Reflection National Lockdown Saturday 03 October 2020

Job 42:1-6, 12-17                   Psalm 119:169-176                Luke 10:17-24

Good day dear friends

After all his struggling with suffering and faith and the appearing absence of God, the story ends with Job getting it all back and in abundance. The ending almost seems to undo everything the book has tried to convey, or at least that’s often what’s done with it by the reader. Why do we bother with the struggle of the servant of God, Job, if it doesn’t really matter and if we can just skip to the fairy-tale ending? This approach brings dishonour to the reality of the struggle of both Job’s and ours.  How then can we use this chapter to great effect if not to just glory in its nice ending?  There are two possibilities.

The “change” in Job

In the final chapter we find Job neither questioning God in a hostile way nor uttering resigned sounding pietisms.  He admits that he was wrong and acknowledges that he had not known God, that he had “heard of” God, but never truly “seen” God.  While it may be true that suffering and struggle will open one’s eyes, and that one may well view the world, life, relationships, spirituality and faith differently because of it, I don’t think this is mainly what makes the change in Job.  For Job, the change comes when God speaks to him.  Having confronted God Job is now answered, and so he is changed. God sees Jobs discourse as right, it is accepted not rejected and God challenged Job. This is a lesson learned; complaint, allegation and doubt are all authentic expressions because they are expressed in relationship with God and bring about change. 

“Things too wonderful for me”

Part of Job’s repentance is that he is speaking of things he does not understand.  Job may understand “wonders” to mean the wonders of creation, lightning, rains, drought, heavenly bodies and the care of all creatures great and small.  These certainly are wonders, and are used to demonstrate the many ways in which Job is ignorant of God’s working. Depending on one’s perspective the works that God performed in Egypt could be taken as either plague, or wonder and so too, could be the events of Job’s life. His story is defined mainly by God’s wonders, and wonder at and about God.  It is God who is, finally, at work in creation and in the life of Job that centres the answer given to Jobs complaint.  It is God, perceivably present or absent that Job desperately seeks and wants to get to know in the end. In our own struggles and complaints we are to focus on the wonders of God to not just “see” or “hear” about God, but to have an authentic experience of Hid mercy and love.

The psalmist desired grace and strength to lift up his prayers, and wants to  know more of God  and more of what is expected of him to shed his guilt and sense of unworthiness. He wants to present his prayers to God as something on offer from God to him and therefore made God’s word the rule of his discourse and engagement with God. The psalmist discovered that his efforts were insufficient; that there was no one out there capable to help him and he therefore made his appeal to his creator and redeemer. He believed that salvation can only be found in God and therefor he prays for help to achieve this.  The psalmist is flinging his lot at the mercy of God and commits to subject himself to God’s judgements, decrees and providences in the hope of being found and rescued from his sense of loss. He looks back at his life and lost estate with shame and appeal to the tender care of the shepherd who purchased him for the gift of eternal life.  The author wants to be sought, found, turned (transformed), tried and his heart cleansed by God. We have learned nothing, if we have not learned to praise God. Do our hearts, cleansed in Christ’s blood; make these prayers, resolutions and confessions our own? Is God’s word the standard of our faith, and the law of our practice? Do we use it as pleas with Christ for what we need?

Jesus had sent 72 disciples who now return from their mission and give an account of it. The proof of the success of their mission is due to the understanding of the pre-eminence and power of the name of Jesus in regard to the power of evil. The evil forces have been weakened and demons have submitted to the power of the name of Jesus. This does not mean that being protected by God through a relationship with Him always places us in an advantageous situation in the face of the wicked forces. The power of Jesus is what makes us experience success in regard to the devil’s power and it protects us.  As Christians we are called to obstruct and be an obstacle to the power of Satan on earth to be assured of victory in spite of our own challenges. We can participate in gaining victory in the communion of love with Christ even though we may be tried by suffering and death.  The kindness of the Father is shown: the success of the word of grace in the mission of the seventy two, seen as the plan of the Father and in the communion in the resurrection of the Son, begins with this revelation of the generosity of the Father. The mission becomes a place for the revelation of God’s will in human time and space. This experience is communicated by Luke in the context of prayer and shows on one side the reaction in heaven: “I bless you Father”, (v. 21) and that on earth (vv. 23-24).

In the prayer that Jesus addresses to the Father, the word “exults” expresses the Messianic joy and proclaims the goodness of the Father. The evidence hereto is found in the little ones, the poor and the valueless who have accepted the word communicated by those sent and gained access to the relationship between the Divine Persons of the Trinity. The wise and the learned are pleased by their intellectual and theological competence that precludes them from entering into the vigour of salvation given by Jesus. The teaching that Luke intends to communicate to believers and the church can be fused as follows: Humility opens to faith. The abundance of one’s reassurance of forgiveness stands directly in relation to God’s goodness. The prayer of Jesus has its effects on all those who accept this and allow themselves to be embraced by the goodness of the Father.

The mission to take the life of God to others implies a lifestyle that is poor and humble. Is your life soaked by the life of God, by the Word of grace that comes from Jesus? Do you have trust in God’s call and in his power that asks to be manifested through simplicity, poverty and humility?

Let us pray:

May our loving Creator and Giver of all good gifts, bless our parish, strengthen our faith, and grant us the spirit of Christian Stewardship so we may give generously of our time, talent, and treasure to spread Your Kingdom here in our parish. For this, we pray to the Lord. Amen.