Difference between revisions of "Sermon for March 23rd, 2025"
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During the season of Lent, we are focusing on the Book of Job, and the question of why innocent people sometimes suffer. In today's scripture reading, our protagonist (Job) suffers from a perception problem: Other people (his friends, the community, and perhaps even God) perceive him to be guilty, even though he is, in fact, innocent. | During the season of Lent, we are focusing on the Book of Job, and the question of why innocent people sometimes suffer. In today's scripture reading, our protagonist (Job) suffers from a perception problem: Other people (his friends, the community, and perhaps even God) perceive him to be guilty, even though he is, in fact, innocent. | ||
| − | I'm reminded of the story about Mildred and Frank: Mildred was the town gossip and self-appointed police of town morality. She loved to stick her nose into other people's business, and while most did not appreciate her efforts, they feared her enough to maintain their silence. Frank, on the other hand, was a relatively quiet person. He mostly kept to himself, until one day Mildred saw his truck parked outside of the town's only bar, and so she began to accuse Frank of being | + | I'm reminded of the story about Mildred and Frank: Mildred was the town gossip and self-appointed police of town morality. She loved to stick her nose into other people's business, and while most did not appreciate her efforts, they feared her enough to maintain their silence. Frank, on the other hand, was a relatively quiet person. He mostly kept to himself, until one day Mildred saw his truck parked outside of the town's only bar, and so she began to accuse Frank of being a drunkard. She told Frank (and several others) that anyone seeing his truck parked outside that bar would know exactly what he was doing there! Frank didn't say anything; he didn't explain, defend, or deny. He just turned and walked away. Later that evening, Frank quietly drove his old pickup truck up to the front of Mildred's house. Then he got out and walked home. He left his old pickup truck parked in front of Mildred's house all night. |
Revision as of 14:10, 22 March 2025
Job 16:1-16
1“My spirit is broken; my days are extinct; the grave is ready for me. 2 Surely there are mockers around me, and my eye dwells on their provocation. 3 “Lay down a pledge for me with yourself; who is there who will give surety for me? 4 Since you have closed their minds to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph. 5 Those who denounce friends for reward--the eyes of their children will fail. 6 “He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom people spit. 7 My eye has grown dim from grief, and all my members are like a shadow. 8 The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stir themselves up against the godless. 9 Yet the righteous hold to their way, and they who have clean hands grow stronger and stronger. 10 But you, come back now, all of you, and I shall not find a sensible person among you. 11 My days are past; my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart. 12 They make night into day; ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’ 13 If I look for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness, 14 if I say to the Pit, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’ 15 where then is my hope? Who will see my hope? 16 Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?”
The Book of Job: Innocent, Part III
During the season of Lent, we are focusing on the Book of Job, and the question of why innocent people sometimes suffer. In today's scripture reading, our protagonist (Job) suffers from a perception problem: Other people (his friends, the community, and perhaps even God) perceive him to be guilty, even though he is, in fact, innocent.
I'm reminded of the story about Mildred and Frank: Mildred was the town gossip and self-appointed police of town morality. She loved to stick her nose into other people's business, and while most did not appreciate her efforts, they feared her enough to maintain their silence. Frank, on the other hand, was a relatively quiet person. He mostly kept to himself, until one day Mildred saw his truck parked outside of the town's only bar, and so she began to accuse Frank of being a drunkard. She told Frank (and several others) that anyone seeing his truck parked outside that bar would know exactly what he was doing there! Frank didn't say anything; he didn't explain, defend, or deny. He just turned and walked away. Later that evening, Frank quietly drove his old pickup truck up to the front of Mildred's house. Then he got out and walked home. He left his old pickup truck parked in front of Mildred's house all night.
