Perseverance of Job, a sermon series for the Fall from the book of Job, week 4 of 4, preached Oct 27, 2024
Children’s
I love this church. It’s so cool, the stone and wood and windows. The stories behind it. The semi-circle design, pointing us all toward the center, where we put the table, the pulpit, and the font. I love the way this congregation takes so much time and attention to decorate with flowers and fabrics, candles and other things, the prayers and liturgies, old and new that we say together, and the special music we play and sing here. It makes each Sunday with each other and near God feel… special.
King Solomon built a very special house for God too, the Temple of Israel. They did all those things… decorate, sing, pray, gather, read, preach, offerings, rituals. It felt very special to Solomon and the people. The more time they spent there, the more special it became to them. But look what Solomon prayed at the beginning, when it opened.
Scripture 1 Kings 8:26-30
27 “Will you God really dwell on the earth? Even the heavens, even the highest heavens cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built! 28 Hear my prayer and my plea, O Lord my God... 29 May your eyes be open night and day toward this house… so that you will hear any prayer I pray to you through this place. 30 Hear my prayers, and any prayer of your people Israel whenever they pray through this place. Please, God in the heavens, your real dwelling place; hear our prayers, and forgive us.”
Childrens
Solomon didn’t ask God to be there, or to grant their prayers, only to listen and forgive them. When we come to church, that’s what we are doing too. We assume God is here with us, but also with everyone and everything else. We don’t assume God owes us answers, or God will give us what we ask. We do pray God will listen and hear us, and forgive us, because we often pray for what we want instead of what God wants, and we often expect God to give us what we think we need instead of gratefully accepting when God gives us what God’s thinks we really need.
If you were to pray to God today, what would you say?
Question of the Day
Today’s question is, “Does faithfulness guarantee blessings?” Group up in twos or threes and discuss this question together for just a few moments. Ready, Go!
(Open YouTube livestream, muted, on iPad, and chat with online attendees?)
Great! For anyone wishing to share, in person or online, what did you come up with?
Context
This is the last week of our series, the Perseverance of Job. We’ve learned Job was NOT patient. We are seeing how Job evolves and wrestles with God, and with God’s help, perseveres.
Three weeks ago, at the beginning, some really bad things happen to a good person, Job. Job says “God giveth and God taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord”. That’s simple way of understanding God was all Job had at the time. We learned, God does not include suffering and evil in any plan, and God’s plan is bending all things toward a great and final peace, justice, and love.
Two weeks ago, in the middle, Job no longer believes God is that simple, and wonders if God is powerless, or even unfair. Job challenges God and demands an explanation from God. Job’s three “friends” blame Job for his suffering, insisting God is good and we must be thankful only, and Job must have done something to deserve this suffering from God. They judge Job for talking to God so directly and harshly. We learned, faithfulness doesn’t dismiss suffering or judge those who suffer. Faith wrestles with God about our sufferings and the sufferings of the world.
Last week, God questions Job. God shows Job the mysteries and magnitudes of creation and asks Job to tell God how creation works. As Rev. Caitlan suggested, God doesn’t throw the complexity of creation in Job’s face to scold or silence him or make him give up. It’s to help Job remember who he is in relationship with, the God of all creation. We learned this God is calling us to deeper, more sincere, honest, and authentic relationship, between God and each of us, between God and all of us, even if we never get answers.
This week, we are at the end, and we hear Job’s final reply to God, and what God says and does.
Before we read scripture and preach, let’s pray…
Prayer for Illumination
God as we open your word, may it open us. As we read your word, may it read us. And may these words we say or hear point our minds, hearts, and whole selves toward you. Amen? Amen.
Scripture Job 42:1-12a Joel
42 Then Job replied to the Lord:
2 “I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, 3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me that I did not know.
You said, 4 ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you (will) respond to me.’
5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;
6 therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
7 After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, like my servant Job has. 8 Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering, and my servant Job shall pray for you all, and I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your foolishness, for you have not spoken of me what is true, as my servant Job has done.”
9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer (for them).
10 And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends, and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. 11 Then there came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house; they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him; and each of them gave him an offering of money and some gold jewelry.
12 The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning…
This too is the word of God for the people of God… (Thanks be to God)
Sermon
I don’t mind meeting someone with no faith in God. That doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, it excites me. I’ve been there myself, fully committed to the viewpoint that God doesn’t exist, better not exist. For anyone who has really suffered, or looked upon real suffering, it is a tempting option to dismiss the presence or possibility of a good loving God.
But I also know we have a hunger in us to imagine or seek something beyond us, what some call the spark of God, or the God-gene, and others have called a God shaped hole in us. We can attempt to deny the presence or pull of that hunger, that hole, but we can never fully squelch it. It hums in all humanity and all creation. What begins to ease its hunger and emptiness is as we allow ourselves to imagine and wonder there might be something, someone bigger and fuller beyond us that is ultimately loving, true, and just.
It’s a very uncomfortable place to be, there in the tension between a world that has brokenness, dishonesty, unfairness, uncaring… and an ultimate who is truthful, authentic, loving, and just. So some try to release that tension by denying God. And I don’t mind being with those folk. They usually don’t come to church. Why would they? But they still have the hunger, the hole, and when it pulls on them, if I’m so blessed to be nearby, I enjoy being with them as the seed of faith cracks open in them.
It's harder for me to engage someone whose seed of faith was cracked open, then stunted. They also don’t like the tension of where we really are, between brokenness and wholeness, between a life or world with hate, injustice, lies, and suffering, and God’s kingdom of love, justice, truth, and peace. But instead of denying the God side to alleviate the tension, the seed of faith in them gets distorted, and they try to release the tension by ignoring, or dismissing, or explaining away any pain or suffering.
Like Job’s childish theology, God rewards the good and punishes the wicked, oh well. Like Job’s three friends, if something happens, it must have been a part of God’s plan, oh well. These folk often come to church. They are holding onto the God side of the tension, in what feels like faith. But they often expect church to be only positive, optimistic, uplifting, encouraging, and these folk are uncomfortable when church embraces doubt or questions God, or boldly confesses sin and evil, or preaches Jesus’ opinion on social justice issues like poverty or immigration. That just reminds us of the suffering side of the tension we are trying to ignore.
As a pastor, when I meet someone stuck in stunted faith like that, I ache for them, for the harm done to them by others in the name of God. I remember that too, personally, how faithful people gave me harmful God language and how it cost me years of reconciling a good and loving God with a beautiful but broken world. For a while, I even tried church again, wanting it to be a place where the goodness of God silenced any pains or sufferings. But thanks to faithful folk, I was pulled through, so now I ache for people with stunted faith, because they will need to go through some painful growth. The seed of faith was supposed to become roots and fruit to bridge the gap between real brokenness and possible wholeness, but instead was stunted and never really grew.
When someone with stunted faith comes close and shows how they believe or speak about God, I will gently, truthfully, in love ask a question, or offer a bit of scripture, a story or parable of Jesus, or one little logical consequence of their hardened theology. I sometimes do that in sermons. It’s a loving offer so roots can stretch deeper and wider, and beautiful fruit can grow, but to those trying to hold onto a good and loving God and NOT see, not feel suffering or brokenness, it’s sometimes perceived as rude, or irreverent, or inappropriate for church.
I know that, because I remember when pastors, friends, or scripture did that to me, dared me to hold onto a good loving God AND face the real sufferings and evils in my own life, and then in our world. I remember how it hurt to face what I did not want to see. I did not feel love or gratitude to the one turning my eyes to the black neighborhood in Greenville, or the people of Appalachia, or the victims of violence in Mexico, or the Palestinian citizens. I only felt a need to shut my eyes, turn my face, and anger at them for messing up church by bring ugly things into this beautiful place.
So now, as a pastor, when with stunted seeds of faith get angry or afraid, I weep with them for what they seeing and feeling, and for what they might say or do in response. My goal is not to hurt anyone, only to give everyone a big healthy wide faith that can stand in the tension between God, God’s present and promised kingdom and our beautiful but broken reality so we can all live and breathe here in between, and find ways to be the hands and feet of God.
Sometimes, I am blessed to be with someone in the throws of faith, where they are wrestling and struggling. Those are celebration moments. I try to cheer and applaud and encourage. As a pastor, I cannot encourage those who are stuck in stunted or childish faith, like Job’s friends. But I can and will cheer and encourage those who are going through the growing pains of deeper stronger faith, like Job. Job had been pruned of his childish faith and was wrestling and struggling to grow a more mature faith. Job’s friends were still stuck, but Job’s was stretching it roots and reaching its branches. That kind of growth isn’t easy. It hurts, but it’s glorious, and as a pastor, when I find someone whose childish faith is being pruned away, and they are going through the wrestling and growing pains of healthier bigger faith, I try to stay close and cheer and encourage them to hold on, to persevere, to keep going.
Here at the end, Job’s faith has a new shape to it. It isn’t shallow, small, or simple anymore. It has roots strengthened by the strains of struggle with God and wild growth. God rebukes the stunted faith of Job’s friends. God says their faith was wrong about God, and Job who wrestled and struggled and accused and challenged God was right. God tells the friends to make an offering to God, and God says God will forgive them if Job forgives them. And they do, and Job does, and God does. Then all came together around the one who had suffered so greatly and wrestled with God but never let go, and they offer gifts to restore him, and they eat bread together…
To God be all glory and honor, now and forever more, Amen? Amen.
Charge
Benediction
Now blessing, laughter, and loving be yours, and may the love of a great God who names you and holds you as the earth turns and the flowers grow be with you this day, this night, this moment, and forever more. Amen? Amen.
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