CMLC 2025-10-05 Sermon

When he stood before the British Parliament in

1789 and called for the abolition of the slave

trade, few people took him seriously. Some rolled

their eyes, others accused him of being naive

or self -righteous. Some accused them, even the

ones who were privately in agreement with him,

whispering that his efforts were pointless. That

the trade was too entrenched, too profitable,

too accepted. to ever be undone. But William

Wilberforce spent the next 20 years introducing

bills that failed, facing ridicule, political

defeat, and personal exhaustion. His friends

begged him to give up. He grew frail and sickly.

But through all those years, his faith never

failed him. He once wrote in his journal, God

Almighty has set before me two great objects.

The suppression of the slave trade, and the reformation

of manners. Those were not the words of a man

chasing his own glory. Those were the words of

a man learning to wait, like a watchman on the

walls, trusting that God's justice would come

even if it came slowly. He didn't know when it

would happen, but he still trusted and followed

and didn't change what he did based on what anyone

else did. That's the same attitude that we find

in Habakkuk 2 today. The prophet says, I will

stand at my watchpost and station myself on the

rampart. I will keep watch to see what he will

say to me. Habakkuk had cried out to God because

of the violence and corruption in his nation.

The wicked seemed to thrive while the righteous

suffered. And when God answered that he would

send Babylon, a nation even more brutal, to bring

judgment, Habakkuk was stunned. How could God

use them? The wretched ones who cared nothing

for God. We, we, we, we are the people of God.

How can we be reprimanded by someone else? Someone

who should be even worse. So he climbed the walls

of his doubts, letting go of the reasons why

God's ways didn't make sense to him, and he said,

I will wait. I will look out to see what God

will say. It's a picture of faithful waiting,

of trust mixed with impatience, which we all

know, but still faithful waiting. Habakkuk doesn't

pretend to understand God. We don't have to always

understand God, his ways or his timing. But he

believed that God must speak. That God's justice,

even if delayed, is still certain, even as we

must. God does speak. He tells Habakkuk to write

the vision down plainly. so that it can be carried

forward, so that people can keep running toward

hope, no matter how it felt at that moment. For

the vision awaits its appointed time. Though

it linger, wait for it. It will surely come.

It will not delay. In other words, you may not

see it yet, but you can trust it will come as

soon as it... can. Faith is not wishful thinking.

It's the decision to cling to God's promises

when evidence seems thin. The proud, those who

trust in their own strength, their own wisdom,

their own timing, they will fall. But the righteous,

God says, will live by their faith. And that's

what sustained people like Wilberforce. being

the odd people out for so long. He didn't see

quick results. He saw years of defeat and humiliation,

and yet he trusted that the vision of God's justice

was certain, no matter when it would be. And

when Parliament finally voted to abolish the

slave trade in 1807, Wilberforce broke down in

tears. When slavery itself was outlawed in 1833,

just days before his death, he knew that faith

had not been in vain. He was finally able to

rest. That brings us to Luke 17, where Jesus

gives his disciples a lesson about faith, forgiveness,

and humility. But he begins with a warning. Temptations

to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through

whom they come. Great! The sinners are going

to get what they have coming to them. So doesn't

that mean the disciples can start speaking judgment

upon all the terrible people around them and

make sure they rub it in their face as to how

much God despises them and how the disciples

are now the ones in charge? But he tells them,

that if someone sins and repents, even seven

times in one day, they are to forgive. Is it

any wonder the disciples respond, increase our

faith? They're saying, Lord, that sounds impossible.

How are we supposed to do that? How are we supposed

to let them off the hook to trust that you have

it under control? When we can't yet see them

suffer for what they've done and for what they

deserve But Jesus answers them in a surprising

way If you had faith like a mustard seed you

could say to this mulberry tree be uprooted and

planted in the sea and It would obey you Faith

is not about its size It's about where you place

that trust Even a small faith Those moments when

we're barely hanging on to believing, when placed

in the promises of God, can move things that

seem immovable, especially our own hearts. Faith

isn't something we build up. It's not something

where we're able to then say, oh well, we're

going to strengthen it and make sure that it

is strong. We're not going to somehow make it

work through our own efforts. It's something

that grows when we act in trust, being willing

to bury it in the ground, wondering if it will

get lost or forgotten. Look at how small it is.

But trusting it to the waters of baptism and

our grounding in faith, forgiving when we'd rather

hold on, serving when we'd rather be thanked,

believing when we'd rather give up. You can imagine

if someone like Wilberforce lived in our time,

how many people would have found ways to tear

him down. They would have said he was too idealistic,

too privileged, too naive. They would have found

fault in his manner, his motives, his methods,

probably even his friends. If only you would

stop focusing on something so hopeless, William,

and join the rest of us in achieving victories

we can see. then we can make the world work the

way we want. He was brilliant, popular, ambitious,

a man destined for power, but like happens to

so many good people, Christ got a hold of him.

And so glad that he did. And Wilberforce came

to faith and began to see the world differently.

He saw the wickedness of the slave trade, the

men, the women, the children treated as property

and he thought, Surely God wants me to do something

about this, even in spite of all of the good

Christians who thought slavery made so much sense.

Maybe he assumed that if he obeyed God, success

would come quickly, but year after year, it didn't.

The slave trade, it was just too profitable.

It's too entrenched. The ridicule, the exhaustion,

the loneliness that he faced. And like Habakkuk,

he must have stood on his own watchtower and

prayed, Lord, how long? Like Hananiah publicly

contradicting Jeremiah in the temple, saying

God would end their suffering in Babylon within

just two years and restore all the exiles and

temple treasures, even while Jeremiah warned

that they should watch to see what would happen.

And it ended up taking 70. Like the false prophets

telling King Ahab what he wanted to hear in hell

of his pride while the true prophet Micaiah warned

of God's judgment. Like Micah exposing the self

-interest of the prophets of Samaria where their

prophecy depended on whether they were being

paid or praised. Their message of peace being

a product only of comfort and corruption and

not divine truth. People love to find reasons

to stumble and avoid God's words of command to

us all. Reasons to discredit those who make them

uncomfortable with what they hear. You're not

on the winning side. You're sounding like the

losers. It's easier to critique someone's tone

than to face the truth of what they're saying.

Faith though keeps us listening. Faith doesn't

make excuses. for the sins we know we need to

see. Faith keeps our hearts open to correction,

to the Spirit, to the possibility that God may

be calling us to change. That's what the disciples

had to learn. That following Jesus meant more

than believing in miracles. It meant humbly forgiving,

faithfully serving, and trusting God even when

obedience felt ordinary. Jesus ends that passage

with a small parable. Who among you would say

to your servant who has just come in from plowing

or tending sheep, come here at once and take

your place at the table? Would you not rather

say, prepare supper for me and put on your apron

and serve me while I eat and drink and later

you may eat and drink? He concludes so you also

when you have done all that you were ordered

to do say we are worthless servants We have done

only what we ought to have done What a harsh

and strange thing for Jesus to say right yeesh

Tone it down Jesus. What's up? But Jesus is saying

is that our faith is not about achieving the

type of victory. We want to see where somehow

we feel praised and glorified. It's not a transaction

where we follow because we want to be rewarded.

It's a relationship that's rooted in trust and

gratitude, which means we follow even the parts

of what God wants that others may not be willing

to support, even when those closest to us still

don't support us. Because the righteous live

by faith, not for applause. not for control,

not for pride. Wilberforce may have never seen

himself as a hero. He definitely saw himself

as a servant of Christ, doing what needed to

be done. When his opponents mocked him, even

the ones who claimed his faith, he neither retaliated

nor gave up. When his own party abandoned him,

he kept showing up. See, that's mustard seed

faith. Small, steady, persistent, waiting to

blossom in God's timing. With persistent patience,

the UK changed because of evangelical revival,

moral reform, and a growing public conscience,

even while other countries had to force their

own people to change through warfare and money.

If Habakkuk teaches us to wait on God's timing,

and Jesus teaches us to act in humble obedience,

then together they remind us that faith lives

in the tension between waiting on God's timing

for the fulfillment of righteousness and doing

only what God allows while accepting that we

may not always win. Faith waits for the vision

to be revealed in God's timing while it keeps

forgiving, keeps serving, keeps believing. And

sometimes that's the hardest kind of faith. Not

the mountain moving kind, but the day in, day

out kind. The faith that keeps loving someone

who's hurt you. The faith that keeps praying

for a child who's wandered away. The faith that

keeps working for justice when change comes painfully

slow. The faith that says that fighting against

moral debauchery Impure sexuality and harming

the unborn does not require that we step around

the Lazaruses of our day and ignore the infirm,

empower the corrupt, or lie to ourselves about

what is right in front of us. If we act like

the world and lose our morals, cling to power

above all else, then we drive away those who

need the grace of God most. We cause others to

sin by becoming the evil we hate and they reject

God because they reject our evil especially as

we justify ourselves instead of asking for forgiveness

and often times putting the millstone around

our own necks See even now there are voices that

try to redefine injustice as something good There

are even those people in our own time who would

even say that slavery in some way was a blessing

in disguise. That it brought civilization, education,

or job skills to the savages who sold each other

into slavery as if people who called themselves

Christians back then were excused when doing

the same evil practices as the heathens. Some

even claim that there's no real inequality among

races anymore as if history's wounds simply healed

themselves that quickly. but faith doesn't look

away from reality. Faith doesn't make excuses

for the sins of the past or the struggles of

the present. Faith willingly tells the truth

and then keeps trusting that God's truth will

lead to healing rather than denial. The proud

refuse correction. They say we've done enough.

The righteous, though, live by faith. And faith

is humble enough to listen, to learn, to keep

repenting and moving forward in hope. Living

by faith in our world means something both very

ordinary and very bold. It means holding fast

to God's promises while living with open hands.

It means doing what's right even when it's unpopular

and seemingly unrewarding. It means forgiving

when others won't, listening when others shout,

and serving without needing recognition. Faith

doesn't have to be big to be real. It just has

to be alive, clinging to God's purposes and promises,

however small the grip in our own hearts may

feel. The watchman on the wall waits for justice,

the servant in the field obeys with gratitude,

the disciple forgives again and again, and together

they bear witness to the same truth, that the

righteous shall live by faith. In closing, when

we look at people like Wilberforce, or even at

Habakkuk and the disciples, We're reminded that

faith isn't about being strong. It's about being

steady It's about trusting that God's vision

for the world a vision of mercy Justice and restoration

will not fail Even if it feels slow and coming

and we do not feel in control So we wait we forgive

We serve we speak truth not with arrogance but

with grace And we live by faith not in what we

can see but in the one who has promised to make

all things new in his timing. Even small faith,

Jesus says, can move mountains. Even small faith,

Habakkuk says, can outlast empires. And even

small truth, even small faith, your faith and

mine, can make the light of Christ visible in

a world that still longs to see it. Thanks be

to God.