Monthly Archives: August 2016
Eight Years, and Still Learning this Lesson; A Sermon on Job 38
Why Ask?
Job 38:1-18
† In the Name of Jesus †
May you be blessed by truly grasping that the grace, mercy and peace of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ Jesus is indeed yours, even as it was Job’s!
A Questioned answered, with a Question
I know it is very valid educational method, but it still irritates me. It is called the Socratic Method, and it can be very effective, in both teaching and in counseling. You simply make the student process the information by only responding to them with a series of questions, based on their answers.
As I said, it can be very effective, because it makes the person you are teaching or counseling think. Instead of giving them the answers, you guide them in finding the answer. It does wear on the student a little, as they struggle with the process. But because they come to the conclusion, they understand the answer far better.
25 years ago, this month, I was a freshman at a Bible College, and my first class in Ephesians had a professor who taught in this manner. It was great, and he was excellent at this style of teaching. I still remember some of the discussions in that course. The next semester though, he used the same educational theory. The only problem was the course was elementary Greek! So Mr. Parker, what do you really think the 2nd person aorist passive verb “pistis” means! Socratic teaching doesn’t work for things like ancient Greek, or Algebra. But it has its place.
Like when someone like Job is looking for an answer, an answer they already have. It is then far more beneficial to have them answer the questions, moving ever towards the answer that they already know.
When Job asks why? God doesn’t answer directly, but starts Job on a series of questions, that will lead Job back to what is essential, not only for Job, but indeed, for us.
What the question isn’t asking
How dare you?
Why do we hear it that way?
We are attuned to the Law, to the Wind and Waves
Hear again, the first verses of our reading,
1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding Job 38:1-4 (ESV)
A bit attention getting? I think so! Out in Anza, we had a lot of dust devils – miniature tornadoes which spiraled dirt a hundred feet in the air. They made a lot of noise when they hit the church, and if you drove through one, the dirt will come flying through the A/C vents! I can’t even imagine the whirlwind that hits job, both the one out of which God answers, and the one his life was in. He lost everything, he had friend doubting his faith, and as he sits there, crushed and broken, Godfinally answers. “Get up, and answer me…”
I have to wonder, if when we read this passage, we read it as God criticizing Job, as God putting Job in his place. Hey Job, don’t you realize that you are nothing, that you can’t measure up to me, that you are insignificant in my eyes? After all you’ve never done anything, and you won’t measure up to what I can do. Come on Job, be a man, put up your dukes and let’s rumble! Winner takes all, and I, Almighty Sovereign, Everlasting God will challenge you to a fight of 10 rounds. Ready?
Except can’t be that. We know from the rest of the book that God favors Job, that He loves him. That God counted Job as His. That God said that Job would not stop entrusting himself to the God that love him, because the love is beyond the stuff of the world.
So why do we hear these questions of God in this way? Why do we not question the way this sounds? Does it seem to be the God you would want to follow? To be that petty, that mean, that self-serving? Yet, how often do the people of this world see God, and indeed, His church, as that kind of God? How many think that God and the church only exist to condemn, and brutally use guilt and shame to control them? Do we give them that expectation? Do we expect it ourselves? Why?
Is it perhaps because we are afraid that God would be that way? That we hear God’s law questioning our lives, and we automatically assume that the reason He is questioning us, is to prosecute us? So we are afraid to admit that we have failed, that we gossiped, or lied, or lusted or wanted to kill someone, or betrayed someone’s trust, or didn’t love that person.
How many of us are afraid of the voice that would answer us, out of the storms that are our lives? We fear being blown over by that wind, or maybe we are afraid of what God will ask of us, and that as sinners, we will be called to do something incredible, like Peter’s walking on water.
The danger of not getting the Entire story!
But Peter didn’t drown in his storm, and neither did Job. We know that Jesus reached down and saved Peter, and if we read three more chapters of Job, we would know that God also redeemed his life. The issu
You see, God is asking these questions in a Socratic form. The answer to each of them, “No, I wasn’t there Lord”, “no, I didn’t do that”, is not to humiliate Job, but to get him to think. The questions are asked with a goal in mind for Job. That he would understand that it is okay for mankind to struggle with life, and the heavy questions of suffering and why things happen. That we don’t have the answers to why, but that we can answer who is the One who determined the measurements of the world. Then we know the answer to whom controls the waters and who the morning stars, and the angels shouted for joy to see!
A few chapters after these questions, God says if Job can only answer him, 14 Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you.” Job 40:14(ESV)I don’t know about you, but the last thing I want God to think, is that I can save myself. I cannot, for I will screw it up. I don’t want God to applaud my efforts, I want Him to reach out and save us, to make us His, to redeem us.
That is what the questions lead to, and what Job remembers, when in chapter 42 we find this. “1 Then Job answered the Lord and said: 2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” Job 42:1-2 (ESV)
Job is back, back to where he was in the beginning, when all was going well. He remembered that his trusting God was based, not on his holiness, but on God’s faithfulness, on God’s character and strength. That is where the questioning leads, to the very relationship that God assured satan was unshakeable. Not because Job was perfect, but because Job knew whom to trust.
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. 26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, 27 whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! Job 19:25-27 (ESV)
Job knew, in the midst of his suffering, that God would redeem him. That somehow, even though he were to die, that he would then live to see God. That is the voice speaking of someone who knows they are God’s, that is assured that God is one their side, that their redeemer will come. In God’s answer to Job’s complaint here is a far better answer. You are not God – I am.
I am.. I am your God. I am the one who will save an redeem, and answer.
In Christ’s death, centuries after Job’s life ended, the answer was seen in its fullness.
That is where God was leading Job in the questioning, not to self-suffiency, or humiliation, but to call on Him, trusting in the His love. Love so strong, that it would pay the highest cost, the Body and Blood of Jesus, to redeem us, to save us from our sins, and the sin of the world.
I have a son, a cute little pain in the neck. As I leave in the morning, I call out to Him and ask, do you love me? He runs and hides, or says no, with a great big smile on his face. I long to hear him say I love you dad, or to reach out His arms to me. Patience will get me the hug I want – and God is more patient with me – waiting for me to remember He is God. The God who asks me to call upon Him,.
That is the nature of God and Job, it’s not about the suffering, it’s not about the challenges, it’s not about humiliation. It is about a God, and one of His people. The One who promised to redeem, and the one who would be redeemed.
My friends, we are the redeemed. Redeemed not by our own works, but called to redemption by God, and made to be His people.
May you live in God’s peace, knowing this. Peace that surpasses all understanding, and guards our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus.
Amen?
Be at peace.
The Real Controversy in the Book of Jonah
Devotional Thought of the Day:
9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry over the gourd plant?” Jonah answered, “I have a right to be angry—angry enough to die.” 10 Then the LORD said, “You are concerned* over the gourd plant which cost you no effort and which you did not grow; it came up in one night and in one night it perished. 11 And should I not be concerned over the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot know their right hand from their left, not to mention all the animals?” NABRE Jonah 4:9-11
Missionary activity is nothing else and nothing less than an epiphany, or a manifesting of God’s decree, and its fulfillment in the world and in world history, in the course of which God, by means of mission, manifestly works out the history of salvation. By the preaching of the word and by the celebration of the sacraments, the center and summit of which is the most holy Eucharist, He brings about the presence of Christ, the author of salvation. (1)
“I have learnt with sadness of the killing this morning at the Church of Saint-Etienne du Rouvray. The three victims: the priest, Father Jacques Hamel, 84, and the authors of the assassination. Three other people were injured, one very seriously. I cry out to God with all men of good will. I would invite non-believers to join in the cry! “ (2)
A lot of people focus on the fish (some call it a whale) in the story of the prophet Jonah. To be honest, the controversy there is silly, a game played to avoid what is truly controversial. The sin that is challenged there, and not met with repentance, the sin of Jonah.
Imagine today if an evangelical leader was called to go to Iraq or Syria, to preach repentance to the cadres of ISIL, or to AAfghanistanand preach to ISIL’s history enemy, Al Quaeda. Would they look for the nearest beach, rather than taking a ship to the location of their new ministry? Would they and their friends get mad if they saw their enemies repent, throwing a tantrum as Jonah did?
There is the controversy, there is the place where ministry could occur, and those who know the grace of God are tempted to turn their back on not only the people God would have heard their gospel, but on the mission of God, and really on the heart of God.
God calling you on not loving your enemies? God calling you on loving a “thing” ( in his case a plant, of for us, our way of living ) more than you love the people. That’s controversial. There is a conversation that will hurt, that may drive us from the room, or perhaps to our knees in repentance.
Look at the quote of the ArchBishop of the priest who became a martyr. He prays for the two assassins – and calls them victims! That is controversial! Even more controversial than Pope Francis reminding the cChurch that Christians can be very violent as well.
We are all sinners, we are all victims of unrighteousness as well. The unrighteousness of sins committed against us, the unrighteousness that springs from our being led into sin by those who should be carrying us to the cross. From those who should help us see our epiphany, who should help us see Jesus revealed as the one who cleanse all people of all sin, and all unrighteousness. Who desires that so much, that he is even patient with us as He waits for us to get our act together, to live as Christ lived, to love our enemies even as Christ loved us.
Jonah was pissed at God, for he couldn’t see why God would let a plant die. Yet Jonah was willing to write off a city, and was ticked at their repentance. God called him on that…
And perhaps now, or perhaps as we head forward to communion this weekend, we need to examine ourselves, confess our sins, our time of acting like Jonah. To get past the little miracle to the big issue of Jonah.
God loves our enemies as much as He loves us.
It’s time to rejoice over that fact… and realize those who like us, were enemies of God, are our brothers and sisters. Whether they are Muslim, or Sikh, Jewish by faith, or simply genetically, atheist or agnostic, Lutheran or Catholic. God is calling them, and calling us to deliver that message.
Lord have mercy on us ALL!
AMEN
(1) Catholic Church. (2011). Decree on the Mission Activity of the Church: Ad Gentes. In Vatican II Documents. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
(2) Archbishop LeBrun http://saltandlighttv.org/blog/general/press-release-of-the-archbishop-of-rouen-following-hostage-situation-at-church-of-saint-etienne-du-rouvray
The Hard Lesson of Life…. Perspective
10 We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life. Ephesians 2:10 (NJB)
In describing the spirit of the association to which I have devoted my life, Opus Dei, I have said that it hinges upon ordinary work, professional work carried out in the midst of the world. God’s calling gives us a mission: it invites us to share in the unique task of the Church, to bear witness to Christ before our fellow men and so draw all things toward God. Our calling discloses to us the meaning of our existence. It means being convinced, through faith, of the reason for our life on earth. Our life, the present, past, and future, acquires a new dimension, a depth we did not perceive before. All happenings and events now fall within their true perspective: we understand where God is leading us, and we feel ourselves borne along by this task entrusted to us. God draws us from the shadows of our ignorance, our groping through history, and, no matter what our occupation in the world, he calls us with a strong voice, as he once called Peter and Andrew: “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”11 He who lives by faith may meet with difficulty and struggle, suffering and even bitterness, but never depression or anguish, because he knows that his life is worthwhile, he knows why he has been born. “I am the light of the world,” Christ exclaimed. “He who follows me does not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.” (1)
It is challenging to me to think of myself as a work of art, never mind God’s work of art.
And it is hard to see what I am doing as ‘good works”, in fact, I sometimes wonder if I am the opposite to King Midas, everything he touched turned to gold and everything I touch collapses, or breaks, or needs to have toilet paper applied.
I understand all too well St Josemaria’s description of groping through history, dwelling in the shadows of ignorance. Even as He draws me, there is a reluctance to enter the brilliance of His glory, the glory He would share with all of His people.
But I have to realize that He is more reliable than I am, that His will is being accomplished, and should I humbly focus on my journey with Him, the very places we go together, the people we talk to, are part of His making my life a work of art. Walking with Him means having the challenge and pain of loving people – including those who consider themselves unlovable I know their pain, as does about every person I have met in life.
That’s why, as we are transformed, faith also accepts that what we can perceive is not all there is to the story. That God is doing something very special in our lives, giving us a meaning we can’t see, because the artwork isn’t finished yet.
Knowing that means that I can accept that the potter knows what He is doing – that His vision for my life, my vocation can be vastly different from His. But he is the designer, the architect, the Creator, and I am but His creation.
A creation so beautiful in His eyes, that He would share HIs glory with me, and will all who are His people. That is what I have to remember as I skirt in and out of the shadows, as I wonder what He has in mind, and what He is doing. I even come to realize the reason I am allowed to hang out in these shadows, is to reflect His glory into the dark places, where other masterpieces lurk, afraid to come into the light, afraid to be seen, unaware that they are meant to be His people and He, their God.
In baptism – He cleansed me of all my sin and the unrighteousness of the world, and the struggle to see my life from His perspective is a challenge. Even so, the work is His, the promise to see it through is His. I’ve learned to trust Him, will learn it some more.
it is an interesting life… challenging.. and yet with Him? Incredible. For He heals the broken, and uses them to bring healing to others!
AMEN!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria. Christ is Passing By (Kindle Locations 1411-1423). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Awe: Love that Embraces…. Pain?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
2 Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. He did not give up because of the cross! On the contrary, because of the joy that was waiting for him, he thought nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross, and he is now seated at the right side of God’s throne. Hebrews 12:2 (TEV)
9 Love must be completely sincere. Hate what is evil, hold on to what is good. 10 Love one another warmly as Christians, and be eager to show respect for one another. 11 Work hard and do not be lazy. Serve the Lord with a heart full of devotion. 12 Let your hope keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at all times. 13 Share your belongings with your needy fellow Christians, and open your homes to strangers. 14 Ask God to bless those who persecute you—yes, ask him to bless, not to curse. 15 Be happy with those who are happy, weep with those who weep. 16 Have the same concern for everyone. Do not be proud, but accept humble duties. Do not think of yourselves as wise. Romans 12:9-16 (TEV)
Love has certain standard features. Sometimes we speak o love as if it were an impulse to self-satisfaction or a mere means to selfish fulfillment of one’s own personality. But that’s not love. True love means going out of oneself, giving oneself. Love brings joy, but a joy whose roots are in the shape of a cross. As long as we are on earth and have not yet arrived at the fullness of the future life, we can never have true love without sacrifice and pain. This pain becomes sweet and lovable; it is a source of interior joy. But it is an authentic pain, for it involves overcoming one’s own selfishness and taking Love as the rule of each and every thing we do.
As my son, moments after being born, was laid on my wife’s chest, I witnessed a sense of profound joy. Despite the pain, despite the discomfort, despite the complete lack of privacy, there was great joy! (Enough so that i didn’t realize my mask was on backward and I was about to pass out from breathing my CO2!)
I thought of that scene as I read the words of St. Josemaria. They are correct, to love people can hurt, it can disappoint, it can demand that we make sacrifices, or embrace situations where our dignity is cast aside. It is not the one who is our beloved that demands this, but love itself means we take action, we sacrifice, and we embrace the pain.
And yet, I think about the smile on my wife’s face, and realize this dear priest is right again – the pain is no less sharp, the tears no less real, and yet the joy given in the sacrifice is wonderful. .There is no one, in the midst of loving another, that would say the love isn’t worth it, that they would rather go without the one they love. ( again I remind you – the beloved does no, should not demand the sacrifice, or require the pain – that doesn’t love)
This involves us, as St. Paul notes, in the joy and tears of those we love. When one hurts, we all hurt. When one is enjoying life, that sparks joy in us all. In every way, the community of faith is affected alongside those who are loved by God together. Who are united in that love, and therefore begin to truly love each other. We truly embrace the costs of loving, just as Jesus did, know the joy that comes from this love, not only in heaven, but now in reconciliation, and in sharing in the blessings of God.
It even makes those who believe they are our enemies, our beloved. Just as Christ loves us when we were His enemies.
This is love.
While it is unmerited by the beloved, it costs the one who loves.
But the joy, in inexpressible, beautiful awe-inspiring.
You are the beloved, and because of that, you also love.
Escriva, Josemaria. Christ is Passing By (Kindle Locations 1387-1392). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Our Confident Hope of Real Life IN HIM! A Sermon on Col 1:1-11
The Simple Christian Life – Love, HOPE, Faith
Our Confident Hope of Real Life IN HIM!
† In Jesus Name †
May your eyes be opened more and more to the reality of your life in Christ, as you know the transformation found in God’s peace.
What is Real?
Paul, in the words to the Colossian Christians, gives them something to think about, something to spiritually chew on.
He tells them that they don’t know what reality is, that what they think is real, the things of earth, those things are not real. What is real is found in what we can’t see, the life we have in Christ.
You’ve heard about people who are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good? Paul says we’ve got that wrong – we are good, when our eyes are on Christ, when we realize that our reality could be phrased as this…..
Alleluia! He is Risen! (He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!)
And therefore? ( We Are Risen Indeed!)
And since you have been raised to your new life in Christ, then it’s time to redefine what is truly reality – to understand that our life is in Christ, that it is not subject to the things of earth.
That sounds easier than it is, to live a life that is holy and as righteous as God would have us be, as God sees us.
But the struggle to be holy, can be frustrating, and if we go about it wrong, we will fail, giving up as we don’t see the growth we think God expects.
But when we understand what it means to dwell on the things of heaven, this transformation makes sense.
What needs to be stripped away
The first thing is to understand that since we have been baptized, the sin which can so easily ensnare us is has been defeated – we have been cleansed of it, the sin we commit and the unrighteousness that affects us.
That is why Paul says “since you’ve been raised to new life” Since – it has already happened. But we need to understand it, with our head, but even more with our heart and soul. Which means we aren’t looking at those sins we’ve committed, we aren’t dwelling on the unrighteousness that affects us.
I can’t see any of us arguing for the list of unrighteousness Paul notes, Let’s look at it again. Do any of you want to be affected by these things, or the consequences of them?
Sexual immorality,
impurity, or basically being unclean
Evil and what it causes us to crave
Greed? (Which Paul properly identifies as idolatry – to serve that which we can’t take our eyes or hearts off of)
uncontrolled emotions
malicious behavior – having the intent by word or deed to try and destroy someone.
Slander – that is denigrating speech – whether it is true or not, saying things which will hurt the character of another person,
Filthy language
The list isn’t exhaustive, it simply helps us understand what this world does to us, what sin causes us to do. How it breaks us, even when what starts out with good intent turns, and a desire for justice turns into a desire for revenge. Looking at something special turns into coveting, envy and a desire to get something for less. Frustration turns into gossip – and then slander, because we can’t figure out how to trust God and care for those who are difficult
It is as if these things are struggling for control of our life What a struggle that seems at times! Paul, talking of that struggle to the church in Rome declared himself a wretch.
Where is our hope? Where is this hope – our confident hope for this new life?
Remember the Since at the beginning of the readings?
Where it said, “Wince you have been raised to new life in Christ? The answer begins there.
and in verse 10, putting on the new nature – or as one translation describes it – getting dressed like Christ.
Put on New Nature = Live in Christ
Look at verse 10,
10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.
The renewal that happens in your life and in mine happens to us, as we come to know God our creator. Knowing God who creates and restores us, making us become like Him. As Paul urged the church,
I pray that out of the glorious richness of his resources he will enable you to know the strength of the spirit’s inner re-inforcement – that Christ may actually live in your hearts by your faith. And I pray that you, firmly fixed in love yourselves, may be able to grasp (with all Christians) how wide and deep and long and high is the love of Christ – and to know for yourselves that love so far beyond our comprehension. May you be filled though all your being with God himself!
Ephesians 3:14 (Phillips NT)
How wide, how deep and long and high is the love of Christ – and to know that love ourselves, love so far beyond comprehension, and may you be filled through all your being, with God himself
That is the same concept as setting your mind on things above –
Spend the time necessary thinking of the love shown you here – at the font when Christ died for you, and you were joined to that death.
To the place where you will kneel and again – be a participant, not just an observer and receive the Body broken for you, the blood spilled to cleanse you of your sin. Know the power of sin was shattered there, as you begin to comprehend His love, it changes you… you become like Him, as He transforms you. This is what is real, this is where our focus of life needs to be.
Being holy isn’t done by sheer will, but recognition of need, and the wonder and awe that comes from seeing that need met.
God loves you…loves you enough to unite you to His son.
The son who, alleluia is risen!
and therefore
AMEN
