Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost 3rd October 2021

Job 1: 1; 2: 1-10

There 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. One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord . The 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.’ The 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.’ Then Satan answered the Lord , ‘Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives. But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.’ The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, he is in your power; only spare his life.’ So 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. Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes. Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die.’ But 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.

Mark 10: 2-16

Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ They said, ‘Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.” “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’ Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.’ People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them. 

Reflection:

This week I could really throw myself into the gospel- I suggest it has quite a few potentially contentious verses contained within, but I am drawn to the old and difficult question instead- Why do people suffer?

Why do we suffer? Why do good and innocent people suffer so? In a world that was created so beautiful and perfect, why then is there misery and suffering? These questions, as old as humankind, appear also in the Bible, notably in the Book of Job, a late Old Testament writing that can be dated to around four hundred years before Jesus Christ. The Book of Job gives a specific expression to the universal theme of the good person who suffers. Because the people of Israel are united to their God by a covenant, and the nation responded to God’s commitment by a promise of faithfulness. But now it seems that the God of Israel, the God of the covenant, has forgotten his people, or even that he is making them suffer. And so, the question arose: ‘Why remain faithful when it seems everything is coming against us?’ And how do we understand the question of theodicy; the rationalisation of divine provision in view of the existence of evil

I suggest that the book of Job is amongst the most difficult in the Old Testament. If God is a good God and Job is a righteous man then why does God allow these terrible things to happen? 

The author does not deal with this question up front. Instead he begins, by telling the story of a foreigner, Job, a man of the East. But, although he is an outsider, Job will reflect, talk and act like a faithful Israelite. His story is a parable, a reflection on a person being faithful to God despite what is happening in life. It does not give an answer to the question of suffering, but it questions us about the reasons for our faith.

The first chapter begins by describing a portrait of Job, an exceptional person in all respects. His moral integrity and his piety are unmitigated. He cares for his ten children as an model father. And the quantity of his possessions makes him ‘the greatest of all the people of the East.’

The story then takes us to the throne room of God and this is where our reading is found today. The Lord receives his court the heavenly beings. Among them is ‘the satan.’ (the name interpreted as ‘the opposer’) who calls everything into question and who looks for the weak point of a person’s life. 

Speaking with the satan, God mentions Job. It seems that God is pleased with his servant Job. He observes to Satan that Job is one of a kind: “There is no one like him on the earth”– just as there is no one like God in heaven. But Satan, replies that he is not so sure, that it is easy for Job to be blameless since his life is a such a success.  Questioned by the Satan, God continues to be convinced in the honour of the man Job. 

One of the challenges I find in the book of Job is that I understand God to bring healing, hope and abundance, yet in Job we find that God also brings or allows challenges and trials in life as well. As Job says to his wife- ‘Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?’ 

Some see this story as a myth and Job as simply a representation of the righteous whose suffering seems to be overwhelming and inexplicable. But I read this story as if Job were a real person who is faithful to God, who loves and follows him and yet is assigned the call to endure the unimaginable. This is not about sin or punishment but shows a man whose love for God is unbending and whose trust in God is beyond the circumstances of life. 

Job is plunged into an unusual season of oppressive discomfort and personal loss, but the underlining message is that, though he hurts deeply and aches for comfort, ultimately, his relationship with and love for his God enables him to declare that God is deserving of worship and gratitude. 

Job shows that there can be a relationship to God for no ulterior motives, a love for nothing but simply for the love of God. You see we are called to love God not for what we will get- not for what we expect him to do, but for God himself. Too often we humans give love and expect love in return- give grace and expect grace in return. And if it doesn’t happen that way we wallow in self-righteousness. But life isn’t like that. The bottom line is that we came into this world with nothing and we will leave with nothing (Apart from love). We receive in life but ultimately deserve nothing.

Too often in our daily living we see people expect to receive what they think they deserve. They also expect to find someone or something to blame for the ‘bad things’ that life brings. When things don’t go smoothly, it must because…

Perhaps it comes back to how we view our situation and our expectations of God’s goodness. Perhaps it comes back to our view of life and how we expect life to happen. If like Job’s wife we only expect a perfect and easy path then our relationship with God and others will be challenged and full of strain and we will be disappointed when things don’t go to plan.

So, I wonder then, what then can we learn from Job? And what do we learn if we look to Christ and his example of suffering. The devotion book ‘God Calling’ suggests that Christ’s mission was founded on his acceptance of the difficulty and discipline of life, so that he could share the human life with his followers of every age. Christ didn’t come to earth expecting an easy road. We know it was by his sufferings that we have received the gift of eternal life. Christ promises that for every day we live we will have the strength needed given to us as it was to him. 

Remember, God is sovereign. God gives and God takes away. This giving and taking as God wills are sovereign acts that can only be done by the one who creates and controls the universe. This also means that we live under the authority of a giving God who loves us. As Henri Nouwen says, ‘we have to allow ourselves to not master God but allow for God to master us.’ I wonder if a lot of our way of living might be turned upside down to what our natural tendency might aspire to.

God offers us stewardship. Both our prosperity and our pain can be missions entrusted to us by God. We do not live in isolation so both our prosperity and suffering are linked to the God who trusts us with it all. Each Christian must grow to understand that his or her loss is as much his or her duty as is their prosperity. Job reminds us that we are called then to behave as thankful stewards, even when we disdain the present state or stage of our lives. I question then, how has the pandemic changed the way we view life? Or has it?

I often encourage people I speak with to have a grateful heart. Praise has a similar effect. Thanksgiving changes the way we see life. It allows us to live out our faith even while hurting, because we know that through it all God is still sovereign. God cares enough for each of us to entrust us with all aspects of the journey that God has planned for us. For this and so much more may we be very thankful.