What Has God Ever Done for Us?

Lorna and I were rewatching Monty Python’s, The Life of Brian recently and enjoying it immensely.   One question that comes to mind every time I watch it is, where was the sense of humor and appreciation of satire of Malcolm Muggeridge, and the Anglican Bishop of Southwark, Mervyn Stockwood who debated the Monty Python members in that famous debate that you can see here, https://www.bbc.com/videos/cyxe9180z84o.

This time watching it, what stood out amongst the many hilarious sketches was, "What have the Romans ever done for us?"   Here is a summary of the dialogue for those who aren’t familiar with it or for those who would like a reminder. 

The iconic "What have the Romans ever done for us?" dialogue from Monty Python's Life of Brian features Reg leading a revolutionary group that complains about Roman rule, only for members to list numerous Roman contributions:

REG: Yeah. All right, Stan. Don't labour the point. And what have they (the Romans) ever given us in return?!

XERXES: The aqueduct?

REG: What?

XERXES: The aqueduct.

REG: Oh. Yeah, yeah. They did give us that. Uh, that's true. Yeah.

COMMANDO #3: And the sanitation.

LORETTA: Oh, yeah, the sanitation, Reg. Remember what the city used to be like?

REG: Yeah. All right. I'll grant you the aqueduct and the sanitation are two things that the Romans have done.

MATTHIAS: And the roads.

REG: Well, yeah. Obviously, the roads. I mean, the roads go without saying, don't they? But apart from the sanitation, the aqueduct, and the roads--

COMMANDO: Irrigation.

XERXES: Medicine.

COMMANDO #2: Education.

REG: Yeah, yeah. All right. Fair enough.

And so on until Reg makes his final point, "Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the freshwater system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"

XERXES: Brought peace.

REG: Oh. Peace? Shut up!

On reflection, I think that it would be quite appropriate to apply this scenario to God rather than the Romans i.e. What has God ever done for us?  Here’s my attempt at this:

 Reg: Anyway, what has God ever done for us?

Commando 1:  He did create the universe.

Reg:  well yes, That true but that was a long time ago.

Commando 2: He did create us in his own image – male and female He created us.

Reg: O all right but what did He do ne after that?

Commando 3: He did give us the Ten Commandments as the original rules to live by.

Reg: That hasn’t worked out that well a lot of the time.  Who wants a bunch of rules to follow.  It just gets in the way of what I want to do. 

Commando 1:  He did improve on that by sending His son to be one of us.

Reg: Okay, but he did get himself killed didn’t he.  And why would he choose to be born in a stable in a poor country ruled by the Romans anyway.  That showed rather poor judgement.

Commando 2:  He did show us how to live a life doing God’s will.  

Commando 3: Yah, and he gave us a new set of rules when he preached the sermon on the mount.  They are pretty good suggestion about how to live together. 

Reg:  yes, yes, but they seem to be even harder to do that the original commandment.

Commando 2: So rather than a list of different rules such as blessed are the peacemakers – not cheesemakers by the way, He summed it up with, love one another others as he loves us. 

Commando 1:  Also, he did give us the forgiveness of sins when we don’t follow them.

Reg:  Well, I guess so but what’s it all about anyway?

Commandos:  Peace, the peace that passes all understanding. 

Reg: O well, I guess that would be pretty good. 

Commando 1:  Didn’t he say something like: Go and do likewise? 

Reg: Yes, well all right – if I have to, I guess. 

Have a blessed Advent preparing for the Prince of Peace to be born again in that stable in the insignificant little country.

 

 

The Humble vs Pride Challenge

‘I am the most humble person in the world!’  We know immediately there is something wrong with that statement — even if we’re not quite sure what.  If someone is humble, they do not think of themselves in comparison to others.  In fact, the person who makes that statement is ironically prideful about their humility — which means that he or she is basically not humble.   There is an interesting variation on pride which I have run into recently; it has been coined as the humble-brag.  The person who humble- brags gets to blow his or her horn and yet appears on the surface as being humble. It can go something like this, “I am so humbled and honoured to be awarded this great award.  I don’t deserve it but it is wonderful to be able to do the great things that I have done.”  In effect the person is saying, “aren’t I wonderful I   have done these great things and am humble as well.  Quite a neat trick, the humble-brag. 

Pride does not get very good press in the bible.  Here are a few of the verses which deal with pride: Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs); One's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honour (Proverbs); For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy (2 Timothy);  Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves.

Pride is definitely frowned upon by God and by the first Christian leaders.  With this very clearly negative view of pride I’m surprized that its opposite, humility didn’t make it into the Beatitudes.  

Let’s look at humility – the state of being humble.  Here are a few examples of how humility is viewed in the bible: Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves (Philippians); The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honour and life (Proverbs); Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Matt.); Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you (James).  Our Epistle set out humility in opposition to pride – God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble.  Another passage gives a similar comparison, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom” (Proverbs).   We can see that it doesn’t seem that pride and humility can exist at the same time. 

That is why that first statement I made is just wrong.  If you are truly humble you are not going to believe you are more humble than everyone else or even anyone else.  You aren’t going to compare yourself to others — you just are who you are.

Indeed, our culture today certainly promotes pride as a good thing.  We are not encouraged to downplay our accomplishments and abilities.  We are told that to be successful we need to trumpet our accomplishments in social media.  If we are in business we see that those who don’t promote themselves don’t get customers — at least not many.  It seems that the sizzle is more important than the steak.  So it seems that to be a Christian then is to be counter cultural — to be against the culture.  I guess that shouldn’t come as a surprise to us.   As Christians we are told to turn the other cheek; to go the second mile; to love our neighbours — better, to love our enemies. 

One of the reasons that true humility is difficult is because it is natural to compare ourselves to others.  We want to know how we are doing and the way we seem to do that most naturally is in relationship to others.  We seem to receive that lesson right from the cradle.  We are told directly or indirectly that we should be like others – and by implication do better than others. 

We are given marks in school and by implication are those marks better marks the others —where do we stand in the class.  Even our play is turned into competition — we are taught that winning is good and losing is bad or at best it is an opportunity to learn from our mistakes and by learning win the next time.  We win awards in life – medals in sports and academia — we get the job and after that the promotion.  By implication others do not succeed and therefore we conclude that we are better than others. 

How are we to become truly humble?  Is it something that we can work to become or is it something that will be given to us as grace from God?  One of the best definitions of humility that I have come across is by Sister Jane — an Anglican Nun.  She defines humility as ‘seeing clearly’ — to be humble is to see clearly.  When I first read that I was puzzled by that.  How was humility related to seeing things clearly?  Well I first thought that if we clearly see ourselves as we are we will know that we don’t compare that well to others at least some others in the world.  No matter how much we succeed there will be others who are better at us in whatever way we judge ourselves.  Even world champions are not the best in everything or even many things. 

However, on reflection I believe that to see clearly means that we can see what is truly important in life — we can see what is truly important to God.  I don’t believe that God wants us to be better than others.  God wants us to be the person that God intends us to be. 

God does want us to develop and grow and become fully mature human being.  I believe that we have a human need to be better than others because we believe deep down that that is the only way we will be of value — the only way we will valued by others and by God. 

If we can truly come to believe and know that God loves us unconditionally — that God loves us because we are God’s beloved children than we can just be the people of God.  That is something to be proud of. 

 

Let the Mystery Be

 This morning I am pondering the mystery of life.   I have been fascinated by the Book of Job for many years.  It is something of a mystery why the book of Job was included in the canon of the bible as it puts God in a less than favourable light.  Job becomes the pawn in a celestial wager between God and Satan with dire consequences for Job and his family.  However, the story does have a happy ending for Job – if not for his children who perish. All that Job loses is restored to him including new children to replace those who perished  - as if a child you lose can be replaced by a new child or children - and he lives happily ever after and dies at a ripe old age of biblical proportions.

In the course of the story Job demands an audience before God and demands justice.  However, God is less than sympathetic to Job’s plight and states that God and God’s works are beyond Job’s comprehension.  Job humbles himself and admits to God that it is beyond his comprehension:

Then Job answered the Lord: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; ⁶therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”     

It is hard for us human being to live in the mystery of life.  We can deny it as some people with a scientific bent try and believe that we will solve the mystery of creation.  Or, as religious people we can try and put God in a nice box that we define and tie up with a bright bow.  However, if we are honest and humble enough, as Job was, we can try and live in the mystery of life. On this subject I will quote Helen Luke, one of my favourite authors who is one of the great explorers of this mystery:

true mystery is the eternal paradox at the root of life itself—it is that which, instead of hiding truth, reveals the whole not the part.  So when, after having made every effort to understand, we are ready to take upon ourselves the mystery of things, then the most trivial of happenings is touched by wonder, and there may come to us by grace, a moment of unclouded vision. 

True paradox can be difficult to understand and to live with but it is in paradox that we can discover God.  I believe that we are called to let the mystery be in all its wonder and respond to God with praise and thanksgiving.  I will close with a verse from my favourite song on this mystery; Let the Mystery Be by Iris Dement:

Everybody's wonderin' what and where they all came from.
Everybody's worryin' 'bout where they're gonna go when the whole thing's done.
But no one knows for certain and so it's all the same to me.
I think I'll just let the mystery be.

May you be blessed by the mystery in your life.

 

True Forgiveness

 I have just finished rereading, The Return of the Prodigal Son, by Henri Nouwen.  This is a wonderful exploration of Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son which recounts Nouwen’s engagement with Rembrandt’s masterpiece which depicts the homecoming of the Prodigal son.

I will reflect on the book in total another time.  Right now, I want to consider the concept of forgiveness which Nouwen explores in the book.  Nouwen recounts his journey which was initiated by the encounter with the painting. On that journey, Nouwen identified with each of the three principal characters in the parable – the prodigal son, the elder brother, and the father.   In his identification with the father in the parable, Nouwen explores the idea of spiritual fatherhood.  For Nouwen, the key to this is forgiveness.  However, he acknowledges that “Forgiveness from the heart is very, very difficult.  It is next to impossible.”  However, as he states this is one of the commandments that Jesus gives to his followers, “When your brother wrongs you seven times a day and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I am sorry, you must forgive him.”

Nouwen does unpack just how difficult true forgiveness:

I have often said, “I forgive you”, but even as I said these words, my heart remained angry or resentful.  I still wanted to hear the story that tells me that I was right after all; I still wanted to hear apologies and excuses; I still wanted the satisfaction of receiving some praise in return – if only the praise of being so forgiving.

Unfortunately, these words ring true in my ears.  I have found that true forgiveness is not a matter of saying the words.  It is a matter of the heart.  Unfortunately, I believe that, in my experience, the church has not done justice to what true forgiveness is.  It encourages forgiveness in Christian; however, it does not acknowledge how difficult true forgiveness is.  It doesn’t acknowledge that talk is cheap.  True forgiveness does not come easily or without cost – at least for most of us.  True forgiveness is a journey which will require an exploration of the heart, as well as the mind, soul, emotions and the body. 

You are able to tell if you have been blessed with the gift of true forgiveness if you no longer wake up in the middle of the night filled with the thought of how badly someone has treated you; how unfairly you have been treated by that person; and yes, how deep in your heart – or elsewhere – you truly want revenge for what that person has done.  If you no longer are haunted by that ghost visitor, it is likely that you have been blessed by true forgiveness. 

I believe that true forgiveness is a gift from God, and we are blessed if we have received it.  However, even though it is freely given, it is not without cost.  It is the cost of exploring who you truly are and the revelation of some truths about yourself that may not be welcome.  However, as with all that God blesses you with, it is truly a blessing.

May be blessed to find true forgiveness on your journey.  

Free Will or Not Free Will; That is the Question

Last night Lorna and I were returning from a concert at St. George’s Anglican Church in Montague.  It was a wonderful concert by Coro Dulce (Sweet Singing), a choir from Charlottetown.  They lived up to their name with a very interesting program to celebrate Canada 150 with music that was written in or around 1867.  It included, among other things, Joy to the World and The Canticle de Jean Racine (which is one of my all-time favourite choral piece). 

In any case, we were driving home along hwy 310 to our cottage and came to a construction traffic light which had been set up as one lane was closed.  We sat there at the red light.  First, I pondered why in the six or seven times we had encountered this light it had always been red?  But more to the point this morning as we sat there with the light red in both directions and a car stopped on the other side.  There was the delay to clear the construction area.  I asked myself  why I didn’t just drive ahead and I knew it would be perfectly safe.  Of course, I decided it was because I was Canadian and usually obeyed things like traffic signals believing in peace, order and good government as opposed to, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  However, I wondered if I truly had free will why I didn’t decide to drive on and ignore the red light?

I had been thinking about free will recently after listening to interviews with a couple of physicists who revealed that according the mathematics of Quantum Physics there is no room for free will.  They maintain that this proves that free will does not exist.  I am still having trouble following the intricacies of the math involved being anything but a mathematician.  However, the bottom line is that mathematics used in quantum physics predicts things such as string theory and dark matter which are beginning to be verified.  It also has no room in the equations for free will.  All is determined/predetermined by the forces of the universe.   

One of the physicists being interviewed, Leonard Mlodinow,  did concede that the universe and human beings are so complex that in effect it appears to us that we do have free will:

DR. MLODINOW: And the idea that we have no free will is an interesting philosophical question. In reality, we do have free will. Because in reality, a system as complex as the brain with 100 billion neurons, and I think 1,000 to 10,000 connections between each of them on average, is so complex that, not only could one say that one can’t, in principle, model it or predict exactly what it’s going to do next, but almost in principle you can’t. Because in very complex systems, small changes in the state of the system produce large changes in the output. That’s called chaos. But that’s typical of very complicated, non-linear systems.

So, in effect, it may seem to us that we have free will but it is only because of our limited perspective.  Of course, I think that Dr. Mlodinow, if he conceded that there was a God, would agree that God with unlimited perspective would be able to calculate everything that is at work behind the universe of God’s creation; ergo no free will.  Of course the scientific belief is that humans will able to figure everything out eventually.

If the mathematics of Quantum Physics is correct and we do not have free will what does it mean for human beings?  All would be determined/predetermined and there would be no point in anything and everything from prayer to following the commandment of Jesus that we love one another as he loves us.  Or would there?  The humanists would certainly say there is because if we lead an ethical life it will be a better world and they believe that people do not need God to threaten or bribe us into living in ways that follow the golden rule which does not depend on the existence of a higher power. 

Dr. Mlodinow does leave room for miracles or at least the effect of exceptions to the rules of nature in which case the laws of physics by definition do not apply:

If you believe that there are no exceptions, whether they be big miracles or minor deviations from the laws of physics, whether you look at the quantum laws that are fundamental or Newton’s laws, whichever laws you look at, neither set of laws has room for deviations or choice — let’s say, conscious choice. So if you believe that the brain follows those laws, as everything in the laboratory that we’ve ever looked at does, then it’s not a question for scientists.

Is it all then a matter of faith?  There is nothing wrong with that.  Faith is after all “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).  That is certainly true.  However, I also like to look for assurance for my faith in God and all that flows from God, including free will, in places that physics does not look or at least identify as God at work in the world of God’s creation. 

I have probably raised more questions than I attempted to answer.  There is much more I would like to explore about this but I will leave the discussion for this week with one more point; can the universe that is so complex that merely one part, the human brain with 100 billion neurons and 1,000 to 10,000 connections between each, not have been created.  If it has been created; by Whom? 

Blessings on your journey whether or not you have decided freely which road to take. 

Greg

Sermon February 21, 2016 Lent 2

In my sermon last Sunday I spoke of the special calling of the church – that is a calling for a kind of renewal that is not based on action and activity in the outer world.  Our culture is very good at that and the church also sees the need in our society and responds by doing things to meet the needs which are there.  However, there is another kind of renewal which is unique to the church and is something that our society is very much in need of – it is Spiritual Renewal. 

I finished a program in Spiritual Direction in 2014 at the Mount Carmel Centre for Spirituality in Niagara Falls.  In that program I studied how to help people discern where God is in their lives and how to be more aware and open to where the Holy Spirit is calling them.  The ministry of Spiritual Direction is actual not the best name for what we are learning to do.  What the Spiritual Director does with the directee does not actually direct them.  Rather a Spiritual Director is a companion on their spiritual journey.  There are actually three persons in Spiritual Direction – the Director, the Directee and the Holy Spirit.  It is the Holy Spirit who does the direction and shows both the Director and Directee the way in which God is working in their life.

During the Sunday’s in Lent, I will be a Spiritual Companion for St. Anne’s and St. John’s.  Each Sunday in Lent we are exploring a different way in which we can learn to pay closer attention to how God is working in our lives and where The Holy Spirit is calling us to travel in this Lenten journey which lies ahead of us.  It is also my hope that you will find some of these ways to be meaningful for you and that you will chose to incorporate into your lives on an ongoing basis.

As I mentioned Spiritual Direction involves listening and recognizing how God is working in your life.  A significant part of that is developing an active prayer life.  Of course God has made us as unique beings—each one of us is unique and different.  Not every form of pray will be something which resonates with each of us and a way which we will find meaningful.  Often it is a matter of finding one or two that is right for us. There are many ways of prayer and I want to begin our journey by exploring one particular way.  The one I would like to explore with you today is Lectio Divina.  Don’t be put off by the Latin name – it actually means Holy Reading. 

There are four steps in Holy Reading.  The first is to read the passage—the Lectio.  During the reading the intention is to be non-judgmental—just be open to what the passage is speaking to you.  Is there something especially in the passage that catches you attention – a phrase or a word?  Make a mental note of this.  You can use any passage from scripture or an inspirational work that is meaningful for you.  I will be using the scripture passage that we head from Philippians.

The second step is meditation—meditatio.  Here we reflect and ponder on what we have read or heard.  Remember that Mary, at the nativity pondered what she had seen and heard in her heart.  Ponder and see how Jesus is speaking to you in the passage of phrase or word that resonates with you.  Ask yourself what does this mean for my life today?  Direct it to God at work in your life. 

The third step is Responding – Oratatio.  This is a prayer—a prayer which is unique and personal to you and comes from the heart.  This may lead to response in your outer life but it is an inner response initially.  It may be surrendering your will to God – not something we do easily but something which is important if we are to follow where Jesus leads us. 

Finally there is Rest – Contemplatio.  This is resting in the presence of God.  It is a knowing that God is with you and that you are in God’s hand.  As it says in the passage from Philippians:

Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you.

Now let us have a few minutes of silence to centre ourselves and I will begin by reading the passage.  You don’t need to remember the steps – I will guide you at the beginning of each step.  

Let the Mystery Be

This morning I am following up on yesterday’s sermon and pondering the mystery of life.  I based my sermon (which is posted seperately) attached) on the reading from the book of Job.  It is something of a mystery why the book of Job was included in the canon of the bible as it puts God in a less than favourable light.  Job becomes the pawn in a celestial wager between God and Satan with dire consequences for Job and his family.  However, the story does have a happy ending for Job. All that Job loses is restored to him and he lives happily ever after and dies at a ripe old age of biblical proportions.

In the course of the story Job demands an audience before God and demands justice.  However, God is less than sympathetic to Job’s plight and states that God and God’s works are beyond Job’s comprehension.  Job humbles himself and admits to God that it is beyond his comprehension:

Then Job answered the Lord: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; ⁶therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”     

It is hard for us human being to live in the mystery of life.  We can deny it as some people with a scientific bent try and believe that we will solve the mystery of creation.  Or, as religious people, we can try and put God in a nice box that we define and tie up with a bright bow.  However, if we are honest and humble enough, as Job was, we can try and live in the mystery of life.  In my sermon I quote Helen Luke, one of my favourite authors who is one of the great explorers of this mystery:

true mystery is the eternal paradox at the root of life itself—it is that which, instead of hiding truth, reveals the whole not the part.  So when, after having made every effort to understand, we are ready to take upon ourselves the mystery of things, then the most trivial of happenings is touched by wonder, and there may come to us by grace, a moment of unclouded vision. 

True paradox can be difficult to understand and to live with but it is in paradox that we can discover God.  I believe that we are called to let the mystery be in all its wonder and respond to God with praise and thanksgiving.  I will close with a verse from my favourite song on this mystery; Let the Mystery Be by Iris Dement:

Everybody's wonderin' what and where they all came from. Everybody's worryin' 'bout where they're gonna go when the whole thing's done.
But no one knows for certain and so it's all the same to me.
I think I'll just let the mystery be.

Sermon October 25, 2015 Job 42:1-17

The book of Job does not come up in the lectionary very often, and I don’t believe that I have ever preached a sermon based on it, so I thought I would take this opportunity to use today’s reading as a basis for my sermon.  Indeed I don’t think that Job is one of the books that is often used for sermons.  I checked my source for sermon ideas and there were no sample sermons based on today’s reading from Job.

Indeed when you look at the book of Job it is surprizing that it actually is part of the canon and was included in the bible by the church fathers.   It may not be all that familiar to many people because of this so I thought I would spend a bit of time explaining the context for today’s reading.  The story of Job opens with an idyllic scene of a perfect life.  Job is the best of men living in the best of possible circumstances.  He is a man who has a happy family.  He is rich by any measure.  He has many servants and cattle.  Above all, we are told he fears God and live a blameless life — it is almost too good to be true.  This passage when we read it leaves us with a chill for we are certain such good fortune cannot last — conflict must arise otherwise there would be little point in telling the story.  As this account of a good man is included in Holy Scripture we except that God will enter the picture to save our hero from whatever evil befalls him as in the case of Esther or Isaac when he is about to be sacrificed by his father Abraham.  However, we discover that when evil does indeed enter to disrupt Job’s idyllic life, the source is not what we expect.

The surprizing thing about the book of Job is that Job becomes a pawn in a celestial wager between God and Satan.  Now it must be understood that this was before Satan had been expelled from heaven after his revolt against God. 

He is one of the ‘heavenly beings’ who come to present themselves before God.  It is, in effect, like a royal court appearing before a king.  Satan, which appropriately means ‘the accuser’, lives up to his name and holds that Job’s fear of God and blameless life mean nothing as Job has never been put to the test.  Satan bets God that if God permits him to send troubles into his untroubled life Job will curse God.  

Satan does an exemplary job of troubling Job, killing his children, and destroying his property and still Job does not curse God.  Satan ups the ante and with God’s permission Satan attacks Job’s person ‘inflicting loathsome sores on Job from soles of his foot to the crown if his head’ — yet still Job’s faith in God holds firm.  Job is further inflicted, however, rather than Satan this time, it is with a visit from so-called friends who insist that Job’s troubles must be due to Job’s own action.  Job demands an opportunity to appear before God to seek justice.  God permits this, however God attacks Job’s impertinence in questioning God’s actions as a mere human is not in a position to question the creator of the universe.  Job wisely defers to God’s omnipotence and Job’s fortunes are restored and more.  He is blessed with possessions and children albeit not the same ones.  In addition, as a bonus, Job’s erstwhile friends are punished.  

This is where today’s reading begins.  God requires that Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite make restitution to Job for their betrayal of his friendship.  The ending is happy, at least from the author’s perspective.  All is restored or replaced that was taken away from him by the celestial wager between God and Stan.  He has thousands of sheep, camels, oxen and donkeys.  He has a new family with seven sons and three daughters.  

Unfortunately it was not so well with the Job’s original children who were killed as part of Satan’s test of faith, but apparently in that time what was important was to have children so Job’s lineage would be assured.

As you can see this book does not put God is a good light.  So the question we must ponder is why was it included as a book in the bible?  I believe there are at least two reasons.  First, there is the question of faith.  Despite everything that God has apparently put Job through, Job’s faith is not broken.  His faith in God as his Redeemer is unshakeable.  This is a lesson  which is very applicable to us today as it has been universally for people.  It is inevitable that we all are going to suffer losses in our life.  A loved one is going to die; our health is going to betray us; we are going to lose a job at a critical time.  We have the question, why do bad things happen to good people?  How do we maintain our faith in a loving God at these times?  It may have been easier in Job’s time as God was understood to be wrathful and vengeful at times ever to God’s people.  Fortunately our trials will not be as severe as Job’s but they may seem so at the time.  We fortunately have the love of God as shown in Jesus Christ.  We know that the love of God is there to sustain us even though it is sometimes hard to recognize.  

The second reason for Job is the great mystery of life.  We human beings are God’s greatest creation.   We have many gifts that God has given us; intellect, reason, questioning hearts and minds, the desire to know God and the belief that we are able to discover and discern who and what God is.  We have created science which has done much to unravel the mysteries of the universe.  Science and scientists have discovered so much of how the universe works that they are beginning to believe that they will discover everything and will be able to explain everything.  They may even imagine they have discovered what they are calling the “God particle” which they think may be the source of everything. 

However, as much they have and will eventually discover about all of God’s creation, they will reach the limits.  We human being are limited and we will never fully know God and the mind of God.  To think otherwise is hubris. 

That is what the author of Job was attempting to express.  He was facing the mystery of all.  Job was granted his audience with God and came to acknowledge that God was beyond his understanding.  Today we know much, much, more of God’s creation than people knew in the time that the author wrote his account of one man’s attempt to understand the unknowable.  As much as we know and will ever know, God will remain the ultimate mystery.  To quote Helen Luke, “true mystery is the eternal paradox at the root of life itself—it is that which, instead of hiding truth, reveals the whole not the part.  So when, after having made every effort to understand, we are ready to take upon ourselves the mystery of things, then the most trivial of happenings is touched by wonder, and there may come to us by grace, a moment of unclouded vision.”  We can have the faith that Job had and proclaim as Job did, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another”.  Amen

Taming the Wild God

²⁶Surely God is great, and we do not know him; the number of his years is unsearchable. ²⁷For he draws up the drops of water; he distills his mist in rain, ²⁸which the skies pour down and drop upon mortals abundantly. ²⁹Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion? ³⁰See, he scatters his lightning around him and covers the roots of the sea. ³¹For by these he governs peoples; he gives food in abundance. ³²He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark. ³³Its crashing tells about him; he is jealous with anger against iniquity. “At this also my heart trembles, and leaps out of its place. ²Listen, listen to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth. ³Under the whole heaven he lets it loose, and his lightning to the corners of the earth. ⁴After it his voice roars; he thunders with his majestic voice and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard. ⁵God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend.  (Job 26: 24-27:5)

Last week I heard someone on the radio (I don’t remember the context) speaking about taming the wild God.  My thought on this was that this is exactly what religion attempts to do—tame God.  Religious doctrine must, perhaps of necessity, define God.  For most Christian denominations it is the Trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Whenever we fallible human mortals try to define God we are in effect trying to tame him or her or it and make it in some respects a house pet.  In that respect we do create God in our image or at least in an image we can get our minds around and define God as something which we approve of.  When we say God is this God is that we are saying that God is not something else. 

One of the dangers in doing that is that is that we will want to have God at our beck and call.  That has been called ‘God the Butler’.  We keep ‘Him’ downstairs conveniently out of the way when it doesn’t suit us or is inconvenient to have Him around.  Then we ring for Him (or even Her) when we want something.  God is then at our beck and call.  God help God if God doesn’t live up to our demands or even expectations.  Then we say, “Well if God can’t do what I want or need Him to do then what kind of a God is that?”  The conclusion to that can be, “There is no God”. 

One of my favourite books of the Old Testament, if not the whole Christian Bible is the Book of Job.  It is also one of the more controversial and I am surprized that it made it into the canon.  It puts God/YHWH into less than a shining light.  God and Satan (before he was thrown out of Heaven) have a bargain that allows Satan to do pretty much what he wants to Job — who is described as “blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.”   The object of this little bet is to see if Satan can get Job to curse God.  Satan does his best (or worst from Job and our perspective) and yet Job is faithful.  However, he demands a hearing before God.  God justifies his actions by saying that Job is a mere mortal and cannot know the ways of God:

6Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: 7“Gird up your loins like a man; I will question you, and you declare to me. 8Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be justified? 9Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?

This is a hard truth but truth none-the-less.  We can’t comprehend why God acts the way we believe God does.  Jesus presented God the Father as a God of love but this world of God’s creation is unfathomable.  God is unknowable and as much as we would like to tame Him/Her and explain why good things happen to bad people and vice versa there is mystery in life that is beyond us.  We have scientific understanding for those things that the opening quote from Job that credited God.  However, that does not take away any of the mystery of creation and the wonder which is still there if we are open to it; “At this also my heart trembles, and leaps out of its place”.

All we have left is the eternal why—why is there evil in the world of God’s creating; why doesn’t God answer prayer the way we want God to; why isn’t God behaving like God should?  Beyond all these questions we have Job’s response:

25For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; 26and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God,

Thanks be to God.

Reading the Bible 34 Genesis 41: 37-57 – The Stuff of Dreams

And it came to pass (as will be said later in this same book) that Joseph’s interpretation of the Pharaoh’s dreams were realized.  The seven years of plenty were followed by the seven years of famine.  The Pharaoh’s discernment that Joseph was the one to lead the country through this time of trial was confirmed.   All seemed to be well – at least in Egypt.  However, there are two points which are almost throw away lines at the end of the chapter that should not be overlooked.  

First we are told that Joseph sold to the Egyptians the wheat that had been stored up in the good years.  Apparently there was no free lunch in Egypt in those days.  The wheat that had I’m sure been taken by the Pharaoh was not given back to the people.  They had to buy it back from their ruler through the auspices of Joseph.  There does not seem to be any question that this is just how things were.  It is not a case of the welfare state.  Joseph, the man who had been looked on with favour because of the gifts that God had given him was quite willing to participate in this act of government control which could be interpreted as being ordained by God.  I’m not sure how this would be viewed by those Christians – usually of the fundamentalist bent al la the Tea Party – who call for less government and fewer taxes.  Would they hold that this was necessary for God’s plan to be fulfilled for the Israelites – God chosen people - at least until the United States was established?  Therefore this inconvenient biblical passage can be overlooked.  Of course I am using historical relativism to judge the situation and of course we have to see that God truth is not the same for all people in all times.  God’s truth is being revealed in new ways in an ongoing revelation.  

The second point is that famine was severe throughout the world. Here we have a chicken and egg situation.  God foretold the coming famine through dreams sent to the Pharaoh.  He also gave Joseph the gift of the interpretation of that message.  Was the famine part of God’s plan?  Was it necessary for God to send a famine on the world to enable His plan for Joseph and the Israelites to unfold?  Or did God just use his omniscience to use the events that were destines to happen?  Was the suffering that was inevitable with a world-wide famine necessary for God to fulfil His intention?  It is easy to read into events our understanding of God’s will when they fit our understanding of how God works in the world and how people who we believe deserve God’s punishment receive it with natural events – AIDS as punishment for Gays comes to mind and even the reaction by some to the devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina as punishment for the wickedness of that sinful city a la Sodom and Gomorrah.  It is very easy for people of all stripes to relish when bad things happen to those who we consider bad people.  It is always dangerous to believe that God is on our side and should meet out punishment to those we believe deserve it.  We don’t like to leave punishment in the hands of God as God says elsewhere.