7 October 2012

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Job 1:1, 2:1-10; Mark 10:2-16
7 October 2012


So here we are, the first Sunday of a new month, the seasons perceptibly changing from summer to fall ... and we might well think, well, here in worship, perhaps the change of calendar will bring us some more pleasant texts to hear and read and ponder on, especially after those we had in September; hard words for us from Jesus about how we should ... submit to God: favor the poor; live the cross-shaped life; confess Jesus’ name in our actions rather than just in words; and live together as God’s people.
Ah yes. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a few light sentences about sheep?
But NO!
Here this morning, we get the suffering of Job ... and divorce.
A miserable combination of texts if ever there were. Job by itself might be all right ... and, indeed, we will have readings from the book of Job ... much discussed by people OUTSIDE worship but seldom heard IN worship ... today and the next three Sundays we’ll have our Old Testament reading from Job.
But then we add the text from Mark’s Gospel ... and suddenly, what could have been a beautiful morning of worship becomes at the least, uncomfortable, and for some, unbearable.
Now, six years ago I did a rather extensive sermon-study on this passage of Mark’s Gospel. But – and perhaps, you will be relieved at this word -- I’m not going to do that again today. Maybe in three more years, when this text comes around again, and most of you have forgotten that 2006 sermon, I might roll it out, dust it off, spruce it up and preach it again ... until then, I can give you a copy if you want.
But don’t rush into relief. Such a text calls us to pay attention to these main points ... points I believe we need to hear, today, as well, and not just leave the Word, and us, its hearers, hanging:

• First, Jesus never prohibits divorce. It is allowed “because of your hardness of heart;” so it is a law, like so many laws given by God because people couldn’t handle the freedom that God would rather give them, they needed rules and guidelines, kings and judges, rulers and rules. Read the text yourselves: Jesus never says, “Don’t get divorced.” And he certainly does not condemn those who must go there, for whatever reason. Certainly, divorce is a better alternative than breaking one of the commandments – like murder! The Pharisees ask the wrong question of Jesus.
• Second, what Jesus does talk about in this passage is “what is God’s will for marriage?” That’s the right question that the Pharisees should have asked him, but didn’t. And Jesus’ answer is clear ... God’s will concerning marriage, is that it would last forever.
• Third, Jesus’ words about committing adultery if one who is divorced remarries. Note that Jesus doesn’t shout this from the rooftops; it’s a private question between the disciples and Jesus, after they had left the public square. So this is where the delicate stuff comes out; words he doesn’t wield as a club, but quietly, with those he trusts and loves.
• And yet ... these words are clear. No amount of theological nit-picking, ancient situation gazing, word study, whatever, can make them go away. They are what they are ... and what they are, are not words for us to use to beat up on each other, but rather, words about God’s intentions for us.

But we have two other passages of Scripture before us today for our study and meditation ... one, the second part of our Gospel; the other, the prologue and beginning of the story of that poor fellow Job. And guess what. They also have a laser-focus on what God’s intentions are for us.
First, let’s get more familiar with Job, since we’ll be hearing his story for the next four weeks.
Some Bible scholars believe that, rather than the Pentateuch or Torah (the first five books of the Bible – Genesis/Exodus/Leviticus/Numbers/ Deuteronomy), Job is actually the oldest book in the Bible ... written in perhaps the 7th century before the Christian era.
Whether that’s true or not, we can agree that the questions behind the book of Job are certainly as old as humanity itself ... namely, “Why is there evil in the world?” and “Why do good people suffer?”
Questions certainly pertinent to our Gospel reading ... thus its pairing with this section of Mark.
But the Word in Job should certainly be examined on its own merits first.
As the story goes,

There 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.

And then ... la merde a frappé le ventilateur.
We need to get a few things straight, first, though.
Note that we only get the first verse of chapter one in our reading today ... there is a lot of chapter one missing. So what’s in those missing verses? Much of it sounds a lot like what is given in the part we do have, from chapter two.
“Satan” in this very early work doesn’t mean the same thing that we connect “Satan” with today. This isn’t the devil ... so stop thinking of Jon Lovitz in red tights and a horned hat, carrying a pitchfork ... “Satan” here simply means “adversary” or “accuser.” He’s part of the heavenly council who functions as a sort of independent prosecutor ... we read that he’s been going to and fro on the earth, and walking up and down on it ... presumably, looking for someone to accuse or oppose, someone with a character flaw, someone deserving of punishment and suffering.
But Job’s not deserving. At least, that’s what God says.

Have you considered Job ... there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.

And yet ... the accuser (not God, we must note) … the accuser afflicts him. In the later verses of chapter one Job, in the vernacular of our day, so focused on possessions, he “loses everything:” his servants die, his flocks are killed, and his herds are slaughtered or carried off by enemies. And to take it one step further ... all his sons and daughters are killed in a windstorm which knocks down the walls of the house they are in.
All of which ... brings forth his strange, wonderful, awesome and yes, eerie word from Job:

Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell on the ground and worshiped. He 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.
In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.

And then we get the words from chapter 2 which are before us today ... God, once again defending Job; the accuser, asking to go after him even further, inflicting him with loathsome sores ... from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
And then Job’s wife comes along.
What a caring, loving, sympathetic character is she.

Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die!

Yet Job won’t have any of it.

Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?

And here’s the point where Job crosses the first section of our Gospel reading.
No, no, not that Job should have written his wife a certificate of divorce ... although, certainly, we might understand the temptation being there ... what a loving, caring spouse ... ha!
No – the point is, in the midst of all that happened and was happening to him ... Job approaches things differently. Rather than ask the question, “why me?” he goes back to the who of it all ... that who being God ... and he, Job... he trusts that God has not abandoned him in his suffering ... he, Job, remains in a posture of repentance ... not playing the ‘blame game,’ the victim, blaming his problems on something or someone else (“it’s their fault I’m like this!”) ... no, this isn’t Job at all.
And so with our divorce text. What Jesus does in turning around the question on the Pharisees, is take away their search, their longing for self-justification before God. The point is, Jesus says, it’s not about OUR justification, who’s right, who’s wrong ... pointing the finger in blame, “he said, she said”... NO, it’s not all about us ... it’s about God ... God’s intentions for us in life, and our submission to God ... in other words, this is a text about repentance, and WHOSE we are.
Now , one large caveat here. Remember, note, that Jesus NEVER prohibits divorce. Nor does he wield this text like a club, for condemnation and damnation. Specifically, here, I’m talking about abusive relationships. Namely, if you’re in one ... if your spouse or partner is hitting and hurting you, abusing you physically, verbally, psychologically ... this text, these words are NOT some kind of a fence meant to keep you in that abusive relationship. Abusive relationships are NEVER God’s intention for us.
If you’re being abused in a relationship, GET OUT. NOW. That’s law, and Gospel, for you. Seek help. If you need help finding help, ask me.
You see, these texts, ultimately, are texts about DIGNITY.
Job, amid all the bad stuff going on in his life, amid the verbal abuse of his spouse, keeps his dignity.
Jesus, in his words about divorce, in the culture the Pharisees knew well, the Mosaic-Judaic culture where a man could simply write off his wife with a slip of paper saying “I divorce you” because she burned the matzoh or didn’t launder his tallit properly ... Jesus says “this is not God’s intention” and thus gives the women of first-century Israel dignity.
And the second part of the Gospel text is all about dignity, too.
For so long, we’ve heard this text, about Jesus receiving the little children, and the image which comes to mind is that cheery Sunday School scene with happy, well scrubbed, cherubic infants climbing all over a smiling Jesus.
But that’s not what this text implies.
Far from it. This is a scene right out of the pediatrician’s office during flu season. Note that people were bringing little children to Jesus in order that he might touch them.
This word, touch, in Mark’s Gospel, is an indicator, a sign, which implies healing is needed ... right here, right now.
So instead of that happy little scene we might envision when we hear these words, instead start seeing Jesus and these kids for what is really happening ... crying, fussing, temper tantrums, spitting up, high fevers, projectile vomiting, smelly diapers, fighting, pulling at another’s hair, toys flying around the room in anger.
And now it makes sense. This is why the disciples would have none of it. This is why they wanted to prevent the people from bringing their children to Jesus. It probably would have been all right if these kids would have been well, and happy, and behaving themselves. But not this scene of mayhem.
And yet ... Jesus gives them ... DIGNITY.
These children are in need of healing, too. Just like Job. Just like couples who find themselves in the midst of divorce. These parents are living into the submission to God which is what the life of faith is all about ... in the pain, in the suffering, in the messy smelliness of life, they are hearing the invitation, and coming to Jesus.

Let the little children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such that the kingdom of God belongs.

And ultimately, this is the Word these texts have for us today.
Stop lying about your lives, people of God.
As the old song goes, “Everybody hurts.” All of us are hurting somehow, some way. Whether it’s divorce or illness, hopelessness or joblessness, the burdens of life wearing us down, the wearing down of our bodies or our spirits ... each of us is in need of Christ’s healing touch. EACH, ALL OF US.
Christ’s healing touch which comes to us when, as we bow down in submission to God, submission to the One who makes and gives and restores life ... life, as God intends it for us ... full, rich, free, and abundant.
We feel it in the flowing streams of living water flowing over, invading, permeating our parched-dry lives. We touch and taste it in the abundance of Christ’s own body and blood, given and shed for you and for me, for our forgiveness, for our reconciliation, for life, full and complete, so that we may, must be sent forth to serve others.
People of God, people called Nativity, people of new birth, new life, rejoice and give thanks today for these words of Christ:

Let the little children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such that the kingdom of God belongs.

For they are for you, and for me, for us, words of submission to our God, yes ... and more, words of hope. Words of love and life. For us. For the life of the world God loves, and wants and wills to be whole.
God. Wants. And. God. Wills. You. To. Be. Whole.
In and through Jesus, who is ALWAYS, for you.
Amen.