Sermon
When I watch a made-for-tv court room drama, I always wonder why the defense decides to rest their case when they do. How do they decide when to stop? If you're the attorney you probably have a careful strategy that has the final plan written out. If you're the client and you're innocent, you don't ever want the defense to rest. Today's scripture represents Job resting his case. Even though he is innocent. In these words from his final oath of innocence he sounds almost weary. “If these things have happened,” he says, then let me be punished. Let me be weighed in a just balance – not on a scale that has been tipped. If there has been an iniquity I have been false to God above. If I have not shared my morsel with an orphan; if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing; if my riches guide my decisions; if I have enjoyed the suffering of anyone else, if I have treated the land badly may it treat me badly. In all these things Job is willing to take what comes – but, and this is all this has ever been about – it has to be fair. He still has never acknowledged any wrong doing. He keeps saying “if.”
During the last four weeks we have heard Job use language of metaphor, of commerce, of agriculture, of his heart, of family life, of friendship, of loyalty. The language he keeps coming back to is language of the law. The question for Job has never been about guilt or innocence, or punishment or freedom, on their own; the question has always been one of justice. And where are you theoretically supposed to find justice but in a court of law.
When Job says, “O that I had one to hear me! Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! O that I had the indictment written by my adversary!,” he is making reference to a legal procedure of the time. It was a version of the right to face your accuser. The accuser would write down exactly what wrong was done, and the accused could sign. If this would happen for Job, he would gladly tell everything he knows. He would approach his accuser like royalty.
And in what seems like “just like that” the words of Job are ended.
Why did the defense rest its case? For 30 chapters Job has responded to everything thrown at him. Why did he stop now? Maybe it was just time. Maybe his point had been made in every way it could be made. Job has been simultaneously seeking and dreading some kind of confrontation with God. Remember earlier, the satan felt sure that Job would curse God to God's face at some point, and it is now in the story when God's face appears. Will Job curse God or not?
Job cannot curse God to God's face if God does not appear, so the fact that God enters the story here is crucial. God is offering a chance for Job to curse him. God could have never shown up; God could have changed the rules mid-way through the challenge he and the satan were conducting.
“Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind.” True to other stories of the time, God makes an appearance with a storm.
Perhaps lost in the drama of Job's emotions and the anticipation of what might be next and the storm of God's entrance, we can't forget to notice the most significant message from today's text in the simple fact that God showed up. God answered.
Most of the messages of the book of Job thus far have been important messages to us about the options we have when talking to God. All of those options seek to change the mold we feel stuck in when usual religious language and actions limit our whole selves from responding to our lives in a way that is truthful because when it comes to God we have to present ourselves differently. Some religious language about interacting with God holds us back in prayer. The friends responded to Job with the best that they had. They just could not imagine how Job could possibly reconcile a just God with the innocence he was claiming while suffering as he was. And they didn't think that the way Job was behaving and speaking was going to bode well.
God had options too. God did not go away. God did not ignore Job. God answered.
Even Job's silence and grief, even in Job's words of vehement anger and frustration and almost madness, and his loud and lengthy pleas for deliverance, even in Job's loud demands that God just leave him alone, even then, God answered.
When it comes to a relationship with God, don't stop. Don't give up. Don't make up God's mind in advance.
The satan believes that Job is only the loyal faithful servant that he is because he has God's blessing. The question was raised for us, can we be pious even without blessings? Are we believers because we will be rewarded? Are we believers because we have been rewarded? The satan wants to prove his theory by making Job suffer. Then the bigger question becomes how does suffering have anything to do with our piousness, our belief in God? What is the meaning?
The meaning of suffering is a question that has been asked and answered, albeit not to Job's satisfaction, by more than just Job's friends in this story. The friends represent humankind throughout time, and the religious paths we have taken as societies, over lifetimes.
The first words from God are “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” God does not rebuke Job for speaking, or even for what he has said. God's rebuke is for “speaking without knowledge.”
Job is not being chastised. This is not the beginning of a “who do you think you are” speech. God does not say “No one can argue with God.” No, God says, “Anyone who argues with God must respond.” Job is not being chastised, he is being invited. Respond. Say more.
What is the knowledge that Job is missing? Well for starters, his vision is too small. Look, God says, at all that is involved with creation. Consider the bounds of time and space, the vastness of the seas, the complexities of life and death, of deep darkness, the great design of the cosmos. If God were to say “look at the bigger picture” Job wouldn't know where to start. The limits are literally, unimaginable.
Yes, says God, engage with me. Gird up your loins. In other words, get ready. Prepare for the very thing you asked for, a confrontation with God. Just as Job mentioned earlier, God will question him and Job will answer.
If this sermon series were a television series, this episode would end on a cliff hanger. Basically, God says, Let's go. Fade to black.
The entire book of Job is an invitation to relationship even while suffering, loss and confusion rule the day. Today's scripture specifically meets us on the edge of the cliff that we find ourselves on in these days. This book absolutely speaks to us for such a time as this. We are in a moment of not yet. A pandemic surrounds us and we don't have an end in sight. But it will end. Social unrest and the Black Lives Matter movement are already challenging and changing us. This too will end. But our concept of time is not God's concept of time.
Here are some questions for us to ponder from this cliff hanger episode of our series on the book of Job:
In what ways are we suffering, lost or confused?
Who do we know that might be suffering, lost or confused?
Who don't we know, that might be suffering, lost or confused?
Are we prepared to include God in our questions, comments and plans?
To be continued next week. As we are moving out of the old but not yet into the new, our consolation is that these liminal places are exactly where God is. It is more important now than ever to pay attention. Look for what helps and begin there. Look for what is light and good. God will show us the way.
Please pray with me.