This week I get to hear the echoes of my own words advising me. More than one of you have heard and laughed when I mentioned that even Bartimaeus could see . . . If you never understood the joke, now you do. The son of Timaeus is the meaning of Bartimaeus, and he’s blind. I had wanted to preach elsewhere, but even Bartimaeus could have seen where God thought I needed to be focused this week. First of all, when is the last time I had conversations with Adventers about not preaching on a passage? More than one Adventer felt the need to express their disappointment that I had preached on Mark rather than Job last week. And, of course, there were lingering discussions about the prior sermons on Job. I get it. We live in a world that is not as firm as we once thought. Republicans and Democrats in Congress care more about zinging one another than leading Americans through a pandemic. We are all discovering, or having reaffirmed, that we are all pawns in the great machine that serves the idol we call the “economy,” or it’s little ba’als we call “productivity” and the like. The pandemic is still raging, and now most of us will need another booster shot to protect us and those whom we love. We are lucky in that we worship with a lot of health care workers at Advent, so most of us realize that information about the pandemic comes in the midst of it. We have to live it to learn it. Adventers are already getting their third shots and not joining the outside cacophony about whether the vaccine is really a vaccine, more like a flu shot each season, or just the government’s backup plan to chip and track you when you dare to put down your cell phone. People are hungry. People are afraid. People are angry. Cheaters are even winning in baseball. Tempers are frayed. Job is the perfect answer to all those questions and conditions.
In the wider
church, too, my conversations have pointed out the need to focus us on
Job. In our church, the homages to Spong
continue, a man who denied in his own spoken and written words nearly all the understandings
contained in the creeds that we profess.
More than one colleague has dared to preach on Job using Spong’s
attitude as a focus, that this book is just not believable and evidence of why
it should be jettisoned from the Scriptures “we created.” Even in Wrestling with Faith this week, where
we have some good, occasionally great, conversations about our struggles with
the faith, we began with another “progressive theologian” from on top of our
plateau to the east, who is arguing and teaching that these things which we
teach, such as the Resurrection, are distracting and untrue. Of course, his claims are not progressive at
all. None of the claims he raises are
new. I put progressive in air quotes
because all he is doing is recycling the same heresies and apostasies and
untruths that people have been doing since the dawn of time, or at least the
beginning of their relationship with God.
In academic terms, most of his claims should footnote Spong and others
who came before him, giving them the credit for the ideas he claims. To be clear, I do not mind the
struggles. More importantly, I am
certain God does not. But, when we
professional Christians begin subverting our oaths and teaching contrary to the
revelation to the Church . . . well, I think there’s a millstone warning that
ought to give us pause, a millstone teaching that is in red letters in some of our
Bibles.
If you have
missed worship the last month or so, we have been perusing the book of Job. To refresh your memories, the story began
with Satan going to and fro about the earth and meeting God in a heavenly
council. God points out his faithful
servant Job. Satan says Job is faithful
only because God blesses him. So God
tells Satan he can do anything he wants to Job except take his life. Satan proceeds to take Job’s wealth, family, health,
and reputation. We don’t know his
reputation has been ruined until his friends come to “comfort” Job. After some silence, they recommend Job repent
of the evil he has done. For the next
several chapters, we read translated poetry about Job’s self-proclaimed
innocence and the friends’ determination that they know the character and
behavior of God. Job laments that he
cannot get the attention of God and rues that there is no advocate to make his
case before God on His heavenly throne.
Just as Job seems near to giving up his protestations of innocence and
his demand to argue his case before God, God appears in the whirlwind. In an ironic turn, because Job was certain
God would speak to him as a man and not out of His glory, God literally
thunders question after question at Job and us.
Tell me, human, were you there when I set the sun and moon and planets
in their courses? How did I determine
their courses? What pattern did I
use? Were you there, human, when I told
the seas their boundary? How did I set
that? Were you there, human, when I
played with leviathan in the ocean much as you did a tadpole in your youth? God gives lots and lots of examples about His
otherness. Job, to his credit,
acknowledged in our reading last week that, not only was he incapable of
understanding the answers, he was not even capable of asking the right
questions. Unfortunately for Job’s
friends, God turns his attention, and wrath, to them. Job has spoken rightly about Him through all
this; they have not. Only if Job makes an
intervening sacrifice on their behalf will their lives be spared. Talk about restoring Job’s honor among his
friends!
This week,
we read the ending. We have switched
back from the Hebrew poetry of most of the book into prose. But, as you all no doubt felt and figured out,
we don’t like this ending. Why? To be clear, Adventers are not the only group
of God’s people who dislike this ending.
Over the centuries, people have postulated that the prose of the book
was added to the poetry to make everything contained in the poetry more palatable,
to make God more relatable. We are
Anglicans, of course. We think the Scriptures
are God-breathed, not dictated. We can
accept that the books were written, edited, and then caused to be collected—all
by the guidance of the Holy Spirit—for our edification and learning. So, were that the way the book came to be, we’d
be like “so what? What is God trying to
tell us?”
Our
discomfort with the book begins with justice.
If I asked you to explain what is meant by justice, most everyone of you
who has not discussed it in Bible Study would come back to me with a definition
of fairness. For example, those of you
who fall prey to the modern false teaching that ‘The God of the Old Testament
is misogynistic” might find this passage instructive. Forgetting for a moment that women were made
in God’s image, the most righteous man on earth at the time of the story gives
both his sons and his daughters an inheritance.
I see some nods. We like the idea
that he treats them equally, fairly. But
it’s fairness, not justice, that leads our evaluation process. In a broad sense, because of God’s revelation
to us, we understand that justice is the principle that people get what they
deserve. In a simple way, we would say
the good people get blessings and the evil people get curses, which is close to
what the three friends have been arguing about God all along, right? But, was Job ever doing anything wrong or
evil? Was Job punished by God for things
he should not have done or for forgetting to do things he should have
done? No! He made the sacrifices and, in case his first
children forgot, he made intercessions on their behalf. He was afflicted by Satan. Was Job treated justly? No.
Our
discomfort with this passage runs even more deeply, though. The way the story ends is not exactly “and
they lived happily ever after” like our fairy tales. Those of you who have lost a loved one, a
spouse, a child, understand this on a fundamental level. We have a couple Adventers who were widowed in
their youth by warfare. They met someone
new and married again. Have they experienced
justice at the hand of God? I learned a
few years ago, thanks to our observance of the Feast of the Holy Innocence,
just how many couples have lost children, either born or unborn. Many went on to have more children. Did the new ones born replace the ones who
died or were miscarried? Of course
not! And we know this intrinsically even
if we could not put words on that yucky feeling when we first heard this read
from the lectern. In that’s
understanding that made us feel uncomfortable, like we needed a shower to wash
off the muck.
To be sure,
a shallow or cursory reading of the text makes it seem like Job is better off
than he was before. He has even more wealth
than before. He has a big family again. His daughters are the most beautiful. His reputation has been restored. He even lives another 140 years and gets to
see his great grandkids! But, and I ask
this question of those of us who know the pain and loss of a loved one, which
means all of us, do we think for a moment Job does not still mourn for the loss
of his prior family? I have no doubt he
loves his new wife and new children deeply.
It is clear he cherishes them all, but is not that hurt for what could
have been still there?
All this,
of course, points us back to a teaching in the Church that is fundamental to
our faith. It is so fundamental to our
faith that, were it proved false, the faith would unravel. Specifically, of course, I am talking about the
Resurrection. I know in some corners of
the Church we think it should only be mentioned around Easter. Thankfully and mercifully, we are
liturgically minded. Each and every time
you and I gather at that Table we remember Christ’s death, we proclaim His
Resurrection, and we await His Coming in Glory.
It is so important to our understanding of God that we remember it each
and every single time we celebrate the Eucharist! In fact, the person and work of Christ is the
very reason we give thanks! It is even
so important that we remind ourselves of its truth and reality when we baptize
others into the faith. In that Sacrament
we understand ourselves to be what? That’s
right! Baptized into His death and
promised a share of His Resurrection!
Believe me,
Resurrection is no less hard for us to accept than it was for folks in Roman
times. The Romans excelled at putting
people to death! They were creative and
efficient at killing people. In a world
where life was perceived as cheap, the Romans were acknowledged experts at
ending it. The idea that Roman soldiers
would fail at killing a man sentenced to death was nearly incomprehensible in
that time. More incomprehensible would
be soldiers’ willingness to claim that beings like angels rolled away the stone
from the tomb causing them to abandon their post! Death was a constant companion of everyone in
the ANE, far more so than for us today!
Why, do you think, does the crowd get excited at Jesus’ raising of the
widow’s son? Why do you think the
mourners mock Jesus over Jairus’ daughter?
Dead people do not rise from the dead!
And we know death when we see it!
The
Resurrection, though, is not a fanciful tale.
It is true! We proclaim it
because we believe those who witnessed it.
We should believe because we understand just how important it is to us
and to our revealed understanding about the character, nature, and power of
God! God Himself reminds us He is
just. He reveals to His people that He
is as just as He is love as He is righteous as He is holy as He is . . . pick
your favorite characteristic God has revealed.
In fact, you and I would not know justice or love or holiness were it
not for God! But, for now, let’s accept
His claim to be just. Absent the Resurrection,
is there any way that God can be just?
I wish you
could see some of your faces. I’ll save
you the struggle. No! If you died today, would there be unjust
sufferings from your life unredeemed? If
you died today, would you experience the vindication He promises, that you will
be vindicated for choosing Him as Lord and Savior? No. If
any of us gathered here today in person or online died right now, all of us
would die with unredeemed suffering and lacking vindication for choosing to
follow God in spite of those unjust sufferings, for ignoring the voices like
Job’s wife who tempted us to curse God and die, to abandon Him as
untrustworthy! Absent the
Resurrection. The Resurrection is
essential to our faith because it gives us hope. You and I can bear cross after cross after
cross if we believe God will redeem our sufferings and vindicate us before those
who mocked us, ridiculed us, sabotaged us, and rejected us. You and I can bear suffering after suffering
after suffering if we truly believe God can redeem that suffering to the point
that our worst ones, like losing a spouse or a child, will not even be worth
shedding a tear.
Skeptics
among us, and moreso in the world out there, will want to claim that that is
precisely why the Church developed the story of the Resurrection, that and for
Indulgences in the Middle Ages. The
Resurrection, of course, predates the Church.
The Resurrection, of course, was rejected by the majority of those in
the leadership that opposed Jesus. The
Resurrection, of course, was that foolishness that made the wise look foolish
and the “fools” look wise, in the words of Paul. And just to remind us, Paul himself wrote how
he thought the Resurrection foolish, how he persecuted those who claimed Jesus
was the Son of God, until he met the Risen Lord on a road to Damascus. The idea of the Resurrection has always
proved a stumbling block for people throughout the last couple thousand
years. No matter the time, no matter the
culture, the Resurrection is counter to our experience, counter to our
wisdom! And yet, God’s people have
stubbornly clung to its truth no matter the cost to their reputations or lives.
You and I
rightly cringe at this ending, the way it is, because we realize God’s justice
still has not been evidenced. In a real
sense, Job’s story is still unfinished. So
far as we know, Job has no understanding as to why he was seemingly
accursed. He was not part of the
heavenly counsel, and God makes no mention of it during His theophany with Job,
and we can only rightly focus upon what we know and what is revealed. Similarly, we are not told that Job is given
a glimpse of the resurrection of his family in whirlwind. All we are told is that Job realizes he does
not even understand the right questions to ask, let alone the answers.
Thankfully,
and mercifully, you and I live on this side of the work and person of Jesus
Christ. You and I know that God Himself
came down from heaven, was tortured, crucified and buried, and raised on the
third day, and ascended on the fortieth day after His Resurrection in
preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Those questions and answers that Job wants, and we want, are answered by
that. How can I die with unredeemed
suffering in my life and still know God is just? How can I die unvindicated for my faith in
God and still know God will keep His promises to me? The same way that our Lord and Savior died: The
Resurrection! The only way we can truly
be assured of experiencing those promises of God is to know that there will be
a time where He raises the dead to judge and to vindicate, that there will be a
time where we stand before that heavenly throne in front of all who have gone
before and come after and to hear the voice of that Advocate for whom Job so
longs proclaim us His! That there will
be a time when we are given a mind and heart to understand the right questions
to ask, never mind the ability to understand the answers.
In many
ways, brothers and sisters, Job’s book is our own book. Your questions and disappointment when I skip
it for other readings demonstrates that to us.
Critical theorists and others make much hay about the book. Was there a man named Job? Is there a heavenly counsel? If there is, why is Satan allowed to
attend? Why is most of it in
poetry? Is the prose evidence of later
additions? Like so many in the
world, they rebel against the idea that Jesus was who He says He was, who He is,
and who He will be. Like so many in the
world, they know the certainty of death and cannot accept anything that makes
death seem anything other than the final word in our lives. They do not understand that the removal of
the Resurrection makes God unjust, makes God impotent, makes God unloving,
makes God unworthy of our trust and worship—or perhaps they do.
Thankfully
and mercifully, though, God caused this book to be written for our sakes. We know the truth of the story because we
each have lived a version of it in our own lives. Each one of us has experienced unjust
suffering and wished we knew why. Each
one of us has experienced the death of loved ones and railed at death’s seeming
cruelty and God’s seeming inattention. Each
of us has countless questions about the seeming carelessness or inattention of
God. Each of us has experienced
rejection for, despite all the world’s testimony against Him and rebellion
against Him, our stubborn clinging to His Gospel of grace, to our faith in His
promises to us. And like Job, we realize
that it is God who reveals, God who promises, and God alone who has acted once
and finally for our sake in Christ Jesus our Lord. We can accept, in the end, we do not know the
right questions to ask or understand the right answers because we know the One
who does. Better still, because we know
He knows us, we can depend upon each one of those promises He made to us. Only He has the power, only He has the will, only
He has the love, only He has the claim on our lives to make such a promise true
and fulfilled. And just as He raised His
Son our Lord to demonstrate to the world all those attributes, one glorious day
He will raise each one of us. And before
the throng of the heavenly and earthly counsel, we will be redeemed and
vindicated and invited into an inheritance that we cannot really utter, an
inheritance too wonderful for each one of us to know!
In Christ’s Peace,
Brian†
