Harris Athanasiadis November 15, WHY DO YOU WORSHIP GOD? Job 1. Why do you worship God? Is it for something or is it for nothing?

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1 Harris Athanasiadis November 15, 2015 WHY DO YOU WORSHIP GOD? Job 1 Why do you worship God? Is it for something or is it for nothing? We live in a world where people rarely do anything for nothing. We expect something in return for what we give and what we do. Whether we pay for some service, buy something, give of our time or talent We expect some kind of return. If we are disappointed, we will protest. Our world is contractual and conditional and our relationships are often that way too. Everything has some kind of price or value. Even when we re not explicit about it, let us not receive what we expect and someone will hear about it. The alternative to not protesting overtly is to suffer resentment or bitterness quietly. Doing something with conditions it s how we operate in our world. The problem is when this kind of relating is applied in our relationships. Contracts and conditions can protect us from being abused and taken advantage of. Contracts and conditions give us clarity as to what we can and should expect. Contracts and conditions provide standards and measures of conduct, quality and service. But when do contracts and conditions become an obstacle? There is a whole other level of relationship that requires we leave aside any thought of contract and conditions. It s all about love. And love requires trust and it requires freedom. Love has to be freely chosen and freely given for it to be love. It can t be a matter of duty. It has to arise freely from the heart and giving has to become a joy, a passion and a source of fulfillment at a level conditional or contractual relationships can never reach. But there is also trust. Trust replaces contracts and conditions. Trust means that I give myself to you and I serve you without any contract or condition. If and when you give back to me, it is a gift and my response is gratitude. Whatever is freely given and freely received is a gift and gratitude is the only fitting response. There are no contracts or specified conditions that make you do it. This is also the beginning of genuine friendship and connection. When this giving and receiving keeps developing and growing between us, even when there are ups and downs and we have to work through disagreements, then the relationship grows deeper and more fulfilling. But what happens when we feel betrayed, hurt or let down in the giving or receiving? What happens when we feel we are being taken advantage of or there is an imbalance between what we put into the relationship and what we get out of it? What happens when the love in

2 us diminishes or dies? Something has to change for the love to come alive again, or else we live with resentment, or else we have to cut off and move on. And this brings us to the story of Job. What is God communicating to us through this story? What in it convicts us, challenges us, and opens a door for us to walk through and be transformed in the way we live and love? Well, like the bible as a whole, we are summoned to see our relationship with God as the basis for all our relationships in the world. How our connection with God moves and flows will shape how we move and flow in our relationships in the world. And to shine the light on this and lead us forward we have a story of a man who goes through an incredible journey from life to death to a new life that is very different than the old life. He is no longer the same. He can t be. The loss, suffering and trauma live in him. Yet, in the midst of that, he is opened up to healing and transforming streams of new life he never knew or experienced before. And all of this is connected directly to the kind of understanding of God and relationship with God Job has. The changes in Job are tied directly to the changes in his relationship with God. And that s why you and I are here in church today. Unlike people out there who try to find abundance, peace, meaning and direction through different means, we do so by reflecting on our relationship with God. We believe that if this primal relationship is moving in good ways, all our other relationships will find a better direction and fulfilment as well. Let s see The story begins by describing a man who is wealthy, successful and good. If anyone is deserving of his wealth and success it is Job. He worships God faithfully, treats his family and his employees well, and he is generous toward others in a time and a place where there is no social safety net. But then, tragedy strikes and it strikes fast and hard. Job loses everything of value to him. It begins with his family, his possessions and his wealth. It s all gone. What happens now? Will Job continue to worship and praise God? Satan, who represents the cynical, questioning side of the heavenly council is the voice of darker thoughts and questions. Does Job fear God for nothing? Does Job worship God and trust God regardless of what concrete benefits or advantages he can get out of it? Is Job s relationship with God based on a foundation of love beyond conditions and contracts? His suffering will certainly test that. And to add insult to injury, Job loses his health as well, having to contend with a chronic, skin disease. So how does Job respond to all this? Will his faith in God survive this test? Well, this story, like the biblical story as a whole, follows a familiar pattern: life, death and then new life or resurrection. It s not about Job s faith surviving in the end. It s about Job s faith changing. Either his faith is going to change and grow as he has to deal with new realities in his life, or it will die.

3 And this is the same for you and me. Life happens and is happening to us all the time. If God is going to be a meaningful factor in our lives, either our faith will change and grow, or else it will be marginalized to the background of our lives or die out altogether So, what can Job teach us and inspire in us? Let s look at his response to what s happened to him and how this changes his relationship with God. 1) Job s first response is to take what s happened and to accept it: Naked I came from my mother s womb, and naked shall I return there: the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord. Wow! Either Job has really not absorbed what s happened, or he has found a profoundly solid foundation for faith in God regardless of what s thrown on his lap. But here s the thing. His belief is that God holds the strings. God is in control. Whatever happens, happens because God gives the green light. It is the Lord that has given and the Lord that has taken away. But what about all the injustice and unfairness? What about the loss of life before its time? What kind of a job is God doing if God is in control? 2) This brings us to response number two. Job s wife is asking the hard questions. Her response, unlike Job, is not just to accept things but to protest the way things are. Do you still persist, in some imagined integrity? she asks Job. Curse God, and die. Then maybe you ll find a different kind of peace. But Job refuses to listen to this kind of advice. He says this: shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not the bad? And so, Job acknowledges not only that God has taken something precious away from him, but that it is bad what s happened. Just because God is doing it doesn t mean it s good. It s awful and God is responsible if God is in control. But whereas his wife wants to curse God for it and to hell with the consequences for herself, Job wants to hold on to his faith regardless of what happens. He will submit to God no matter what he gets back. 3) And this leads to a further response we ll call number three. And this response arises in Job after some close friends have come and shared compassion with Job sitting with him in silent grief for seven days. Seven long days of silence with companions is what it takes for Job to get in touch with something else in him deeper than his acceptance. Clearly his acceptance was only a surface acceptance. His emotions and his deeper feelings were numbed into the background. Love and compassion shown him brings his deeper feelings to the surface. And these feelings are bitter outrage at the injustice of it all. Job begins to see his life and the world from a whole other angle. How many people suffer regardless of what they deserve and how many people get away with murder and do well even when they deserve a lot worse. All the unfairness in misfortune and pain as it falls unevenly on people. Job sees it now. If God has done this to Job God has some explaining to do. Job s singular, passionate wish is for God to speak up.

4 But here s the thing, unlike his wife who has given up on God and with good reason, Job goes another direction. He gets in touch with deeper feelings in himself and a deeper honesty about life as it is. He will speak it to God and engage God rather than turn away. God will not get off so easy. At this point, Job s friends turn against him. How could he speak so disrespectfully to God? Does he want worse things to happen to him? Instead of raging at God Job should humble himself in repentance and ask God to forgive him. Bad things don t just happen out of the blue. There has to be a reason behind it. God is in control. For such terrible things to have happened to Job beyond the ordinary, Job must be at fault somewhere. But Job will not compromise his integrity. The same integrity that allowed him to initially accept what happened from God s hand unconditionally, is the same integrity that has gone deeper down in his feelings to erupt in honest and heartfelt protest. Something has to change. Either Job will continue to rage against God and remain at odds with God for all the injustice and suffering in the world, or else, his understanding of God and his relationship with God has to change. There is no other way for Job. Well, this brings us to the last part of Job s journey. Remarkably, unexpectedly, out of the blue, it seems, as a gift from beyond, Job hears God speak. God is no longer silent or absent. God speaks. And what God says changes everything for Job. Many of his questions aren t answered. Some questions remain why questions without an answer. But Job s relationship with God and Job s understanding of God totally changes and that provides Job with everything he needs to move forward into new life. In the last chapters of Job, God finally speaks and Job finally hears God speaking. So what does God say and what does Job hear? First of all, he becomes aware that the world is much bigger than him and his own problems. The world is far more vast and complex. We can t make simple equations between what happens to us and some great power pulling the strings above it all. For the greatest creatures in the world to the natural forces all around us, things ebb and flow with a current and a freedom beyond anything to do with us. This can make us afraid. Who wants to live in a world we cannot control? On the other hand, such a realization can make us more humble and compassionate. The world doesn t revolve around us, our importance or our needs. To come to this place of humble gratitude is to be liberated from the burden and anxiety of having to be in control. Yes, bad stuff happens and can happen any time. But there is beauty and grace and opportunities to enjoy and rejoice. Getting out of the cycle of contractual and conditional relating with the life around us liberates us to just be and to just love, through the pain, sometimes when it is loss that falls on our laps rather than newness. It s part of the journey. And if we ever want to be in the best position to receive the fullness love has to offer, humble gratitude and openness is the best place to be spiritually.

5 Second, though, Job is not simply left in a helpless, passive state. His newfound humility before God s vastness and his newfound understanding that it s not all about him what s happened, but just is leads to new opportunities for him to choose life. To choose life is to choose how we relate to others, even those who have wounded us. Job s healing journey is not just about humble gratitude, but about finding a place in his heart out of which he can forgive his so-called friends who have wounded him deeply with their accusations and attacks. Their traditional view of God is wrong. Things don t happen because God holds the strings. God creates life and such life is so vast and complex that it is not controlled or conditioned by what we do or don t do. Our vulnerability as creatures means sometimes bad stuff falls upon us and other times good stuff. But how we are inspired to respond and live is something we can choose if there is the spiritual empowerment and transformation is us to move so. God invites Job in his heart to forgive his friends. If Job does so, his friends will also be reconciled to God. Job has the power because it is the power of God s love that courses through him. By doing good and by freely choosing to love his friends beyond what they deserve, Job is also finding his own resurrection. Now Job is open to experience life as a blessing amidst all the loss he has suffered. How about you, your life, your history, and your relationships? Are you too stuck in a conditional way of thinking so that you feel your giving has to involve a receiving to match it? Have you experienced the freedom and the trust of love? Have you given your heart without thought to what you would receive and have you received what you have received in gratitude for the gift it is? Have you found a way to let go and let be and move with the flow in a world where many things are not in our control? Have you found a way to forgive and to reach out in compassion in a world where bad stuff happens to us and to others all the time? May God find you and may you find God not as a micromanager controlling all that happens, but as the resurrecting power of love you tap into regularly, moving through you and changing your life and the life of others through you; Amen.