Friday, October 15, 2021

Hebrew Testament Text for Sunday 17 October 2021

Job 38:1-7, 34-41


The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

"Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Gird up your loins like a man,

I will question you, and you shall declare to me.


"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements—surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk,

or who laid its cornerstone

when the morning stars sang together

and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?


“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,

so that a flood of waters may cover you?

Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go

and say to you, ‘Here we are’?

Who has put wisdom in the inward parts,

or given understanding to the mind?

Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?

Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,

when the dust runs into a mass

and the clods cling together?


“Can you hunt the prey for the lion,

or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

when they crouch in their dens,

or lie in wait in their covert?

Who provides for the raven its prey,

when its young ones cry to God, 

and wander about for lack of food?”


Reflection         God is God, unfathomable as the unborn, undying eternally all that is, and, at the same time God is bound at the center of the whirlwind of our suffering. God is the humility that tempers our pride. God is the generosity that empties our gluttony. God is the peace that eases our anger. God is the joy that supplants our suffering. God is all and beyond all, closer than our breath, ungraspable as mercury.


The sooner we get on our knees and admit our complete and utter dependence on God (not to mention unspeakable smallness in the face of all creation) the sooner we will experience the mysterious wisdom and grace of God in us and of us, with us and for us.


In all twelve step recovery programs the first and essential step toward freedom from a particular obsession, compulsion or addiction is to admit we are not in control, in other words, to get on our knees and surrender to something greater than ourselves. Which is the second step in every twelve step program, recognizing there is indeed something greater than ourself. The thing is, not all of us loose our freedom to drugs, alcohol, sex or gambling. Like Job some of us loose our freedom to ideas or images about ourselves; we are righteous, dutiful, smart, law abiding, altruistic, successful, philanthropic, good people, aren’t we?.


In the gospel according to Mark we meet Jesus as he “was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.”” (Mk10.17) Apparently Jesus was familiar with the Hebrew scriptures and took Job’s lesson to heart. God alone is good or righteous. And we are meant to be in humble and reverent relationship with God. 


Here is the interesting twist. Although we are not God, we are not other than God. As long as we get on our knees and admit our complete and utter dependence on God, there is every chance we will be surprised by the lavish grace of God flowing to us and through us, even and perhaps especially in the midst of our suffering.


God appears to us in a whirlwind of run-a-way thoughts, anxiety, pain, fear, grief, and every variety of addiction, obsession and compulsion - whatever it takes to put us on our knees. Still, all is not lost because freedom calls us as Job’s young friend Elihu admonishes,   “(God) delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear by adversity. (God) also allures you out of distress into a broad place where there is no constraint…” (Job 36.15-16)


When swept away in a whirlwind of our suffering, God is not absent. God is not silent. God is speaking through our distress, and not only speaking but also inviting us to a bigger, broader life of freedom in humble relationship with God’s Indwelling Presence.


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