Who’s In Charge Here?
NOTE: Sermons are aural events; they are meant to be heard, not read. The text below -- which was not delivered exactly as written -- may include errors not limited to spelling, grammar and punctuation of which the listener might be unaware and with which the preacher is unconcerned. There is no audio this week, and the sermon as delivered contained more than the usual ad libs.
Job 38:1-11
Then 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? “Or who shut in the
sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?— when I made the clouds its garment,
and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed bounds for it, and set
bars and doors, and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here
shall your proud waves be stopped’?
Mark 4:35-41
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us
go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with
them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm
arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being
swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up
and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up
and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind
ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have
you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one
another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
In the book of Job, we hear about the man who tried to do
everything right only to be repaid by having everything go horribly wrong. And according to the text, all of the
misfortune that falls upon Job is not even his fault. All of the terrible things that happen to Job are a direct
result of God and Satan making a bit of a heavenly wager. Satan bets God that this wonderful,
faithful, upright man named Job only behaves as well as he does because his
life is so awesome. Job is rich,
happily married with an adoring family, and every material and physical comfort
he could possibly want. “Why
wouldn’t Job be a good man?” Satan says. “When you have it good, it’s easy to
be good. Take all of his blessings away, God, and then let us see how blameless
and upright Job really is.
Well, you know the story about what happens next. In short
order, Job loses it all. He lose
everything he cherishes most – children, animals, home. But Job continues to bless God. Job says, “The Lord gave and the Lord
has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Satan still isn’t impressed. In fact, the next time Satan meets with God, he decides to
double down on his wager. Satan
says, “Let’s see what happens when Job has to put a little of his own skin in
the game.” So God allows Satan to
give Job unbearable physical pain.
The quiet “patience of Job” doesn’t last long after sores
begin to cover Job’s body and he finds himself sitting in an ash heap. When Job has nothing left to lose, when
you get the sense that he has hit rock bottom, he finally cries out from the
dung heap, “God, I have done everything you asked me to! Why is this happening to me? Answer me!”
And finally, God answers Job out of the whirlwind. God speaks to Job for four whole
chapters, but God never does answer Job’s questions because Job’s questions are
about human justice. And God’s
answer is about divine omnipotence. The only answer we really have about why
things happen the way they do is that God is God. Only God knows why things happen and God knows
everything. And none of us is God.
For many, many people, this is the place where their faith
hits a brick wall. God’s forceful
response to Job seems to discourage our daring to question why there is
persistent injustice in the world and why God so often seems silent in the face
of great suffering. Since none of
us were there when God laid the foundation of the earth, it seems we not going
to get the answer. All we know is
that God is God, the world is filled with horrible things, and even a man as
faithful as Job will not escape suffering.
The church often muddles its way through terrible situations
by falling back on cherished truisms.
We might say, “God is good all the time.” Could you blame the mother of a dead child if she said to
us, “Really? Is God really good all the time? Because I dare you to find
something good in this situation.“ Or, we might say to a friend who has lost a
job, “God will not give us more than we can handle.” They may not say it, but
could you blame them for thinking, “Maybe God can handle this nightmare of overdue
bills, damaged self-esteem, and depression so bad I can’t get out of bed in the
morning. Because I can’t handle
it.”
How about the families of the victims in Charleston on
Wednesday night? How about the members of the Emanuel AME Church who lost a
beloved pastor? Would you like to
explain to those people where God was the shooting began? What do you have to
say to a 5 year old child who played dead to escape being shot at point blank
range by a man who hated him simply because of skin color?
Where was God in Charleston, S.C. on Wednesday night?
Perhaps the church should spend less time trying to defend
God when bad things happen and spend more time being Christ to one
another. We often never do receive
an answer about why good people suffer.
We cannot explain why racism still exists. We cannot explain why hatred insists on imposing itself as
violence committed against innocent people. Our hearts continue to break when
we see injustice and violence.
The disciples in the little boat being swamped by a wild
raging sea ask a question of Jesus that resonates with Job’s plea. The terrified disciples scream at
Jesus, “Show us your power! Don’t
you care?” And Jesus says to them,
“Where is your faith?”
The disciples’ lack of faith is a failure of their imagination. They are too frightened by the wind and the waves to imagine that even a life threatening storm can be ridden out with the one on whom they have staked their very lives.
The disciples’ lack of faith is a failure of their imagination. They are too frightened by the wind and the waves to imagine that even a life threatening storm can be ridden out with the one on whom they have staked their very lives.
Jesus wakes up and sees the panicky, frightened men in the
boat with him. They are on their
way to the “other side,” the other side representing the territory of the
Gentiles, a foreign place, maybe even a dangerous or inappropriate place for a
Jewish person to go. But this is
what happens when you decide to follow Jesus. Jesus crosses many social and spiritual boundaries. He eats with
unsuitable people, breaks Sabbath laws, associates with the unclean and heals
them at the wrong times, and communicates with unclean spirits. Crossing to the
other side with Jesus is a risky, unpredictable proposition, and in this
passage, the wind and the sea create demonstrate the dangers of being in the
boat with him.
It is the middle of the night. There is nothing but darkness all around. The wind and waves are rocking the
boat, and the disciples can barely see Jesus with eyes stinging from seawater
mixed with frightened tears. The
disciples are in a terrifying place on their way to a terrifying place.
When we are certain all is lost, when we are certain we are
so lost we might never be found, when we cry out to God and listen for a word
from God, one word is always spoken.
“Peace. Be still.” The
howling wind begins to die down.
Soon there is utter silence.
All that is left is the sound of your own heart pounding as you begin to
catch your breath and realize that you have been deeply touched by something
far more powerful than the storm that threatened to swallow you whole.
One little word. Peace. A little
word and an all-powerful word spoken amidst the noise and chaos of our
lives. A word of peace spoken over
a raging storm. One little word
can undo whatever darkness threatens to undo us. One little word of peace can utterly change the world if
enough of us believe in its power to undo all the messes we make, all the hatred
we sow, all the injustice we create as frightened human beings.
I cannot promise you that there’s nothing to be
afraid of. Some of the situations
that frighten us are real as real can be, as real as Job’s grief and pain, and
as real as the wind and waves that threatened to drown those disciples on a
terrible night at sea. Over the past four years in conversations with many of you, I have heard you talk about fears that run
deeply – fear of illness, pain, loss.
Fears about money and fears of growing older. Fears that everything you hold dear and familiar may be
slipping away. Fears about aging
parents and broken relationships. These are all real fears. They are the truth of your lives and my
life. And when we dismiss the
realness of our fears, or cover them up, we are lying to ourselves and to one
another.
But fear is not the whole truth and our fears become
dangerous when they become so powerful that we cannot move into the deeper
truth. Our fears don’t have to paralyze us. Our fears do not have to dominate us. Our fears do not have
to own us. Our fears do not have
to lead us to hate and mistrust and violence.
The one in the boat with us desires that we
acknowledge our complete dependence upon him and him alone. The one in the boat wants us to risk
everything. The one in the boat
invites us to focus on the awesome reality of God who still speaks out of
whirlwinds and storms.
You are cared about; you are known and loved just as
you are. It is this affirmation of
Christ’s peace for you that will make it possible to navigate even the roughest
seas.
When the racist shooter was apprehended this week, he
appeared in a Charleston courtroom. The surviving family members were given the
opportunity to address the young man who had repeatedly shot and killed their
sons and daughters, sisters and brothers. A New York Times reporter said, “It
was as if the Bible study had never ended as one after another, victims’ family
members offered lessons in forgiveness, testaments to a faith that is not
compromised by violence or grief. They urged him to repent, confess his sins
and turn to God.”
“You took something very precious away from me,” said
Nadine Collier, daughter of 70-year-old Ethel Lance, her voice rising in
anguish. “I will never talk to her ever again. I will never be able to hold her
again. But I forgive you. And have mercy on your soul.”
“We welcomed you Wednesday night in our Bible study
with open arms,” said Felicia Sanders, the mother of 26-year old Tywanza
Sanders, a poet who died after trying to save his aunt, who was also killed.
“You have killed some of the most beautifulest people
that I know,” she said in a quavering voice. “Every fiber in my body hurts, and
I will never be the same. Tywanza Sanders is my son, but Tywanza was my hero.
Tywanza was my hero. But as we say in Bible study, we enjoyed you. But may God
have mercy on you.”[1]
In the end, the man named Job who had been to hell
and back and somehow lived to tell the tale, speaks this prayer to the Lord: “I
know you can do all things, and nothing you wish is impossible…I have spoken of
the unspeakable and tried to grasp the infinite…I had heard of you with my
ears, but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I will be quiet, comforted that I am dust.” (Job 42:1-6)
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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