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.