The Good and the Bad

Reverend Debbie Cato
Job 1 - 2:10    
Fairfield Community Church
October 6, 2024 

Let us pray:  God of wisdom, though we are mere mortals, you are mindful of us. You know the voices inside and out that distract us. You know the words we need to hear. By the power of your Holy Spirit, help us to receive your holy, life-giving Word.  Amen.

  

The Good and the Bad

 

Today we are in the Book of Job.  The second sentence of the book tells us that Job was a man blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.  Job’s character is important throughout the whole book.  Job’s character is on trial.

 We are told that Job had a big family - seven sons and three daughters. His family was well respected, and they had many friends. He owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys.  Job also had a large number of servants. We are told all this so we understand how successful and wealthy Job was.  Job was very fortunate.  The Scripture tells us that Job was the “greatest man among all the people of the East.”  Well respected, and a good man of God. Those are some credentials!

Job is another Old Testament book that you should really read if you haven’t.  I often go back and read it when I am personally going through a rough time and I don’t know where God is in all of it. 

The book can be broken down into parts.  Today, we read about the heavenly wager that gets Job into his mess. It is interesting and challenging to read that God made a wager with Satin to prove how righteous and upright Job was. I’m not even going to try to tackle that issue!  But I do want to explain something so I’m going to be a teacher for a moment! 

I want to talk about the Satan in this passage for a moment.  The meaning of the text is easily obscured. Let me try to put the whole “Satan” thing in perspective: “the Satan” in Job works in much the same way as the angel of the Lord who appears to Balaam’s donkey, blocking his way “as his adversary” (Numbers 22:22). “The Satan” is usually an angel, who serves as an adversary or “prosecuting attorney” on God’s behalf.[1]

What is often overlooked, but we shouldn’t ignore, is that the Satan functions as the adversary on God’s behalf. After this introductory section of the book, the Satan never makes another appearance, he is not mentioned, questioned or in any way identified. It is God who is questioned, God who is represented, and God who is significant. In other words, it is God who is in control.[2]

If we had kept reading, we would learn that three of Job’s friends hear about all the troubles that he was experiencing, and they come to sympathize with him and comfort him. But instead of comforting Job, they begin looking for what he has done wrong, that “God is punishing him in this way.”  What has Job done to bring all this calamity down on himself?  It must be his fault.

This my friends, is a good example of how not to talk to someone going through a crisis.  Instead of sitting with Job, just being present and listening, they cause a lot of stress and aggravation. 

 In chapter 23, we get a sample of Job’s “bitter complaint” to (or is it against?) God. Chapter 38 gives us some of God’s pointed responses to Job’s complaints.  And finally, in chapter 42, we witness Job’s restoration to health, wealth, family, and above all, a right relationship with God.  It’s worth the read.

So, let’s get back to our passage today.  Nobody is really like Job – “blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned from evil.”  At least nobody in any of the congregations I’ve served.  Sorry folks!  I’m also including myself.[3]

 This is story is a bit of a set-up.  We all know certain people, certain families and we say, they are such a good Christian family.  We might even call them saints.  We hold them at high esteem and can’t imagine them ever having an evil thought or doing something that isn’t right. We think we are the only ones with a messy life.

But I have to tell you.  In my years of ministry, I have had members who have been very faithful, very righteous come to me for pastoral care because of something in their life or something in their character, that is not right before God.  Something that is a mess. We all have things we have buried, things about us and our lives, that we hide from others to make a certain impression. We all have some sort of scandalous thing in our past that never (at least we hope) comes out.  We forget we don’t know other people’s full stories.  And honestly, we don’t want to! We want to believe that they are solid Christian people.  But we all have flaws!  We all have cracks in our character.  I’m sorry to say that none of us are perfectly blameless and upright in the eyes of God. Nobody is really like Job.  So, we must be told this story for a specific reason. ^[4]  The Book of Job is in the Bible for a reason.  What is it?  Why the story about Job?

If we are honest, we will admit that our churches, our congregations, are a perfect mirror of our culture – often, dare I say, counter-cultural to what our faith teaches.  We are always being told what to think and how to feel.  Each day we are bombarded with advertisements for products and services of every kind.  Our kids made a mess – here is the perfect towel for mopping up any spill.  I can’t sleep because I’m so worried about my friend, but here is a pill that will help you sleep.  There’s a ready answer for everything and a right solution to every situation.  You can either buy something to fix your problems, read a book that will have all the answers, or you can listen to advice from someone who wants to control the way you think and act.  Everyone wants to give advise.

On Mother’s Day, we salute the mothers and pay no attention to the women who were unable to have children and are hurting.   On Father’s Day we celebrate fathers but ignore those whose fathers were abusive.  On Thanksgiving we praise the abundance of the land, the bountiful harvest, plenty of food on the table, but we don’t mention those that have nothing to eat, those who are isolated and alone, or the waste that’s happening to God’s creation.

We can praise Job for his integrity, make a joke about him calling his wife a “foolish woman” and tell everyone that whatever happens in their lives is God’s will.

But somewhere in this congregation, in this community, are folks sitting around scratching their sores.  They are struggling to get through or get by.  Crises upon crises have taken over their life.  They are drowning. To tell them it is ‘God’s will’ is harsh.  It lacks empathy and understanding.  It doesn’t help.  In fact, it makes things worse.

Rather than giving advice, as Job’s friends do, we need sit in the ash pit with them.  Let them be who they need to be at that moment.  Not strong, not full of faith, but hurting and scared and angry. That’s honest. We should just sit with them – not saying a word.  We should try to understand their circumstance – because even if we have been through something similar, it is different.  We don’t know exactly how someone feels.

The story of Job is a bit of a dishonor.  He has been reduced to a stand in for everybody’s illusions about their own righteous aspirations.  He is a stick figure in somebody else’s melodrama.  He has not even been granted the dignity of the truth.  No one is perfectly righteous and upright.  No one but God that is.[5]

And hear this – I firmly believe that God does not cause us to suffer.  He does not cause the muck in our lives to teach us something; to punish us.

Stuff happens because the world is full of sin and horrible stuff happens.  Stuff happens because we make bad decisions and there are consequences. That is not God causing things to happen.  But God is with us in all things.  God weeps with us.  His heart breaks with ours.

God is good.  He created earth and all that is in it; and he created us in his image.  Why would he want bad for us?  Why would he want us to suffer?

So, listen.  All of you.  We don’t need people to be our saints.  To be our perfect examples of godliness.  Perfect examples of a faith that never waivers.  We are all in this mess called life together.

 Your life, my life, our life together is all about a journey – growing in our trust that life together is a continual discovery of God sitting in the ashes beside us.  He’s there in the muck; in the ugliness of us.  He does not wait to be present with us until we have it all together or until we are righteous enough – whatever that is.  To care about us.  To love us. 

What Job 2:1-10 does do is set the stage for the critical issue that drives the book, an issue that is put into play in the question/question exchange of Job and his wife (2:9-10). As he mourns in ashes covered with “loathsome sores” which he itches at (like a dog licking a wound) with a piece of broken pottery, Job’s wife asks him, “Do you still persist in your integrity?” Job responds–after an admittedly snippy crack about his wife’s gender and foolishness (but don’t judge him too harshly, remember, his sores were loathsome)–“Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” In this exchange, the dilemma of faith is articulated.

And I think we learn that integrity; character is important to God. How will we respond to tragedy and hardship when it comes?  Because it will come!  God does not expect us not to struggle.  Not to feel scared and angry and confused.  How will we base our decisions?  Will we continue to trust God no matter what our circumstances are?  Will we maintain our integrity in all things?  That’s the question that Job poses.  That’s the question for us to ask ourselves.  Amen.

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[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-27-2/commentary-on-job-11-21-10-2. Karl Jacobson.
[2] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-27-2/commentary-on-job-11-21-10-2. Karl Jacobson.
[3] Feasting on the Word.  Year B, Volume 4. Season After Pentecost 2.  Proper 22.  Job 1:1-2:1-10.  Pastoral Perspective. Pg 122.  Thomas Edward Frank. 
[4] Feasting on the Word.  Year B, Volume 4. Season After Pentecost 2.  Proper 22.  Job 1:1-2:1-10.  Pastoral Perspective. Pg 122.  Thomas Edward Frank. 
[5] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-27-2/commentary-on-job-11-21-10-2. Karl Jacobson.