seeing is believing

     I have to admit I was happy to hear this week that Randy preached on Job last week.  Since neither he nor I talked about the fact that I had been preaching on Job, I like to think his independent discernment just confirms my own.  Of course, if I said that in front of him, knowing Randy a bit, he might remind us all that it just confirms neither of us knows what we are doing.  It’s ok, you can laugh a bit.

     I know we have some folks here for the Stewardship luncheon and a few that have been forced to miss, by virtue of life’s circumstances, the other three readings from the book of Job.  So, to catch y’all up, Job has been cursed by Satan, with God’s permission.  Job has lost his health, his family, his wealth, and his reputation.  For a week, his friends sat in silence with him, but then they offered horrible counsel.  Job, man, you need to repent of whatever sin it is that you did.  The more that Job protests his innocence, the more they insist he’s not the man they thought they knew.  Job, not to be deterred, simply wishes he could argue face to face with God.

     God, of course, shows up in a whirlwind, interrupting Elihu’s “defense” of Him and begins to question Job.  I know some commentators make a big deal about the whirlwind, and some of us in the pews, who have been reading the book the last four weeks, wonder about this imagery.  I guess it strikes some as weird and others as dubious.  How else, though, would you describe the Indescribable?  They cannot yet see His face, particularly the three friends.  And it’s not as if the whirlwind is unlike the description of the back of God during His encounter with Elijah.  It is toward the end of that questioning that we turn our attention today.  God has recounted some of the story of creation.  He has described the planning and wisdom that went in to all that He has made.  Towards the end, of course, God reminds Job and his friends that He plays with leviathan as a kid might a tadpole and behemoth as only its Creator can.  And He asks Job, “Will you even put me in the wrong?  Will you condemn Me that you may be justified?”  He goes on to instruct Job to deck himself with his own glory and to execute his perception of justice.

     Some commentators and preachers seem to want to criticize God for browbeating Job into submission.  To them, God seems to be saying only “look how great I am” (pun intended!).  To critics of God in this passage, God seems to justify Himself in the worst case of might makes right ever known, but is that really what’s going on?  Is God simply saying to Job, and his friends, “how dare you puny humans question Me?”  I think quite the opposite.  In fact, I would argue that those commentators and preachers who like to sit in judgment of God in this passage are far closer to Elihu than Job.  Make no mistake, the result is the same.  As God points out the mysteries of creation, Job and the other humans present, including us, are forced to reconsider what we really know about God and His purposes.

     Job begins his answer this morning with a new perspective.  God has reminded Job of both His power and His scope.  Has God’s confrontation with Job been rather awe-inspiring?  Of course.  Much of nature is.  Think of your favorite nature scene.  Who created it?  God.  What about that scene do you like?  What about that scene could you or I recreate.  Some of us might be able to paint a beautiful sunset, but can we capture the peaceful sounds we hear or the pine smell?  God accounted for all that when He created these vistas for us.  Perhaps you prefer a beach scene.  Think of the knowledge and expertise that went into that scene.  The roll of the waves and cry of the gulls.  The smell of the salt water.  The beauty of the swells and waves and whitecaps.  The light reflecting off the water which at times seems blue and at others different colors.  Or look into the night sky.  How many stars can you count?  How many colors can you see?  And, if we are far enough north, add in the borealis.  Again, think of the night sounds—the hoot of an owl, the howl of a wolf, or the foraging of a skunk or raccoon.  Can we replicate that?  Of course not!

     As God works through the mysteries of creation, Job rightly understands that it was ridiculous for him to think that he could defend himself before God, even that he needed to defend himself before God.  And so Job realizes that he uttered things he did not understand.  Like his friends at the beginning of the book, he assumed the outward circumstances reflected his relationship with the Lord.  Because he was suffering unjustly, he thought it unfair.  And so his complaints were rightly bitter.

     One other note in Job’s response: commentators and preachers get really upset that Job is driven to despise himself and to repent.  A loving, nurturing God would never drive a human being to despise him or herself.  Job has no need to repent in this exchange.  Job simply reflects the behavior human beings have when confronted by the glorious presence of the holy, righteous, just, merciful, and all our favorite adjectives God.  Each and every encounter with God, unmediated through Christ in the Bible, results in what?  Fear!  The Greek word is actually phobia.  Why do Adam and Eve hid from God after they eat the fruit?  Moses sees the Burning Bush.  Elijah is put in a cleft and allowed only to see God’s back.  Even the angels, who simply reflect the glory of God, inspire awe and fear in human beings.  Why?  Because we know, we know intuitively and in our inmost parts that we are sinners and deserve death.  Even Job, whom God judges as righteous both in the beginning and end of this book, is a sinner.  Job now understands that he has been misrepresenting God to others.  True, he has made the appropriate sacrifices faithfully, which God credits as righteousness, but Job now understands far better how much he does not know about God.  I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.  Put simply: Job understands his mortal, finite, limited perspective in light of those of God.

     God is not done in this scene, though our lectionary editors would have us believe otherwise.  I have included the omitted verses because they speak to the lesson that God wanted recorded in Scripture for us.  As frightening as the whirlwind was for Job, imagine yourself as one of his friends.  You have spent considerable time telling Job that he needs to repent, that God blesses those whom He loves and curses those whom He despises.  Out of that same whirlwind, God’s voice tells you He is angry with you because you have spoken falsely against Him.  Worse, He tells you that unless you give the sacrifices to Job and Job makes intercession on your behalf, His wrath will be kindled against you in your folly.  Brothers and sisters, if that doesn’t produce real fear, I don’t know what will!  We laugh nervously, right, but that’s the real situation in which Job’s friends find themselves.

     The friends bring the animals to Job, and Job offers the sacrifice and makes intercession for his two friends.  Again, we see the judgment of God true.  When our friends wrong us, how quickly are we to forgive?  How quickly are we to make intercession on their behalf?  Place yourself in Job’s shoes.  You’ve lost everything-your family, your wealth, and even the respect of your friends.  Would you not be a bit tempted to let them face God’s wrath in their folly?  Yet, how does Job respond?  He does as God instructs, never once arguing that he should not.  In this act, we might argue, Job shows forth the accuracy of God’s judgment in the very beginning.  In Shemah terms, he loves his friends as himself and does simply as God commands, trusting that He will sort everything out.  Oh, and by the way, who in this story shows himself to be the true friend?  Job.  But that’s another sermon . . .

     The book ends rather quickly.  Job’s family comes to console him—remember, travel in those days were slow and by foot or animal.  It would have taken time for the extended family to hear and get ready to travel and then to travel.  They arrive and comfort Job.  God, we are told, blesses Job’s latter days even more than the former.  Notice, Scripture says that God blessed Job, but Scripture does not describe Job’s emotional state.  Why?  Those of us who have lost spouses or children understand that Job’s emotions in his later years were probably complex.  Would more children and a new wife (I understand Scripture does not say this and that the tradition has argued about it), make up for the loss he experienced?  Of course not.  He would find joy in the new family, to be sure, but there would be sadness over the loss of his earlier kids.  How about the wealth?  Well, in one sense, wealth is wealth.  But Job has a different perspective now.  Heck, we know he does as evidenced by the giving of a full share of inheritance to each of his daughters—talk about a counter-cultural act!  Job, of course, has seen with his own eyes what he used only to hear about.  My guess is that the encounter with God has given Job a new perspective, one rooted in the shalom of God.  And I have no doubt he trusts that God will make all the hurt and pain and loss and reward and blessing and life make sense, when God decides its time.  He knows God now.  He knows that no purpose of God’s can be thwarted.

     Notice, too, at the end, Job never asks nor ever receives an answer regarding his suffering.  We know that Satan has challenged God.  We know that God has given Job to Satan to do with as he pleases, but nowhere along the journey is Job told that he is the focal point of a cosmic battle of why people love God.  And Job seems content to trust that God allowed or caused whatever evils for His purposes.  Again, some of us get upset at the lack of knowledge given to Job.  But, has God not done the same with you or with me?  Maybe you are all more like Job than I, but I wonder how many paths we have walked blindly by faith.  More to the point, I wonder how many paths I would have avoided had God given me His perspective?  How many would you?  I know, we like to think we are smarter and wiser and more faithful and all that, but human nature is human nature.  Would you have born the crosses that God gave you, had He told you ahead of the time the specifics?

     Why the focus on Job for four weeks?  I think it raises for us an important question after it imparts significant information.  One of the chief pieces of wisdom that the book of Job imparts is that our circumstances do not necessarily reflect our relationship with God.  Job’s friends had an understanding that those who suffer are accursed by God and that those who were doing well were pleasing God.  They understood us to have a tit-for-tat relationship with God.  If I am faithful, God will bless me.  If I am a sinner, God will curse me.  It is an attitude which plagues us still.  In the Church, we hear it grossly proclaimed boldly in the prosperity Gospel.  Such Gospel blames each of us for not claiming our inheritance and has no understanding of the Cross or the Suffering Servant.  But that attitude pervades society around us. 

     We live in the Brentwood Bubble.  Part of the reason it is described as such is because there is an attitude that we deserve the blessings of wealth and good families and great jobs and health and whatever else we value because we are good people.  Those people, the ones who serve us or who live in less desirable places, who suffer illnesses, job losses, relationship hardships and whatever else, those people deserve what they get, too.  Right around the year 2000, one polling group asked Americans whether the poor were lazy or whether circumstances dictated their lives.  Americans who described themselves as Christian nearly split the answer.  Really?  Do half of us really believe that half the poor are lazy and half just live in unfortunate circumstances?  Perhaps you did before the last four weeks began, but I hope you have heard God’s voice in my and Randy’s preaching.  The truth is that we likely do not know why people are suffering why they suffer.  Only God knows.  Are you absolutely sure that “lazy” man or woman you know has not given up, because the circumstances and the judgment of men and women like ourselves, was just too much to overcome?  Are you certain their bosses or owners have been fair and legal?  It gets complicated, doesn’t it?

     How about the people like us?  Are you sure they are hard-working and intelligent?  How do you know they just did not get lucky?  How do you know they did not get credit for someone else’s work?

     Our job, as we have reminded ourselves these last four weeks, is that we are called to love folks.  Period.  We express that love by serving them.  What do you need?  What can I do to help you?  Take what you will use from our pantry, but leave the stuff you don’t like for those who come after.  We have lots of ways to express God’s love to them, we need only to be attuned to their need and His desire to draw all to Himself.  It really is that simple.  Why is it, when we claim to represent an infinite God, we are so quick to limit the amount of help, the amount of grace, He has revealed to us?  Why do we insist on sitting with Job’s friends, when the Job’s around us could use our mournful silence, our shoulders to cry upon, our reminder that they are loved by God in spite of the circumstances?

     And, although those are good questions, I wonder if they are THE question of Job.  I used some gallows humor a few minutes ago to provoke some nervous laughter, but I wonder whether we really inwardly digest the lessons of Job.  Do we really know ourselves to be loved by God, no matter our circumstances?  Do we live and act as if we are secure in that knowledge of His love?  The nervous laughter was rightfully nervous.  One of the real blessings of this four week sojourn has been Adventers’ willingness to share more of their lives with me as a result.  And let me say this in front of the community here gathered today: there are some horrible crosses and circumstances among the folks in the pews.  Horrible.  I have heard stories of loss and survivor guilt that understood on another level my discussions of loss of babies and planned futures.  I have even heard stories of redemptive acts of God that, numerically based, may pale in comparison to what God did for Job, but in the eyes of those who have experienced the redemption, have given them a perspective of Job.  They have seen with their eyes now rather than heard by their ears.

     Perhaps most concerning or agonizing, though, have been the nature of the crosses and the faith of some before that cross bearing began.  Some have been rather certain that, had they known beforehand, they would have wiggled out of the cross-bearing that God had planned for them.  Knowing that causes some shame.  And yet, by virtue of our conversations, I think most have come around to understanding the idea that maybe that cross and God’s redemption was necessary to get them to the place in faith where they are now.  Had they not experienced God’s redemption, they might be more like Job’s friends than Job.  And so, part of my job has been to remind you, not teach you, but remind you, that you are who you are as a son or daughter of God who has born a cross to His glory.

     You see, brothers and sisters, that shame, that guilt, that judgment that we find ourselves participating in is not of God.  You and I live with an advantage that Elihu and the others, heck even Job, did not have.  We live on this side of the Incarnation, on this side of the Cross, on this side of the Resurrection, and on this side of the Ascension.  We know the Advocate for whom Job longed, we know that God loves us beyond all measure.  We know that God has the power to redeem all things, all sufferings, even death, thanks to the work and person of Jesus Christ.  We know that He has born all the consequences of our sins—the pain, the humiliation, the separatedness from God—and buried them in that Tomb.  And now He has promised that we can do amazing things in His name.  Do we believe that?  Do we truly believe that He can use you and you and you and you and me to glorify Himself?  Have we seen with our eyes what we heard only by our ears?

In Christ’s Peace,

Brian†