Loving God, you invite us to direct our gaze outward to all of creation and the people whom you love.  Grant us the eyes to see and the ears to hear your Word as we worship together in the Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

            If you’ve ever read the entire book of Job, you will know that most of it is poetry.  It is a long, poetic conversation between Job and his three friends, where they try to convince Job that he has sinned and is being punished by God.  And all along, Job maintains his innocence, and in today’s reading demands to see the indictment against him.  He wants to know what the charges are against him, and he demands that God would answer him.

         Today – 38 chapters into the book – God answers Job “out of the whirlwind” (Job 38:1), and it is a very odd approach by the Almighty, to say the least!  God seems to answer Job’s questions with more questions – in true rabbinical style.  “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?”  “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?”  “Who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain, and a way for the thunderbolt” (Job 38)?  Answer me – for “surely you know” (Job 38:5).

         God, in effect, takes Job on a whirlwind tour of the cosmos, hearkening back to the time of creation, and making a point of mentioning all of the things over which human beings have no control – like the sea, or the wild beasts, or creatures like Behemoth and Leviathan.  In fact, human beings are barely mentioned in this tour of the wonders of creation.  Could it be that perhaps we are not the center of creation?

         It is almost like God is saying to Job, “It’s not all about you!”  There is a whole wide world out there that is all under God’s purview.  And so, what makes you think that your troubles are the end of the world?  Job is being invited to look outward rather than inward, and to be aware that he is creature, and not creator.  In fact, in the greater scheme of things, one human being is rather small.  (Cue Monty Python for those who remember the song…)

         Oddly enough, Covid-19 has given us a similar opportunity to Job’s, to slow down and to become aware of creation and the world around us.  In spite of the added stresses for many people and those who have been dealing with illness and loss, some things have happened that could be called the gifts of Covid.

         One of these gifts that became evident very early on, is that creation was able to breathe again.  The lack of smog in some places was remarkable, and even waterways became clearer with less boat traffic.  Wild animals made themselves at home with less human traffic, and some people have even started to grow their own food.  There is a whole wide world out there that many of us had been ignoring, and do we really need all of the global travel and imports and commuting that was going on?

         Another gift of Covid has been that at least some people have been able to slow down and step out of the rat race for a while.  With so many activities being cancelled, families and individuals were no longer running here there and everywhere in order to keep up with everything.  In fact, some families have had more “together time” than they have ever had before.  Just as Job was able to stop his normal activities for a while in order to grieve and to reflect and to talk to God, so we, too, have had the gift of time.  And do we really need all of the things that normally fill our schedules and keep us running from morning to night?

         A third gift of Covid has been realizing how interconnected we are with the earth and with other people around the globe.  The way we choose to live affects the environment.  The way we choose to live affects other people.  When we act for selfish gain and ignore the well-being of others, the result is that many people die.  All it takes is one person to start an outbreak, and what happens in one place can affect many people around the world.  In the decisions that we make as individuals, we are being asked to consider the well-being of others.

         These past few months have invited us to re-orient our vision and to ask ourselves which things really are essential.  We have been invited to look outward at the world and the people around us, learning new ways to connect with other people and with creation.

         Job, too, was invited to re-orient his vision, moving from his own misery and anguish to the vastness and power of creation and its Creator.  Job is not as important or as innocent as he thought he was, and God does not allow him to wallow in his grief any longer.  The approach reminds me of what some coaches do with their players.  I can hear Tom Hanks saying, “There’s no crying in baseball!”  Get out there and show your stuff.  Or, as with Job, “Gird up your loins like a man” (Job 38:2)!  

         While, from Job’s perspective, there is no doubt that he had experienced significant losses, at the same time he is only one person in a world full of people who have experienced significant losses.  And, while many would lament that it’s not fair, nobody ever promised that life would be fair.  Bad things happen, not because we deserve it, but simply because we live in a broken world filled with sinful and broken people.

         While we are pretty small in the greater scheme of things, we get a glimpse in our gospel today of Jesus, who is quite at home with the wind and the sea.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life (Jn. 3:16).

Small as we are, to God, we are worth it.  Amen.

Pentecost 4 (NL summer)              Job 31:35-37; 38:1-11, 25-27

June 28, 2020                                  John 6:16-20

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2020 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved