Pastor Sherry’s message for November 9, 2025

Scriptures: Hab 1:12-2:9; Ps 145; 2 Thess 1:1-5, 17-21; Lk 20:27-40

The story is told that…

“Shortly after the Communist Revolution, a spokesman for the party visited one of the peasant villages and began to promote communism. He said, ‘Thanks to the party, we have increased wheat production by 100 percent.’ One little man stood up in the back and said, ‘My name is Menski, and I would like to know where all that wheat is.’

“The next year the same official returned to the same village and began the same litany of propaganda, except in this case he said, ‘I want you to know by now we have increased the wheat production 200 percent.’ A little man in the back stood up and said, ‘My name is Menski, and I have one question. Where is all that wheat?’

“Third year came. Same official approached these people and began his same talk. And he said, ‘The communist party has increased the wheat production 300 percent,’  A little fellow stood up in the back. And the official said, ‘I know, you’re Menski, and ….’ The fellow responded, ‘No, my name is Polaski and I have a question. Where is Menski?’”

(Chuch Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart, Word Publishing, 1998, pp.588-589.)

This story is a reminder to many of us that communists are not known for being truth-tellers. They reject Biblical truth, indeed they reject God altogether. Instead, they replace truth with propaganda, lies intended to subvert the truth—Where’s the wheat?–and make their godless rule look much better than it is. In George Orwell’s prophetic book, 1984, the agency that produced propaganda was called “The Ministry of Truth.”

Perhaps you are nervous over the fact that New York City has just elected a Moslem Communist (aka, a “Democratic Socialist”) as mayor. Perhaps you are wondering if this is an indicator of what is to come in our country, a trend in liberal big cities? Or is it exactly what is needed to alert conservatives and others to vote more toward the center in the midterm elections next year?

Rather than worry, let’s look to the truth of God’s word to see what our God has to say about the situation: 

A. In our Old Testament lesson, Habakkuk 1:12-2:9, the prophet—a contemporary of Jeremiah, Nahum, and Zephaniah– reminds us that (v.4, NLT) The righteous will live by their faithfulness to God. That means we are to remain faithful to our Lord, no matter what comes.

The book of Habakkuk is noted for relaying the prophet’s own experiences with God. As in the book of Jonah, it is the way the prophet interacts with the Lord that teaches us how to live and how to think. Jonah did not want to do what God directed him to do, and he paid a scary price. When he did finally comply with the Lord, he helped usher in a massive revival in the huge pagan city of Nineveh. 

Habakkuk, on the other hand, has questions for God and he poses them to the Father. He first asks God, in Chapter 1, verse 2 : How long, O Lord, must I call for help? He really wants to know where God is in the midst of so much evil around him. He wants to know why God hasn’t done something. We might say today, “Lord, how have You allowed a democracy-hating, Christian-hating, America-hating, and Jewish-hating person to be elected mayor of America’s largest city” (and a city with the largest concentration of Jews outside of Israel)? “How could someone whose beliefs are in every way opposite those of our Christian ideals exercise power over such a big and influential locale? 

God answers him in v.5 :Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe, even if someone told you about it. Perhaps God is doing a new thing in our day too. The truth is that our God is still sovereign over our nation and over the entire universe. We can trust in the fact that He has a plan and that He has not abandoned us. The Lord goes on to say to Habakkuk (vv.6-11) :I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands. In other words, the Lord is doing something for them as well. He is going to use the pagan Babylonians to discipline His wayward people.

Earlier, Isaiah called the Assyrians, who defeated the Northern Kingdom, (10:5) :the rod of God’s anger.  So too, it appears, are the Babylonians. 

In the section of Habakkuk read today, the prophet then asks God why He would use wicked, evil, brutal, heartless people for this task? But he then says he will wait to see what God does. He will watch, remaining faithful to the Lord, even if it pains him, even if he doesn’t understand.

In this way, he anticipates 2 Corinthians 5:7 :For we live by believing, not by seeing. [NIV, We live by faith, not by sight.] He does not understand, but he trusts the Lord who promises (v.4) He will later punish the Babylonians. 

This is a great lesson for us in these difficult times! Let’s trust in our God’s plan and purposes. The first new thing He did for them was to sustain them in captivity and then return them to the Land. The second, and best, was to send Jesus to earth to redeem us all. Let’s look forward with faith and patience as we await this new thing He is doing in our time.

B. King David exhorts us, in Psalm 145, to praise God for what He is—our Lord–and for what He does. We praise Him for all that He has done for us in the past and we trust in Him for what is to come. But we can also trust in Him for all that is past and praise Him for all that is to come. Both are true. He has cared for us all of our lives. Since the single best predictor of future behavior (outside of an intervention from God) is past behavior, we can also trust and praise Him for what is yet unknown to us and off in our future.

C. Luke 20:27-40, our Gospel lesson, chronicles how Jesus rebukes and redirects the Sadducees.  Remember, the Sadducees were the rich, urbane, religious liberals of the day. They dismissed the Pharisees as too conservative, and probably too “red-neck,” and they arrogantly cultivated favor with the Romans. They approach Jesus with a ridiculous issue: How likely is it that a woman would marry one brother after the elder brother had died, on and on through 7 brothers? Brothers 3-7 would no doubt decide she was cursed and would avoid her–or barren and would avoid her. We see this played out with Judah’s 1st two sons. Back in Genesis 38, Tamar married Judah’s 1st son, Er. He was so wicked he was put to death by God. Then, by the Levirate law intended to protect widows, Tamar married Judah’s 2nd son, Onan. Onan was also very evil so the Lord put him to death as well. Judah refused to allow Tamar to marry his 3rd son, Shelah, believing she might cause his death too. These Sadducees should have been familiar with this story, so they would have known their example was preposterous. Additionally, Sadducees didn’t even believe in the afterlife or in bodily resurrection.

Matthew and Mark both report that Jesus told them they did not either know Scripture, nor understand the power of God (they didn’t believe in the supernatural or in miracles). Jesus doesn’t really address their ridiculous case, but instead demonstrates from Exodus 3 that Our God is the God of the living. He says to them (v.37) :But in the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord “the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.

He is the God of all of us on earth and also of those who go on to heaven to dwell—in a different life form–with Him there. He rebukes them for their ignorance of God’s Word and their wrong perceptions of God, and reasserts for them to the reality of resurrection.

Our God is a “straight-shooter.” As Scripture says (James 1:17) :[God] never changes or casts a shifting shadow. He is a consistent truth-teller. Hebrews 13:8 further clarifies that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We can and we should trust in Him, no matter what is going on in the American or the world’s political arena. He has a plan, He is aware of our concerns, and He is clearly in control. Thus, we can let go of our worry and trust in His purposes.

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Alleluia, Alleluia!

©️2025 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams