October 3, 2021 Sermon
Sermon title: "The Story of Job"
Scripture: Job 1:1 and 2:1-10
((Other lectionary choices include Psalm 26, Hebrews 1:1-4 and 2:5-12, and Mark 10:2-16.))
Job 1:1
Job and His Family
1There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
Job 2:1-10
Attack on Job’s Health
1One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. 2The Lord said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the Lord, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it." 3The Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason." 4Then Satan answered the Lord, "Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives. 5But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face." 6The Lord said to Satan, "Very well, he is in your power; only spare his life." 7So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes. 9Then his wife said to him, "Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die." 10But he said to her, "You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
The story of Job is exciting to me for many reasons. First of all, it is an acknowledgment that bad things happen to good people. In recent years a rabbi by the name of Harold Kushner wrote a book with that title: "Why Bad Things Happen to Good People", or something like that. One reason I like the Book of Job is that in a way it represents a departure, an alternative view, of the traditional Old Testament view of evil up to this point. Before the writing of the Book of Job, which may have happened five or six centuries before Jesus was born, the assumption was that if you play ball with Yahweh, Israel's God, then Yahweh will play ball with you. To put it another way, if you keep God's commandments, then you'll prosper. But if you don't, bad things will happen to you. I personally have no problem with the idea that if you DON'T keep God's commandments, bad things will happen to you! But that's not the point of the Book of Job. The point of the Book of Job is that, Look! Here is a righteous man, and yet bad things happened to him! What's going on?!
As I have told you many times, I love the Old Testament, and I also love the fact that this book, this alternate view of reality, was allowed to remain in Holy Scripture! But it was allowed to remain after many editors got their hands on the original. The book itself is prose at the beginning and prose at the end. But the great middle part is poetry. Not that that matters. But it's really important that we recognize that the original was not allowed to be in the Bible without some editors having their way! WHY did so many editors have to put in their two-cents-worth? Because Job is quite the rebel, and he really tries to get in God's face and challenge the Almighty for what is happening to him! And editors who came later tried to soften Job's complaint! Their thinking was--or may have been--"We can't have such challenge to God's authority in our Holy Book!" And so, they try to soften the intensity of Job's complaint.
Here is an example: in Handel's "Messiah" there is a soprano aria that everybody loves. Handel uses the verse: "I know that my Redeemer lives." And you know how it goes. (Sing "I know that my Redeemer liveth".) I am not trying to be funny, but the original was not so sweet. It was more like: "Look, I know that if I had an unbiased umpire, he would see that I am not getting fair treatment!" That's a little more IN YOUR FACE than "I know that my Redeemer lives". I am not making fun of anybody's faith. But I just want to point out that in the original, Job was much more pointed in his complaint about what was happening to him.....until some editors came along and said, "Oh, we can't have him saying THAT!"
Something else: we have in our minds the idea that Job was patient. And you have probably heard the line, "That guy has the patience of Job." Hey! Job was NOT patient! He was indignant with God about all the suffering he was going through, and Job thought it was UNJUST suffering! I mentioned earlier that parts of Job are prose, but the majority of it is poetry. In the short prose parts, Job seems patient. But in the larger poetic part, he is anything BUT! Isn't it interesting that somehow the idea of Job as a patient guy won out over Job the rebel, Job the questioner, Job the complainer, Job the guy who said, "Hey! All this bad stuff happening to me simply isn't right!" And Job might have said this, too: "I have read the Bible, and it says that those who keep God's commandments will prosper. So why am I getting such unfair treatment? I am a righteous man. God is not keeping his Word!" Listen to this from Psalm 26, also a lectionary choice. (Psalm 26 - 1Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. 2Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and mind. 3For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in faithfulness to you. 4I do not sit with the worthless, nor do I consort with hypocrites; 5I hate the company of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked. 6I wash my hands in innocence, and go around your altar, O Lord, 7singing aloud a song of thanksgiving, and telling all your wondrous deeds. 8O Lord, I love the house in which you dwell, and the place where your glory abides. 9Do not sweep me away with sinners, nor my life with the bloodthirsty, 10those in whose hands are evil devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes. 11But as for me, I walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be gracious to me. 12My foot stands on level ground; in the great congregation I will bless the Lord.)
That Psalm may sound a little self-righteous. We may think whoever wrote it is a little bit TOO impressed with his own integrity. Maybe so. We should not be proud before God. But that is also a tangential issue. The point of the Book of Job is that a righteous man is suffering, and the party-line view is that those who keep God's commandments will prosper and NOT suffer.
Remember in one of the Gospels when a tower falls over and some people are hurt or even killed? The disciples even ask Jesus WHO SINNED, the people who suffered or their parents? SEE? Even as late as Jesus, that thinking was still prevalent: if you sinned, bad things are going to happen to you. And the corollary is that if you DON'T sin, bad things WON'T happen to you. Jesus dodges the question, by the way! I guess he wasn't in the mood to talk about the problem of evil and unjust suffering!
Back to the Book of Job.....there are three "Comforters" who come to visit Job. But they are more like taunters than comforters! Instead of being sympathetic with Job's unjust suffering, they try to get Job to look hard at himself and find the place or places where he sinned! In other words, they drank the Kool-Aid, too! They also subscribe to the party-line view that if you are suffering, then you MUST have done something to deserve it! The guy who wrote Job is making the point that good people suffer, and they suffer undeservedly. He was brave enough to look at the world around him, and then to write a tale to illustrate what he believes: good people DO suffer, regardless of what the Bible says or what the Tradition says. Thank you, God, for this brave soul who dared to take an alternative view, and that view is that the Good DO suffer, and they suffer unjustly.
Later in the Book, God finally speaks to Job, and for me that passage is quite moving. God says, "Where were you when I created the universe and all the stars sang for joy?" Well, that may be a moving passage to me and to you, but it still isn't an answer as to why the righteous suffer. It is powerful, and it moves me to tears, especially that part..."and all the stars sang for joy". But it is not an answer to the question Job asks, and that is, "Why do I, a righteous man, suffer?" God really gives no answer to that question.
Even though Job receives no answer, he repents, almost being sorry that he questioned the plan of Almighty God. And he gets everything back: his health, his prosperity, and more children. (The others had died.) But think about it, please: if your children were taken from you in death, but then you gave birth to other children later, would that make everything okay? OF COURSE NOT! We can be glad that Job's prosperity was restored, and we can be happy that he had some more kids. But did those kids "replace" the ones who died? You and I know the answer: OF COURSE NOT! This business of Job's fortunes being restored is part of the editing process that I mentioned earlier! The editors who came later have Job essentially saying, "Yessir, yessir"........ and for such humble faith, he is rewarded with renewed prosperity and new life and new kids. But the question still goes unanswered why do the righteous suffer?
I hope your understanding of faith is that you believe because you believe! NOT because you hope to have an unsuffering life! I think I believe the idea that to live is to suffer. To live is also to enjoy life, and it's not all doom and gloom, by any means. But to be human means being vulnerable and able to be hurt. To love means to make oneself vulnerable to another. My hometown minister, while counseling a couple I knew before they were to be married, said to them both, "Now you know how to hurt each other." Strange, isn't it? To open oneself up to be loved also involves opening oneself up to the possibility of being hurt.
Maybe the Book of Job, while raising the question of unjust suffering, even if it doesn't answer the question, does offer the idea that to be human and to be a person of faith involves being open to suffering, even unjust suffering. And if you're a believer, your faith may let you see that God uses suffering for his Holy Will. Who best exemplifies that? Why, Jesus Christ Our Lord, of course! Amen.
Pastor Skip
