Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one! – Job 14:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 25, 2012): Job 14

Nothing is pure. Everything that we can know has a measure of impurity inside of it. That which we call pure simply has the least amount of impurity in it. But it isn’t pure, no matter how hard we try to remove the offending contaminates. Everything around us has a measure of impurity to it. It is not that we don’t try, but we just can’t do it.

A pure evaluation of our relationships is just as impossible. It always amazes me in the middle of our conflicts that we think we know what is going on. I am finding out that we very seldom actually do. We interpret actions and motives and try to come up with as good a picture of what is happening that we can, but it is impossible to know everything and so our decisions are often filled with error. And when we react, we often intensify the error.

And if purity isn’t possible in the physical world and the world of our relationships, it is even less possible in the world of our intellect and beliefs. We sometimes think that what we believe is pure, but it never really is. Even the way that we interpret the bible is changed by the impurities of this world. And this is one of the reasons that God has placed us in faith communities. It is there that we get to struggle through (and we should struggle) some of the things that we believe. It is there that we our beliefs are challenged in an effort to get to the truth. It is there that we can support and love each other – and help each other understand.

And that was exactly what Job needed at this point in his life. Job stood in need of a community to challenge him, and a God who was willing to help him find the truth. And while it is easy to look at the conversation between Job and his friends and consider the friends to be the voices that remove all hope, on one level they are actually providing him the challenge that he needs.

We really need each other - we were created for community. In fact, it is inside of community that we reflect the very image of God - God exists in community in the Trinity. So we are created for community – and God has extended his community to include us. It is only there that we can experience the truth.

The community comes together one more time. Come, let us worship.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 15