A Kind of Resurrection
A Sermon for the Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost
October 24, 2021
The Rev. Robin Teasley
Job answered the Lord:
“I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
‘Hear, and I will speak;
I will question you, and you declare to me.’
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.”
[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. 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 as done.” 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].
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. 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. 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. He also had seven sons and three daughters. He named the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. 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. After this Job lived for one hundred and forty years, and saw his children, and his children’s children, four generations. And Job died, old and full of days.
Job 42:1-6, [7-9], 10-17
Have you ever read a book where you just did not like the ending? Hebrew Bible scholar Walter Brueggemann sums up the book of Job by saying that Job blows all our conventional categories of faith to smithereens. Somehow I don't think Walter liked the ending of Job! This book offers a vision of the holiness of God that is out beyond all of our domestications, Brueggemann says, and so we see why the church does not like to use Job very much – it does not fit with most church theology. The book of Job reveals that our settled truths are occasionally not adequate enough to handle real life.
What we see in the story of Job is the pattern of life, the process of life. It is a human pilgrimage of having our lives oriented, then disoriented, and then reoriented. Think about that… Job began in a great place – life was good – oriented. Then when calamity struck, he became disoriented. After encountering God in the whirlwind, he was transformed, changed, able to see from a larger perspective – he was reoriented. Brueggeman suggests that the most important, and the most interesting, season of this process is the season of disorientation. Job’s story bears that out, for it is out of the suffering, and seeking for God in the suffering, that Job learns more about himself and about God.
Job confesses that he uttered what he did not understand, what he did not know. Job admits that he had heard of God by the hearing of the ear, but that now his eye truly sees God. Nothing anyone can say about God is as powerful as an actual encounter with God. And if the story ended right here then it would be a good ending; it would make sense. Job’s life was transformed, and he encountered God in the midst of his suffering.
Remember that when we began reading Job, we learned that Job was a compilation of an ancient, Near Eastern folk tale and the poetic speeches of Job, his friends, and God. But reading the ending today, it’s as if the compilers could not tolerate a story that did not resolve, did not have a happy ending, and so we hear that God restored Job’s relationships with his friends and Job’s fortunes, giving him twice as much as he had before.
This ending is hard to accept – in fact it’s absurd! We know that this is rarely how life works. Some relationships are not reconciled, some losses are forever. This week is the anniversary of the death of a baby boy who died in a fire at his babysitter’s house. This unspeakable tragedy that befell my next door neighbors’ grandson is one that all of us who walked with them through this valley remember and lament, even after seven years. I know that it will be seventy times seven years that we will remember the loss of Joseph. In time, God gave them three more grandchildren, but we know this did not make it all better. And yet... precious Joseph, in some inexplicable way continues to connect us to God, reveals to us the great Communion of Saints, assures us that God sees and God remembers.
For us to accept the ending of Job, would be to admit that his friends were right all along, and that God does in fact reward the righteous. And if we trust the biblical scholars, then we could easily just choose to dismiss this ending as something added on later by someone who could not live with the idea that God is not predictable. But this is the text we have before us, and we must deal with it, so let’s look at some of the details of Job’s restoration and perhaps find a larger truth.
Job’s three new daughters are described as the most beautiful women in all the land; their names in Hebrew are Dove, Cinnamon, and Container of Eyeshadow! What is interesting is that so much attention is placed on the daughters, and that they receive an inheritance along with the sons. This is unheard of in a patriarchal society.
It seems that Job has learned to see the world as God does. No longer worrying so much about whether or not his children were doing the righteous thing, and constantly making sacrifices on their behalf as he did with his first children, Job now appears to be confident to entrust them to God. He shares with them all that God has so generously given to him. Does having ten more children make up for the ten Job lost? Certainly not. But what we learn from Job as we witness his move from loss and despair to hope and new life, is that it is his true encounter with God that makes this possible. Job chooses to live and to love again, even knowing the cost, because he now knows that God is with him, always seeing, always remembering.
Notice that the community is a part of Job’s restoration. His friends who perhaps harmed his faith earlier, perhaps were stumbling blocks to Job in his relationship with God, needed to confess and accept forgiveness. His brothers and sisters and the community who had known him before the calamity brought him food, showed him sympathy and comforted him, and gave him financial help so that Job could begin again. Helping someone begin again is far more valuable than giving them mere platitudes or judging them as unrighteous. We see here what can come out of suffering and loss, how a community can love and support its members throughout life.
While there may not be an answer to the question of why bad things happen to good people that suffices for us in the moment, there can be a response to a world in which suffering occurs. Those of us who have experienced suffering and loss, and have moved through it with God’s help, become the eyes, ears, and hands of Christ in the world. We see this transformation in an AA meeting as sponsors encourage those in recovery, I see it in my neighbors as they engage in advocacy work to keep children in home daycare safe, and we see it every time the people of God take action to help others in need.
This year, we might be asking, “Where is God?” in this pandemic. God is alongside the scientists and medical teams, developing vaccines and caring for the sick. When community members need food and warm clothing, God prompts us to fix lunch and collect warm coats and bedding. When life events such as baptisms, weddings, and funerals call us to gather here to celebrate, give thanks, and mourn, God is surely present with us in this place.
We cannot control what happens in this world. Life is not always fair, and yet, along with Job we might come to understand that living again after unspeakable pain is a kind of resurrection. The book of Job sinks to the depths of despair and comes back up into new life. From orientation to disorientation, to reorientation, life endures by God’s grace.
Job does not solve the problem of suffering, but he does show us some ways to respond faithfully. We can speak to God honestly and directly, we can choose to risk loving again after great loss and pain, and we can delight in a creation that is beautiful, wild, and unpredictable. Orientation - disorientation - reorientation. As we are being transformed, we can join the work of restorative justice knowing that God is intimately involved with us, seeing our sorrows and joys.
As we move on from this time spent with Job, keep your potsherd handy. And when we find ourselves on an ash heap somewhere, dealing with suffering and loss, may this bit of clay remind us that in all of the blessings and losses of life, God is with us always.
I am indebted for much of this sermon series on Job to Dr. Walter Brueggemann, Rabbi Harold Kushner, and Dr. Katherine Schifferdecker.
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