Loving God, you promise to be with us always through your Son, Jesus, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit.  As we worship today, increase our awareness of your presence and your power at work, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

           Last week, we heard about how Job lost almost everything that he had, including his children.  Yet, he was still able to worship God and to say, “Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21), even in the midst of his grief.  However, in between last week’s reading and this week’s, Job has developed what are described as “loathsome sores” all over his body, which he has been scraping with a potsherd (Job 2:7-8).  Yet, he still says, “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?”  “In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:10).

         Today, however, we hear Job’s anguish and anger and lament.  This is all part of a larger conversation about faith in the midst of suffering.  Today we also hear the words of Eliphaz the Temanite, who is one of Job’s friends.  One of his other friends is also the shortest man in the Bible – Bildad the Shuhite.  Job’s three friends come to visit him, join him in his grief, and sit with him for seven days in silence – that part, they got right.  However, as soon as they start to open their mouths, they pretty much pour salt on Job’s wounds.

         Can you even imagine going to somebody who has just lost all of their children and saying, “You must have done something wrong to deserve that”?  “Who that was innocent ever perished” (Job 4:7)?  “Come on, now.  Confess your sin, and God will forgive you.” – With friends like this, who needs enemies?

         Now, it is true that when a friend or a family member experiences a tragedy in their life, we often don’t know what to say.  And many of the platitudes that sometimes come to mind really don’t help.  In fact, in many situations, there is nothing you can say that is going to make the other person feel any better.

         What we can do, however, is to be there, and to listen.  We talk sometimes about a ministry of presence – simply being present with a person and paying attention to what they might need from you.  They might need you to be quiet.  They might need you to listen.  They might need you to do something like bring food or drink.  They might need you to pray for them.

         Really, it comes down to the golden rule – “do to others as you would have them do to you” (Mt. 7:12).  When we have experienced tragedy in our own lives, we know what was helpful and what wasn’t.  This is the memory to carry with us when we are presented with an opportunity to be there for somebody else.

         One of the interesting things in the book of Job is that Job’s friends have lots to say about God and about how God supposedly works and about suffering as punishment for sin.  However, not once do they actually pray for Job or even speak directly to God on Job’s behalf.

         Job, on the other hand, is very honest.  He lets his anger and his frustration be known.  He speaks directly to God.  He asks God, “Why me?”  He says to God, “What did I ever do to you to deserve all this?”  Job is not afraid to speak the truth that is in his heart, and he refuses to believe that all of his troubles have come as punishment for his sin.  The result of all this is not a lightning bolt, but an acknowledgement in the end that Job was more in the right than his friends in what he said.

         I heard a sermon not long ago where the preacher was talking about how we have forgotten how to lament.  There is a reason that there are many different laments that are in the Scriptures.  In fact, even Jesus lamented over the city of Jerusalem and its people.  The reality is that all of us have times in our lives when lamenting is a totally appropriate response – especially when we have experienced loss.

         Today, as we remember our grads, many of them are lamenting the loss of the usual celebration with family and friends.  There are others who might be lamenting the loss of their health, or the loss of loved ones.  Still others lament their separation from loved ones and from friends during the pandemic.  And, there are many in the church who lament that we can’t just go back to how we worshipped together before.

         There are times when lamenting is exactly what we need to do, and we learn from the Scriptures that God is big enough to take it.  God accepts our laments and our prayers, just as much as our praise and thanksgiving.  Yet, even for somebody like Job, lament does not become a long-term way of being.  As we will see over the next few weeks, Job laments when he needs to, but he also worships and thanks God, and repents when he needs to, and comes up with some astonishing expressions of faith.

         As we noted last week, those of us who believe in Jesus have resources to draw on that Job and his friends did not have.  When we are the one who is suffering, we know that Jesus is with us as one who has also suffered.  And, when we are in a position to be able to comfort others, we do so in and through the power of the Holy Spirit, who will lead us into what we might need to say or do.  And now,

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:13).

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Pentecost 2 (NL summer)              Job 3:1-10; 4:1-9; 7:11-21

June 14, 2020

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2020 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved