Hi friends! Today concludes our time of study and meditation with Job. As mentioned at the beginning Job is a complex book that presents difficult truths and uncomforting theology about God and how intimately God watches over life. But Job is also one of the most "real" books of the Bible. Life sometimes just sucks, and that's okay. God is still with us even in those moments. If you find yourself in one of life's ruts maybe Job has been healing for you. As we conclude this wonderful book today - I'd love to know your thoughts on it!
Scripture to Read
Audio Bible
Questions to Consider
What does this teach me about God?
What does this teach me about humanity?
Why was God "pleased" with Job at the end and upset at the friends?
- My Thoughts -
So we come to the dramatic and final moments of Job. God continues to pound Job into the ground with questions and Job finally admits he was wrong. God blesses Job and then turns His fist-o-doom to Job's friends. What was the difference between the two? Honestly, I'm not 100% sure without doing more meditation on it. Perhaps it was because the friends spoke with such confidence about God that they too were "sure" who God is. Each day of these blogs I open the question to consider section with "what does this teach me about God", and my hope is that each day your list of "who" God is has become increasingly long and more confusing. God is ruler, yet also servant. God is powerful, yet submissive. God is loving, yet complacent with death. Etc. etc. etc. For Job's friends they declared who God really is just as Job declared who God isn't. In those final moments Job admits that no body can truly know who God is and that it is okay to simply experience a different side of God each day as you react to the events around you.
Lent is coming up soon beginning with Ash Wednesday next week. We have a new series we're leading called "Again & Again." Again & Again is slightly tongue in cheek as it calls out the reality that again and again we come to these holy seasons of the church, reading the same stories, hearing the same sermons, doing the same movements, proclaiming the same truth that God lives and darkness is defeated. But is it? Hardly. Racism is as loud as it's always been. Politics is as stupid as it ever will be. The economic divide of who is rich and who is poor is getting way way way too disproportionate, the our technological advancements are moving faster than our workforce can handle, war is still prevalent, and this damned virus won't go away! Again & Again invites us to go deeper than simply "learning" and "proclaiming" God but to experience God through art, meditation, song, and spoken word. It invites us to be like Job...to sit in the darkness until we produce the light. We hope you'll join us. For more information, get the free devotional, and to set reminders for all the services visit www.chagrinfallsumc.org/lent
Prayer
Our prayer today is inspired by hymn number 151 in our United Methodist Hymnal - God Created Heaven and Earth. As always, I encourage you to hum, sing, or pray the words of the hymn.
1
God created heaven and earth
all things perfect brought to birth
God's great power made dark and light, earth revolving day and night
2
Let us praise God's mercy great
all our needs that love await
God who fashions all that lives
to each one a blessing gives
4
But God's grace beyond compare
saves us all from deaths despair
so earth's creatures small and great
give thanks for that blessed state
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