Introduction
The
16th Century nun, Teresa of Avilla, once went through a very difficult and
painful time in her life.
She
was, I think, a feisty and courageous reformer, certainly Spirit-filled and full
of faith. But during this troublesome phase of her life certain members of her Carmelite
order began to criticise her and bully her and resist the changes she was trying
to introduce.
For
example, they hindered her from establishing any more spiritually renewed convents.
They ordered her to go into ‘voluntary’ retirement (which didn’t actually stop
her but it was pretty disheartening). Her friends and associates were also subjected
to harassment and bureaucratic hurdles and persecution.
From
about this time, 1582, there’s an old story about her going on a journey to set
up a couple of convents, houses of prayer, in Burgos and Grenada. Her journey
was disagreeable and exhausting – and at one point perilous. And it’s said that
at this point, it all got a bit much, and she turned to God in a prayer of utter
exasperation.
“O
my Lord,” she said, “when will you cease from scattering obstacles in our path?”
And she got a reply. She felt God say to her, “Do not complain, daughter; this
is how I treat all my friends!” So she said, “In that case, Lord, it’s no
wonder you haven’t got very many!” I told you she was feisty!
Meet
Job…
Today
and in two weeks’ time, we will be looking at the book of Job, taking a break
for Mothering Sunday in between.
The
great poet Alfred Lord Tennyson once described the book of Job as “the greatest
poem in ancient or modern times.”
It’s
actually one of the oldest books we have -not just in the Bible- but in the
world and it explores one of the oldest questions that humans have ever asked; why?
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Because,
you see, Job was a good person; in fact, he was beyond reproach. And bad things
happened to him. Lots of really bad things… Why is that? If God is really good
and if God truly rules supreme over the world he made, how can this be?
How
on earth can I believe in the goodness of God when everything around me is
falling to pieces and my prayers go unanswered?
As
we’ll see in two weeks’ time, at the beginning of the Book of Job, one day God
and Satan have a strange discussion about whether Job would ever curse God and lose
his faith. Satan says, “I bet you he would,” and God says, “Oh no, he won’t.”
Every
good film or play works with suspense and tension - and this drama is no
exception. We know, as readers, all about the wager in heaven. We know the
reasons for Job’s suffering. But Job and his friends are never told the
reasons for it, even at the end of the book.
That’s
why today’s readings have cut out God’s conversations with Satan; we’ll come back
to that in a fortnight, because I want today to try and get a feel for Job’s
predicament as he experienced it.
Chapter
1.13-19 tells us that in a single day, Job loses all his flocks (which are his
source of income), he loses all his servants (a symbol of his wealth already
earned), and his house collapses on his children, killing them all.
In
our terms, we would say his employer goes bust, he loses his job, all his savings
and pension are wiped out, his house falls down, all his personal possessions are
destroyed in the rubble, and all his children are dead – all that in one day.
Not
only that, but 1.5 tells us that these personal tragedies all occur shortly
after Job specifically prays for blessing on each of his children.
Not
long after this day from hell, (and this is in chapter 2 now) Job’s health breaks
down too. He comes out in painful and itchy sores from head to toe and he ends
up sitting on an ash heap, away from where people go, because nobody can bear
to look at his hideous face, deformed as it is by ugly sores oozing pus and blood.
And
it’s at this point we’re told (2.9) that his wife starts to nag sarcastically. “Still
holding on to your precious integrity, are you? Why don’t you just get it over with?
Curse God; go on! Perhaps he’ll put you out of your agony.”
There
are times when you don’t need that kind of feedback, and I’m sure Job probably just
wanted to be left alone.
Which
is when his mates turn up. By now, Job is so disfigured that, at first, they don’t
recognise him. When it dawns on them that it’s him (2.12) they begin to weep aloud
and wail and howl as if at a middle-eastern funeral, which I’m sure will have really
cheered Job up and been such a blessing...
A
man’s whole world utterly collapses in a few days.
But
we detach ourselves from any emotional involvement from this story not because
we have hard hearts and don’t care, but because it’s an old story which reads
like a fable. Being honest, it doesn’t feel all that real does it?
I
mean, three separate but identical disasters, all on the same day, each leaving
a solitary survivor, who all use exactly the same words to break the bad news. That’s
not how life happens.
Later
in the book, each comforter speaks three times, and in carefully constructed poetic
verse. It makes you wonder, “is this for real?” It must be just a story. And
yet, other Bible authors (Ezekiel and James) write about Job as a real person
who actually lived, and Job appears in other ancient writings as well outside
the Bible.
For
my money, the Book of Job is probably a kind of historical drama, a bit like The
Crown or Shakespeare in Love. Those are adapted screenplays, touched
by artistic license, but based on historical figures and events. The screenwriter’s
skill is in exploring the big questions we care about through the dialogue and
suspense.
That’s
what I think we have with the Book of Job; a play, a tragedy, about actual
people who experienced truly horrible things, dramatized by a skilled writer,
who is led by the Holy Spirit as he or she puts it all together.
The
Question Why?
Let’s
try to get under Job’s itchy skin and get a feel for what it must have been
like for him to suffer so unfairly.
His
first speech comes in chapter 3, where he curses the day he was born and then
asks the question that we ask when we see bad things happen to good people; “Why?”
In fact, he asks “why?” five times:
·
Why
didn’t I die at birth?
·
Why
were there arms to rock me and breasts to drink from?
·
Why
wasn’t I stillborn and spared all this misery?
·
Why
does God keep those who suffer alive, prolonging the pain?
·
Why
am I alive - what’s the point when nothing makes sense?
We
too ask the question “Why?” over and over again at times of suffering. In my
experience, it tends to be asked less by those who are actually suffering and
more by the carers or people who just hear about it.
How
can we answer that question “why?” as followers of Jesus?
What
do the three friends say? Job’s comforters? They are outstanding examples of
what not to say. I’m afraid that virtually everything they come up with
in chapters 4 to 37 is insensitive, misguided and hurtful. For them, Job’s
suffering must be some kind of karma; payback for sin that Job is hiding from
them.
They
lecture him. They offer opinions Job didn’t ask for and they end up accusing him
of things he didn’t do. If there’s one lesson from the Book of Job it’s this;
don’t do that! Don’t point the finger at people who suffer, saying they have brought
it on themselves.
But
I think they start quite well. In 2.12 they weep with Job and they show their
grief by tearing their clothes.
Even
better, in v13 they sit with him and they stay by his side. For a whole week. And
best of all, they say... nothing. No simplistic platitudes, no helpful advice,
no morbid running commentary, not a word.
When
you’re really low, you need friends who do this. Friends who are ready to
listen and hold your hand, and offer to pray, but generally say little. That’s
how best to care for somebody who is hurting.
They
let Job talk – if he wants to. And if he doesn’t, they just keep him company. If
only they had carried on the way they began!
But
what about that question “why?” Does the Bible say anything about God allows
suffering? Yes, it does.
First
of all, it says that some suffering is caused by personal sin. We know
this really.
·
If
I drink to excess, I can expect problems with my liver.
·
If
I or gamble every pay cheque on the horses, I will lose all my money and bring
poverty on myself and my family.
·
If
I take drugs, I will have addiction issues waiting for me.
·
If
I commit serious crime, I will likely suffer the misery of a prison sentence.
The
Bible says very clearly that, in the end, we reap what we sow. So, some
suffering is caused by personal sin.
But
that wasn’t the case for Job. The truth is that Job’s so-called friends were
100% wrong telling him it was all his fault. Job lived a good and upright life.
The
Bible says that there is a second cause of suffering. Some suffering is caused
by collective sin. What was the sin of Adam and Eve? They ate from the tree of
knowledge of good and evil. Basically, we all want to define what is right and what
is wrong instead of accepting what God says.
Genesis
3 teaches that the sin of Adam and Eve, which we all share in, has corrupted
and blighted the whole created order. The Eden God created, a garden of
delights, has become a dump with weeds and brambles and thorns and nettles.
God’s
good design is all out of kilter. Sickness and stress and sorrow and separation
are all symptoms of a world that has gone wrong.
Our
paradise planet is disfigured by garbage and plastic and toxic waste and unbreathable
air. We are vulnerable to earthquakes and floods because we build cheap houses
on geological faults and in flood plains. We set the rain forests on fire. Our
planet is fragile and our societies are fractured.
I’ve
read the end of the story and it says that God is one day going to put it all
right again, but for now, much suffering is just what comes of living in a messed-up
world.
There
is a third cause of suffering according to God’s word. Suffering is usually
much more complex than we think. It was for Job. And it may well be for us. Neither
Job nor his friends saw what was going on behind the scenes. They didn’t know
that there was a bigger spiritual picture.
We
cannot always understand all that’s going on when we, or those we love, are afflicted.
But we’ll spend more time looking at all that in a fortnight’s time.
A
fourth reason in Scripture why we suffer is to do with intimacy with God. Our relationship
with God, more precious than gold, often deepens in times of suffering.
When
the Haiti earthquake hit in 2010, people in the UK asked, “Why? This is
terrible. Where is God in all this?” But on the ground, Tearfund reported that
everywhere they went they found people who said, “God is with us in the most
amazing ways.”
Paul
found this with his thorn in the flesh in 2 Corinthians 12. “Three times I
pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is
sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” Therefore…” he said,
“for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in
persecutions, in difficulties.”
The
Swedish-American author John Ortberg once said, “If you ask people who don’t believe
in God why they don’t believe in God, the number one reason will be… suffering.
If you ask people who do believe in God when they have grown most spiritually
in their lives, the number one reason will be suffering.”
God
brings wholeness and blessing from broken things. It takes broken soil to receive
seed, it takes broken clouds to give rain, it takes broken grain to give bread.
It
takes a broken alabaster jar to fill the room with the sweet aroma of pure
nard.
The
Golestan Palace in Tehran has one of the most beautiful rooms of any palace in
the world today. When you go into the Hall of Mirrors everything seems to be
covered with diamonds.
When
the Royal Palace was planned, the architects ordered mirrors from France for to
cover the walls. When the mirrors arrived they opened the crates and their
hearts sank. They were full of broken pieces. Everything had all been smashed in
transportation.
They
were going to throw the whole lot all away when the Architect overruled. He changed
the plan to a mosaic of broken pieces all fitted together.
The
result is a fantastic distortion in reflections, and it sparkles, diamond-like,
with scintillating colours. It’s breathtaking. Broken to be more beautiful!
That is what God can do with broken dreams, broken hearts and broken lives if
we offer them to him in faith.
Joni
Erickson Tada, who was paralysed when she was a teenager in a diving accident, once
said that when she gets to heaven, she is going to fold up her wheelchair, hand
it back to Jesus and say, “Thanks, I needed that.”
Don’t Despair
I
don’t think Job’s wife is a great example of how wives should communicate when
their husbands are sick. Job needs a bit of support but in four words, “curse
God and die!” she basically washes her hands of him. “You would be better off
dead” she says. “Just book a holiday in Dignitas and get it over with.”
It’s
easy to criticise her for that. But remember, she’s lost everything too. Wouldn’t
you be angry? It hurts so badly when someone you love is in pain and there is
nothing you can do to help. It may be that Job’s wife can’t stand to see him like
this and, for his relief, wants to bring his agony to an end.
She
is under great stress, and her life world has been turned upside down, though it
was wrong to tell her suffering husband to turn away from God.
What
about Job himself? He says a number of things in these opening chapters from
the place of utter desolation and devastation.
First
of all, he quotes from the Church of England funeral service in 1.21. “The Lord
gave and the Lord has taken away; may the Lord’s name be praised.” He’s saying;
God is still on the throne and, whatever happens, God is still worthy of worship.
Then
in 2.9, he says, “Shall we accept good from the Lord and not trouble?” He’s
saying, “I’ll take whatever comes because, whatever happens, God is still
worthy of trust.”
But
Job’s third utterance at the beginning of chapter 3 is different. By this time,
he is broken; though he never curses God, he does curse the day he was born and
wishes he had never lived. I would guess that most of us, at some time in our
lives, may have sunk as low as this.
Ending
As
I end, a short testimony. I can’t remember where I heard it now, but it’s about
a Christian woman, perhaps in her 40s, who lived alone and who was suffering
from quite debilitating osteo-arthritis.
For
many months, she begged the Lord to take away her pain and heal her. Nothing
happened. She confessed every sin she could think of. No difference. She went
to healing conferences. Nothing changed. Every Sunday she shuffled slowly forwards
for prayer ministry. Every Sunday she shuffled slowly back to her seat.
One
evening, she was in such pain she decided to have an early night. As she was
getting undressed, she couldn’t stretch without extreme discomfort and as she
tried and tried to remove her cardigan, her patience ran out, she snapped, she
cursed God, lost her balance and fell, knocking herself unconscious.
The
next thing she knew, she awoke to a bright and radiant light. Her first thought
was, “Oh no! I have died and I am now face to face with God. And my last words
alive were to curse him.”
Her
second thought was to realise that she was, in fact, in her bedroom, on the
floor, half undressed, looking straight into the morning sun. And (don’t ask me
how this works – I don’t know) but as she got up, she felt new; she was
new. She was completely healed and free of pain.
Shall
we pray…
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 15 March 2020
No comments:
Post a Comment