Hebrew Testament text for Sunday 7 October 2018

Job 1:1; 2:1-10        There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.

One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason.” Then Satan answered the Lord, “Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives. But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, he is in your power; only spare his life.”

So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes. Then his wife said to him, “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die.” But he said to her, “You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Reflection      Job is a man of grand slam success and insistent faithfulness. We meet him at the heels of a wager between God and Satan. All of his livestock are destroyed, his servants are carried away, his business decimated. A great wind collapses the house in which his sons and daughters are eating and all ten of them are killed.  “(Despite) all of this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.” (Job 1.22) God wins the wager. Job remains faithful in the face of unrelenting loss, a fact God loses no time pointing out to the Satan.  “(Job) still persists in his integrity, though you (Satan) incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason.” 

Furious the adversary ups the ante. “People will give up anything to save their own life…” Again, God,  betting Job will persist in his integrity, accepts the second wager and empowers the Satan to inflict unspeakable physical suffering on Job.  And indeed, though his body is covered with oozing boils and Job sends himself into exile sitting on an ash heap, when his wife confronts him saying, “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die,” Job endures saying to his maligned wife, “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God and not receive the bad?” 

This is integrity. No matter what happens to us on the outside, our interior values, our moral principles, what we know to be true, must continue to determine how we behave. Which is to say,  our values are revealed in our daily actions. The quality of our actions bespeak the authenticity of our faith. Integrity. 

Job’s faith is established through his acceptance of blessing as well as suffering which is not to say, Job liked his suffering nor did he think he deserved it. In fact, for the next twenty-nine chapters of the Book of Job, he never stops calling out to God, asserting his innocence, despising his condition and demanding God’s attention. And therein lies the key. Job never stops calling out to God because he sees God’s hand in the good as well as in the bad. 

This melodramatic tale of enduring faithfulness and resolute integrity has much to say to us today. As we navigate our troubled times, like Job we will do well to put our confidence in God with us regardless of the raging tides of our circumstance. Like Job we must act with integrity making our daily actions line up with our hearts values; receiving blessing as well as suffering. Rather than asking, “Who is to blame?” better we should ask, “Where is God in this?” 

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Gospel text for Sunday 16 October 2016

Luke 18:1-8        Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, `Grant me justice against my opponent.' For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, `Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Reflection        Never stop turning and returning to God, or as our Jewish friends might put it, “Cultivate your inner nudge,” which is a rough translation of, “Because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice.” Rather than look at this instruction as a formula to manufacture an obnoxious personality I prefer to think of it as inspiration to sustain single-minded purposefulness in pursuing what is right and good and true. 

Sometimes it is hard to hold onto what is right and good and true, especially when the deck seems stacked against us. In the story of the widow we have no idea who her opponent is nor do we know the nature of her grievance. We do know the widow seeks justice in a situation that is stacked against her, having to rely on a merciless judge to hear her complaint.  Which begs the question, what gave the widow, a person of neither value nor status and certainly no education in her first century community, the courage, the chutzpah to persevere and bother the judge? From where did the widow derive her strength of purpose to repeatedly confront the truculent judge? 

It is unlikely the persistent widow was aware of Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein definition of a nudge. Here is what they have to say. “A nudge…is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people's behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates. Putting fruit at eye level counts as a nudge. Banning junk food does not.” *

Perhaps the widow heard Jesus teaching on a hillside, on the plain or in the synagogue and was moved to hope for justice in spite of her desperate situation. Perhaps the widow was inspired by the story of Job who never stopped calling out to God despite the unspeakable adversity of his situation. We will never know what kept the fire going in the widow’s heart such that she held fast to her desire for justice. Nonetheless her story gives us hope that each and every one of us may be heard as long as we never stop calling out to God for justice. In the throes of this political season it might behoove us to never stop bothering God. “O Lord make haste to help us, all of us. O Lord, come quickly and make our ways straight. Amen.”

*  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudge_theory

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Gospel test for Sunday 27 July 2014

Matthew 13:31-33,44-52         Jesus put before the crowds another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."

He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

"Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes." And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

Reflection        The kingdom of heaven is like the most fantabulous, extraordinary, multicolor, surrond sound, kaleidoscope of majestic, triumphant, sublime, angelic, grace and glorious holiness. No. That is not what Jesus said. The kingdom of heaven is like a miniscule seed, baker’s yeast, a buried treasure, a wild-goose chasing merchant, a fishing expedition. What are we to make of this? Heaven is not celestial, blissful, supernatural holiness? Heaven is everyday, run-of-the-mill stuff hidden in plain sight. 

Do you remember the “Where’s Waldo” books? “Where’s Waldo at the Beach? The Santa Spectacular? The Incredible Paper Chase? In Hollywood? The Search for the Lost Things?” If you are not familiar with Waldo, he is an adventurous, gangly, bespectacked teen age boy whom you might find on the road, in deep seascapes, in a crowded room or squeezed between memos or skyscrapers. The way the ‘reader’ relates with Waldo books is by searching for Waldo in the elbow-to-elbow mob scenes in Escheresque images. The thing is, Waldo is not hiding. He is an ordinary boy in a red and white striped tee shirt who may show up anywhere. The question is, do you, the ‘reader’ of the “Where’s Waldo” books  have the desire to find him? The persistence to keep looking? And the eyes to be surprised when finding him in plain sight? 

Waldo is like a seed sowed in a field. He is like yeast, a hidden treasure, a pearl of great value, a good fish in a buldging net. He is always right there in the midst of ordinary things waiting for you to be surprised and delighted by his presence. 

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Gospel text for Sunday 20 October 2013

**

Luke 18:1-8        Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, `Grant me justice against my opponent.' For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, `Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Reflection      Jesus’ parable reminds me of when my daughter was a teenager and the master of persistence... “mom, please.... come on mom... pleeeeeeese.......you know you reallly want to let me.” She was relentless in pleading her case until I was worn down. The good news is, her childhood persistence turned into tenacity; once she sets her heart on something that she believes is right or just she will not give up.

I believe that is what Jesus is trying to teach the disciples and us with this parable. Hold onto righteous causes, never stop praying and never give up. Because when we pray we are aligning ourselves in God. When we are aligned in God there is a clear, open channel through which God’s presence and God’s power can flow to bring about justice.... even among people who, like the unjust judge, mutter under their breath, “I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me I will grant her justice...” Yes, God brings about justice even through the unjust.

By linking persistence in prayer with issues of justice Jesus expands the notion of justice from ethics, moral rightness and law to include the spiritual dimension, which is to say, to include God. Justice is more than punishment imposed in response to a proven crime. Justice is more than retaliation, quid pro quo, a life for a life. Justice is more than restorative which provides for a victim to be made whole and for a perpetrator to understand and take responsibility for their offense and be reintegrated in society.

Justice is the will of God that all people have access to dignity, resources and power. This is distributive justice; the reallocation of resources among all peoples. “ This is the justice that Jesus brought to life throughout his minsitry; food for the hungry, healing for the sick, forgiveness for sinners and friendship for the marginalized. The will of God is to dignify, resource and empower all people. Our job is to align our will in God’s and secure justice for all peoples.  The way we do that is by praying ceaselessly and never giving up.

**Salvador Dali  "Geological Justice"

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gospel Text for Sunday, October 17th

Luke 18:1-8

Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, `Grant me justice against my opponent.' For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, `Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"