Today’s reading from the book of Job ends the lectionary’s readings for the book and we won’t see it come up again very much for a couple of years. Job is a book that should cause us to pause and wonder about what is going on with our canon. Why was this book included in the 37 that became the Christian Old Testament? We begin the Christian Bible by reading of the good works that God does in creation (noting that they are all good and that God was pleased), walking with God’s chosen people, and taking care of the people. And although God does get upset with God’s people, much like a parent gets upset with their child; God never stops loving all of creation. Then we hit the book of Job and well the image that one can read doesn’t sound like the God we’ve come to know and love. God has taken a pious man, a man who has done well for himself and his family and seems to put him through the ringer. Job’s family and wife are removed from him; he loses his possessions, and just seems to be a pawn in a cosmic game of chess.
In the end Job is found to be faithful still, and all of his wealth and family are returned and Job gets even more then what he started out with. Today’s reading is one of Job’s responses to God. Job tells that although he had heard of this great God he now fully sees who God is. So there are several issues to address here in this reading. First what do we do as Christians with this book in general? How are we to respond faithfully to this book that is confusing and shifts the image of God? Well to address that we need to first take a look at some understandings of this book. Many people believe and teach that God is having a conversation with Satan or the devil. And while this is one faithful response from an initial reading of the book when one takes a look at the Hebrew used to write the Old Testament one will find that the idea of Satan is never included in the Bible. The word satan, which gets translated into Satan, is actually a verb, meaning “to accuse.” It was a common word used to describe a person’s earthly opponent in court or on the battle field and it was also used to accuse heavenly people. The second issue of taking this verb and changing it into a formal noun is that it creates a dualism that is not and would never have been allowed to be a part of the Jewish faith. So now we as readers can see that the book of Job is not meant to be God and another person using Job as a toy, it is a conversation.
It’s a conversation about a topic that we all find hard to answer; divine justice – why do bad things happen to good people? This is one of the hardest questions to answer of all time. Trying to wrap our minds around it is one that takes lifetimes. We all have experienced things in our lifetimes that just don’t make sense, they don’t seem fair but yet they happen. Job is a good person, he’s faithful, takes care of his family and by most people’s standards he has earned the right to have what he owns and to live a “good life.” But then he’s stripped of it all. It doesn’t seem fair, it doesn’t seem right. This act goes against everything that we feel we are entitled to. And then the suffering Job endures, why not just rub the salt deeper into the wounds?
So why do we have this story in the Bible? Well because it teaches us about our faith; the faith that God wants every person to have. God wants all believers to have a faith that is not solely dependent upon getting the good stuff, divine favor. Anyone that knows what it takes to have a healthy relationship knows that it is not one that is based on getting what one wants all of the time. 1 sided relationships are wearing on the person having to give and eventually it becomes a fruitless effort because what the other person gets is never enough. These relationships don’t hold. They are easily shaken, broken and come and go much like the leaves on a tree. Although they start out as being green and full of life then eventually turn colors, fall off the tree and die. Job points out that faith requires more devotion then that of what gives me what I want now. Faith is hard and requires that even when we don’t get what we want, when we want it or how we want it that we know that God is still at our sides, journeying with us. God does not leave us when we mess up or even when we’re doing alright. God is with us and in us at every step of the journey. God is holding us when we cry and is our biggest cheerleader when we get it right.
There’s a popular novel out called The Shack by William Young. It’s a story about a man who meets God in a unique way. I won’t tell you how he meets God but I will tell you in involves a trip to an old shack. The main character of the book, Mack, is a man who most would call religious but maybe not faithful. He’s one of those people who grew up in church and made the right appearances (attending worship faithfully, donating when asked), but he never really committed himself to understanding the teachings of the Church. He never really got the idea of what God asks Christians to do in truly living the faithful life. And these beginning stages of Christianity were more than enough to get Mack through a good portion of his life. But when a major tragedy happens, resulting in the loss of his youngest child, Mack stops believing because justice isn’t served. God seemed to forget Mack and his family and what is described in the book as a “deep sadness” overtakes Mack and strains every relationship. It is only in meeting God in a new way that Mack realizes that he had to let go of the idea of justice that we hold onto today because it often breaks down our end of the relationship with God. Mack wants there to be certain end results and demands them of God, but slowly he realizes that this attitude has created a relationship that is strained and it’s not God who has caused the tension, even though Mack blames God.
Much like The Shack, Job is a story that tells humanity that faith is not to be driven by the end results, especially our idea of what that is, it is one that is about the journey. Do we stop and think about the bigger picture at times? Do we really slow down and realize that God is with us every breath that we take? How do we strain our end of the relationship that God wants to have with us?
Maybe it is after we stretch our own ideas of what it means to be in relationship with God that we too, like Job declares in the scripture we heard earlier this morning, truly see. Maybe we too can find a deeper faith, a faith that builds us all up and gives us a new sense of wholeness and holiness. Maybe we need to take a moment and look at our relationships and see where we need to improve ourselves because being in right relationship with God requires being in right relationship with everyone else. So who are we angry with? Who do we blame for what we see as failures or shortcomings? Who do we politely smile at but in the back of our minds blame for whatever we think they did wrong to us? What injustice are we searching for a solution too? Because as long as we hold onto our own deep sadness we put up barriers for us to truly see who God is and how God wants us to connect with us in ways that we can’t even begin to understand yet. Would you be willing to give up our sense of entitlement or justice in order to get into a deeper relationship with God?
So back to the question of why is Job part of the canon? Job is a hard book to understand and yes it is one that causes us to look at our understanding of who God is but it’s here to get us to develop our faith. It’s here for us to see that faith is more then getting a reward. Faith is about doing, it’s about justice, its about living each and every day with the passion and hope that God puts into our hearts, our souls. It’s about building up instead of tearing down. This congregation has had its own fair share of rough and hard times, but the fact remains that we are still here. But if we hold onto only the hard times, we’re missing out on our relationship with God and it’s our own fault for that, not God’s. May we become more like a Job church, one that moves us all into a deeper relationship with God and works to chip away at the things that separate us from each other and from God?
Let us pray:
“Oh God, our help in ages past” give us the strength and the courage to examine our own lives and to find the things that distance us from a more complete relationship with you. Help us to be aware of the way we try to control this world and how we let our own ideas of justice and entitlement separate us from you. Give us discerning hearts, ears that truly listen to you and others and mouths that are slow to speak words of criticism as we go about the rest of our lives. Help us to see what you want us to be and truly see you in all of your glory and wondrous awe. Amen.
In the end Job is found to be faithful still, and all of his wealth and family are returned and Job gets even more then what he started out with. Today’s reading is one of Job’s responses to God. Job tells that although he had heard of this great God he now fully sees who God is. So there are several issues to address here in this reading. First what do we do as Christians with this book in general? How are we to respond faithfully to this book that is confusing and shifts the image of God? Well to address that we need to first take a look at some understandings of this book. Many people believe and teach that God is having a conversation with Satan or the devil. And while this is one faithful response from an initial reading of the book when one takes a look at the Hebrew used to write the Old Testament one will find that the idea of Satan is never included in the Bible. The word satan, which gets translated into Satan, is actually a verb, meaning “to accuse.” It was a common word used to describe a person’s earthly opponent in court or on the battle field and it was also used to accuse heavenly people. The second issue of taking this verb and changing it into a formal noun is that it creates a dualism that is not and would never have been allowed to be a part of the Jewish faith. So now we as readers can see that the book of Job is not meant to be God and another person using Job as a toy, it is a conversation.
It’s a conversation about a topic that we all find hard to answer; divine justice – why do bad things happen to good people? This is one of the hardest questions to answer of all time. Trying to wrap our minds around it is one that takes lifetimes. We all have experienced things in our lifetimes that just don’t make sense, they don’t seem fair but yet they happen. Job is a good person, he’s faithful, takes care of his family and by most people’s standards he has earned the right to have what he owns and to live a “good life.” But then he’s stripped of it all. It doesn’t seem fair, it doesn’t seem right. This act goes against everything that we feel we are entitled to. And then the suffering Job endures, why not just rub the salt deeper into the wounds?
So why do we have this story in the Bible? Well because it teaches us about our faith; the faith that God wants every person to have. God wants all believers to have a faith that is not solely dependent upon getting the good stuff, divine favor. Anyone that knows what it takes to have a healthy relationship knows that it is not one that is based on getting what one wants all of the time. 1 sided relationships are wearing on the person having to give and eventually it becomes a fruitless effort because what the other person gets is never enough. These relationships don’t hold. They are easily shaken, broken and come and go much like the leaves on a tree. Although they start out as being green and full of life then eventually turn colors, fall off the tree and die. Job points out that faith requires more devotion then that of what gives me what I want now. Faith is hard and requires that even when we don’t get what we want, when we want it or how we want it that we know that God is still at our sides, journeying with us. God does not leave us when we mess up or even when we’re doing alright. God is with us and in us at every step of the journey. God is holding us when we cry and is our biggest cheerleader when we get it right.
There’s a popular novel out called The Shack by William Young. It’s a story about a man who meets God in a unique way. I won’t tell you how he meets God but I will tell you in involves a trip to an old shack. The main character of the book, Mack, is a man who most would call religious but maybe not faithful. He’s one of those people who grew up in church and made the right appearances (attending worship faithfully, donating when asked), but he never really committed himself to understanding the teachings of the Church. He never really got the idea of what God asks Christians to do in truly living the faithful life. And these beginning stages of Christianity were more than enough to get Mack through a good portion of his life. But when a major tragedy happens, resulting in the loss of his youngest child, Mack stops believing because justice isn’t served. God seemed to forget Mack and his family and what is described in the book as a “deep sadness” overtakes Mack and strains every relationship. It is only in meeting God in a new way that Mack realizes that he had to let go of the idea of justice that we hold onto today because it often breaks down our end of the relationship with God. Mack wants there to be certain end results and demands them of God, but slowly he realizes that this attitude has created a relationship that is strained and it’s not God who has caused the tension, even though Mack blames God.
Much like The Shack, Job is a story that tells humanity that faith is not to be driven by the end results, especially our idea of what that is, it is one that is about the journey. Do we stop and think about the bigger picture at times? Do we really slow down and realize that God is with us every breath that we take? How do we strain our end of the relationship that God wants to have with us?
Maybe it is after we stretch our own ideas of what it means to be in relationship with God that we too, like Job declares in the scripture we heard earlier this morning, truly see. Maybe we too can find a deeper faith, a faith that builds us all up and gives us a new sense of wholeness and holiness. Maybe we need to take a moment and look at our relationships and see where we need to improve ourselves because being in right relationship with God requires being in right relationship with everyone else. So who are we angry with? Who do we blame for what we see as failures or shortcomings? Who do we politely smile at but in the back of our minds blame for whatever we think they did wrong to us? What injustice are we searching for a solution too? Because as long as we hold onto our own deep sadness we put up barriers for us to truly see who God is and how God wants us to connect with us in ways that we can’t even begin to understand yet. Would you be willing to give up our sense of entitlement or justice in order to get into a deeper relationship with God?
So back to the question of why is Job part of the canon? Job is a hard book to understand and yes it is one that causes us to look at our understanding of who God is but it’s here to get us to develop our faith. It’s here for us to see that faith is more then getting a reward. Faith is about doing, it’s about justice, its about living each and every day with the passion and hope that God puts into our hearts, our souls. It’s about building up instead of tearing down. This congregation has had its own fair share of rough and hard times, but the fact remains that we are still here. But if we hold onto only the hard times, we’re missing out on our relationship with God and it’s our own fault for that, not God’s. May we become more like a Job church, one that moves us all into a deeper relationship with God and works to chip away at the things that separate us from each other and from God?
Let us pray:
“Oh God, our help in ages past” give us the strength and the courage to examine our own lives and to find the things that distance us from a more complete relationship with you. Help us to be aware of the way we try to control this world and how we let our own ideas of justice and entitlement separate us from you. Give us discerning hearts, ears that truly listen to you and others and mouths that are slow to speak words of criticism as we go about the rest of our lives. Help us to see what you want us to be and truly see you in all of your glory and wondrous awe. Amen.
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