Find ourselves in our brokeness ... Sermon for Oct 4th 2015

Sermon for October 4^th 2015 – Flesherton Pastoral Charge

We are all familiar with the book of Job, and the story of this character who had everything stripped away only to suffer and try to make sense out of the unexpected turn his life had taken.

Job is a favourite character for those trying to make sense out of pain and suffering – dozens of books and hundreds of articles and likely tens of thousands of sermons have been offered reflecting on and studying this fascinating book and its cast of characters …

Like last week`s exploration of the book and figure of Esther, this week I want to take a moment to explore the enigmatic figure of Job and perhaps reveal a few things we may not have known or just overlooked …

The first part of Job has been identified as a folktale that has an incredible depth in the simplicity of the story. In four short scenes the author has constructed a powerful web of meaning and theology.

Job is introduced as a character in the beginning of the book noting his name, his personal qualities, his possessions and his characteristic activities – he is pious, wealthy, the head of a large family clan, clearly observant of his religion, and is noted for his integrity, his uprightness and piety towards God, and his compassionate morality towards others. It is interesting to note too, that Job is not identified as a Jew or an Israelite – he is from the land of Uz, leaving his ethnicity obscure.

Scholars note too, that the words used in the Hebrew text to identify Job`s integrity, uprightness, piety and morality towards humanity are significant too. The word for integrity is tam, from the word tumma which means completeness or wholeness – uprightness has to do with going straight and not deviating from the path – they note that Job used all that he had and all that he was to express himself through faith … he offered his gifts and wealth and himself through faith to those around him freely and without reserve.

After Job is introduced, we then find ourselves in the heavenly court before God, surrounded by the various semi-dieties like H`Satan. Not satan – H`Satan – the adversary.

Here, God is boasting about creation and highlights his servant Job – H`Satan, the adversary offers a wager to God … take from Job all that he has, make him suffer unimaginable losses and see how faithful he remains …

God takes the wager and strips Job of everything – his wealth, his health, his children, his possessions … ALL of it is GONE … and Job is left with a horrible skin condition, sitting outside the city gates scratching his sores with a piece of broken pottery … but he still remains faithful … God wins the wager and Job remains faithful.

In the scene unfolding in this morning`s reading, as the wager and the testing by H`Satan unfolds Job remains pious and silent. He will not simply curse God and die as others, his wife included expect him to … he remains firm

Then the book plunges into an incredible array of conversations about facing and struggling with suffering – over and over Job;s friends come to him and counsel him. The heart of the counsel from his friends is essential – the righteous are rewarded, the unrighteous are punished – look around Job, you aren`t one of the righteous, just curse God and die …

Job to his credit disputes this simplistic theology and the take on the world it offers. He holds to his faith and in that example offers us the template for living with evil and suffering in our world. It is not about solving it, nor denying it – but facing that sometimes life is harsh and evil and suffering prevail and we are CALLED to live with it by relying on our faith …

This template example is echoed in Psalm 26 where the psalmist names the struggle and the stuff that swirls around us, and dares to keep living knowing God is with us every step of the way.

For us, today centuries removed from the folk tale of Job, and the pious certainty of the Psalmist, we have a reminder of where we can find God if we dare to look …

Before us on the communion table is the broken bread.
BROKEN bread … in the act of remembrance we celebrate as part of World Wide Communion today, we took bread and we BROKE it … in our remembrance we no only acknowledge the brokenness of creation, we re-enact it and take part in that brokenness.

We break bread and REMEMBER …

In the breaking of the bread we affirm our faith and dare to move into a broken world KNOWING that we see and experience that world differently because of our faith and because we acknowledge the brokenness around us …

The reading from Hebrews helps to affirm that lessons – the text reminds us that the world is very much in God`s hands, and if we were to continue past today`s readings we have the reminder in verse 16 that the world is for humanity not for angels – the help God offers is for us not for the divine court that we began in Job with …

That’s a profound reminder of our centrality to the story of creation.     

The question though that arises is the one central to the book of Job, and it is what theologians and believers across the sands of time have wrestled with – how do we live our faith with integrity and uprightness in a world awash in such brokenness.

And there is no easy answer to that question … hence why the book of Job goes on for 40 plus chapters wrestling with this …

Peruvian Theologian Gustavo Guiterrez, the father of Liberation Theology – the very theological movement that has given rise to a pope by the name of Francis, authored a book some years ago entitled “On Job” that explores and reflects on the pernicious presence of suffering in our world, and how the Church and people of faith can come to grips with it.

In the book he ponders – “How are we to do theology after Auschwitz? The reason is that (around the world) we are still experiencing every day the violation of human rights, murder, and torture that we find so blameworthy in the Jewish Holocaust of World War II. Our task here is to find the words with which to talk about God in the midst of the starvation of millions, the humiliation of races regarded as inferior, discrimination against women, especially women who are poor, the systemic social injustice, a persistent high rate of infant mortality, those who disappear or are deprived of their freedom, the suffering of people who are struggling just for their right to live, the exiles, the refugees, terrorism of every kind, and the corpse filled common graves (scattered across the globe). What we must deal with is not the past, but, unfortunately a cruel present and a dark tunnel with no apparent end …

How are we to live hopefully in a broken world filled with such atrocities?

We BREAK bread in a broken world

We POUR OUT the cup – the very BLOOD of Christ in a world that is too often awash in blood

We stand together in silence before this brokenness and within this discomfort and we dare to REMEMBER …

We remember the pain

We remember the sorrow

We remember the suffering …

We remember the events of Easter

We remember the events in places like Syria, Darfur, Oregon, and anywhere human life is broken and battered and left bloodied

WE REMEMBER the brokenness …

And then we remember that we are not alone

We remember that we are the children of God

We remember that we are the people of God

We remember that in this brokenness we are not forgotten

We remember our faith … the grace and love that is ours

None of this makes the brokenness suddenly go away, but in the folly of celebrating our God in the midst of the brokenness, we suddenly find strength in that weakness …

Guiterrez sees in the cross and the very act of remembrance that is the heart of communion,  the very presence of God breaking free of this brokenness and offering us hope …

In the face of the suffering in our world, and even in our own lives, today we have dared to BREAK bread and pour out the cup and find the holy in the midst of this brokenness because we have dared to remember: God is with us, we are not alone … thanks be to God … Let us pray …