Days Like This

October 7, 2012 “Days Like This” Job 1:1, 2:1-10 Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12 19th Sunday After Pentecost Year B World Communion Sunday God gave me a song, that the angels cannot sing…… I won’t sing the rest of the song. But that is my favorite all time gospel song. As a child I used to sing it over and over again. I would sing it so much, that I got tired of hearing myself sing. But even today, I just can never get tired of that message. The angels have to priviledge of spending all day with God, of singing in the presence of God, of passing on the personal messages of God. And yet in spite of their many blessings, their perfect life, they will never know what it means to be human. They will never know what it means to wake up here on earth. They may be able to praise God. But since they don’t have to struggle, or worry or wonder, since they don’t know hunger, or pain or sickness. They can praise God with joy, but they cant praise God in spite of their pain and uncertainty. They don’t get to make a choice to sing hallelujah anyway. Perhaps that was why God asks Satan if he had considered his servant Job. A man. A blameless and upright man who had a perfect life and a perfect faith. We all know a Job – a person who has it all. They have a stable family, a wonderful job, a beautiful house, they drive a nice care, not only do they have everything, but they are nice too. It looks as if they have been richly blessed by God God truly rewarded them for being faithful. They are the homecoming queen, the star football quarterback, the successful person with the perfect life. You might be surprised that there is no such person as Job. Just as there are no people in our lives, with the perfect life and the perfect faith- Job was not intended to be to one person. We all have a chance to be Job. If someone who has everything can lose it all and still love God, then surely those of us who may not have everything, but we have something, who may not have lost everything but have lost something – can still love God. This is a story about God and Satan, about the angels, and about what it means to be human in a difficult world. This is a story about a perfect example of a human who never gave up on God in the midst of suffering – that is Jesus, not Job. But most important – this is a story about, not just being faithful but about keeping our integrity – our promise to God, even in those times when we wonder if God has forgotten about us. It is about knowing that God never breaks God’s promises, and neither should we. For the last two months or so, we have been looking at the wisdom literature of the bible. And Job is actually another wisdom story. It is not a true story, it is a story of truth. A story about what any of us would go through if we were put in the situation of Job. But it is intended for us to look at our own situations. We all have our days, days of bad luck, of struggle, of mourning and loss. I don’t know how much longer I am going to go into the book of Job. It is a pretty long book – 48 chapters. But it shows the transformation of Job’s faith. As he is going on about his life, until the day that God allows Satan to mess with him and take away everything. His friends don’t understand why he is so faithful to God. It was believed in those days that if you lived a good life it was because God blessed you, and if you became sick or lost everything, it was because you were a sinner and God was punishing you. If the devil was allowed to do anything – you deserved it. We have to remember that the devil has no more control that what we give him. He can tempt us all day – but he cant draw us into sin. Only our heart can do that. As a matter of fact, this story uses the name Satan. Satan means the accuser. He only points out to God what you have done. He doesn’t make you do it. The power of satan There is an Eastern story of a Sultan who overslept himself, so as not to awaken at the hour of prayer. So the Devil came and waked him, and told him to get up and pray. “Who are you?” said the Sultan. “Oh, no matter,” replied the other. “My act is good, is it not? No matter who does the good action, so long as it is good.” “Yes,” replied the Sultan, “but I think you are Satan. I know your face; you have some bad motive.” “But,” says the other, “I am not so bad as I am painted. You see I have left off my horns and tail. I am pretty good fellow, after all. I was an angel once, and still keep some of my original goodness.” “That’s all very well,” replied the sagacious and prudent caliph, “but you are the tempter; that’s your business; and I wish to know why you want me to get up and pray.” “Well,” said the Devil with a flirt of impatience, “if you must know, I will tell you. If you had slept and forgotten your prayers, you would have been sorry for it afterward, and penitent; but if you go on as now, and do not neglect a single prayer for ten years, you will be so satisfied with yourself that it will be worse for you than if you had missed one sometimes and repented of it. God loves your fault mixed with penitence more than your virtue seasoned with pride.” —Walter Baxendale For as many times as I have read the book of Job. The one thing that stand out to me, is that it is not really a story about good and bad. Right and wrong. There is no real advice giving about what you should do or shouldn’t do. It really doesnt answer the question of why bad things to good people. It doesn’t tell us really the right thing to do. In chapter 2, even Job’s wife –who is suffering right along with Job, encourages him to just curse God and die. He already lost everything worth living for, so why not just die. Because of his integrity. He made a promise to God and God made a promise to him – and he cant give up on that. How do we maintain our integrity, our promise in our world? Jesus is our perfect example Hebrews, which we will studying for a few weeks also. But the beginning of Hebrews says that at one time God spoke through wisdom literature. But in today’s world he speaks through his son. A son whom he appointed heir of all things. A son who was made a little less then the angels. So that he could be our perfect example. We know that Jesus didn’t live the life of the homecoming king, or the star football player, or even the rich successful business man. Jesus lived a simple, poor life born in a manger, raised by a carpenter, living in the streets traveling from place to place. He was a human like us, who suffered like us, he lived like us. who died like us. But in spite of it all – he never lost his integrity. He always kept his promise to God. Hebrews is teaching us that there are a lot of good examples out their of how we should live, but Jesus us better than them all. The book of Hebrews uses the word better 22 times in referring to Jesus. Jesus was made less than the angels, but today he is higher than the angels. He overcome this world, and sits at the right hand of God. The good news for us – God rewarded Jesus for his righteousness, and if we follow his lead. If we keep his promise – we will be invited to be brothers and sisters of Jesus. In heaven, we will still have a song that the angels cannot sing. can of shaving cream, and read the words on the label… In fact, those words have me reading labels these days, on everything… Those words said; Warning; contents under pressure, Do not puncture or incinerate…. Do not throw into fire… It even said, keep out of the reach of children… Harmful or fatal if swallowed… And the words caught my attention, because they summarize the situation going on in so many lives of the children of God…. They are living under pressure… They are on the verge of an explosion… Perhaps because they don’t trust God. They forget about the promises of God. But more importantly. They forget the promises they themselves made to God. Perhaps they should consider the story of Job. He is introduced not as the successful man who had everything. He is introduced as a blameless and upright man who feared God and turned away from evil. If we were to look into a Hebrew Bible, we’d learn that the word perfect is the Hebrew word tam. And it means to be complete or entire, not lacking in any respect. It means that he had a whole and complete faith in a whole and complete God. It means that he trusted God for all of his needs, and he was always certain that God would never forsake him. He knew that God had the final word in all circumstances, and that God was a good God. But more importantly it meant that he made a commitment to this God, a promise in baptism. And that he was not at liberty to walk away. He kept his integrity in all things, even his pain and his anger. Integrity is doing what you said you would do, no matter what. Did I hear you say that you would love and follow Jesus to the cross? Story of keeping our integrity Several years ago, in Long Beach, California, a fellow went into a fried chicken place and bought a couple of chicken dinners for himself and his date late one afternoon. The young woman at the counter inadvertently gave him the proceeds from the day-a whole bag of money (much of it cash) instead of fried chicken. After driving to their picnic site, the two of them sat down to open the meal and enjoy some chicken together. They discovered a whole lot more than chicken--over $800! But he was unusual. He quickly put the money back in the bag. They got back into the car and drove all the way back. Mr. Clean got out, walked in, and became an instant hero. By then the manager was frantic. The guy with the bag of money looked the manager in the eye and said, "I want you to know I came by to get a couple of chicken dinners and wound up with all this money. Here." Well, the manager was thrilled to death. He said, "Oh, great, let me call the newspaper. I'm gonna have your picture put in the local newspaper. You're the most honest man I've heard of." To which they guy quickly responded, "Oh no, no, don't do that!" Then he leaned closer and whispered, "You see, the woman I'm with is not my wife...she's uh, somebody else's wife." Charles Swindoll, Growing Deep in the Christian Life, p. 159-60. We all have our days, when we will be tested. But integrity means keeping the faith in all areas of our life in all circumstances. Jesus knew our days very well, Jesus is our brother, Jesus understands temptation, he knew our questions. But he knew God, he knew what it meant to trust and obey, and he provided a way for us to to stand tall, to have strength. To be blameless and upright and to turn away from evil. God made a promise to you – are you keeping your promise to God? Let us pray….. World Communion introduction Today we celebrate communion with Christians all over the world, in all types of churches. God has made us his family, a family that stretches around the world, a family that is called to love as we have been loved, to forgive as we have been forgiven, to give as we have been given too. As we share in our family meal, give thanks to God that we are not alone, that we have both each other and the spirit of Christ amongst us, the spirit of him who was, who is, and who shall ever be one with us, and one over us, and one under us, one who truly loves us. Amen. can of shaving cream, and read the words on the label… In fact, those words have me reading labels these days, on everything… Those words said; Warning; contents under pressure, Do not puncture or incinerate…. Do not throw into fire… It even said, keep out of the reach of children… Harmful or fatal if swallowed… And the words caught my attention, because they summarize the situation going on in so many lives of the children of God…. They are living under pressure… They are on the verge of an explosion… They are just a few degrees away from losing it… They can’t stand the heat, but they don’t know how to get out of the kitchen… The pressures, and the calamities of this present life are destroying them… They are living under pressure, wondering just how much anyone is expected to take… Many of them ought to wearing a sign this morning, saying warning, stay away… Warning… danger approaching… Many of them ought to be wearing a sign saying keep out of reach of children…

Who presides over your life?

October 4, 2009
Who Presides Over Your Life?
Eighteenth Sunday of Pentecost
World Communion Sunday
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12
Mark 10:2-16
Year B

As you go through life, it doesn’t take long to discover in life that there are questions – lots of questions for which there is no answer. You can ask the question – but there is never an answer. At least not one which is gonna shed any real light on the the situation. One of those questions – do I look fat in these pants. There is no answer for that. First of all, if ever asked, you know that it is never in your best interest to answer that question. But secondly, if someone was brave enough to answer that question- either yes or no. There is no answer that will satisfy the questioner – they will continue to ask and ask, never quite satisfied enough to just stop asking the question.
But seriously there are serious questions about life that we ask God. We ask ourselves, we ask life – we constantly ask – and there is never a good answer. Questions like why do bad things happen to good people? Why do good things happen to bad people? When will we finally see justice for all, where we are all treated fairly? If God is totally in control – then why are we allowed to suffer? If God is good, then why does it seem that the devil is allowed to prosper? When the world is so awful and cruel, what is the point of remaining faithful to God?
If you live long enough and you go through life long enough, then you have asked these kinds of questions. And with each crisis, we have to be reminded of God’s answer to us.
The closest you can come to straight answer is a story – about something that happen to someone else – that you can relate to.
Job is not a real person, and the events in the story did not really happen. There is no rich foreigner, who had been greatly blessed and lost everything. There are none of us who are so righteous and upright that we don’t have to take some type of responsibility for what it happening to us. And I would venture to say that there is a point in all of our lives when things can get so bad, that we can get mad and blame God for what we are going through. This story is not intended to be historical truth – it is intended to tell the truth of the human story. The story is intended to teach a lesson – God does not intend to answer all of our questions. Faith is not the answers to life – it is a story of how to remain faithful and trusting and loving in the midst of the questions of life.
I would like to believe that God, the angels, the heavenly beings, and satan don’t have daily staff meetings – where Satan is up there criticizing everything that I am doing. Questioning my life and asking God if he can have permission to test my faith and make me suffer just because. But of course what other explanation is there for horrible things happening to us, when we know that we are being faithful and good. Not even the book of Job can give us a satisfying answer to that question.
Wisdom has been a theme for this year. And Job is a wonderful book of wisdom – it a book of dialogue, between the events of Job’s life, his wife, his friends, himself and finally God. We will be reading this story for the next 4 weeks. This is a wise story because it tells the story very clearly, but in reality gives no answers. The author of Job probably didn’t have any answers to give. But it wanted to give you some tools to think about your own unanswerable questions.
The book of Hebrews also tackles those unanswerable questions – but from a different perspective. It reminds us that God did not give us a direct answer to our suffering, but God did give us a person – who makes our suffering and his meaningful.
Hebrews relates to Job also, because it talks about heavenly beings. It talks about how decisions on earth were started on earth – that that Jesus Christ was there in the midst of creation to make sure that we would have a voice in heaven to talk about what it in our best interest. So that we don’t have to worry about Satan being present to ask God to tempt us.
we celebrate Jesus and what he did for us, for all of us
- in every corner of the world.

We celebrate what Jesus did
-and what by the power of Holy Spirit he still does,
we celebrate the Jesus who considered family unity to be important,
we celebrate the Jesus that welcomed little children into his arms,
we celebrate the Jesus that took time to bless everyone,
- no matter who they were and no matter what others thought of them.

Jesus - our saviour and our Lord,
Jesus - the promised one of God,
Jesus, the son of God - and yet a man:
a man like us....
a man who struggled to be faithful to God,
a man who was called to love his neighbours as himself,
a man who was tempted like we are tempted,
a man who suffered as we suffer.

The letter to the Hebrews, which our first reading came from today, speaks
of Jesus in exalted terms - calling him "the radiance of God's glory" and
"the exact representation of God's being", "superior to the angels";

And this is true - our whole faith speaks of it,

But the letter to the Hebrews also reminds us of something else that our
whole faith speaks of - it reminds us that here, on this earth, Jesus was
made like us - that he was made like us a little lower than the angels,
that Jesus was one with us, born of a woman,
born as our brother
to walk as we walk through this life.

Jesus was one with us,
able to sympathize with us,
able to identify with us,
able to rejoice with us,
able to suffer with us,
and, because of what he suffered and suffered in faithfulness,
he is able to intercede for us before God his Father, God our Father.

Jesus, one with us, Jesus our Saviour. Jesus our Brother. He understands us, he understands our questions.

My favorite aspect of Christ that we are reminded to celebrate in Hebrews about Christ is for a time he for a little while was made a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor. We too as humans are made a little lower than the angels. We too are crowned with glory and honor.
We may never have to answer to why bad things happen to good people. But we can always have the love of God in our lives. No matter what happens, we can look to the heavens for our strength and support – because now, Jesus Christ is up there – rooting for us as his sisters and brothers. He know what we have been through - and through faith – we know what he is going through up in heaven.
Alister McGrath writes a story about her aunt who never married. When she passed away, her relatives were going through her possessions and found a picture of a young man. The young man had been the aunt’s true love. He died tragically, and she never loved another man. And yet she held onto that picture.
Through the years of loneliness and grief, she held onto the that picture. She needed to be reminded that she had a love in life. When people doubted that she ever loved anyone she could hold onto that picture. That picture was a reminder of her life as it could have been. But for some reason the reality of death set in.
Jesus is the image of God. When we want to know what God looks like we have a story to look at. When we want something to depend on, we have the words of Christ to hold onto. When we want to talk with God – when can pray in the name of Jesus and know that we are heard.
And Jesus knew that there would be days when we would have our doubts. There would be days when we would feel disconnected from God, there would be days when we wonder about the story of Jesus. If the story of Job is a fairly tale – then how do we know that Jesus too if not just a fairly tale. The signs before us today -- communion the bread and the wine, they remind us of how he came to be our Saviour, they remind us of what his love and his faithfulness cost him. On the night of his betrayal Jesus took bread and broke it,and gave it to his disciples, saying, This is my body, given for you;and he took the cup and gave it to his disciples, saying, This is my blood, which is poured out for you. The next day, out of love for the world, Jesus died.
Jesus is our brother, jesus is one of us, jesus understand us, jesus knows our questions. While on the cross even he asks God why has he forsaken him.
Communion is our picture – our memory- or crutch to hold onto- our strength to hold onto – in the midst of the answerable questions.
Today we celebrate communion with Christians all over the world. In all types of churches
God has made us his family,
a family that stretches around the world,
a family that is called to love as we have been love,
to forgive as we have been forgiven,
to give as we have been given too.

As we share today in our family meal;
GIVE THANKS to God that we are not alone,
THAT WE HAVE BOTH each other and the Spirit of Christ amongst us,
the Spirit of him who was, who is, and who shall ever be one with us, and
one over us, and one under us, one who truly loves us.

Blessed be God - day by day. Amen

*Portions of this sermon borrowed from a sermon from Rev. Richard J. Fairchild “One with us”