Today's Readings

Job 1.1; 2.1-10, Hebrews 1.1-4; 2.5-12 and Mark 10.2-16

In the readings selected for today’s service we continue with the Gospel of Mark where we have reached chapter ten and begin two new books. Our Old Testament begins a month of looking at the book of Job and a more detailed look at Paul’s letter to the Hebrews. We will continue with Hebrews until the week before Advent Sunday.

The book of Job is a tough read and one definitely not to be undertaken lightly. The opening sentence today was from chapter one:

“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.”

Those words could be abbreviated down to; Job was a child of God. Then we jump straight to the beginning of chapter two. Do we do that so that we are spared the misery that is in the rest of chapter one. Probably not because our reading from chapter two is not exactly cheerful and uplifting either. It is however, almost an exact copy of the words that are contained in the rest of chapter one.

What is this repetitive story? Both chapters begin with a meeting of God’s heavenly council including Satan who can be seen in this context as someone who wants to put the loyalty of God’s chosen people to the test and he picks on Job. He points out to God that Job has everything; a loving family, good health, wealth in livestock and property and therefore he loves and fears God as he should. But, Satan asks, is that loyalty due to the fact that God is deliberately protecting Job in order to buy his loyalty? Satan asks for permission to put Job to the test. In both chapters God’s answer is yes with the proviso in chapter one that no harm is to come to Job himself. By the end of chapter one, Job is still healthy but has no surviving family and his property and livestock have been either destroyed or stolen. How does Job react? Using his own words:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.

At the second meeting Satan asked for permission to continue putting pressure on Job. This time God’s condition is that Satan may not kill Job. As we read, Satan inflicts Job with sores over his whole body and still Job does not flinch in his loyalty to God. The next forty chapters are a discussion between Job and four of his friends as to why he has fallen upon hard times.

The details of the discussion will come over the next two weeks with the conclusion of the book in three week’s time. However, due to the vagaries of special services we have our Lullaby service next week followed by our Harvest festival the week after. So let us take brief look at the discussion this morning.

The conventional wisdom of the time was that for evil to happen to you, you in turn must have perpetrated evil upon other people. Conversely when Job was enjoying a good life, he must have been doing good things himself. This is the view taken by three of his companions who try and persuade him to own up to his misdeeds, repent and ask for God’s forgiveness so that his good fortune will be restored. Is there an alternative explanation? There is one that springs to mind. There is no direct correlation between how good you are and how well things are going for you. So what had Job done wrong to incur this devastating change of fortune? Looking in we know the answer is nothing. Job is still a God fearing and righteous person. So it is the alternative explanation that applies to Job.

The same argument could be applied to Jesus himself. As Paul says to the Hebrews, Jesus had been in partnership with God from the very beginning, even before the act of creation and then all of a sudden he drops below the level of the angels to become a mere human being and not one with power and authority. He was a carpenter’s son who became a wandering preacher with a radical new theology of love for everyone and ends up dead on a cross. You can’t fall much further than that. It was the suffering that led to that death and the resurrection that followed that gave us the greatest gift of all, that of eternal life. As the result of that suffering Jesus also brought his theology of love to its ultimate conclusion; one where we join together with him as brothers and sisters and share the same heavenly Father.

In our Gospel reading the self-righteous Pharisees come to Jesus to begin a series of test questions that aim to show that his teaching is contrary to the letter of the laws given by Moses to the people and which they so precisely follow. The subject of this question is a whole sermon or even a study day of debate and reflection all by itself so I will not go any further with it this morning. But I would like to finish by saying a few words about the closing paragraph of the Gospel.

We have already seen in Mark’s Gospel that children are on the bottom rung of the social ladder and it is no surprise to see the disciples denying children access to Jesus when there are far more important things on the agenda. Young children are righteous and pure of heart and are full of faith, trust and love for others. When they grow up many of those qualities will become dented and frayed. It is why, then as now, we do so much to protect them to keep those qualities whole for as long as possible. Jesus is saying to his disciples remember what it was like when you were a child. Try to make our world one where those childlike qualities are not under threat of being dented or frayed no matter how old you are. To make life here on earth as it is in heaven is the aim of my theology of love.

Let us pray for strength to follow Jesus who is the way, the truth and life. Show us what part we can play in bringing your heavenly kingdom here on earth through the guidance of your Holy Spirit.

Amen.