Title: The Story of Job
10/8/06 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr. B
Job 1:1, 2:1-10
Rev. Joy R. Haertig
“There once was a man from the land of Uz”, the story of Job begins. Those of us hearing this in the U.S. may think of the land of “Oz”, the wonderful tale of Dorothy and the yellow brick road - but it's “Uz”. I feel like Fran and I have just returned form the land of “Uz” or “Oz”. Our trip to Greece had a bumpy start, due to missed planes and various complications it took 16 of us 63 hours to make it to our destination! And once we were there we absolutely had to sleep and then we spent the next 7 days seeing beautiful landscape, the ruins of past and sophisticated civilizations, museums, Greek Orthodox churches and monasteries. We walked and sometimes ran through the pouring rain in the steps of the Apostle Paul and drank espresso in little cafes along the shores of the Aegean Sea and yes, Fran and I took a dip in the Aegean Sea even though the sign said swimming was prohibited.
Before we knew it we were home. My head is still spinning with the stories of our Greek guide Ted as he shared his knowledge of Greek myths and his eye for the changes in art and architecture and their ability to point to the evolution of civilizations.
Being in a place like Greece is a living example of the fact that civilizations and empires come and go, earthquakes, wars, rebuilding and reclaiming - earthquakes again and more war. Yes, time marches on and change is a fact of life and we live in a bubble in the United States thinking that somehow we can avoid all of that.
Being in Greece also re-affirmed my belief in the power of story as a tool for helping us wrestle with the complexities and mysteries of existence and our attitude towards them. From the Greek myths to the glorious icons on the walls of chapels that told the Gospel stories and sought to teach doctrine to new believers - the art of storytelling encourages us to go deeper, to ponder, to imagine, to search for meaning and purpose. It would be awful for us to loose the art of storytelling and storylistening in our scientific oriented society.
The story of Job is one of the greatest stories from our Judeo-Christian Religion. It is a folktale written to help us wrestle with the question of why the innocent suffer. I can imagine hearing the tale told by a wise-old Rabbi as his people come to him angry and frustrated that they are living by the good book, praying and keeping the Sabbath but their crops are failing or their children are sick. The Rabbi tries to shake them from the commonly held belief that good behavior protects them from bad experiences by telling them an imaginative story full of interesting characters; vivid and often painful details and unexpected twists.
The imaginative story of Job includes the middle-eastern image of God having a heavenly court much like an earthly King would have and instead of human assistants God has angels. One of the angels is known as Satan whose name means “adversary” in Hebrew. The Jews do not believe in Satan or the devil like some Christians have come to believe in. This Satan in this story is just one angel among many - he is not fallen or evil and he does not wear red either. Satan the one that asks God “why” and “what if”. I like to think of him as God's “teen angel” - testing, testing, testing.
Jewish scholars believe the folktale was written in reaction to “wisdom dogmatics” who taught that there was always some cause to suffering. (In other words, people who thought their perspectives were fact rather than one perspective.) One scholar believes that the book of Job was written in order to “spare our selves and others the stupidity and cruelty of imposing meanings on suffering that will not fit.” (You might say that the book of Job was written to save us from people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. I am serious about that.)
The book of Job reflects the reality that how we experience or interpret innocent suffering can impact our trust in God. In the portion we read this morning we are considering whether a human being can and will love and trust God when all good things have been taken away from them, including their health. The storyteller does not let us off easy - we are told that Job is very sick, that he even has sores all over his body, it is not a comfortable image, most of us might need to turn away if we were to see him in front of us. The story stirs in us our own memories of times we may have seen loved ones suffer in this way and wonder why God doesn't do something to make it stop.
Those of you that have read the entire story of Job know how tenacious he is. He does not let go of his love and trust in God regardless of his circumstances. He is like the little boy who is sitting in the playroom that is thick in horse manure and instead of being disgusted or overwhelmed by it all he gleefully keeps saying, “there must be a horse in here somewhere”!
It is not neive optimism that keeps Job grounded in his belief in God, it is tenacity, it is commitment, it is an attitude and a love and trust in God that is NOT based on conditions or circumstances. It is the kind of love that Paul speaks of in his letter to the Corinthian church: “Love is not boastful or rude, it does not insist in its own way…it endures all things…”
Or Paul's words in Romans 8 - “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God.”
The story of Job can point us towards nurturing a faith in God that is not based on results. “I do this so God should do that.” Job's God is not a divine fairy Godmother; Job's God is present in all things, endures all things and nothing will separate God from him - nothing. This can be a disappointment for those of us that tend to like quick and positive results for positive behavior.
Rabbi Kushner, the author of a number of books including “Why Bad things Happen to Good People” helped me come to peace with this human - divine struggle. He has often given me a new lens to look through. He writes: “Religion is not primarily a set of beliefs, a collection of prayers or a series of rituals. Religion is first and foremost a way of seeing. It can't change the facts about the world we live in, but it can change the way we see those facts, and that in itself can often make a real difference.”
He then gives this example. “You and I visit the same hospital. We walk down the same corridor and we see the same things - elderly patients for whom length of days has become a curse instead of a blessing; young people whose lives have been shattered by vicious criminals or drunk-driving techniques; innocent children who are victims of genetic tragedy and will never really have a chance to live. The facts are the same for each of us, but do we really see the same things? One person will see an endless chronicle of pain and suffering, and conclude that the world is a mess and life is Somebody's idea of a nasty joke. For him, it is a mistake to care too much about anything in this world; you just set yourself up to have your heart broken. Another person, seeing the same situation, will come away having learned something about human courage and resiliency. His conclusion will be that incurable illnesses are a painful outrage precisely because life is good and holy. Otherwise why would it grieve us so much when a life is cut short? For him, the courage to love in the face of the world's unfairness is the most profoundly human response.”
The horrible tragedy that happened to an Amish community recently in the murder and wounding of young girls by a man that had lost his mind. Their reaction to the event is a powerful example of how faith is not a set of beliefs as much as it is a way of seeing. In the midst of this horror they saw the need for healing and forgiveness for a terribly troubled man and his family. They had the courage to love in the face of the world's unfairness. I read this morning that the chaplain broke down and cried when he saw the 75 Amish that came to yesterday's graveside.
The book of Job is a folktale.
It is a story to help us ponder the possibility that faith is not an insurance policy but a way of seeing and being in life that keeps us connected to the Life Source that is God, regardless of our circumstances. When our love and trust in God is based on circumstances it is understandable that whenever we see the innocent suffer than we see it as a time when God failed rather than an opportunity to be a vessel of God's love.
Job was tenacious in his love and trust in God. It did not mean he did not shake his fist at life itself or cry out - but he never let go of God or blamed him, no matter the circumstances, and God certainly would not let go of him either. It is a story worth taking seriously on our journey towards understanding the mysterious ways of God.
Amen.