What Changes And What Doesn't?
Sermon
Sermons On The First Readings
Series I, Cycle B
(Before speaking, the speaker puts on a pair of "cool shades" [dark sunglasses] and takes them off when it seems the point has been made.)
The character Job is "a cool dude." What is "a cool dude"? A cool dude is one who can tell a story and thousands of years later we are still talking about what he said.
In matters of faith, Job confronts us with gut-wrenching reality. In a world where we face many superficial people and issues, Job drags us to "the bottom of the well," to the core issues that define who we are in relationship with God, and how we know God: Who is God? Does God test and reward the good and punish the bad? What does God require of us? How does suffering relate to the meaning of life and our positioning with God? Is God fair and consistent, following a considered and deliberate path, or is God whimsical and arbitrary? Is God indifferent to our situations, or does God intervene?
The most wonderful thing about the Bible, written by many individuals over thousands of years, is that it is full of contradictions! We human beings are then obligated to the task of finding God in the contradictions, and those contradictions are where God and life become both exciting and interesting.
We find some of these contradictions right in the book of Job! The poet who wrote most of the body of the book seems to present a different character than the narrator who begins and finishes the book. The poet writes as one who is talking about himself. The narrator writes as if he is talking about someone else. The narrator shows Job as being innocent; the poet shows him as being a blasphemer, a doubter, a frenzied rebel, and a proud giant (42:6).
We didn't read the verses 42:7-10 where the narrator is found to be severe about Job's friends, but the poet is not so. The narrator moves us in an inspirational way; the poet asks us to probe the bowels of our understanding. The narrator evokes a thrilling response in us, while the poet almost embarrasses us with the compelling grip of existential communication.
The fact that the ancient poet of the sixth century B.C.E. is different in style and presentation than the later narrator is not a problem. Do we not always say that "there are two sides to every story"? We need both the pull of the poet and the tug of the narrator to deal with the issues of Job, his goodness and virtue, as it impacts his suffering and loss, along with God's place in Job's story. Job is "us."
The reading today is partly written by the poet and partly by the narrator. We see the repentance of Job, and the return and restoration of his life with friends, family, and wealth. In fact the reading tells us that he has twice as much as he had before his great losses. In his repentance, Job is abundantly blessed with sheep, camels, oxen, and donkeys. Seven sons and three daughters complemented his fortune. His daughters were more than beautiful; "there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters." We can only wonder what the sons looked like. We do know that they all benefitted from Job's restoration. The wellness of one member of the family benefits the entire family.
To top it all off, Job also received a long life. He lived to be 140 years old, so there were three generations of his family: his children and his children's children. "And Job died, old and full of days" -- a happy ending to the story.
Did you notice that his wife didn't even get "an honorable mention"? She must have had something to do with his good fortune; even bearing ten children should be at least worthy of a footnote! There is always more to the story, is there not?
We see Job go through a lot of change in this story, from the beginning to the end: he had a lot, he lost a lot, he suffered a lot, he encountered God, he got it all back, and more. We see him grow up in this story: the boy becomes a man. There is a lot of change for our hero Job and his life.
We would do well to remember that Job lost more than his worldly goods in this story: he lost his ego, and he lost his false pride, and yet he found restoration and trust when he lost his slavery to himself.
When our future prospects look dim, we might remember that Job actually received what he earlier thought was impossible -- "for all things are possible with God."
With all the changes that transformed Job, we don't get much information on how God changed from the beginning of the story to the end of the story.
In fact, Job seems like he just makes a full circle, and comes back to the same place:
I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted ...
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.
Job is really saying that "my eye has now seen what my ear had heard in the first place; sorry for the error; I now know you are who you are."
God, did not essentially change in this story.
You and I have lots of changes in our lives: we grow up, we have children, we get sick, and experience death, we have disappointments, we personally change, we have betrayals, we change jobs, and we are affected by the changes in other people's lives.
We need to know, as Job found out, that the reality of the presence of God and God's kingdom of loving acceptance, restoration, peace, and healing does not change. The one thing that did not change with Job himself was his faithfulness to God. Considering all of the changes that Job experienced, the two things that did not change in this story were God, and Job's faithfulness to God.
Every one of us has experienced changes in our lives, just like the Job of 2,600 years ago, but the one thing we need to know is that in 2,600 years, or a millennium from now, God will still be there, unchanged.
Another poet, Henry Francis Lyte (1793-1847), wrote some words on the same theme:
Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou Who changest not, abide with me.
You can describe life in either of two ways: you can say that there is always change in life, or you can say, that one thing that never changes, is that there is always change.
Job in his faithfulness to God was anchored in his faith, to the one thing that never changes, and that is what sustained Job in the change and decay he experienced.
Job was more than a good man, he was a man of virtue. Virtue is a level of goodness that is victorious through trial. Virtue is considered a positive human characteristic; we don't ascribe virtue to God. As it was for Job, virtue is a life goal for us to achieve.
The secret of life is not found in what happens to us, even though we usually focus on ourselves, but that is not the issue.
Whatever happens to us in life, we would do well not to take it personally. We were not singled out to get sick or have a car accident; life just happens, and changes will and do occur.
Like Job, if we have faith in God, then we are anchored to the immovable and unchangeable source of all creation, the compass that always points in a true direction so that we will not lose our way.
The secret of life is realized by our faithfulness to God, in what we do, with what ever happens to us. Amen.
The character Job is "a cool dude." What is "a cool dude"? A cool dude is one who can tell a story and thousands of years later we are still talking about what he said.
In matters of faith, Job confronts us with gut-wrenching reality. In a world where we face many superficial people and issues, Job drags us to "the bottom of the well," to the core issues that define who we are in relationship with God, and how we know God: Who is God? Does God test and reward the good and punish the bad? What does God require of us? How does suffering relate to the meaning of life and our positioning with God? Is God fair and consistent, following a considered and deliberate path, or is God whimsical and arbitrary? Is God indifferent to our situations, or does God intervene?
The most wonderful thing about the Bible, written by many individuals over thousands of years, is that it is full of contradictions! We human beings are then obligated to the task of finding God in the contradictions, and those contradictions are where God and life become both exciting and interesting.
We find some of these contradictions right in the book of Job! The poet who wrote most of the body of the book seems to present a different character than the narrator who begins and finishes the book. The poet writes as one who is talking about himself. The narrator writes as if he is talking about someone else. The narrator shows Job as being innocent; the poet shows him as being a blasphemer, a doubter, a frenzied rebel, and a proud giant (42:6).
We didn't read the verses 42:7-10 where the narrator is found to be severe about Job's friends, but the poet is not so. The narrator moves us in an inspirational way; the poet asks us to probe the bowels of our understanding. The narrator evokes a thrilling response in us, while the poet almost embarrasses us with the compelling grip of existential communication.
The fact that the ancient poet of the sixth century B.C.E. is different in style and presentation than the later narrator is not a problem. Do we not always say that "there are two sides to every story"? We need both the pull of the poet and the tug of the narrator to deal with the issues of Job, his goodness and virtue, as it impacts his suffering and loss, along with God's place in Job's story. Job is "us."
The reading today is partly written by the poet and partly by the narrator. We see the repentance of Job, and the return and restoration of his life with friends, family, and wealth. In fact the reading tells us that he has twice as much as he had before his great losses. In his repentance, Job is abundantly blessed with sheep, camels, oxen, and donkeys. Seven sons and three daughters complemented his fortune. His daughters were more than beautiful; "there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters." We can only wonder what the sons looked like. We do know that they all benefitted from Job's restoration. The wellness of one member of the family benefits the entire family.
To top it all off, Job also received a long life. He lived to be 140 years old, so there were three generations of his family: his children and his children's children. "And Job died, old and full of days" -- a happy ending to the story.
Did you notice that his wife didn't even get "an honorable mention"? She must have had something to do with his good fortune; even bearing ten children should be at least worthy of a footnote! There is always more to the story, is there not?
We see Job go through a lot of change in this story, from the beginning to the end: he had a lot, he lost a lot, he suffered a lot, he encountered God, he got it all back, and more. We see him grow up in this story: the boy becomes a man. There is a lot of change for our hero Job and his life.
We would do well to remember that Job lost more than his worldly goods in this story: he lost his ego, and he lost his false pride, and yet he found restoration and trust when he lost his slavery to himself.
When our future prospects look dim, we might remember that Job actually received what he earlier thought was impossible -- "for all things are possible with God."
With all the changes that transformed Job, we don't get much information on how God changed from the beginning of the story to the end of the story.
In fact, Job seems like he just makes a full circle, and comes back to the same place:
I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted ...
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.
Job is really saying that "my eye has now seen what my ear had heard in the first place; sorry for the error; I now know you are who you are."
God, did not essentially change in this story.
You and I have lots of changes in our lives: we grow up, we have children, we get sick, and experience death, we have disappointments, we personally change, we have betrayals, we change jobs, and we are affected by the changes in other people's lives.
We need to know, as Job found out, that the reality of the presence of God and God's kingdom of loving acceptance, restoration, peace, and healing does not change. The one thing that did not change with Job himself was his faithfulness to God. Considering all of the changes that Job experienced, the two things that did not change in this story were God, and Job's faithfulness to God.
Every one of us has experienced changes in our lives, just like the Job of 2,600 years ago, but the one thing we need to know is that in 2,600 years, or a millennium from now, God will still be there, unchanged.
Another poet, Henry Francis Lyte (1793-1847), wrote some words on the same theme:
Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou Who changest not, abide with me.
You can describe life in either of two ways: you can say that there is always change in life, or you can say, that one thing that never changes, is that there is always change.
Job in his faithfulness to God was anchored in his faith, to the one thing that never changes, and that is what sustained Job in the change and decay he experienced.
Job was more than a good man, he was a man of virtue. Virtue is a level of goodness that is victorious through trial. Virtue is considered a positive human characteristic; we don't ascribe virtue to God. As it was for Job, virtue is a life goal for us to achieve.
The secret of life is not found in what happens to us, even though we usually focus on ourselves, but that is not the issue.
Whatever happens to us in life, we would do well not to take it personally. We were not singled out to get sick or have a car accident; life just happens, and changes will and do occur.
Like Job, if we have faith in God, then we are anchored to the immovable and unchangeable source of all creation, the compass that always points in a true direction so that we will not lose our way.
The secret of life is realized by our faithfulness to God, in what we do, with what ever happens to us. Amen.
