I actually thought it turned out to be an okay sermon, but not a person leaving worship commented on it! I assumed people knew the details of Job's story, but I'm not sure that is correct. If I preached it again, I might take a few minutes to give some more details about the story.
I really like the Fleming Rutledge quote. I found it late in my sermon prep. I wish I had found it earlier and explored it more in the sermon.
this ends the "OT Sidekicks" sermon series. I had a good time with it and had a chance to work through some Old Testament stories we don't often hear in worship.
“OT Sidekicks: Job’s Friends”; Job 2: 11-13; November 26, 2023; Christ the King; SAPC, Denton; Dr. Richard B. Culp
Job 2: 11-13 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all these troubles that had come upon him, each of them set out from his home—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They met together to go and console and comfort him. 12When they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him, and they raised their voices and wept aloud; they tore their robes and threw dust in the air upon their heads. 13They sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.
Introduction: last week of OT sidekicks; next week we begin Advent as we move through December to Christmas.
On this last Sunday before Advent, which is in fact the last Sunday of the liturgical calendar known as Christ the King Sunday, we take a stop in the book of Job.
Job - one of the most famous books of the Bible, known both by Christians who read the Bible and by those outside the Bible.
We often who hear the phrase the “patience of Job.” (As an aside, for those who read the biblical story of Job, he does not exhibit much patience, or at least patience as we might typically describe it!)”
so let’s look at Job’s story beginning with the actions of his three sidekicks, JOb’s three friends who arrive
Move 1: the three friends arrive and sit with Job for seven days and seven nights.
a. to their credit, they show up.
1. They discover Job’s grief that has so impacted him that they do not recognize him from a distance.
2. Probably part of the ritual observance for dealing with someone in grief, but they were there with him.
3. You perhaps know the works of Stephen Sondheim. His musicals include Sweeney Todd, West Side Story, and Into the Woods, to mention just a few.
after his death a few years ago, there was an article about him in the NYT Times describing a gift beyond his musicianship that he gave to others.
he showed up! Apparently, Sondheim was well-known for showing up at shows and places to support all sorts of up-and-coming musicians and writers.
He developed what the writer described as “an art form that is so much about being present for the unrepeatable moment, he not only showed up, but he also often did so to experience work that was offbeat and obscure,” article by Laura Collins-Hughes, Published Dec. 1, 2021Updated Dec. 3, 2021: To a legion of fans Sondheim was and is the be-all and end-all. But his own horizons as a theatergoer were significantly broader than that. In an art form that is so much about being present for the unrepeatable moment, he not only showed up, but he also often did so to experience work that was offbeat and obscure, challenging conventions just as his own work did. (https://donteatalone.com/community/sustenance-and-sondheim, Milton Brasher-Cunningham)
4. Important takeaway from Job’s story - The friends got it right when they showed up for their friend in need.
b. They did not speak for seven days and seven nights.
1. Hard to imagine - well maybe we could imagine not speaking, but certainly they would have texted!
2. they sat in solidarity with JOb, comforting him in his grief, and with no words to say in the moment, they do not talk.
3. A powerful reminder for those of us who always try to find words to explain, or to share, or to fill the silence.
4. I had a conversation just this past week with someone about what to say when you go through the line at visitation.
5. what do you say when you do not have the right words to express yourself?
6. One of my prayers through the years as I enter what I think will be a challenging situation is, “God give me the right words to say or the sense to keep my mouth shut!”
7. For seven days and nights, Job’s friends had the sense to keep their mouths shut.
A lesson for us as we seek to comfort others.
move 2: Then the three friends speak.
a. And my how they speak.
1. once they start, they are hard to stop.
2. 30+ chapters of the friends speaking and Job responding.
3. Eliphaz speaks with the eloquence and courtesy that he uses indicating that he has learned how to say unpleasant things in a gracious way.
Bildad is brutal and plainspoken. He doesn't care what the effect of his words are on Job.
Zophar is compassionate and emotional - he acts as a motivational speaker, speaking with a great deal of force. (https://greg.cohoon.name/seekers/notes/job/chapters3-14.html)
b. As they speak, they articulate the traditional views of why bad things happen to people.
1. For example, Eliphaz suggests that God only punishes those whom God loves, so Job should feel good about his suffering because it means that God loves him.
2. Along with that Eliphaz tells Job that Job has no one to blame but himself for all his suffering.
This, of course, reveals the theological assertion that suffering is a sign of sinfulness. And conversely, having riches and being wealthy are a sign of God’s blessing.
We dance around that theological point still today.
3. Bildad weighs in with the thought that Job just needs to repent and his suffering will end.
4. Zophar takes the most direct and challenging approach by declaring that Job’s guilt deserves punishment and, in fact, God is taking it easy on Job.
Again, all Job must do is repent from his sins and God will remove him from the misery in which Job finds himself.
5. The friends' speeches are interspersed with Job’s denials and frustrations, but the friends cannot move beyond the traditional view that suffering takes place because the person suffering has done something wrong.(https://www.gotquestions.org/Jobs-friends.html)
c. Ultimately, Job rejects his friends' arguments.
1. This is also a rejection of the whole theological understanding of suffering that ties suffering to what the person has done wrong,
2. Job is angry, frustrated, demanding, and unable to find an answer that satisfies, but he also knows that his three sidekicks do not have answers that work.
d. God affirms Job’s rejection of his friends’ approach.
1. voices displeasure
1. Job 42:7 “The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: ‘My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”
2. Ironically, the Lord calls on Job to pray for his friends!
3. We are left with the reminder that the old ways of thinking about God and suffering do not work.
2. Blaming the one who is suffering does not work.
Move 3: Job’s friends push him to look for another way.
a. And Job ends up standing before God looking for answers.
1. in that moment, Job discovers it is not about knowing the correct answer, but in knowing God.
2. Knowing God as the one who is ever beyond us and our understanding, but also the one who comes to us.
The God who is willing to engage Job personally, even as God challenges Job’s need to know everything.
3. God’s question: "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” reminds Job that God is God and Job is not.
4. But God also invites Job into an ongoing relationship.
b. Fleming Rutledge, Episcopal priest and well-known preacher: “Now if God had answered Job in the way that we would expect, with soothing explanations and comforting reassurances, then the answer to the question, “Is there a God beyond what we can imagine?” would have to be, No.
Anyone can imagine a God who does what we expect. The reason that so many people have complained that God’s answer to Job is no answer at all is that they want a God who fits their preconceptions.
Job, however, is manifestly satisfied. The God who is really God has come to him and has revealed himself as the one who was already present, already at work before there was anyone to imagine him. God is the author of creation; the creation is not the author of God. This was revealed to Job by the living voice and presence of God’s own self. That was enough.” https://donteatalone.com/uncategorized/lenten-journal-jobs-story
c. The God whom Job discovers is the God we know who comes to us in Jesus Christ
1. On this Christ the King Sunday, we acknowledge Christ as our King, but a king who is raised to power from the dead;
who rules the earth from heaven, but only after he has come and lived among us, suffered for us, and died for us.
2. Christ’s life, death, and resurrection may not answer all our questions about suffering, but it does reveal to us the God who joins with us in our suffering.
3. perhaps Job’s friends do not speak for seven days and seven nights because they have no words to describe the God who suffers with us.
Words cannot adequately describe it, but God shows it by coming in Christ to be with us in life and in death.
Conclusion: Amen.
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