God Answers

[Our lessons were Job 38:1-11; Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32; 2 Corinthians 6:1-13; and Mark 4:35-41.]

When we think of Job, we usually think of the cliché, “the patience of Job.” This is from a reference in the Letter of James that was translated that way, but the Greek word used is actually better translated as “endurance” or “persistent.” And, in fact, if you read the Book of Job, you don’t see much patience, but you do see that Job is persistent in his claims that he is suffering undeservedly.

To understand God’s answer to Job, which we hear today, we need to know what the question was. Job’s question emerged from a particular view of the world that was shared by ancient Israel and its neighbors and which sounds very familiar to us today. According to this concept, those who live a good life obedient to God’s commands will be rewarded with good fortune—long life, health, wealth, and other blessings. Conversely, those who sin and disobey God’s commandments will receive misfortune—illness, poverty, and other woes. This legalistic concept, which focused on right and wrong, was thought to be the essence of justice. You got what you deserved; you reaped what you sowed, and so on. When inevitable tragedy struck, people would console themselves in the belief that the outcome is just and that the victims must have deserved the “punishment” in some way.

Before we get too pleased with ourselves for being far more advanced than that, we would do well to recall some comments after recent disasters. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, the late Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson said that the attacks were God’s punishment for what they perceived as our nation’s failings. Similarly, after hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast four years ago, some said that the devastation was punishment for the decadence of New Orleans. One anti-abortion activist even claimed to have seen the image of an 8-week-old fetus in the satellite picture of the hurricane!

To Job, the suffering he endures—his flocks stolen, his servants murdered, his children killed, his health ruined, his home destroyed—makes no sense. Job knows that he has not sinned or disobeyed God—and still he suffers. His framework of the world—a world of clearly-defined right and wrong—has failed him, but he holds on to it the more tightly as the only thing left standing between him and the chaos of the world.

We are a lot like Job. When tragedy strikes, we often seek to discover what the victim did that might have caused it. Sometimes there are benefits to that approach, but frequently we seem to be seeking for something the victim did wrong, as if to be able to say, “See, he deserved it!” If you look at the stories of traffic accidents or shootings on the web sites of our local TV stations or newspaper and scroll down to the comments people post, you’ll see what I mean.

To a large degree, this is understandable. We like to believe that we are in control of our destiny. If we do good, good will be done to us. While we know, at least at an intellectual level, that it doesn’t always work out that way, we—as did Job—instinctively hold this up as a shield against chaos.

Job even sought a legal solution to the failing of his legal framework. He challenged God to a legal hearing, certain that if he can just get his day in court, he will be vindicated, justice will prevail and chaos tamed. Job demands to know why he, an innocent man, must suffer: “Let the Almighty answer me!” Job’s question is of course our own.

God’s response is to describe the greatness of creation. God doesn’t answer as a lawyer or a judge, but as a poet. God doesn’t correct Job or teach him a lesson, but instead shows him the Divine glory. The chaos which Job wants to hold off is a part of God’s creation, too. But God never really tells Job why he has suffered. As Barbara Brown Taylor has written

Job’s question was about justice. God’s answer is about omnipotence, and, as far as I know, that is the only answer human beings have ever gotten about why things happen the way they do. God only knows. And none of us is God.

Job comes to understand that despite the existence of chaos, the world does rest on a secure foundation. God will support and sustain his people in times of pain and loss. Job may not have gotten an answer to his question, but he has received a revelation—he has seen the Divine and lived.

Like Job, we long for answers. But for us, the content of God’s answer to Job is not nearly as important as this simple fact: God answers. The chaos is still there, as it was for the storm-tossed disciples in our Gospel reading today, but so is God. And that is enough. In the tempest of life, God comes to us to speak of peace. He is the Crucified and Risen Lord who is with us in storm and calm, when we have all the answers and when all we have are unanswered questions.