Morning Prayer: Eula Hledik Choral Amen Hymn of Faith *Now Thank We All Our God* Witness of Scripture: Job 42: 1-9 Anthem *Peace I Leave With You* Mendelssohn/Hopson. Chancel Choir Sermon *Essentials: When Life Hurts* David Spain
Recorded on November 10, 2024
The hymn we just sang, Now Thank We All Our God, is a favorite at Thanksgiving, a staple in a well-apportioned faithful feast. To know its back story is to marvel at the depth of the hymn.It was written in 1636 by a Lutheran minister in Eilenberg, Germany. As the Thirty Years’ War raged, the walled village became a place of refuge.The opposing army surrounded Eilenberg, and soon plague and famine enveloped the inhabitants. The village pastors did all they could attending to the sick and dying, presiding at multiple funerals each day. Soon the ministers succumbed, and Rinkart was the only pastor remaining. At the point of desperation, Rinkart left the village, and brokering a successful truce with the enemy, the horrible suffering came to an end. Recognizing that healing includes thanksgiving, Rinkart wrote this beloved hymn. Knowing the context helps us sing the powerful second stanza—“O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us, with ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us, and keep us full of grace, and guide us when perplexed, and free us from all ills in this world and the next.”
Perhaps Rinkart’s second stanza addresses the sentiment of the book of Job. We marvel that the Bible is willing to include Job’s story, for it takes incredible courage to address the hardest of all questions—suffering, especially undeserved suffering which everyone faces at some point and some face at many points. Suffering has been the breaking point for some who struggle to conceive of God’s powerful goodness in a world of underserved suffering, and perhaps there is no answer that completely satisfies. But this does not deter the Bible from addressing the matter in a profoundly honest and creative way—with a folktale that can be traced back to the reign of David or Solomon. Its writing exists on the grand scale with every detail exaggerated, which perhaps makes the story easier to engage.
Job does have a bit of a “once upon a time” feel to it, which does not make it any less true. “There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, a man blameless and upright who feared God and turned away from evil.” The story goes on to detail how Job has prospered in every way—family, land, livestock—and he made offerings to God just in case any of his children had erred.The story then shifts to heaven where God and the Adversary are in conversation. Job comes up as exemplary faith! “Well of course he is faithful,” counters Old Scratch, "you’ve given him everything and then some. Let him deal with some loss and let’s see how faithful he remains.” God agrees to the gauntlet being thrown down, and what ensues is a series of calamities as Job loses everything—his family, land, livestock, and even his health. It is important to step outside the story for just a moment. This part of the story is an effective literary way to move the plot, to create the problem so that important matters can be considered. I do not believe for one second that God plays dice with human beings, that God would say “sure, make someone miserable so that they can prove their faithfulness.” Any god who would agree to that kind of roll of dice with humans being the ones rolled is not worthy of worship. If God rolls the dice at all, then it is in creating life in the first place; but that is a roll of the dice born of creative love and generosity, not a celestial wager centered on suffering.
The move in the plot of the story does, however, stir a critical question. Why be good? Why be faithful? Is it because there might be some quid pro quo formula of reward and punishment? Is that how people think of their relationship to God—I’ll do good, and God will do good to me? Do people do right and good for personal benefit? Maybe, sometimes; is there pure altruism? What is one’s motivation for faithfulness? The story asks important and meaningful questions.
The losses Job endures, like everything else, are on the grand scale. It is catastrophic to the point that Job regrets having ever been born. He is advised to curse God and then end it all; but amazingly he does not do that.Instead, with the energies he has left, he asserts his innocence, proclaims what has happened is not fair, and raises his complaint to God. It is an important moment in the story—affirming the need of giving voice to hurt, loss, pain.
Enter Job’s three friends, who provide some comic relief to the intensity of the story, although as with all good comedy, it is humor in the service of truth.Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar are their names, perhaps modernized to Larry, Moe, and Curly. At first, they are anything but stooges. When they hear of Job’s great suffering, they show up and for 7 days do not say a word. Instead,
they sit with Job when he sits, get up with Job when he rises, weep with Job when he cries. It is courageous and stunning, because it can be excruciating to abide in pain with another, and we all have limits in being present to one another’s hurt.They show up and it is good, until it stops being good. After 7 days, Job begins to voice his agony over his distance with God and all the uncertainty and all the undeserved suffering. His way of understanding faith no longer works, and he struggles with God. It no longer works for Job to say the good are rewarded and the bad are punished; the good prosper and the evil perish. Again, the candor of the Bible in addressing the hardest of questions is wondrously courageous, and it gives us permission to ask hard questions, too. The ones who don’t give Job permission are his three friends. They are disturbed by Job’s honest pain and deep doubt. So, they supply Job with reasons for his suffering, mostly by blaming Job. Eliphaz says, “Job you must have forgotten some of the bad things you have done—robbed a few beggars, refused food to some poor soul, ignored some widows and orphans and now you are facing your comeuppance.” Bildad said, “well your children must have been guilty of something, and you didn’t cover their sin. Get right with God…don’t rant to God, look in the mirror, Job.” Zophar speaks globally and simply says “it is obvious you are guilty because these things are happening to you. In fact, God is punishing you less than you deserve, and you are only making matters worse by all your kvetching.” After some back and forth, another friend Elihu (aka, Shemp) appears. He is fresh out of divinity school and says, “lose yourself in praise and adoration to God and you won’t have room for any self-pity, and what’s more you have these afflictions so that you can learn something along the way and develop your character.”
Okay, Larry, Moe, Curly, and Shemp aren’t without some insight, and they make a few points worth pondering. There is a certain logic and consequence to life (gravity keeps us grounded but causes things to fall out of the sky); we all only see in part; some tragedies that happen are explainable and traceable but are not God’s will; we are wonderfully made but tragically not perfectly made—the story of Job does not question that. Job and his friends are struggling to make meaning, to make sense of God when life hurts. The story of Job courageously dismisses the idea that if you just do and believe rightly, then you will always have prosperity and success; and it also dismisses the idea that if something bad happens then it is obvious you have done wrong, or your faith is weak. Sometimes, in fact, we have pain because we do what is right, good, noble, and just. The prophets, Jesus, so many in every generation bear witness to this truth.
Many years ago, Harold Kushner wrote a powerful book entitled When Bad Things Happen to Good People. He made available to everyone his deep personal pain over the loss of his son, andhow faith can help and hurt through loss. Like the book of Job, Kushner gave permission to talk about pain. The title of the book was often misquoted to be “Why Bad Things Happen to Good People.” To be sure we all wonder why. Job wondered about why, which may or may not be an answerable question. Even if why is answered, it may not be very helpful.Perhaps the question to ask is “how…how to be present with God, self, others when life hurts? How?”
As the story goes, God breaks the long silence and responds to Job with a series of questions that are as exaggerated as the rest of the story. Unanswerable questions, to which Job admits he is not able to offer any coherent response. He is at least temporarily silenced and humbled by God. Let’s admit God’s expansive response to Job is not completely satisfying, which may mean there are some things about some suffering that are beyond comprehending. For we who know the power of knowledge and understanding, that is hard. Yet, there are other truths that come from the story that may not answer the why question but can help with the how question. We note that while God does not directly answer Job, neither does God scold Job for asking. God can be approached, asked, engaged with hard questions. And we note that while Job did not get answers to his questions, he did get the Answerer. He said as much in his closing response to God—“I had heard about you, but now I have seen you.” Maybe in the long run what we need more than answers is presence, and Job received that.
Interesting that initially Job’s response is to repent in sackcloth and ashes, but God does not leave him there. In fact, God says that Job’s friends’ theology was incomplete and what Job said about himself in relationship to God was accurate. Again, it’s not an answer; but it is confirmation. And yet, Job does not get to gloat or be judgmental because God says, “Job, pray for your friends.” Hasn’t Job suffered enough? God it seems, is in the healing and redeeming business.
The story ends with Job’s restoration of family, land, livestock—none of which is meant to deny Job’s losses but perhaps pictures God’s power to restore and renew and that is hopeful. Until that time, Job reminds us that when life hurts we can voice ourselves to God, that we can be with one another without having to answer everything, that contrary to the patience of Job there is the tenacity, the courage, the honesty of Job, and that in the end when all has fallen away including life itself, God remains and abides that we might one day mount up with wings like eagles, run and not grow weary, walk and not faint. With that as God’s promise and our loving companionship beside one another, we get to be that healing essential when life hurts.