#Blessed? Wisdom for the Hard Times Preached at Wollaston Congregational Church On October 3rd, 2021 Scripture: Job 1:1, 2:1-10 This week we begin a three-week journey with the book of Job. You may wonder if I’ve taken leave of my senses. Job is not the most popular book in the Bible: it is a story of very bad things happening to very good person. But … I did promise a sermon series on the wisdom literature of the Bible. The Revised Common Lectionary gives us Job, which is a part of that wisdom tradition, for these three weeks. Job deserves a deep dive, it is not a book that can be summarized in just one sermon. In our quest for God’s wisdom we need to tackle the perennial question: if God is all powerful and all just, why do bad things happen to good people? The name given to this theme by academics is theodicy or “God’s justice.” Rabbi and author Harold Kushner phrases the question differently, in his popular book, “When Bad things Happen to Good People” first published in 1981. That is, there is no point in asking why, because it is a fact. In this world, bad things do happen to good people. The book of Job is that it is a book “in conversation” with other books of the Bible. Job is most likely an ancient fable that had been circulating in the ancient world long before it was written down. When the Hebrew scriptures and the collection of “wisdom writings” were compiled, Job was included. Job offers a counter to the fundamental understanding the book of Deuteronomy: “If you will only obey the Lord your God, by diligently observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth; all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the Lord your God…” (Deut 29:1-2). Many blessings are listed as a reward for obedience to God: prosperity, children, protection from enemies. The story of Job argues a sound “no!” In ancient times, the God was imagined as presiding over a Divine Council of lesser deities. The book of Job starts out with this Divine Council deciding to play some tricks. There is a mischievous character, Hassatan, who goes to and fro on the earth creating problems for the Lord. In later stories Hassatan will become Satan, the personification of evil. Hassatan presents himself at the council. For some reason the Lord asks Hassatan, “have you considered my servant, Job?” Job is righteous and obeys the Lord his God. He makes sacrifices for the sins of his children. And he is indeed blessed with prosperity, health and a large family. Perhaps the Lord wants to show off Job as an exemplary man of faith. But Hassatan wants the Lord to test Job and find out whether he will remain faithful if his fortunes change. The Lord agrees to the test. Lo and behold, one day Job learns that all his oxen and donkeys have been taken away, his servants have been killed by the thieves, his sheep have been burned, and a storm blew up and collapsed the house of his adult children, and they have all died. Job simply responds “naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there; the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21) In the episode we heard this week, Job is also been cursed by a painful skin disease all over his body. And so he has picked up a piece of broken pot to scratch his sores, and sits forlorn among the ashes of the fire. His wife is outraged that he continues to be faithful to the Lord who has given him these afflictions and admonishes him to “Curse God and die!” But Job only responds saying “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?" He insists that he will remain faithful. Over the coming weeks we will hear the story unfold. Modern Christians, like ourselves, may push back on taking a lesson from the book of Job. We may argue that the covenant in Deuteronomy is not for us. We have a new covenant, in Jesus Christ who died and rose again for our sins. We think that makes us more advanced than those ancient people. Jesus revealed a better God to us, the God of the New Testament, not the Old. However, there is a school of thought not much different from the covenant in Deuteronomy that is alive and well in Christian circles today. It is known as the Prosperity Gospel. The Prosperity Gospel preaches that God will reward faithful Christians with health, wealth and happiness. “Nothing is impossible if you believe.” [1] Practitioners of this gospel pray bolding for healing from all kinds of physical ailments. If the suffering patient isn’t cured, it’s because they didn’t believe strongly enough. Material wealth is seen as a blessing from God. And during the pandemic Prosperity Gospel preachers, some of whom are televangelists, have proposed rejecting scientifically researched vaccines and treatments in favor of faith healing. They have done great harm, persuading their followers to avoid common sense protection from COVID and simply to have faith that God will protect them in some other way. Kate Bowler is a professor at the Duke school of Divinity. She was researching churches that practice the Prosperity Gospel, when her own world fell apart. After years of infertility and miscarriages, Kate and her High School sweetheart husband conceived a son. Her career was a success and she had her dream: a beautiful family. But, when her son was a one year old, Bowler was diagnosed with stage IV cancer. Her response to the doctor who called to tell her the news was to say “but I have a baby.” The diagnosis was just not fair. Bowler had thought that she was not a believer of the Prosperity Gospel. As she observed mega-churches and miracle healings, she’d say to herself “I’m just studying this stuff … I’m nothing like them.” But she goes on to say “if you live I this culture, whether you are religious or not, it is extremely difficult to avoid falling into the trap that virtue and success go hand in hand.” Bowler observes that the Prosperity Gospel has become a new kind of Civil Religion in the United States. This is illustrated all over social media by shiny photos of immaculately dressed, photogenic families on pristine beaches accompanied with the hashtag “Blessed.” It is important to be grateful for what we have. It would be worse to take the good things in life for granted. But, do those families really lead the shiny #Blessed lives the pictures portray? Are those who don’t feel shiny and positive ashamed of their hurt or fear or pain? In recent weeks we have learned about the harm done to teenaged girls by “perfect” pictures on Instagram, which make the girls feel worse about their own bodies, often leading to eating disorders. [2] For myself, I’ve been attracted to the #blessed lifestyle and community. I’ve stood on the edge awkwardly, like a shy child on the first day of kindergarten. I’ve tried a few carefully curated family pictures on social media. Yes, I’m grateful and I’m blessed. But to attribute my privilege, health and material wealth to God’s blessing is just wrong. And to say I haven’t suffered with the rest of the world is a lie. I have been blessed by the people in my life who won’t let me get away with that kind of self-deception. They are people who’ve shown me their real selves and their real suffering. They’ve demonstrated, for me the need to cry out to God in the darkest hours. And, incredibly, I’ve noticed time and again that those who suffer, and are honest about their suffering, are often the most faithful to God. They are the ones who care for people in hospice, or minister to families whose loved ones suffer from cancer or dementia. They are the ones who have a parent or a child at home who demands their daily care and attention. They are the ones who have confessed their own addictions and support others on the same awful journey. These are the not-so-shiny people who stand close to God, and will draw us closer too if are ready to show our own less than shininess. Kate Bowler admits that when she received her devastating diagnosis she thought: “Good things happen to good people … am I not good? Am I not special? Why is this happening to me? Be good and good things will come to you … my own personal prosperity gospel had failed me.” As she went through treatments, though, she received what she calls “a gift.” In all the suffering, pain and trauma, she experienced love in the suffering, saying “when I was sure I was going to die I didn’t feel angry, I felt love.” She came to the conclusion that “Life is beautiful … And life is hard” and that there are no guarantees … “Life will break your heart, and life will take everything you have. Even in the darkness, there will be beauty and there will be love.” [3] Even in the darkness, there will be beauty and there will be love. Here is a meditation by Steve Garnaas-Holmes Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad? —Job 2.10 What if love does not hand out stuff, good or bad, but is simply present in all things? Without judging, can I receive it? What if nothing happens “at the hand of God,” but everything is in the hand of God? Without judging, can I receive it all? What if things, like rain, are both good and bad, and neither, but simply are? Without judging, can I receive them? What if good and bad are so wrapped up in pleasant and unpleasant that we can't tell very well? Without judging, can I receive everything? What if my life is neither good nor bad but wondrously full of pain and pleasure, and the presence of God? Without judging, can I receive it? I open my hands. [4] [1] Kate Bowler, "Everything happens for a reason" YouTube, uploaded by TED, 2 July 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTcJmIbn5nw&t=176s [2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739 [3] Kate Bowler, "Everything happens for a reason" YouTube, uploaded by TED, 2 July 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTcJmIbn5nw&t=176s [4] https://www.unfoldinglight.net/reflections/8fmtmbfnm2jlxy2jm548lb52tfd2ts
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