Sermon 14.10.2018
Focus Scriptures: Job 23:1-9,16-17; Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31.
Today’s readings are taken from Job, Hebrews + Mark’s Gospel.
In terms of time, they span1537 years. From the time of the Patriarchs, around 1500BC to just before the Fall of the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem in 70AD.
The Book of Job is probably the oldest book in the Bible, written in a most difficult and ancient form of Hebrew by an unknown ”Israelite” about 1500 B.C.
Internal evidence places it in the Patriarchal Age….which ranges through from Abraham, through Isaac to Jacob/Israel.
- Though it contains no hints regarding Abraham himself, though there are mentions of names closely associated to Abraham.
- The book contains no mention of Moses, nor any mention the Law of Moses. No references to Israel, to the Judges, Kings, or Prophets.
- There are mentions however to creation, the flood, the covenant of Noah, and the scattering of the people .
The Book’s focus is the case of the innocent Job, afflicted by God through no fault of his own, and forever kept in the dark concerning the actual cause of his misery.
Like we might, Job rails against this unjust treatment and like the prophet Jeremiah generations later, considers suing God for justice. Job takes an oath of innocence in which he swears that he has committed no trespass that could possibly warrant the punishment he is receiving from God. Towards the end of the book, God, in order not to forfeit the suit, responds to the charges.
Through the 42 chapters of the book, as certain realisations dawn on Job and in the midst of ” the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”…. he cries out with insight and faith ; ”I know that my Redeemer liveth”.
May we this morning find ourselves in that place/ or that we shall soon come to that place; when storm tossed by stress, turmoil and upheavals we can with Job declare, with like faith;
” I know that my Redeemer liveth…(and)in my flesh shall I see God.”
Our reading comes some 4 chapters after Job’s delaration of faith. And today some 3500 years later, his experience echoes in each of our lives. We could be Job. We can be weighed down, for a period endure the dark night of the soul.
“Today also my complaint is bitter; His hand is heavy despite my groaning.
Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His dwelling!
In those times of great angst, like Job, we seek after God so that:
”(We)would lay(our) case before Him, and fill (our) mouth/s with arguments.
(We) would learn what He would answer, and understand what He would say.
It is not easy to be as Job or to be as Christ ….learning obedience through suffering.
Neither will it be easy, in holy obedience, for us to take up our inglorious cross and follow Him ”outside the city wall”….outside our safe space.
Because , in that dark night of the soul ”The Job Crisis” may now be our crisis and God appears silent..deaf and distant.
“If I go forward, He is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive Him;
on the left He hides, and I cannot behold Him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see Him.
That is why we must heed Isaiah’s advice:’‘seek the Lord while He will be found, call on Him while He is near”.
Note the rich closing line of our Job extract;
If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face!
There is darkness and darkness. There is the nurturing darkness of the womb. There is the radiant intimate darkness in the Song of Song. The luminous darkness in Psalm139;
”If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.”
But then also, there is the terrifying exterior darkness, the existential darkness of the lost….
” where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Thankfully we live in a much greater dispensation than Job. We live under the New Covenant .. where:
God,… in these last days He has spoken to us by his Son, Whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power.
John adds:
In Him was life,[a] and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Darkness always retreats even before a glimmer of light.
Unlike Job we have direct access to the very heart of God’s Presence.
”For we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ The Righteous;”
Jesus who on the cross stretched His arms wide and embraced us, took upon Himself ,our disease, guilt, sin and shame… He redeems, to the uttermost, all who come to Him.
For we have a Great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God…..For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but… one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
We are never deserted.This truth is our way through the dark night of the soul. Whatever the anguish, though railing like Job, with Holy Chutzpah, we look to Jesus, even in the dark, for He is true to His word,
”I will never leave thee or forsake thee”.
Ale Pozor, But be prepared to be challenged…. expect change… for the divine word / the Divine Word…..
is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides
soul from spirit, joints from marrow;
it (He) is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
And before Him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the One to whom we must render an account.
We see this divine word/Word in action in Christ’s encounter with the rich young ruler.
“Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus said to him, You know the commandments:
He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.”
Jesus, looking(hard) at him, loved him and said,“You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.
When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving…”
Jesus also looks on us in the very same way ,with this very same love. A committed, bonded, eternal love. Deep calling deep. But be assured that that love will at times be, what Alcoholics Anonymous call, ”tough love”.
Has Jesus been saying to you, to me:
You lack one thing; go and…….sort it………… and then follow Me.
In my heart I suspect that that was not the last seen of the rich young ruler. For Jesus loved him. And if there is one thing that is persistent about God, it’s the relentless love with which He pursues us.
Let us pray…