This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 89; Habakkuk 2:1-4,9-20; James 2:14-26; Luke 16:19-31

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 9 (“The First Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 12:2-6, BCP, p. 86); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3-4, BCP, p. 94)

Different aspects of faith come into view in today’s readings. Here’s food for the soul!

Habakkuk on living by faith. … but the righteous live by their faith. — Habakkuk 2:4. The prophet Habakkuk rises up sometime after the Babylonians have conquered Judah, burned Jerusalem, and razed and plundered the temple. Babylon has been God’s instrument of judgment against God’s sinful people. Nonetheless, in yesterday’s reading, Habakkuk has bitterly complained to God about Babylon’s own arrogance, violence, and idolatry: “Why do you look on the treacherous, and are silent when the wicked swallow those more righteous than they?” (Habakkuk 1:13).  

In today’s reading, Habakkuk proclaims hope. Yahweh has not abandoned his people. He has not set aside his covenant love for them. Through Israel, ultimately “… the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). And though the earthly temple lies in ruins for now, God’s heavenly—and true—temple still stands, inviolate: “But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him” (Habakkuk 2:20). Habakkuk imagines Yahweh turning the tables on Babylon who forced upon Judah the cup of judgment: “The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and shame will come upon your glory!” (Habakkuk 2:16). 

When Habakkuk says the “righteous live by their faith,” he means that if God’s people will stay true, even in the face of discouragement, dismay, and delay, they will find that life will come to them. As we discover in the New Testament, life has come in Jesus Christ, Messiah and King. It is marvelous to consider the larger backdrop in Habakkuk when Paul appeals to this verse about “the righteous living by faith,” in his letter to the Romans. Romans 1:16 sweeps up rich depths of Habakkuk’s meaning. 

• In the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ, Israel’s true Son, the promise is being fulfilled that the earth will overflow with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. 

• Precisely where people are “present[ing their] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is [their] spiritual worship,” the Lord of heaven and earth is indeed in his holy temple—and all the earth should bow in awed silence (Romans 12:1-2). 

• And, altogether in agreement with the Revelation of John’s verdict on Babylon, “the great whore,” who is forced to drink the cup of the wrath of God, Paul asserts that “the God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20). Fittingly, Paul concludes: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” 

James on faith and works. Apparent discrepancies—and they are merely apparent discrepancies—between Paul’s approach and James’s should not mask the profound synchronicity between them. Leaving a full discussion of this rich passage for another time, let me make a two-faceted observation. 

In response to legalists (those who teach that right living establishes a relationship with God), Paul stresses lex credendi lex vivendi, “the way you believe determines how you live.” Paul says “faith apart from (God’s taking account of) works” justifies (Romans 3:28; Galatians 2:16). He would absolutely agree with James that works are part of the package of the Christian life: he tells the Galatians that what matters is “faith working through love,” and he tells the Corinthians that what matters is “keeping the commandments of God” (Galatians 5:6; 1 Corinthians 7:19). Moreover, Paul would have been able himself to write James’s: “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (James 2:17).  But when Paul has to stand up to people who proudly think they can “climb a stairway to heaven,” he insists: only faith will get you there!  

In response to antinomians (those who maintain that in the Christian life, obedience is “an elective course,” not “a required course”), James stresses lex vivendi lex credendi, “the way you live reveals what it is you actually believe.” James says, “a person is justified by works and not by a faith that is alone” (a more accurate translation of the Greek in James 2:24). James would entirely agree that faith in “our glorious Lord Jesus Christ” is necessary, and that life in Christ is a gift from God himself (James 1:18; 2:1). But when James has to stand up to people who slothfully and cynically manipulate statements of theological orthodoxy (“God is one!” “Jesus is Lord!”) to justify mistreatment of the poor (see James 2:1-7,14-15), he insists: your only justification for calling yourself God’s child is that you show it in your life! 

Paul and James may need to emphasize different aspects of the faith/works equation, given the pastoral needs of their people, but they both agree: faith and works are inseparable—distinguishable, to be sure, but inseparable nonetheless.

The rich man and Lazarus. Lessons from James and Habakkuk are nicely personified in this powerful parable. Plain and simple, if a person claims to know the God of the Bible but lives a life of exorbitant luxury and ease while disease and poverty are camped out in front of their house—well, that person refutes, rebuts, and betrays the faith. By contrast, if a person holds fast to faith in the God of deliverance while suffering running sores, scorn, and neglect—well, that person makes the most elegant, eloquent, and compelling statement of faith possible. Let those who have an ear to hear, let them hear. 

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+