Sermon for March 27th, 2022 - Revision history

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Iraneal at 23:52, 25 March 2022

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← Older revision		Revision as of 00:48, 26 March 2022
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	I think this is the core of Zophar's message: Evil people have caused your suffering, Job--not God. But God will be the source of their judgment. Zophar's words, viewed in the best possible light, are a cry for justice, a yearning for to God to avenge his friend, and a very human prayer that God will make things right in the end. God does make things right in the end, but not surprisingly, it looks a lot different than either Job or Zophar can conceive of at this point in the story.		I think this is the core of Zophar's message: Evil people have caused your suffering, Job--not God. But God will be the source of their judgment. Zophar's words, viewed in the best possible light, are a cry for justice, a yearning for to God to avenge his friend, and a very human prayer that God will make things right in the end. God does make things right in the end, but not surprisingly, it looks a lot different than either Job or Zophar can conceive of at this point in the story.

−	In closing, we should recognize that friends come in all shapes, sizes and flavors. When bad things happen, you have that one friend who will come and give you a comforting hug and say, I'm so sorry, how can I help? And then you might also have that friend who says "Show me the bastards who did this to you and I'll go fix them. And if I can't, God will. Let me tell you how that works." Zophar is probably that kind of friend. Sometimes, it's important to look beyond the method, beyond the personality, beyond ~~the~~ words ~~themselves,~~ and see love and loyalty in the ~~words~~ of our friends, who are humans just like us, and often doing the best they can this side of heaven.	+	In closing, we should recognize that friends come in all shapes, sizes and flavors. When bad things happen, you have that one friend who will come and give you a comforting hug and say, I'm so sorry, how can I help? And then you might also have that friend who says "Show me the bastards who did this to you and I'll go fix them. And if I can't, God will. Let me tell you how that works." Zophar is probably that kind of friend.
		+
		+	Sometimes, it's important to look beyond the method, beyond the personality, beyond hasty words spoken in the wake of disaster. It's important to seek and to see the love and loyalty in the heart of our friends, who are humans just like us, and often doing the best they can with what faith they have...on this side of heaven or hell.

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 At the end of chapter three, we read that Job's three friends "heard of all these troubles that had come upon him," and each one immediately "set out from his home" to "console and comfort him."  In other words, they know the details.  Zophar probably knows that it was the Sabeans and the Chaldeans--two neighboring tribes of raiders--who stole Job's livestock and killed his servants.  An act of evil by evil people.  Zophar knows that Job's children were killed when their house collapsed in a wind storm.  If my house fell over in a windstorm, I might be tempted to blame God.  But I also might be tempted to question the foundation, the builders and the home inspectors who assured me that it was safe and solid.
-I think this is the core of Zophar's message:  Evil people have caused your suffering, Job--not God.  But God will be the source of their judgment.  Zophar paints a vivid picture of what will happen to them.  I think his words should be viewed as a cry for justice, a yearning for to God to avenge his friend, and a prayer that God will make things right in the end.  God does make things right in the end, but not surprisingly, it looks a lot different than either Job or Zophar can conceive of at this point in the story.
+I think this is the core of Zophar's message:  Evil people have caused your suffering, Job--not God.  But God will be the source of their judgment.  Zophar's words, viewed in the best possible light, are a cry for justice, a yearning for to God to avenge his friend, and a very human prayer that God will make things right in the end.  God does make things right in the end, but not surprisingly, it looks a lot different than either Job or Zophar can conceive of at this point in the story.
-Friends come in all shapes, sizes and flavors.  When bad things happen to you, you probably have that one friend who will come and give you a hug and say, I'm so sorry, how can I help?  And then you might also have that friend who says "Show me the bastards who did this to you and I'll go fix them."  Zophar is that kind of friend.
+In closing, we should recognize that friends come in all shapes, sizes and flavors.  When bad things happen, you have that one friend who will come and give you a comforting hug and say, I'm so sorry, how can I help?  And then you might also have that friend who says "Show me the bastards who did this to you and I'll go fix them. And if I can't, God will.  Let me tell you how that works."  Zophar is probably that kind of friend.  Sometimes, it's important to look beyond the method, beyond the personality, beyond the words themselves, and see love and loyalty in the words of our friends, who are humans just like us, and often doing the best they can this side of heaven.

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	Worse yet, the fear of eternal torment has sometimes been used as a threat in the hands of religious leaders to enforce conformity to their own earthly agendas, which are often dubious at best. The promise of heaven has been used in coercive ways, too--promises of salvation in exchange for money, or the promise that baptism, church attendance, or even a quick deathbed conversion are all surefire guarantees of eternal bliss.		Worse yet, the fear of eternal torment has sometimes been used as a threat in the hands of religious leaders to enforce conformity to their own earthly agendas, which are often dubious at best. The promise of heaven has been used in coercive ways, too--promises of salvation in exchange for money, or the promise that baptism, church attendance, or even a quick deathbed conversion are all surefire guarantees of eternal bliss.
		+
		+	Spoiler alert: Churches are made up of people, and all people (together or individually) are capable of both tremendous evil and tremendous good. But don't make the mistake of confusing God with people. And if you're going to believe that God is benevolent, that God is capable of bringing about ultimate justice when we fail to do so, then it's probably a good idea to also believe that God isn't relying on our limited, human and often petty criteria for what and who we think deserves to be punished or rewarded. If I trust God to provide justice, then I must also trust God to do it right, in a way that is fair, compassionate, and beyond my comprehension.
		+
		+	So what does any of this have to do with the Book of Job, and our scripture passage today? Well, everything, really. This month we're looking at the "other" voices in the Book of Job, the ones that often are too quickly dismissed or misunderstood. And today we hear the words of Job's friend Zophar. They are fire and brimstone words, uncomfortable in their harsh judgment--and too many readers have assumed that judgement is directed at Job, who did no wrong but still suffered great loss.
		+
		+	But I believe they are words of profound comfort, empathy, and wisdom. Job, in previous chapters, seems convinced that all of the bad things that have happened to him are God's fault. And that's unacceptable to Zophar. Yes, we as readers know what Job and Zophar do not: That this all began with a heavenly wager between God and Satan. But we also know that Satan is the "active agent" of all the badness, and God simply allows it to happen--for reasons we cannot comprehend unless we read the whole story. But Zophar, I think, is looking at something quite different.
		+
		+	At the end of chapter three, we read that Job's three friends "heard of all these troubles that had come upon him," and each one immediately "set out from his home" to "console and comfort him." In other words, they know the details. Zophar probably knows that it was the Sabeans and the Chaldeans--two neighboring tribes of raiders--who stole Job's livestock and killed his servants. An act of evil by evil people. Zophar knows that Job's children were killed when their house collapsed in a wind storm. If my house fell over in a windstorm, I might be tempted to blame God. But I also might be tempted to question the foundation, the builders and the home inspectors who assured me that it was safe and solid.
		+
		+	I think this is the core of Zophar's message: Evil people have caused your suffering, Job--not God. But God will be the source of their judgment. Zophar paints a vivid picture of what will happen to them. I think his words should be viewed as a cry for justice, a yearning for to God to avenge his friend, and a prayer that God will make things right in the end. God does make things right in the end, but not surprisingly, it looks a lot different than either Job or Zophar can conceive of at this point in the story.
		+
		+	Friends come in all shapes, sizes and flavors. When bad things happen to you, you probably have that one friend who will come and give you a hug and say, I'm so sorry, how can I help? And then you might also have that friend who says "Show me the bastards who did this to you and I'll go fix them." Zophar is that kind of friend.

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	Well, you could choose to believe that life simply isn't fair, that evil prevails over good, and that innocent people are always destined to suffer at the hands of the wicked. But that's not a very hopeful, or helpful worldview, and I think it leads to despair, resignation, and sometimes even to choosing evil over good.		Well, you could choose to believe that life simply isn't fair, that evil prevails over good, and that innocent people are always destined to suffer at the hands of the wicked. But that's not a very hopeful, or helpful worldview, and I think it leads to despair, resignation, and sometimes even to choosing evil over good.

−	Another choice--the one advocated by most world religions--is to put what is beyond our control in the hands of God, or some benevolent order in the universe that leads toward ultimate justice. In Buddhism, for example, those who lead wretched lives are doomed to reincarnation in an even more wretched existence, over and over again, until they get it right. But it's still the same principle--we put our faith and our hope for justice in whatever force governs life after death. Even if we ~~can~~'t see ~~that justice~~, we choose to live our lives as	+	Another choice--the one advocated by most world religions--is to put what is beyond our control in the hands of God, or some benevolent order in the universe that leads toward ultimate justice. In Buddhism, for example, those who lead wretched lives are doomed to reincarnation in an even more wretched existence, over and over again, until they get it right. But it's still the same principle--we put our faith and our hope for justice in whatever force governs life after death. Even if we don't live to see it, we choose to believe (and live our lives) as if justice prevails in the end. And I think that compels us--sometimes in hope of that eternal reward, and sometimes through fear of that eternal punishment, to live better lives, to teach our children morality and decency, and to work for a better world where more and more people are included in that ultimate, eternal reward.
		+
		+	Here I should note that classic Protestant Christianity, from the time of the Reformation, has taught that God does not judge us on the basis of whether we lead good or bad lives, but rather by whether we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, God's son and our redeemer. But Christianity also teaches that if you truly and sincerely put your faith in Jesus, you will also be compelled to live by his teachings, to love your neighbor, and to turn from evil. So the end result is the same, just one additional step (which is quite important to us as Presbyterians) in between.
		+
		+	Even if you're not a Christian, or a particularly religious person of any sort, I hope you can at least see how this ancient and pervasive belief system--that justice prevails in the end--has been a force for good, for hope and optimism and civility for several millennia. Except...when it hasn't.
		+
		+	The argument against Heaven and Hell, or any sort of final justice after this life, usually runs something like this: How could a good and loving God (or benevolent universal force) condemn countless people to an eternity of suffering and torture for disobeying rules that we can't seem to all agree on? Remember, your idea of a "corrupt politician" is probably a hero to the other 50% of the population and vice versa.
		+
		+	Worse yet, the fear of eternal torment has sometimes been used as a threat in the hands of religious leaders to enforce conformity to their own earthly agendas, which are often dubious at best. The promise of heaven has been used in coercive ways, too--promises of salvation in exchange for money, or the promise that baptism, church attendance, or even a quick deathbed conversion are all surefire guarantees of eternal bliss.

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:10, 25 March 2022
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	Well, you could choose to believe that life simply isn't fair, that evil prevails over good, and that innocent people are always destined to suffer at the hands of the wicked. But that's not a very hopeful, or helpful worldview, and I think it leads to despair, resignation, and sometimes even to choosing evil over good.		Well, you could choose to believe that life simply isn't fair, that evil prevails over good, and that innocent people are always destined to suffer at the hands of the wicked. But that's not a very hopeful, or helpful worldview, and I think it leads to despair, resignation, and sometimes even to choosing evil over good.

−	Another choice--the one advocated by most world religions--is to put what is beyond our control in the hands of God, or some benevolent order in the universe that leads toward ultimate justice. In Buddhism, for example, those who lead wretched lives are doomed to reincarnation in an even more wretched existence, over and over again, until they get it right. But it's still the same principle--we put our faith and our hope for justice in whatever force governs life after death.	+	Another choice--the one advocated by most world religions--is to put what is beyond our control in the hands of God, or some benevolent order in the universe that leads toward ultimate justice. In Buddhism, for example, those who lead wretched lives are doomed to reincarnation in an even more wretched existence, over and over again, until they get it right. But it's still the same principle--we put our faith and our hope for justice in whatever force governs life after death. Even if we can't see that justice, we choose to live our lives as

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:04, 25 March 2022
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	This joke works for two reasons: First, most of us grew up with some kind of awareness of the twin concepts of Heaven and Hell. The criteria for where you end up tend to change based on what religious tradition you hail from, but the basic description is the same: eternal bliss, or eternal torment. Whether or not you subscribe to that belief is pretty much irrelevant to the joke itself, as long as you understand the basic concept.		This joke works for two reasons: First, most of us grew up with some kind of awareness of the twin concepts of Heaven and Hell. The criteria for where you end up tend to change based on what religious tradition you hail from, but the basic description is the same: eternal bliss, or eternal torment. Whether or not you subscribe to that belief is pretty much irrelevant to the joke itself, as long as you understand the basic concept.

−	The second reason this joke works (and the one I intend to focus on today) is because I told you that the main character, the butt of the joke, was a corrupt politician. Half of you probably had one in mind, and the other half of you had a different one in mind, from the opposite political party. Regardless, we can all conceive of someone like that who we perceive to be thoroughly and incorrigibly corrupt, but immensely crafty and powerful, and therefore also frustratingly immune from all of our notions of justice and accountability.	+	The second reason this joke works (and the one I intend to focus on today) is because I told you that the main character, the butt of the joke, was a corrupt politician. Half of you probably had one in mind, and the other half of you had a different one in mind, from the opposite political party. Regardless, we can all conceive of someone like that who we perceive to be thoroughly and incorrigibly corrupt, but immensely crafty and powerful, and therefore also frustratingly immune from all of our cherished notions of justice and accountability.
		+
		+	If fairness and justice are important virtues (and I believe they are), then how can reasonable, thinking people in a civilized society wrap their hearts and minds around the idea that some people will live an entire lifetime full of corruption, exploitation, and harm to others, and then finally die without punishment or judgement, completely beyond the reach of the law?
		+
		+	Well, you could choose to believe that life simply isn't fair, that evil prevails over good, and that innocent people are always destined to suffer at the hands of the wicked. But that's not a very hopeful, or helpful worldview, and I think it leads to despair, resignation, and sometimes even to choosing evil over good.
		+
		+	Another choice--the one advocated by most world religions--is to put what is beyond our control in the hands of God, or some benevolent order in the universe that leads toward ultimate justice. In Buddhism, for example, those who lead wretched lives are doomed to reincarnation in an even more wretched existence, over and over again, until they get it right. But it's still the same principle--we put our faith and our hope for justice in whatever force governs life after death.

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:22, 25 March 2022
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	==Other Voices in the Book of Job: Zophar==		==Other Voices in the Book of Job: Zophar==
−	One day at the gates of hell, the devil ~~himself is greeting new arrivals, and he is in~~ a ~~rather good (albeit devilish) mood~~. ~~So he tells the latest newcomer,~~ "Your actions and choices in life have earned you an eternity of torment. But I'll make you ~~a deal~~: You get to choose between three options. He leads the ~~man~~ to door number one, the classic fiery furnace where inhabitants are being perpetually roasted in agony. The man nervously asks to see what's behind door number two. The devil opens the second door, which reveals a vast and desolate wasteland. In the distance, the man can see scattered inhabitants, exhausted, and constantly pursued by frightening demons. ~~The man~~ says, "Well, that's a slight improvement, but let's see what's behind door number three." As soon as door number three is opened, out comes an almost unbearable stench, and the ~~man~~ sees the inhabitants of the room standing waist high in what looks like a combination of cow manure, rotten sewage, and (again for classic effect) burning sulfur. But there's one more faint aroma coming out of the room: Coffee. ~~The man~~ sees that each of the inhabitants is drinking from a small cup of coffee. "This one definitely seems like the lesser of three evils," says the ~~man~~, somewhat relieved. "I'll choose this room." "Popular choice," says the devil with a snicker, as he shoves the man inside the room. And just before the devil closes the door, he yells out in a loud voice to all in the room: "Coffee break's over--back on your heads!"	+	One day at the gates of hell, the devil welcomes a corrupt politician to his eternal reward. "Your actions and choices in life have earned you an eternity of torment. But since you were always a sucker for a self-serving deal, I'll make you this one: You get to choose between three options." He leads the politician to door number one, the classic fiery furnace where inhabitants are being perpetually roasted in agony. The man nervously asks to see what's behind door number two. The devil opens the second door, which reveals a vast and desolate wasteland. In the distance, the man can see scattered inhabitants, exhausted, and constantly pursued by frightening demons. He says, "Well, that's a slight improvement, but let's see what's behind door number three." As soon as door number three is opened, out comes an almost unbearable stench, and the politician sees the inhabitants of the room standing waist high in what looks like a combination of cow manure, rotten sewage, and (again for classic effect) burning sulfur. But there's one more faint aroma coming out of the room: Coffee. He sees that each of the inhabitants is drinking from a small cup of coffee. "This one definitely seems like the lesser of three evils," says the politician, somewhat relieved. "I'll choose this room." "Popular choice," says the devil with a snicker, as he shoves the man inside the room. And just before the devil closes the door, he yells out in a loud voice to all in the room: "Coffee break's over--back on your heads!"
		+
		+	This joke works for two reasons: First, most of us grew up with some kind of awareness of the twin concepts of Heaven and Hell. The criteria for where you end up tend to change based on what religious tradition you hail from, but the basic description is the same: eternal bliss, or eternal torment. Whether or not you subscribe to that belief is pretty much irrelevant to the joke itself, as long as you understand the basic concept.
		+
		+	The second reason this joke works (and the one I intend to focus on today) is because I told you that the main character, the butt of the joke, was a corrupt politician. Half of you probably had one in mind, and the other half of you had a different one in mind, from the opposite political party. Regardless, we can all conceive of someone like that who we perceive to be thoroughly and incorrigibly corrupt, but immensely crafty and powerful, and therefore also frustratingly immune from all of our notions of justice and accountability.