Daily Lesson for September 4, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Job chapter 12 verses 1 through 12:

Then Job answered: 

3 But I would speak to the Almighty,

   and I desire to argue my case with God. 

4 As for you, you whitewash with lies;

   all of you are worthless physicians.

5 If you would only keep silent,

   that would be your wisdom! 

6 Hear now my reasoning,

   and listen to the pleadings of my lips. 

7 Will you speak falsely for God,

   and speak deceitfully for him? 

8 Will you show partiality towards him,

   will you plead the case for God? 

9 Will it be well with you when he searches you out?

   Or can you deceive him, as one person deceives another? 

10 He will surely rebuke you

   if in secret you show partiality. 

11 Will not his majesty terrify you,

   and the dread of him fall upon you? 

12 Your maxims are proverbs of ashes,

   your defences are defences of clay.

Job speaks to his friends. They have come with easy answers and glib proverbs.  Their theology, predicated on the defense of God, requires the condemnation of the Job. The tautology goes like this: A good God wouldn’t let bad things happen to good people. Bad things have befallen Job. Therefore Job must be bad.

Job courageously speaks up. He refuses to have his travails moralized. He refuses to accept friends’ condemnation. Suffering though he is; he refuses to be doubly victimized by shaming. Job shows agency even in illness. He speaks up for himself and for all others who suffer.

In her book “Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved” Duke Divinity School Professor Kate Bowler describes her journey as a scholar of prosperity religion who at age 35 and with a young child is suddenly stricken with Stage IV cancer. Bowler reflects upon our human need to make sense of what is truly a very senseless thing, our desire to put language of control to things which are absolutely beyond our control, and to equate wellness with goodness and vice versa. 

In one articulate and very poignant paragraph she writes:

“What would it mean for Christians to give up that little piece of the American Dream that says, ‘You are limitless’? Everything is not possible. The mighty kingdom of God is not yet here. What if 'rich' did not have to mean 'wealthy', and 'whole' did not have to mean 'healed'? What if being the people of "the gospel" meant that we are simply people with good news? God is here. We are loved. It is enough.”

Bowler speaks with the courage of Job, calling into question the many assumptions our culture buys into when it comes to health and wealth, prosperity, and who and where God is.

Both Bowler’s book and also the book of Job teach us that contrary to the assumptions of our prosperity religion, God truly is with the suffering. God is found in the suffering. God’s intent is to make the suffering “whole”.

“God is here. We are loved. It is enough.”  

Nothing more is needed. Not one more glib word is needed. 

It is enough.