24th Sunday after Pentecost

November 11, 2007


To Whom Do We Live?


In my former parish I was given a nickname by a marvelous lady who is a good friend and a dedicated parishioner.

This came in the midst of quite a time of stress, worry, and conflict between some construction plans for our congregation and the extremely picky, persnickety, opinionated, and hard to get along with board of architectural review.

In the end, after a year and a half it all worked out, but I did receive a nickname that persists to this day, especially when she calls from the east coast.

My name to her is – Pastor Job.

At first glance it would seem that no one would want to be compared to Job of the Old Testament.

He was a very righteous person who had been blessed all of his life.

God speaks of Job by saying: “Have you considered my servant Job?

There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.”

That’s quite a compliment, and we wonder if God could say the same things about us.

But unfortunately Job winds up in the unenviable position of being the pawn in a power struggle between God and the devil, and, in one day, lost absolutely everything that he had.

As if that wasn’t enough, he was afflicted with sores from his feet to the top of his head and wound up sitting in a heap of ashes, scrapping his sores with a piece of broken pottery.

What would you or I do in such a situation?

What would be our feeling toward God at that point?

Job’s response was: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Blessed be the name of the Lord? Is Job kidding?

I wonder of we have the courage to say that when we wind up at the bottom of the heap?

It would be more tempting to take the advice of Mrs. Job who comes along and says: “Do you still persist in your integrity.

Curse God and die.”

Why not, life for Job had become a disaster.

And, after all, that might be the easy way out.

Yet, down deep, Job kept his faith, and, even though he wrestled with God over his situation, he was finally able to say: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.”

Incredible.

In the midst of it all, Job had the eyes to see the hope and promise of resurrection.

In the midst of it all, Job still lived his life to God.

In the end, God restored to Job all that he had lost, and in fact, life for him was indeed resurrection.

One of the hardest parts of the Christian life is to be able to look beyond all of life’s unmanageability and to have enough faith, enough courage, and enough trust to live to God no matter what, to actually be able to get a glimpse of resurrection even when we are surrounded by total darkness.

How easy it is when the going gets tough to throw in our spiritual towel, to decide that God, in fact, doesn’t care, and, in fact, can’t do anything about our situation, so we take matters into our own hands in order to control our own lives and live to ourselves.

After all, if God isn’t going to take care of us in the way we want, and if our prayers aren’t instantly answered verbatim we can fend for ourselves, thank you very much.

For example, that is exactly what the Israelites did when Moses spent too much time on the mountain with God.

Even after Moses had led them through the Red Sea they say: “Come, make gods for us who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.”

So, they built a golden calf to take care of themselves.

People have been doing it ever since – finding ways to live in their own way, and their own time, and making gods for themselves over which they have control.

That can be very tempting.

You and I live in some pretty tough times.

Our headlines have some scary news about terror, about violence, and dire financial warnings for the future.

So, how do we live these days since September 11, 2001?

How do we live, especially if we wind up in a situation like Job?

St. Paul has, what I believe, are some of the most vital words for you and me;

”I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

And then Paul says: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

And again St. Paul says: “We were buried with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

All of those words of St. Paul define for us the life that we can live in God if only we have the courage to walk by faith and not by sight.

It is a life that is not limited by the world’s definitions, it is a life that is not dictated by the wishes and whims of others, it is a life that can be lived absolutely without fear, for after all, Jesus did say: “fear not, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

It is a life that is hidden in the heart of God – a life that is everlasting, a life that is chock full of possibilities, a life in which, in spite of what we see, has no limitations whatsoever.

It is a life of total freedom.

It is the only life that is worth living.

So, my brothers and sisters, at this moment: to whom do we live?