Year B, Pentecost 5
This
reading from the Book of Job comes at the end of the book. Most people know this Biblical book as it is
often referenced in relationship to the question of “why bad things happen to
good people.” Job was a good and
righteous man. God loved him as he loves
all his children, but he also distinguished him as one of the most righteous of
his children. Job had a good life. He had a wife and many children who loved
him. He had land, animals and money. Things were going swimmingly. Then God and
Satan got into a little argument about Job.
Satan argued that Job was only good because his life was good, and what
would happen if things turned bad? Would
he still be righteous? They decided to test Job. Now, this part in and of
itself is problematic, and I don’t have time to address it. My guess is that this was the author’s way to
dramatize the suffering and make it a good story. So let’s just skip over the whole God and
Satan making a bet part.
We
can’t be sure why, but things got ugly for Job. His animals died. His children
died. His wife died. He lost everything. When he was the only one left, he
caught some illness that covered him with boils. To his credit, he lasted a long time before
getting angry. I would have never made it as long as he did. However, even he could not stay positive
through this devastation. Yet instead of
giving up and deciding that there was no God or at least no God worth talking
to—he talked to God. He talked and
talked. He defended his innocence. He
questioned God. Why would God let this happen to him? Why was God absent? Why was God ignoring him? He was asking the questions that many of us
ask at one point in our life. He begged God to respond and give him an
opportunity to state his case.
Finally,
after all of this catastrophe, God spoke out of the whirlwind. He started off with
one of my favorite quotes from scripture: “Gird up your loins like a man...” Men in
this time wore tunics. If they were
about to go into a battle, or partake in any major physical exertion, they
would gather the fabric up around them and tuck it in their belt. When God told
Job to gird up his loins, he was inviting him into a confrontation, one that
promised to require energy and work. One translation interpreted this phrase
as, “Pull yourself together. Up on your
feet.” (See: https://churchpop.com/2016/02/02/an-important-biblical-skill-how-to-gird-up-your-loins/ for helpful illustration on how to gird your loins.)
After that God
proceeded to ask Job question after question.
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” “Have you an
arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?” In other words… “Who do you think you are
talking to?” We talked about this
reading at our staff meeting and at vestry and I could not find one person who
thought this was a helpful response from God.
In seminary, we are trained to provide pastoral care to those in
need. One professor told me, “The
greater the tragedy, the fewer the words.” Because sometimes, there is nothing
helpful to say. However, there are
unhelpful things one can say and God would have surely flunked his class in
pastoral care with this response.
Yet…for a moment, let’s look past what we think
of this response and look at how Job responded. After many chapters of God’s
questioning, Job finally says, “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…” While God’s
response might not appeal to us, it seems as though it worked for Job. He might not have liked the response, but he
was grateful for it because it proved to him that God was still there. God
cared enough to appear to him personally.
Originally the theme of
this sermon was going to be, “If
you ask God a question, you should be prepared for an answer you might not
want.” But I
thought a lot about the times I asked God questions and ignored the
answers. If I had just listened to God
about that guy, it would have saved me months of heartache. A more recent
example was my decision to adopt. There were many times when I heard God
whisper in my ear “Adopt” and I ignored him because that was not my plan. The thing is that even if we are not prepared
for the answer, we should still ask the question.
For some reason, Job needed this talk. In some ways, it was what he had asked
for. Perhaps the reason that God went on
so long was because it took Job awhile to get on board. Perhaps God sat there with him for days or
months. I like to think that is what it
looked like—that Job came to his revelation slowly and God was patient with
him. Because even when I have asked the
question and ignored the answer, the seed was planted.
Would it have been better had I listened the
first time? Sure. But eventually I got there,
because I never stopped talking to God and at some point…I let him talk and I
listened. Ask the question that you are
afraid of asking. Ask it. You might not
like the answer. If you don’t like the answer that’s a good sign because that indicates
that you are really hearing God. If it
was your own voice, it would be telling you what you want to hear. If you are not ready to hear the answer,
that’s ok. Keep asking. Keep
talking. One day, you will find the
strength to accept the answer that God has given you and to follow the path
that moves you closer to who God wants you to be. Ask the question.
