Wow! (following all of the life and confidence of the Holy Spirit being poured into our lives… Jesus’s healings and teachings…) Today, we are given the storm!
But that’s reality… For so many of us… The storms come upon us both metaphorically and literally. Jesus is on the water with his disciples and many others who decide to travel with him across the sea. And they find themselves in a storm. Now there is some significance in this experience for fisherman who know (way better than us) what a real storm on the sea feels like. Water is in the boat. That’s panic time…They are experienced fishermen - they are terrified! And Jesus quells the storm. The psalm and the book of Job may be in their minds, when they say “Who is this?!” They know the sea They know scripture 3 He gathered them out of the lands; * … 23 Some went down to the sea in ships * and plied their trade in deep waters; 25 Then he spoke, and a stormy wind arose, * … 28 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, * … 29 He stilled the storm to a whisper * and quieted the waves of the sea. The disciples are on to Jesus… At the same time even while following “the way” with Jesus, they will encounter storms (as we know too well). The Book of Job is still so famous today that many people refer to the hardships of Job. Job is thought to be the oldest writing included in the Bible. While the very early stories such as Creation and others were gathered over time, Job is thought to have been the oldest actual manuscript included in the Bible. That is profound. It is a book about life. It is part of the wisdom literature which consists of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job. The books have been broken down to represent different aspects of our growth into maturity. Proverbs reads as though there are rules to living. If you do the right thing you will be rewarded. Life is fair and you get what you deserve. While it is full of wisdom, it appeals to a youthful ideal about how the world operates. Ecclesiastes goes on to expose a level of cynicism, more attributed to one who has lived a bit - and experienced that “you can’t always get what you want.” as the Rolling Stones coined the phrase. Life isn’t always fair. “Everything is like smoke.” So enjoy what matters most: family, friends, conversation…God’s creation… And Job…. Job finally speaks to a very mature sensibility and wisdom….How do we live a good life even through suffering? In this portion of Job, God is finally speaking after 37 chapters of story. Job has lost everything. His family, his property, his health. He cries out to God in his distress; He still praises God, until one day he curses the very day he was born and demands God speak with him. Meanwhile his friends spend chapters trying to identify just what sins he had committed to deserve such a fate. And another intermediary speaks for several chapters about the merits of God’s omnipotence. Finally God speaks, but rather than providing an answer for Job’s suffering: Why a Holy Person should suffer?… God puts these cosmic questions to Job: “….who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?-- when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?" After many more illustrations of the cosmic nature of God’s work, Job replies with humility and awe. And God then tells the friends (who searched tirelessly for a reason that Job deserved his suffering) that God was angry. That they were wrong. But God says that if Job prayers for them their folly will be forgiven. And Job does pray for them. After this, Job’s life begins to thrive again…. It is a very mature story. Humans often blame the victim. We can’t seem to help it. It is so much easier to place blame than to grapple with the idea that the World throws storms our way. That is a scary scary place to find ourselves in. Some people naturally inherited good health, good teeth, the list goes on…Other people (as Craig would say) were born on third base… We often can’t relate to the trials of others… so we place blame instead. We act like devout disciples of Proverbs… an immature reading on life…believing we actually deserve the things we have. We look through our own lens… rather than looking at one another “not from a human point of view” as Paul said in our reading last week - but through Christ’s lens: with compassion and love - and a humility that suggests we don’t have all of the answers. We just celebrated Juneteenth this week - and for many of us, it is so hard to fathom the realities of those who have - and continue to live a very different and unfair reality. Juneteenth is important in many ways … It represents the explicit move of slave owners to the West, who relocated their slaves to Texas - a place far from the law’s arm. We’d maybe like to believe these enslaved individuals were unaware - that they spent two years in some kind of blindness. But all of their eyes were open… the slave holders and the slaves. Those individuals knew through their relocation what was transpiring - and others through underground channels of communication the “why” of their continued suffering. For those of us who have experienced illness or chronic pain - two years is a heavy burden with unanswered questions; fear of death before release; a life out of control - uncertain ongoing suffering. We may fall into the trap of Ecclesiastes: is there no meaning to life at all? The Story of Job is a mature story. It reminds us of our humanity - our lack of control. Why are we “good” ?- why do we care? - It is not to be self righteous…it’s not to get a reward from God - - but to find those modes of being that reflect the deeper reality of being truly human - and enhance the experience for others (to be like the Son of man)…as we say… the perfect human… the New Adam. A new creation…. Job is a mature reading of life. Job prays for those who trespassed against him. He didn’t have to forgive them first. Prayer in the true sense of opening our hearts - moves us to forgiveness. Moves us to transformation. Moves us to wisdom. We hope to experience this one precious life fully… which means to love fully. As Paul says, "our hearts are wide open to you - there is no restriction in our affection…” A lovely thing about Paul, is that he is always trying to help us live the message of Christ. What are the practical ways? I encourage you to pray for those who have trespassed against you… And in recognition of this federal holiday of Juneteenth… To participate in some of the anti-racism training and resources we have in the Episcopal Church. I’m on the committee. It is eye opening. It is important for us not to be blind to the continued suffering of others - not to place blame, and make excuses now because we can’t fathom the actions of our ancestors then; or because we fearfully don’t know how to repair things today. Our focus should be on how we are weathering it. We are trying to figure out reparations. We are in this boat together. As Jesus says, face into it with faith. And wisdom….As Paul says: “by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God.” Amen.
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AuthorThe Rev. Heather K. Sisk Archives
July 2024
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WE ARE ALL MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD |
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