Pent 4B-2015
This morning I take am going to take a
few moments to tie together ideas from the poem of Job, Jesus words – peace, be still-, and the marking of
today as National Aboriginal Day, and yesterday as World Refugee day.
Walter Brueggemann in his book The Word Militant, comments that
reflecting on Job and the questions that arise from the story are freedom to
those who are in exile. As a professor
of Hebrew Scriptures, one would expect that Brueggemann is referring to the
Israelites as those in exile. Yes, true, however, he is clear that preachers
today preach to those in exile. We, due
to culture and our lifestyles, are a people in exile – held by tyrants of
consumerism and commercialism.
You may already be saying, sure
general society may be in exile, but, I am not in exile. Job would not have considered himself in
exile either, other than being unfairly punished by the lot that had fallen on
him. Job, in chapters 29-31, gives a
long speech – out of frustration, where he cites his good actions – I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the
lame. I was a father to the needy, and championed the cause of the stranger – Job
is every bit confident in the self-affirmation of his righteousness, his faithfulness,
and his participation in God’s covenant.
Throughout Job, Job cries an indictment on God, a suggestion that dares
to pose the possibility that God has failed.
Has God failed? It has been asked and wrestled with before
Job and after: who sinned – they ask
Jesus- this man or his parents that he was born blind; Rabbi Kushner asked
in the title of his book, why do bad
things happen to good people?
The beginning of the response to Job
is what we heard read today. God answers
out of the whirlwind, Where were you when
I laid the foundation of the earth? The chapters that follow are an
ecological treatises of a creator God – a God outside of human
understanding: Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the
dawn to know its place….; have you entered into the storehouses of snow…which I
have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war…do you
give the horse its might….Can you draw out Leviathan…? Job and Job’s
complaints pale in comparison to the grand questions asked through the whirlwind.
There is an air of insignificance to all that Job has deemed important.
Brueggemann preaches that the
whirlwind obliterates and blows away many of Jobs, and thus our, all-consuming
moral questions; concerns of failure, fault, blame, and guilt. He writes,
we are invited to a larger vista of mystery that contains wild and threatening
dimensions of faith. The poem extricates Israel from the barrenness of moral
explanation and justification and thinks instead of dangerous trust and
affirmation in a context where we cannot see our way through. The world of Job
is filled with wondrous crocodiles and hippopotamus –leviathans- along with cunning evil, deep, unanswered
questions, and vigorous doxology.
Could the words of the poem of Job
allow for us to live in the freedom of daring to accept and embrace living a
life full of unresolvable questions and inexplicable happenings – and be okay
with that - trusting in God’s mystery that the Mystery can obliterate all moral
quandaries.
We are being pulled to a vista of a larger
reality – a reality outside that of exile, outside our captivity of bondage to
sin, outside of our very humanness. As
we are pulled outside of exile and captivity, we are opened to a world divorced
from the unresolvable and inexplicable.
On another trajectory, which will
connect in a moment: a colleague mentioned a commentary article she had read on
the phrase Jesus says according to the Gospel of Mark; Jesus says, Peace, be still. Could it have been that Jesus awoke –not because
of the storm- but due to the state and anxiety of the disciples, revved up to
full fright and chaos? Could Jesus
words, not have been directed to the storm, but, rather, to them? Peace,
be still. And as the disciples heard the words they regained composure, and
in so doing the natural surroundings –the storm- followed their queue and
turned calm?
Reflecting on Job, I am reminded of
the hundreds of people who confess their “goodness” to me – listing the
organizations they are a part of, the people they have helped, their stellar
church attendance, their living a good life and not actively hurting anyone,
admissions of not breaking the 10 commandments (that is according to the list,
not the specifics of Luther’s reflection in the catechism). We do the Job recital so very well.
We are good church goes, good
people. And we easily fall into
questioning why so called bad things should happen to us. Our goodness, also
stands over and against those who are deemed delinquent ---
As I said earlier, today is National
Aboriginal Day, yesterday was World Refugee Day. I am quite positive that I could incite a
massive storm on either topic – First Nation’s rights, bringing refugees to
Canada….
In fact two weeks ago a pastor from
the peninsula and I almost had it out, but, it wasn’t worth the argument after
the first bit of repartee – over a comment that the government has monetarily
spoiled the Indian- and the waves on the sea loomed large. And mention refugees who look different,
dress different, speak different, and worship different- holy smokes there is
thunder and lightning. People get right
snappy; full of angst, anger, bitterness, blame, self-righteousness, and the
world gets into bigger turmoil, a harder hate, more insular – war continues,
more peoples are forced to flee their homes and countries, in a helplessness
brought on by the fear of “good” people who watch on in a growing frenzy of
uncertainty. Unfortunately fear from
“good” people gathers other “good” people who join the snowballing drama. And
surrounding nature imitates and empathizes with the anxiety, exploding – in
storms of the century, in ice melting fastest enough to throw the world into
another ice age, in mudslides devastating entire habitats, droughts to kill off
every living creature in an area, and disease that spreads faster than
wildfire. To this Jesus wakes from the
stern of the boat, gets off the cushion and says – honestly, I think he yells
in a voice so big everything has no choice but to listen and stop dead in its
track: into the frenzy Jesus yells - PEACE, BE STILL!
Where
were you when the foundations of the earth were laid?
Who do you think you are?
We are a people who are told again and
again, holding in faith, and risking to trust, in the One for whom even the
wind and the sea obey. To our core we
dare to believe that the world can be set free from bondage to sin, humanness,
and exile. We dare to believe that we
are not simply good people, rather, we are redeemed, by a mystery beyond our
comprehension and because of this are invited to participate in the
mystery. We are “yelled at” to live out
of an understanding of peace be, still!
Peace,
be still! What does
that look like? What does that mean?
It means dispelling anxiety and fear
in a world that gets revved up on both.
And we do it, not of our own accord,
but, with the conviction that we are not a boat idol in a sea of waves during a
storm … it is as a camp song so loved by campers goes: I saw Christ in wind and thunder. Joy is tried by storm. Christ asleep within my boat, whipped by
wind, yet still afloat, joy is tried by storm.
Christ is present. We can be present –
if we keep our heads and wits about us; rather, than dabbling in questions of
whether Christ caused the wind and thunder, and whether or not this is on
purpose, did we do something to deserve it; and why is Jesus asleep in the
boat, not watching us all the time, seemingly not caring– peace, be still.
We can be present to walk side by side
with refugees who have come to Canada, we can hear their stories, and help to
bring further family members from chaos to peace. Keeping our wits, we can speak out insisting
on the government and our communities to welcome the stranger, to settle the
refugee and asylum seekers, to admit that we live on land not our own – and to
wrestle with what that means; do you dare to consider the possibility of giving
back that which was stolen?
Most of all, do you dare to be
pro-active in deflating anxiety? Do you
dare to be courageous and brave, righteous and faithful, by directly facing
fear, confronting it, and telling it to go ….. oh wait I’m in church, I can’t
say the words that finish that phrase---
but, you understand, right?
It is an uphill battle. Anxiety and fear are pervasive.
That is why the story of Job is retold
and the sea is calmed in Mark – we are reminded that in the big picture our
understanding is very limited; our moral reasonings amount to little – we get
ourselves into knots that a few questions in a whirlwind can turn into dust in
seconds; and in the end amidst the chaos, anxiety, and fear - Christ is asleep
in our boat. Does Christ need to wake up and tell us, peace, be still, or can the Christ, the Word that was in the
beginning with God, rest in our hearts, and emanate in the breath of life – to be
about being calm despite the frenzy – and in so doing calm the sea: flattening
consumerism, making straight commercialism, equalizing all people, so that land
is shared, war obliterated, and peace brought into fullness.
This is living into the mystery.
Thanks be to God.
