Sermon for April 2nd, 2017

Job 42:7-17

7 After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. 8 Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has done.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.

10 And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. 11 Then there came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house; they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him; and each of them gave him a piece of money and a gold ring. 12 The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys. 13 He also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 He named the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. 15 In all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers. 16 After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children, and his children’s children, four generations. 17 And Job died, old and full of days.

Job's Final Prayer

When Ellen Nelson made this stole for me a few years ago, she said that every letter of every word of every sermon I would ever write is right here on the stole. All I have to do is put them in the right order. And with God's help, that's what I hope I've been doing. I'm wearing this stole today because today's sermon--our final sermon in this year's series on Prayer in the Book of Job--is the 200th sermon I've had the honor of preaching for you, and I want to express my gratitude to you all for listening so attentively, for laughing at some pretty lame jokes, for letting me sometimes push you past the limits of your comfort zone, for your encouragement, your constructive criticism, and most of all for your faithfulness as together we have explored what it means to be intelligent students of the Bible, and compassionate members of this faith community.

So today we come to the last chapter, the last verses of the Book of Job, and the last days of Job's life. And if the previous 41 chapters have been hard for you, listening to Job's pain and suffering, his anger and bitterness toward God and his situation, today you're probably breathing a sigh of relief! And he lived happily ever after! That's what we like to hear, isn't it? That's what we somehow need to hear. But I think we should take the book's happy ending with a grain of salt. If we read the first two of Job, then skip to the last two chapters too quickly, we miss the point of the book (kind of like coming to church on Christmas to celebrate the birth of Jesus, then coming again on Easter to celebrate his resurrection, but skipping all that unpleasant stuff in between, like his teaching, his suffering, and the sacrifice of his life on the cross).

The point of the Book of Job is not "Be patient and persevere when bad things happen, and then eventually you'll get everything back and more." Job, after the first two chapters, is not patient. Job does not persevere. In fact, he gives up on God altogether; he turns and walks away. And in the end, God does not reward Job or restore his fortunes "because" of his faithfulness any more than God took these things away in the first place "because" of Job's faithfulness or any lack of it. God does what God does. Sometimes good things happen; sometimes bad things happen; sometimes good things happen again. And not always in that order.

But that doesn't mean we can't learn a few things from Job's story, especially when it comes to prayer. Rather than asking WHY God does the things God does, it might be more helpful in this case for us to ask WHAT God does, and WHEN God does it.

First, however, I want to look at something important that Job has done, that apparently his friends have not done.

Now, in most interpretations of this story that I've heard, Job's friends get a bad rap. They are painted as evil, backstabbing, condescending accusers, blaming Job for somehow bringing all his suffering on himself. I think they get that reputation from people who skip to the end and read God's words in verse 7: "After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: 'My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.'" Reading this, we naturally assume that if God says this, they must be the bad guys. And so we paint caricatures of them in our head.

But if you actually read their words, they don't say anything outrageous or outside the boundaries of what we would call acceptable theology. They're really just quoting the book of Proverbs at Job. Really, Job is the one saying all the outrageous things, all the borderline blasphemous things, shaking his fist at the creator of the universe.

So why, in the end does God say Job has spoken rightly about him, and the friends have spoken wrongly? Well, I think it all hinges on a preposition. Yes, I said preposition, not proposition! Remember your elementary grammar here--a preposition is usually a tiny, insignificant word that indicates a relationship between two other words: In, at, to, for, up, over, with, around, above, about... Only they aren't nearly as insignificant as we think.

In this case the preposition in question is the word "of." You have not spoken "of" me what is right, but Job has. Some English translations use "about." Either way, I think they're bad translations. They imply that the theological content of Job's angry words about God is correct, while the theologically grounded and well-established content of his friends' words is incorrect. And really, it's the opposite.

While I was sitting in the coffee shop writing this sermon, the Rabbi of the local Jewish Synagogue came in and sat down right next to me, working on his message. He's a great guy; we chatted and caught up some, and then I pulled out my Hebrew text of Job 42:7 and asked him to translate that preposition for me. It's the Hebrew word אֵלַ֛י (eli), and thankfully, the Rabbi confirmed my hunch (also the hunch of my Hebrew Professor in Seminary, Dr. C. L. Seow). That word can be translated as "about me" ... but it can also be translated as "to me" ... and if you take that approach, it changes everything, and in many ways puts the entire Book of Job into a better perspective.

The problem with Job's friends wasn't the content of their words, it was the direction in which they were speaking. They were saying great, and true things "about" God, but Job was the only one speaking "to" God. "You have not spoken rightly TO me, as my servant Job has." What is speaking TO God? It's what we call prayer. While Job's friends were busy preaching, Job was busy praying. (And the priority of those two things is not lost on me)! When you pray, don't be worried so much about WHAT you are saying--God doesn't care so much whether your words are wrong or right, polite or angry, foolish or wise. God cares far more about the conversation--the fact that you are sharing your heartfelt words with him, to him.

See what a difference a preposition can make?

When does God restore Job's good fortune? -Right after he works/prays for the good fortune of others. -With the breaking of bread and renewal of community -Through the compassion and generosity of the community

Cyrus Brown's Prayer - Sam Walter Foss “The proper way for man to pray,” Said Deacon Lemuel Keyes, “And the only proper attitude, Is down upon his knees.”

“No, I should say the way to pray,” Said Reverend Dr. Wise, “Is standing straight with outstretched arms, And rapt and upturned eyes.”

“Oh, no, no, no!” said Elder Slow, “Such posture is too proud; A man should pray with eyes fast closed, And head contritely bowed.”

“It seems to me his hands should be Austerely clasped in front. With both thumbs pointing toward the ground,” Said Reverend Dr. Blunt.

“Las’ year I fell in Hodgkin’s well Head first,” said Cyrus Brown. “With both my heels a-stickin’ up, My head a-pointin’ down;

“An’ I made a prayer right then and there; best prayer I ever said. The prayin’est prayer I ever prayed, a standin’ on my head.”