Difference between revisions of "Sermon for March 31st, 2019"

Revision as of 19:06, 29 March 2019

Job 31:16-23

16 “If I have withheld anything that the poor desired,
    or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
17 or have eaten my morsel alone,
    and the orphan has not eaten from it—
18 for from my youth I reared the orphan like a father,
    and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow—
19 if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing,
    or a poor person without covering,
20 whose loins have not blessed me,
    and who was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;
21 if I have raised my hand against the orphan,
    because I saw I had supporters at the gate;
22 then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder,
    and let my arm be broken from its socket.
23 For I was in terror of calamity from God,
    and I could not have faced his majesty.

Two Preachers and a Trucker: Humanity

NEAL: The story of Job, as we've seen, is a hard one. But this week I wanted to take a break from the main story, and focus on an aspect of Job that often gets overlooked: Long before tragedy struck, and long afterward, Job was a generous man. Not just to his family or friends, either. In today's scripture passage as well as several other places in the Book of Job, we learn that he made it a principle in his life to care for widows and orphans, to feed and clothe the poor, and to champion the cause of strangers in his land. So if it's alright with the two of you, I'd like to talk about that today--about what it means to be generous, what generosity looks like, and why it's important.

JOB: Well, for starters, it's not somethin' you talk much about, if you can help it. It's somethin' you just do.

NEAL: You make it sound easy, but that hasn't been my experience. In my very first week as a pastor, I got scammed by a couple who came to the church asking for money and help. I listened to their story; I gave them money, only to find out later they were lying about it all. What I hate the most about that experience was that it made me skeptical of everyone else who came to the church asking for help.

CALVIN: (chuckling) You should give thanks to God for this lesson! It is good that we should be prudent and look carefully to whom we give--for if we give without any wisdom or discretion, eventually we would have nothing, and then even the poor among us would be left helpless. But this wisdom does not come without experience, without making mistakes. Still, it would be a much bigger mistake to NOT take any risk at all, to NOT learn from our experiences, or...to disguise our greed and lack of compassion as prudence.

JOB: Think of it this way--If I hired you to work for my company, and I put you in charge of a big account, deliverin' a couple hundred truckloads of freight to a client who needed it, and you took possession of that cargo, but then you decided to keep it for yourself and not deliver it to my client...maybe you figured the cargo was valuable and by holdin' on to it for me you were doin' me a favor, or maybe you figured since it was in your possession it was yours to do with as you like. Or maybe you were just bein' careful. In any case, how do you think I'd respond?

NEAL: You'd fire me. It's not my company, not my cargo.

JOB: Right. If you keep the cargo for yourself, you're stealing from me. If you fail to deliver it to my intended client, you make me look bad. And if you think you know better how to run my business than I do, you're just makin' yourself look bad.

NEAL: Okay, but I'm still not sure exactly where you're going with this...

JOB: I've always believed that every dime I ever made in this life was on loan to me from the Lord. If I keep it all for myself, I'm stealing from him. If I fail to deliver it for his intended purposes, I make him look bad. And if I think I know how to run the world better than he does....I'm just makin' myself look bad.

NEAL: Okay, I get it. But who's the client in this metaphor? How do you know WHO you're supposed to deliver God's cargo to?

CALVIN: James 1:27. "True religion, that is pure and undefiled before God is this: To care for orphans and widows in their distress." Or Matthew 25:40. "Whatever you have done for the least of these my brothers, you have done to me." Or, Job 29:15. "I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger."

JOB: Now, if you'd delivered my cargo to someone pretending to be my client without asking for any ID, I'd probably still've fired you. But if you asked the right questions, tried to be responsible, and your heart was in the right place--at that point whatever happens next is between me and my client.