Job 38: 1-41 (links validatged 5/14/24a)
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Sermon Starters (Proper 24B)(2024)
To begin as a kind of summary of where Job has been, we might turn to that sage philosopher in black, Johnny Cash. In his song, I Won’t Back Down, Cash sings: I won’t back down. No, I won’t back down. You can stand me up at the gates of hell But I won’t back down. Gonna stand my ground. Won’t be turned around And I’ll keep this world from dragging me down. And I won’t back down. Hey baby, there ain’t no easy way out. I will stand my ground and I won’t back down. One thing we are not going to do in the midst of suffering is let the world drag us down into polite platitudes about our pain. As Christian people, we do not make light of suffering, injustice or death. If we did, we’d be just like Job’s less-than-useful friends. We are a people who don’t back down from calling suffering by its right name. At the same time, we believe in the fundamental goodness and provision of God. So, as the people of God, we are called to stand in a tenuous spot. There ain’t no easy way out, but this fragile position is the right place to be. It is the place where God shows up, which is what happens in this week’s lectionary text...
Illustrated Resources from 2021 to 2023
Sermon Starters (Proper 24B)(2021)
Recently the New York Times spotlighted a remote, uninhabited island near India that is the only known home on the planet for the Narcondam Hornbill. This magnificent bird has rarely been seen by any humans and only a handful of scientists have ever seen this bird on the densely forested island the bird calls home. Sometimes some people respond to news of endangered species with a bit of a shrug. Why should we care about some remote species that we never see and that contributes nothing we can discern to human life? Well, for Christians the answer is “Because God cares, that’s why.” Because you just know that if God could revise his own Word in Job 38-41, he’d add the Narcondam Hornbill to his list of splendors in which he takes regular delight.Do You Not Care?
The poet Raymond Carver, who struggled most of his life with alcoholism, which caused immense pain to him and those around him, eventually managed to stop drinking and find some measure of peace and wholeness late in his short life - he died at the age of 50. But the epitaph he wrote for his gravestone, the final poem, Late Fragment, in his final collection, says this. And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth...It's Bigger Than You
When we arrived at the home of people we knew, church members were already there with staple guns and plastic covering the shattered windows from the wind and the rain. Some were cleaning up the house, and I was sent with a group to rescue a terrified herd of cattle stampeding through the fields. Our youth group spent a week picking up debris in the fields to be replanted. It was one of the best experiences of community in my life. I later came across a book by Rebecca Solnit titled, “A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster.” Solnit writes about five disasters in-depth, such as the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, the Mexico City earthquake of 1985, and Hurricane Katrina. She was fascinated by the stories of compassion, bravery, and community action that were far more powerful than reports of looting or selfishness. Solnit said, “Our response to disaster gives us nothing less than a glimpse of who else we ourselves may be and what else our society could become.”...
Illustrated Resources from the Archives
Power and Glory
("Max Lucado elegantly sets God’s power and glory Next to our feeble efforts. Speaking in the voice of God, Like the writer of the book of Job, Lucado writes: I've seen you stalking the malls, walking the aisles, searching for that extra-special gift. Stashing away a few dollars a month to buy him some lizard-skin boots; staring at a thousand rings to find her the best diamond...")Questions Propel Our Faith Journey
Patrick Overton reflects in his poem “Faith”: “When you come to the edge of all the light you have And take the first step into the darkness of the unknown, You must believe one of two things will happen: There will be something solid for you to stand upon, or you will be taught how to fly.” Many times in our lives we face the unknown, the uncertainty of a future, an outcome, we cannot see. And what we have to hold onto in those moments is our faith that God is with us: that God will be our solid rock to stand on, or that we will be taught to fly...The Journey
("Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a famous 19th century English minister. As a young person, he had a lot of spiritual problems. His mind was filled with doubts which seemed to stand between him and a meaningful relationship with God..." and other illustrations)Out of the Whirlwind
Yale professor Nicholas Wolterstorff’s son one day fell to his death on the side of a mountain. I cannot imagine an answer that could provide a satisfying response to the inevitable “why” question about the suffering this father must have endured. Yet, as he went through that experience and its aftermath, Professor Wolterstorff wrote, “I shall look at the world through tears. Perhaps I shall see things that dry-eyed I could not.”...Where Were You?
Back in 2013, researchers from Boston College analyzed data from a long-term study called the Longitudinal Study of Generations. The study gathered data from 376 grandparents and 340 grandchildren, and concluded that "an emotionally close grandparent-adult grandchild relationship was associated with fewer symptoms of depression for both generations. The greater emotional support grandparents and adult grandchildren received from one another, the better their psychological health."...Fundamental Wildness
("I am going to read a long passage from Jerry May's last book, written as he was dying. I lie awake for a long time, sleepy yet energized by fear. I realize the fear is just happening, all by itself. Nothing is scaring me. It's not that I have an idea about what might be of danger and then become afraid of it...")Proper 24B (2009)
("Some years ago when Neal Plantinga opened his book on sin Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin, he directed readers' attention to the movie Grand Canyon. As some of you know, mostly that is a movie that pummels viewers with images of urban chaos, evil, and mayhem. Gangs of thugs roam the streets of Los Angeles....")Proper 7B (2000)
Bill was in his late 20’s, a single, handsome fellow a little over six feet in height with wavy black hair and green eyes. He worked in health care as an x-ray technician and was very good at his profession. Bill’s life was hard growing up and he had little use for his parents and their standards. He also had little use for God and thought Christians were hypocrites. During lunch breaks Bill enjoyed taunting anyone who professed faith in Jesus Christ. They would launch quotes from the Bible at him and he would rebuff them. “How can you say that God is love when he lets little children suffer from incurable diseases or abusive parents. Isn’t a loving Father supposed to protect his children? You say that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that he established a kingdom of peace and love and that he made all the world new. Some kingdom!” On and on Bill would challenge whatever was said to him. Eventually, God, Jesus, and the Bible were no longer mentioned in his presence. Perhaps some of his bitterness came from his upbringing. Perhaps in the past, he had prayed to God for help and believed his prayers went unanswered. Whatever it was, it caused his heart to turn to stone, and he began to rely only on himself. The questions kept turning over and over in his mind, “How can God who is supposed to be all good and have all power let terrible things happen to people?” “Where is the logic in trusting in a God who does not take care of those who believe in that same God?” That was the very question that Job pondered...Preaching Helps (Proper 24B)(2018)
The indignant modern response to the message of God’s absolute sovereignty in the book of Job reminded me of a poem by Judith Viorst, in which a child dreams of being in charge of the world and making it a very different place. If I were in charge of the world I’d cancel oatmeal, Monday mornings, Allergy shots, and also Sara Steinberg. If I were in charge of the world There’d be brighter night lights, Healthier hamsters, and Basketball baskets forty eight inches lower. If I were in charge of the world You wouldn’t have lonely You wouldn’t have clean You wouldn’t have bedtime Or, ‘Don’t punch your sister.” You wouldn’t even have sisters. If I were in charge of the world A chocolate sundae with whipped cream would be a vegetable All 007 movies would be G, And a person who sometimes forgot to brush, And sometimes forgot to flush Would still be allowed to be In charge of the world.Living the Christian Life
("Some years ago, a pastor shared a powerful true story on the internet of something that happened in his congregation. 'One of the young couples in his church had a baby boy who was born with all his intestines outside his body. He underwent surgery to correct that, but in the process the little boy's liver was damaged..." and other moving illustrations)Because Everyone Is Precious To God
I know the story of a little girl, back in the 40's, whose Daddy was sent away in the war, far, far away to a place called the Philippines. - Daddy's own brother had been there, you see, - stuck there, really. - All the brothers' hair had fallen out and the war took a toll on him… - as wars always do. 2. But Daddy was going there now. - When she was just in grade school and while Daddy was still away the little girl contracted polio - and eventually wound up in a wheelchair. 3. Soon the little girl went to live with an aunt and uncle nearby while Daddy was still away; - there was a divorce. - She would never see her mother again. 4. The little girl eventually got out of the wheelchair and into leg braces, - struggling to learn how to walk again. - Not everyone was kind and some young people made fun of the little girl. + (who really, was not a little girl at all but a young lady) 5. She grew up, fell in love with a handsome blue-eyed sailor - and, as was common still in the early 60's - when John Kennedy spoke of service and valor and hope, - when smiling young children still toddled in the White House - and we all knew, just knew, better days were ahead… - they got married. 6. Barely out of high school and with not much money, this young woman… - who was walking, mind you, without braces or canes or anything else… - well, this woman and man lived in a rented granny flat in the sunny suburbs. 7. She'd quit her job but his as an electrical apprentice paid all the bills if they were very frugal. - one car… - furniture handed down from relatives… - lots of ground beef and sack lunches for work 8. Slowly but surely they were putting money away for their own home - and had turned in their gleaming black 57 Chevy for a "family car." - They had two children now, a boy and then a girl. - all seemed hopeful. 9. Then the fainting arrived. - And the headaches. - And the unexpected blackouts...When You're Good to Mama
("Perhaps the best part of the Flapper era movie Chicago is when Warden Mrs. Morton, beautifully portrayed by Queen Latifah, bumps and grinds her way through the song . Although she is singing about the favors given to her by the residents of the Cook County jail, she might just as well be singing about James and John, and anyone else for that matter...")Pain's End
("At our clergy conversation around these texts a friend suggested the book Hurt People Hurt People by Sandra Wilson. The thesis is that the pain we inflict has its source in the pain that we've received. Not knowing what else to do with it, and since it needs to go somewhere, we pass it on in a never-ending cycle...")Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?
Dion Green lives in Dayton, Ohio. His world has been turned upside down. In May, the Ku Klux Klan came to town, spewing hatred directed at people like Dion. Counter-protesters dwarfed those there for the Klan rally, but such open hatred was shocking. Later that same week, Dayton was hit by a total of 12 devastating tornadoes. One came right through Dion’s neighborhood, tearing the roof off of his house. Blue tarps cover roofs and missing siding on houses not yet repaired. Pieces of insulation from a neighborhood school are still on Dion’s property, and his house is not yet completely repaired. Two weeks ago, another disaster struck. This was the kind that cannot be fixed. Dion’s family was celebrating a birthday when a gunman appeared and shots were fired. Dion’s fiancé tried to run but fell. So she played dead as the shooter stepped over her. A bullet hit Dion’s father. Dion, who had been getting tacos just a few feet away, held his father until he died. In his grieving, Green said he wondered what he and his city did to deserve this. “I have questions for the person up above,” he said. Dion Green voiced what countless people have felt...