Difference between revisions of "Sermon for March 24th, 2019"

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Job 19:13-25 (Neal's translation)

13 My family bonds He has severed;    
     I'm a stranger to ones who were close.
14 My kin-folk and friends are all gone;    
     I'm forgotten by guests in my home.
15 Even the house-maids don't know me;    
     In their eyes I'm an outsider now.
16 I call to my servant, but he's silent;    
     Crying, I beg him to come.
17 My spirit is strange to my wife;    
     And I long for the children we've lost. 
18 Even the foolish revile me;    
     When I rise up they ridicule me.
19 My closest counselors dismiss me;    
     Those dearest to me close their doors.
20 This flesh hangs loose upon bone;     
     By the skin of my teeth I am left.
21 Have sympathy, dear friends, have sympathy!  
     For the fist of God struck me down.
22 Why do you hound me (as He does)?    
     Unhappy with feasting on flesh?
23 If only my words were written!    
     A witness inscribed for the world!
24 Lettered in lead with iron!     
     Eternally etched in stone!
25 For I know my redeemer lives;    
     And the Last One--He will rise on the dust.

Two Preachers and a Trucker: Redeemer

CALVIN: God has joined us together and united us in order that we might have a community; so that one person may support the other, and that each may try to help his neighbor, and when we can do no better, that we may have pity and compassion for one another. This kind of community is a good and beautiful thing.

However...

Sometimes, all this community, all of this support keeps our attention, our focus, here below; for our nature is entirely inclined this way, and we are much given to it. If I forget that God alone is my judge, oh I shall be happy when people applaud me, when the community holds me in high esteem! But what have I gained? Absolutely nothing, in the eyes of God.

NEAL: (The year is 1997. Tulsa, Oklahoma, my junior year of college). Hi! My name is Neal Locke, and I'm running for Student Body President. I'd appreciate your vote. Why am I running? Here's my platform. I want to help take our student government to the "next level." (pause) Why am I really running? Well, I suppose I could do a good job, and it would look great on my resume and... Why am I really running? Okay. Fine. I want people to like me. And if I'm elected, I'll know for sure that they like me...at least 2,634 of them...well, at least more than the other two people who are running for student body president this year. But that's something, right? Right?

CALVIN: (shakes head).

JOB: It's not exactly true that I lost "everything." Camel Transportation Services, LLC, went belly up. No fleet, no drivers, no company. No company, no money. But I still had my wife. Well, sort of. The loss of our kids hit both of us hard, and she became...distant. I don't blame her. I wasn't much help.

I still had the house. That big, empty, house that used to be so full of life, and people. I lost most of the hired help, but a few of 'em stuck around. They weren't much help. I couldn't pay 'em. I think they stuck around out of habit, mostly. They wouldn't look me in the eye. They wouldn't talk to me. Maybe they just didn't know what to say. Or maybe...

Well, I still had my friends, my community. All those people who loved me, who used to laugh at my jokes and tell me how much they looked up to me, how great I was. Yeah...I bet you can guess how fast they all disappeared.

CALVIN: Sometimes, God wishes to draw us closer to himself. But this is not an easy thing, for we are blinded by our presumptions, our belief that satisfaction comes from the approval of the community. And when this proves insufficient, we try harder to dazzle the eyes of men, forgetting God altogether. So, Monseiur Neal...did you win your election? And was it all you hoped it would be?

NEAL: Yes, I was elected the Student Body President. By a margin of just 42 votes out of about 4,000. Barely over 50%. Which meant that almost as many people voted against me, as voted for me. And 12 months later, I graduated.

(Fast forward two years. Dallas, Texas. Career fair for the Dallas Independent School District, and my first job interview).

Hi! My name is Neal Locke, and I'm applying to be a High School English teacher. Why do I want to be a teacher? So I can help students learn critical thinking skills, and develop their appreciation for great literature. (pause) Why do I really want to be a teacher? Well, because I think I'd be good at it--I'll be the coolest teacher ever, and my students will love me, and... (pause) Why do I really want to be a teacher? Okay, fine. A captive audience every day, hanging on my every word as if their very grades depended on it. My students *will* love me...won't they?

CALVIN: (shakes head)

JOB: I lost the house.

will cause us to be destitute of all human help. Or perhaps, it will be to humble us; for it seems to us that surely, God ought to have high regard for us; and that we are worthy of it; and everyone blinds himself with such presumption.

Our Lord wishes to instruct us in humility by this means: that we shall be rejected by our community. In this way, we shall have to think that we are not so great as we may have supposed.

All but my three closest friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. Except no one ever called 'em that. Eli, Bill, and Zippy. When everybody else disappeared, they came. They stayed with me for seven days and seven nights. They didn't even say a word--they didn't have to. They just sat with me, in silence. That's real friendship, right there.

(final word) JOB: