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Proper 22

Job 1&2
1.1There 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.
2.1One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. 2The 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.” 3The 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.” 4Then Satan answered the Lord, “Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives. 5But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” 6The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, he is in your power; only spare his life.”
7So 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. 8Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes. 9Then his wife said to him, “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die.” 10But 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.


Imagine a meeting of the heavenly Board of Directors. Satan, Corporate VP for Evil and Mayhem, strolls in like he owns the place and gets a pretty nice greeting: “Hey, where you been, Satan?”
And Satan is a little coy: “Oh, you know, here and there, mostly out.”
But God’s not really listening, just being polite. So God says, “Have you noticed Job, my servant? Upright, blameless, and truly one-of-a-kind. Always thinking of me, never you. Sorry mister.”
“Ah yes,” Satan says, “but does he fear you? Have you given him even a moment of pause? No, you’ve given him ten kids, servants, seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and a nice manure business on the side. But take it away, and he’ll curse you in a heartbeat.”
“Alright,” God says, “here’s a little divine power. Do what you wish with Job’s world, but don’t injure him.”

In a matter of minutes, Job goes from richest man in the East to childless pauper. I’ll leave it to you to read, but you can trust that Satan is nothing if he’s not thorough. And what does Job do in response? He becomes philosophical:

Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell on the ground and worshipped. 21He said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’

At the next meeting of Heaven Incorporated, God is feeling a little smug:

“Have you considered my servant Job?” God says. “Still blameless and upright, even after all your shenanigans.”
“Skin for skin!” Satan says, though 2000 years later no one is quite sure what he meant. “People will forsake everything to save themselves. But let me try something I saw in ‘The Godfather, Part 2” and we’ll see how quickly he curses you.”
“Very well,” God says, “just don’t kill him.”

So Satan, good to his word, covers Job in “loathsome” sores from head to toe. Job’s there, sitting in ashes, scrapping his sores with a potsherd, and we meet Mrs. Job. Sometimes it takes the person closest to you to remind you how big an idiot you are (not being autobiographical, of course). Mrs. Job says “still insist on keeping your prized integrity?” Then she delivers one of the best lines of dialogue in scripture, one that made even the Rabbi’s blush. Never the best source of advice, she says, “Curse God and die.”

But he won’t. Instead he says “Oh, my foolish little buttercup, remember we have to take the good with the bad.”

I’m calling it God, one; Satan, zero. Despite all Satan could devise, Job remains steadfast in his loyalty to God. It was, after all, a simple test of loyalty.

***

It has been an unusual week for natural disasters: An earthquake in Indonesia, flood in the Philippines, tsunami in Samoa, and mudslides in Sicily. And those are just the ones with sufficient loss of life to make the news. As we pray for victims and those who mourn, we recall that the natural world has always been a source of good and bad.

The sun brings growth, but also drought.
The rain brings nurture, but also floods.
The wind scatters the seeds,, but can uproot trees.
The snow protects the fields, but makes us drive like idiots.

Could it be that Job determined early that God did not make the weather, only stood by those who suffer its effects? Whatever insights Job gained from the worst day of his life, the primary insight is that he must remain loyal to his God.

***

In the bleak mid-winter, Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter, long ago.

At least one theologian (Thoman Troeger) has argued that when Christina Rossetti wrote these words, she was thinking of Charles Darwin. She was thinking of the popular idea of her day, that Darwin’s work would fatally wound the God of heaven, and cause the faithful to fall away. “Water like a stone,” was the result of a loss of faith, the eventual outcome of divorcing science and religion.

A century and more, and we know the outcome. The ideas of Darwin (which were never really contrary to faith) did not cause the heavens to fall or God to surrender a place at the centre of all that is. Just the opposite, in fact. Most recently, a few scientists have been struck by the infinite order in the universe, and can only attribute such order to a “grand organizing designer.” Get it? G.O.D.

And, of course, Christina Rossetti wasn’t completely given to despair, or else we wouldn’t sing her famous carol each Christmas. No, she can only ponder how she would repay the gift of God’s incarnation, and she writes:

What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
if I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
yet what I can I give him: give my heart.

This is the same theme once more. At the end of the day, Christina Rossetti settles on loyalty, remaining steadfast in her belief that God entered the world in Jesus and stood among us: To taste as we do, to feel our pain and know our joy, and ultimately to bless us, even as we seek to destroy him.

It is loyalty to God that defines us, that makes us who we are. Job says we need to take the good with the bad, and Christina Rossetti says that in our poverty, we can still give our heart to God. How about one more? This one’s a favourite. St. Augustine reflected on the whole of his life and said “By loving the unlovable [God], You made me lovable.”

In other words, God is loyal to us in return. And although we’ve only looked at the introduction of Job, and there will be many miles and many voices yet to come, I know that at this very moment, God is still delighted with Job and his steadfast loyalty. And so, what we really see is a relationship. God is pleased with Job, Job remains loyal, and even when Job finally takes the advice to speak ill of God, Augustine’s maxim remains: “By loving the unlovable [God], You made us lovable.”

This is good news for today, thanks be to God.

posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 6:15 AM