Stoned-Campbell Disciple

IN WRATH REMEMBER MERCY: Habakkuk’s Dismay or How Dare He?

The Prophet Habakkuk would not fit in most churches in north America. When Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde said in a prayer/homily four words: “remember mercy” and “find compassion.” You would think she has committed the original sin.

Frankly the vast majority of criticism of the bishop does not even rise above the level of sexism. Some I have seen is misogyny pure and simple. Much of the rest simply claims she was out of line. I have already responded to that.

But what about the gall, the daring, of telling the most powerful person on the planet to “remember mercy” and “find compassion.” How dare she. The President has demanded an apology. The Speaker of the House has demanded an apology.

For the record, I do not have to agree with the Bishop’s overall theology (I’m sure there is plenty I disagree with). I don’t have like her politics (I detest most politics, frankly I think many allow their politics to DETERMINE their theology!). I don’t have do anything at all except embrace truth. But I have to know OUR story and live OUR story regardless of any political idol.

The Prophet Habakkuk once called out to God: the world is going to hell in a hand basket. Look at all this! What are you going to do about it! One of Habakkuk’s key concerns was that JUSTICE was gone (1.1-4). Yahweh replied, I am sending the Babylonians to deal with this travesty. Of course Habakkuk did not like that either.

God was coming! He was coming to destroy it as punishment for the lack of justice. God will do what he did to Pharaoh (that is the paradigm of what God does to everyone who lives by injustice!). God is coming in wrath!

Then Habakkuk does something that makes even Biship Budde look tiny! Habakkuk prayed, just like the Bishop. But he spoke to God not the President.

“IN WRATH REMEMBER MERCY” (Habakkuk 3.2)

What? You dare to tell God himself to remember “mercy!”

Sometimes I wonder if we Christians ever read our own sacred scripture. Our jobs as disciples are to be “priests.” We intercede. This was Israel’s task, a “kingdom of priests.” The Bible calls us to even “intercede” aka pray about the king, just study Psalm 72 till we get it. Praying about and for the king was to intercede on behalf of the poor, the powerless the victims of injustice. “Give the king YOUR justice …” what powerful intercession (Psalm 72.1-4, 12-14). It is a plea for mercy. Look at the intercession in our Story.

Sodom, legendary for being “arrogant, overfed and unconcerned about the poor” (Ezekiel 16.49) as well as the things that trigger Evangelicals (but the arrogance, being overfed and unconcerned about the poor is blah!), was going to experience a Habakkuk moment. Abraham long before Habakkuk, looked at God and said, “remember mercy!” Will you destroy all these people, what if there are 10 … you know the story. Abraham is being a priest. Jonah was SUPPOSED to do the same, he even quotes the God Creed back to God and does what so many do today, he gets angry because God decided to be merciful even though Jonah was “angry enough to die!” (Jonah 4.2, 3, 9).

Remember Mercy. That is my job. Abraham did not have to love the way Sodom lived to daringly intercede. Habakkuk, we know he hated the injustice, but he dared to say to God himself, “In Wrath Remember Mercy.”

Jesus did that. Jesus remembered mercy. He told stories about mercy. We love them. We just don’t believe them. A woman was caught in the very act of “sin.” (Where was the dude!). She is “arrested” by the moral majority. She is thrown in the dirt before a man claiming to be a Rabbi, “what does the Bible say!” Does anyone seriously think Jesus would have responded differently to this woman – in that instance – had her “act” been homosexual sex rather than heterosexual sex? Do we? Heterosexual adultery was punished by death in the same chapter of the Bible as homosexual sex! In fact it is only three verses away (Leviticus 20.10 & 13).

I do not believe Jesus would have done a single solitary thing different. The story in John 8 is a rebuke to the merciless not the woman. Jesus did not attack her. He did not embarrass her. He did not act like her sin was more detestable in the eyes of God than Bible folks. Jesus did what Abraham did, what Habakkuk did, what Jonah was supposed to do … he practiced Mercy.

Jesus hangs on the cross itself and intercedes. Jesus asks for MERCY while the victim of brutal injustice. “Father Forgive them …” If this is not “remember mercy” then nothing is.

Habakkuk would be dismayed at the anger of toward a person who dared to say, “remember mercy.” Habakkuk would say, that is your job! Intercede!

In Wrath, remember Mercy.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2025 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Church, Contemporary Ethics, Grace, Habakkuk, Kingdom, Mission. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.