lord is taking his dear sweet time. Can you hurry it up? 


We actually encounter an additional complaint in Luke chapter seventeen. It could be described as a “veiled” complaint—or a kind of implication. When the disciples ask for an increase of faith, the implication is that they have been shortchanged. You’ve blessed us with faith, but the portions are too small. We need more than what you have provided. That’s what we can say about complaint number two. You’re doing something, but you’re not doing enough. 


Meanwhile, complaint number one has to do primarily with the subject of God’s timetable. You’re doing something, but you need to pick up the pace. Therefore, to summarize, The Lord is not doing enough. And what is being done is being done much too slow. The Lord responds by calling for patience. The vision has its time. That’s how he responds to Habakkuk (2:3). As for the request being made in this Gospel passage, Jesus assures them that they have not been shortchanged. Landscapes can be transformed with a fraction of what has been allotted to you (Luke 17:6). 


It becomes clear, as we review these responses, that the Lord really has been faithful all along. If there is a shortcoming, it needs to be understood as a defect of human awareness. In other words, the problem is on our end—not the Lord’s end. We always like to believe that the problem is on the Lord’s end. However, the scriptures point toward us. To use a tennis term, the ball is in our court. You can tell yourself that the ball is in God’s court. But as the Bible presents it, the ball is most certainly in our court. 


Note the message being impressed upon Timothy: Recognize what has been done for you, deep down within your heart and your soul. Stir it into flame, and you will see the Kingdom of God spreading across the face of the earth (2nd Tim. 1:6). The basic premise is that the Lord has been doing his part; if Timothy (and the rest of us) can get serious about doing our part, then the world will develop into a significantly brighter place. 


Just imagine your next trip home from church. You see a little girl on the corner, begging for food, begging for spare change. Her clothes are tattered and her shoes are coming apart. The image stays with you through the evening. As you say your nightly prayers, you reach the decision that the Lord is at fault. You take an accusatory tone: Lord, you should do something for that little girl!! And suddenly, you hear a mysterious voice replying: I have done something for her; I’ve created you. 

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