Job 38:1-7, (34-41)
38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind:
38:2 "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
38:3 Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.
38:4 "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
38:5 Who determined its measurements--surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?
38:6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone
38:7 when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?
38:34 "Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, so that a flood of waters may cover you?
38:35 Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go and say to you, 'Here we are'?
38:36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts, or given understanding to the mind?
38:37 Who has the wisdom to number the clouds? Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,
38:38 when the dust runs into a mass and the clods cling together?
38:39 "Can you hunt the prey for the lion, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
38:40 when they crouch in their dens, or lie in wait in their covert?
38:41 Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God, and wander about for lack of food?
Mark 10:35-45
10:35 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
10:36 And he said to them, "What is it you want me to do for you?"
10:37 And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory."
10:38 But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?"
10:39 They replied, "We are able." Then Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;
10:40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared."
10:41 When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John.
10:42 So Jesus called them and said to them, "You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.
10:43 But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant,
10:44 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.
10:45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."
Standing before the Great and Powerful Oz
Sermon, Sunday 21, 2012 – Laity Sunday
Job 38:1-7 (34-41), Hebrews 5:1-10, Mark 10:35-45
Intro,
I remember when I was 17, I was at my first Detox. I think it was the Old Bailey Seton Hospital. For those of you who don’t know it’s a very old, and kind of a rickety hospital, like something out of movie. Anyway, I was really out of it, I think I was sedated for at least 24 hrs. When I woke up there, I was so confused. I’m in a weird little robe and fuzzy little slippers with smiley faces on them and shuffled into a room with a group of people who were all just, well, ill. Ill looking, ill talking, and ill favored and all of them had an opinion about me. After about three days you can imagine how confused I was, not just about where I was, but who I was and where I was going in life. And most importantly how did I end up here?
Hebrew Reading
Now in today’s Hebrew Reading we find Job. For those of you who don’t know the story of Job; Job was living a great life until his whole world was turned upside down, yet Job keeps faithful. Even when all of his life has turned to ash, he tears his clothes and sits upon the ashes of his life and waits for God to take him. It’s not until all the know it all smarty pants of the day start giving Job advice about what he should and shouldn’t do that he begins to wonder and doubt. Its’ then that Job; stands up and questions God about who he is and where he was going in life. And, like Jay in Bailey Seton Detox, how the f-ck did I end up here. Regardless of our individual paths
Many of us in our lives have felt lost.
Many of us in our lives have felt wronged by God.
Many of us have been abused and marginalized by the powers that be.
Experiences and Theodicy
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett was just such a laywoman, accepting the freedom and power of Christ to stand up to evil, injustice and oppression wherever she was, however she could. Her earliest social witness reminds those of us in the twentieth century of the witness of Rosa Parks. Like Rosa Parks, Ida Bell Wells (she would marry later) made a witness on public transit (a train in her case) by refusing to move to a segregated car (1884). Though she was eventually forced off the train and lost the lawsuits she filed against the train company for sustaining segregation at a time when that was explicitly forbidden to public transit providers by U.S. law, the incident opened the door for her to begin a career in journalism, exposing and continuing to speak against such injustices to an ever wider audience over time.
Some of us have like Ida have experienced racism and have known pains that ache our souls and cause the mind to shudder at even the thought of remembering them. Others amongst us have seen wars, and all the horrors that follow. And most of the time all the crap that people tell us just mostly makes us confused, angry and distant. We feel almost naked, alone, scared like I was in Detox with a weird robe and slippers with smiley faces, scared and alone like Job, sitting upon the ash heap of his life. Scared and alone i face of overwhelming odds, like Ida.
The answer comes but only after something significant happens within us. To answer what it is, let’s look at the,
Gospel reading.
In today’s gospel we have James and John who come forward to ask to sit one at Jesus’ right hand and one at Jesus’ left, in his glory. Jesus responds No, to such a request but offers, that the
"The cup that I drink you will drink; and the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; now in Seminary we learn;
1. The cup Jesus referred to was not the cup of victory and glory, but of suffering.
2. The baptism Jesus referred to was not a seal of righteousness or a badge of honor, but a drowning death on the cross.
What is going on here? Two of the disciples are requesting a guarantee of knowledge. They like us sometimes, want a guarantee from God, to be seated at the right and left of Jesus in his glory. The gospel says they are rebuffed. Why? Why can’t we have answers? It doesn’t seem unreasonable especially I the face of uncertainty, and heck these are disciples asking for some kind of eventuality.
Re-reading Job and our stance
I would proffer its’ not about guarantees of glory, or definitive answers about why or what is happening. Job initially sat content on a bed of ashes. It wasn’t until the so called intellectuals tried to offer reasons that Job doubted. It’s not until our big modern brains start a churning that we get doubtful. And, it’s when we seek God for Glory and power that we falter.
You see Reason and Glory allow us to sit back. When true questioning demands we stand before God! It’s ingrained in the postures we take in life how we will live our life. It is in the sitting and standing of humanity before God. Is it me or is there something in our postures that is permeating today’s scripture?
Job sitting on his ash heap of a life! To later stand up to question God! Ida B Well sitting in the white section and made to stand. To later stand up for equality. The disciples demanding to sit on the right and left of Jesus. To be told that to stand in Christ suffering is the true nature of a Christain. Sitting Standing, Standing sitting.
If we reread Job (Condensed of course)
“The LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind: Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Who is that causes you to doubt the all powerful God of creation? I will question you, and you shall declare to me.Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Who determined its measurements-- who laid its cornerstone, "Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, so that a flood of waters may cover you?”
Now it may sound like God is yelling at Job with a booming voice, thundering down on him, like the great and powerful OZ. But, understand the questions God poses open up the hearer to the wonders of the earth and the universe to the extent of God's power in human and heavenly affairs.
The effect is not to bully us into submission but to enlighten our "darkened counsel," Not to subdue us but to restore within us a love of all. It is not to assert superiority, but rather to help Job know, help you know God and God's work.
Stand, up to and for God
The desired response is not to cower in terror or humiliation, but STAND IN AWE.
Stand in awe. Stand, in awe of Gods’ creation. STANDING and this does not mean stand idle but stand with purpose.
(INSERT DEFINITIONS OF STANDING FROM WEBSTER, BLACKS LAW DICTIONARY AND HEBREW/GREEK DEFINITIONS)
Stand with courage. Like Ida, and Job! Stand together. As disciple in Christ!
Stand with all the love in your heart against the ills of the world. Stand with the Love of Christ beating in your frail ad human hearts.
On this Laity Sunday, we remember that the principle ministers of the gospel have always been the laity, and that it is primarily the laity who are called to "stand up." After all, in our baptismal vows, vows which help establish us all as "laity" -- the people of God in Jesus Christ -- we all vow to "stand up," The cup Jesus referred to was not the cup of victory and glory, but of suffering. The baptism Jesus referred to was not a seal of righteousness or a badge of honor, but a drowning death on the cross.
As Christians we stand in the coming wake of suffering and death. WE STAND UP WITH CHRIST. WE GET UP, WE GET INVOLVED, WE MOVE WITH PURPOSE AND COMPASSION!!!
You can’t sit idle and wonder, if you feel lost, hurt, beat down and abused by the world God has created, LET GOD KNOW!
Stand up and be heard and I promise you if you Gods response will blow your mind, or at the very least restore it sanity, it did for me. And it wasn’t through a whirlwind of clouds, or even Christ’s words, but a person who simply reached out with love. A lay person.
Laity making the difference, Love for through Love
I remember standing in the halls of that Detox and demanding answers, Why I was there? Why had this happened to me? I was quite hysterical? When a man came up to me and said “Hey You, yeah you! making all that racket, sounds like you lost your marbles. He then reached out and handed me one. A marble, he then looked me square in the eyes and said hold onto this one to things get better. Here is a marble since you seem to have lost all yours. He gave me a little piece of my mind, a lil piece of mind in an otherwise crazy world.
Job 38:36-37 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts, or given understanding to the mind? God has.
And only a God of mercy and love sends us out to do such acts for each other. Only when stand up can we see. Only WHEN EACH OF US REACHES OUT, ACROSS and OVER THE PAIN OF SURVIVING…….. DO ALL BEGIN LIVING!
Mark 10:43-45 Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant,
and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.
For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as ransom for many."