An Unsatisfying Sermon

 Job 38:1-7 & 34-end

Brace yourself everyone, today’s sermon is going to be thoroughly unsatisfying! I say that not as a cop out; an excuse for my lack of preparation or my lack of insight. No, it just that it’s really unlikely that at the end of my short time speaking to you today that you’re going to hear the answers you want to hear, or even that I’m going to be able to say the things I want to say.

Perhaps I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. Let’s go back a bit.

If you aren’t overly familiar with the story of Job from the Old Testament you could be forgiven for thinking that today’s reading presents as a kind of divine rant by the almighty God. Our Lord and creator has His knickers in a twist and it all seems a bit unfair. Well, you’re sort of right, but there’s more to the story than meets the eye. You see the *story of Job begins with this successful and happy man losing everything He has because Satan told God that Job was only a good follower because he had a happy life. I use the word story quite intentionally there as the literal nature of the book of Job is hotly debated, and the idea of God and Satan having some kind of celestial coffee break together is one that has always puzzled me. Anyway, Job loses everything. Family, livestock, land, property and even his health. It all goes wrong for Job.

And to start with Job remains faithful, but soon that faith starts to wane. Egged on by his three unhelpful friends, Job rants at God for some 30 odd chapters, bewailing his predicament and begrudging the Lord God he used to trust.

And so this is where we find ourselves today. After 30 chapters of Job presenting his case, God finally speaks! And unlike in other biblical stories, where God speaks out of a still small voice or through a tiny helpless baby, this time God comes out all guns blazing. And almighty storm erupts and God finally has His say.

And shall we be honest with one another…..it’s thoroughly disappointing for Job and for us, isn’t it? Having heard 30 chapters of a moaning Job, we’d love it if God spoke softly and calmly, He said that everything was going to be OK and that Job didn’t need to worry any more.

But God doesn’t do that, does He?

Instead, God presents Job with a long list of things that his human companion knows absolutely nothing about.

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.

Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!

On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?

There is no mention of Job personally and certainly no direct response to the terrible tragedies that have befallen him. To quote one author, the answer seems to be ‘that God is God and Job is not.’ For the parents and grandparents in the room is seems as though God has gotten to the ‘Because I said so’ stage of debate!

So what do we do with all of this unsatisfying scripture? (other than feel a bit sorry for Job perhaps). How do we take this into the coming day and week?

We are so used to images of God as a calm, caring, loving, gentle creator, that perhaps we sometimes forget that He is the Almighty. He is the one whom the cosmos obeys. He is the One who has created more galaxies and solar systems than we have hairs on our heads or freckles on our faces. And it’s not that God isn’t calm and kind, but He also almighty, because God is everything we can imagine and more. We forget, just like Job, that we are not the centre of the universe. We forget that individually, locally and as a church too!

God reminds Job that he is but a speck of dust in the grand scheme of things and that might seem harsh to our ears, but it is also quite true. Now….if you haven’t lost all will to live just yet, there is good news coming, I assure you. So hold on.

Christians (and indeed followers of other faiths also) have long had to grapple with the tension between God being Almighty and bad stuff happening. We’ve seen only too well this week with the events in a Methodist church in Leigh-on-Sea that terrible things can happen to anyone without a moment’s notice. It’s shocking and sad, and we often don’t really know what to do with ourselves at moments like these. If God is the One who the stars look to each morning, then why did that terrible thing just happen in my life? If God can command the waves at will, then why am I suffering in this particular way?

In all honesty, we don’t have an answer for that one yet, not a complete one anyway. One day we will, as we sit down to our own celestial coffee break with God and ask Him “So what was all that about God? Why didn’t you just sort it?” But until then we must think about what’s going on right now. And here comes the good news.

If God is so uncaring of our problems, so caught up in His own importance like today’s reading suggests….then why did He send Jesus to save us?

If God wants to ‘put us in our place’, then why did He send His only Son to die for us just so that we would be alone any more?

The biggest difference between us and Job is that Job lived in a time before Jesus was around, a time when the Light of the World was not yet shining in our hearts. A time when God hadn’t yet come down to Earth, to experience life in all it’s fullness just as we do.

It is a terrible cliched Christian answer to respond to any questions by saying the ‘Jesus is the answer’, but in this case it is actually true.

The almighty God who marked off the earth’s foundations and sends the lightning bolts on their way is also the same God who took the form of a tiny little baby and wants a relationship with you and me. He is the One who died because of all the rubbish stuff that you and I have and will continue to do! So, until we get to have that heavenly chat with God, or until you guys get a Curate who can confidently answer your difficult questions……I encourage you to lift your eyes to Jesus, the One who loves and redeems you this day. 

Amen.