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| Honeybee |
Job spoke out and said:
Perish the day on which I was born,
the night when they said, "The child is a boy!"
The Wisdom Books of Job and Ecclesiastes enjoy special status in the Bible. Both challenge the conventional wisdom that goodness will be rewarded and wickedness will be punished. Along with "Sportin' Life" they say, "It ain't necessarily so."
Someone relented to public or personal pressure and tagged a happy ending onto the end of Job, but he was only one of several authors to write the book. His "happy ending" in which Job enjoys a whole new family with far more wealth doesn't really atone for the senseless death of his first children and the wreckage of his life. Most of the book is Job's quarrel with his three friends, in which his skepticism overcomes their reasoned arguments. In those passages we admire Job's probing doubt, his courageous, lyrical expression and his fidelity to truth. He raises the issues that cause one to doubt.
Often when I hear people promoting the Bible as the Book of Answers I wonder if they have even read Job or Ecclesiastes. These books doubt that any book or any person -- even God -- can answer the question of human existence. One Veteran, upon learning he had terminal cancer, said to me, "I'm going to have some questions for God when I see him face to face." I said, "Ask a few for me too!"
When we gather as church we celebrate "the mysteries of our faith." These mysteries don't answer questions. They honor them. They acknowledge that we live with doubt every day of our lives. Is there a God? Is there an eternal life? Is there Justice? Will the wicked be condemned and the innocent vindicated? Will I be judged? Is there a heavenly judge who has the right and the authority to set things right?
Our "celebration of these mysteries" permits us to live in the uncertainty as we try to do the right thing each day of our lives.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.