The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

Bill's suspense novel "Purge the Evil" now available for Kindle download. For info, click here: http://www.boomertrek.com/PurgeTheEvil.htm
 

The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

(Scripture readings for Sunday, February 5th: Job 7:1-4, 6-7; 1 Corinthians 9:16-29, 22-23; Mark 1:29-39)

JOB: A STUDY OF FAITH DESPITE SUFFERING

This week’s first reading is from the book of Job (pronounced “JOBE”). Some people speculate that it is not a coincidence that Job’s name is spelled the same as the word “job,” since the story of Job’s life contains long stretches of misery, tedium, and frustration—not unlike what many folks say about their working conditions.

Job is a fascinating story. The biblical text dates back to some of the earliest writings in all of Scripture. At the beginning of the story, we learn that Job was a prosperous man devoted to God. One day Satan appeared before God and claimed that the only reason Job was faithful to God was because he was greatly blessed. Satan challenged God to take away Job’s blessings and then he would surely stop loving God.

There are a few surprising things here: (1) Satan actually had a conversation with God, (2) God took Satan up on his offer and removed His blessings from Job, and (3) all this happened behind the scenes; Job did not know he was being put to the test.

Immediately, terrible things started happening to Job. All of his valuable herds and flocks were either destroyed or stolen. Then all of his children were killed when the building they were in collapsed during a storm. Finally, Job himself was afflicted with a gruesome and painful skin disease from head to foot.

All-the-while Job had no idea why his fortunes were reversed so suddenly. To make matters worse, three of Job’s friends came to him and made long-winded speeches claiming that Job must have deserved such a fate because of some secret sin in his life. (Wow, with friends like that, who needs enemies?)

Job’s own wife offered no support. She said to him, “Are you still holding to your innocence? Curse God and die.” Nice. Thanks for the encouragement, honey. Scripture tells us that through all this, “Job said nothing sinful.” But I suspect Job might have THOUGHT something sinful, possibly that it was too bad his lovely wife had not been indoors when the building collapsed.

Our reading this week picks up in chapter 7, where Job laments about his new and ghastly circumstances. He said, “Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?…He is a slave who longs for the shade….I have been assigned months of misery, and troubled nights have been allotted to me….the night drags on; I am filled with restlessness until the dawn. My days…come to an end without hope….my life is like the wind; I shall not see happiness again.”

If you think the reading this week is depressing, please note that a verse in the middle of the reading, verse 5, was edited out by the people who compiled the Scripture readings for the Sunday Lectionary. Just to give you the full effect of what Job was going through, here’s what verse 5 says: “My flesh is clothed with worms and scabs; my skin cracks and festers.”

Eww, sorry to be so gross, but that was the reality of Job’s plight. He had lost everything; he was in physical torment; and his wife and friends repeatedly said it was all his fault.

If anyone had a right to feel hopeless and abandoned by God, it was Job. And frankly, he did despair, cursing the day he was born and longing for death to bring an end to his suffering.

But Job did not commit suicide. He did not even contemplate it. His spirited arguments with his annoying friends actually might have helped take his mind off of the idea of taking his own life. He vigorously protested his innocence, acknowledging that he did not understand why he was being afflicted, but insisting that it was not divine punishment for some secret sin.

It’s interesting that Job did not kill himself. There was no talk of euthanasia, mercy-killing, “death with dignity,” or moving to the Netherlands or Oregon where he could be quickly and easily put to death by so-called “compassionate”’ doctors. Good thing all the vultures who demanded that Terry Schiavo be killed and all the Dr. Kevorkian supporters were not around in Job’s day. They would’ve strapped him to a bed, starved him to death, proclaimed that it was the compassionate thing to do, and afterward be applauded by the New York Times and the ACLU.

In our day and age the suicide rate is alarmingly high. And surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, most people who kill themselves are NOT facing situations similar to Job. They are not financially destitute or wracked with painful health problems. Suicide victims in America are just as likely to be physically healthy, upper-middle-class folks possessing fine homes, cars, and loads of nice gadgets, toys, iPads, and other symbols of success.

The common thread among many people who take their own lives is the idea that their lives are meaningless. They truly believe their lives have no purpose. They think God either does not exist or if He does exist, He does not care. Which means that even if they are physically healthy, they are spiritually ill.

Even though Job had to deal with far more sorrow and pain that anyone I’ve ever heard about, he did not take his own life for one simple reason: he knew God cared about him.

Job was in agony. His life had become, as he said, “drudgery,” “misery,” and “restlessness.” He was convinced he would “not see happiness again.” And yet Job knew that the world was ruled by a rational and caring God. He knew there had to be a logical explanation for what he was experiencing.

This faith in the goodness and justice of God is what kept Job going. In the end, Job never did find out why it happened—at least not during his earthly life. But he finally did get a chance to speak face-to-face with God, an experience that was so awe-inspiring and overwhelming that Job forgot all about the nagging question of why did it happen.

When it was all said and done, Job passed the spiritual test, he did not lose faith in God, and his health and personal fortune were restored.

Through all the dark nights of despair, Job’s faith in God never waned. When his personal nightmare was finally over, his trust in the Lord was strengthened more than ever by his experience of suffering.

The key to Job’s survival and ultimate triumph is an important lesson for those of us who wonder why so many people these days throw away their lives—people who are faced with far fewer problems than Job. The key to Job is faith; faith in a rational, logical, and most of all, caring God.

When we know that God is God, then we know that life is a precious gift—all life, even life that is forced to deal with suffering, heartache, and pain. When we are spiritually healthy, God will give us the strength to bear our burdens.

©2012