“Surely he will have no respite from his craving; he cannot save himself by his treasure. – Job 20:20

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 31, 2012): Job 20

I actually remember when the price of gasoline was less than a dollar a gallon. It was a time when saying that you were going to put in five dollars worth of gas in your car actually meant something. As a kid, I actually remember when the price of comic books went from ten cents to twelve cents. I can also remember raking leaves for a quarter and being able to buy a bag of chips and a pop with my earnings. I felt like I was independently wealthy if I actually had dollar bills in my wallet. Now, it is hard to imagine that such a time actually existed. It is beyond our imagination.

Of course, the prices of products were down, but so were wages. This is partially why saving for retirement is so hard (and very necessary.) The problem arises because we need to save for things that we will need to buy tomorrow with the money we have earned today. What it costs us to live today is just a fraction of what it will probably cost us to live when we retire. And so we begin our chase after more.

Andy Stanley says that we live in the kingdom of Er. And because Er is a comparative place, it is not a place where we will ever be satisfied. In the land of Er, our only desires are to be thinner, stronger, and richer. And because it is comparative, there is no way that we will ever arrive. So in the end, our lives just end up sadder. Our cravings just increase. We need more and really have no way to get it.

It is the mystery of economics that I don’t think we really understand. Economics are cyclic. We want to earn more money, but the prices have to be raised in order to pay for our higher wages. So we make more money and we pay more for the products we buy. None of us are really better off because of our higher wages. Our only real hope is that our wage will keep pace with inflation – inflation largely caused by our need to earn more.

It is the challenge that Zophar addresses. If we allow ourselves to be driven by greed, it is our cravings that will be our downfall in the end. We will never be able to have enough. Living in the land of Er never has a happy ending. The secret to life is being happy right where we are.  After all, we live our entire lives in the here and now.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 21

If it is true that I have gone astray, my error remains my concern alone. – Job 19:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 30, 2012): Job 19

In the mid 1970’s, Bachman Turner Overdrive released their hit song “Looking Out for Number One.” It was a song that caused a little bit of a stir in my family. Then I was a teenager and there was a continuing discussion in my family over the music that I listened to. So, it was my job to present the bands that I wanted to listen to in the best possible light. And for a long time BTO had been fairly easy to promote. They always seemed to place themselves in a light that my parents could understand – until they released “Looking Out for Number One.”

The problem was that the song reflected a selfish outlook on life. The message was that my main emphasis should be on me – my success and my dreams. And, while I do hear that inside the church, it has never been a Christian belief. Repeatedly we are taught and we believe in the importance of the “other.”  It is one of the mantras of the Bible, that we were created for community.

In our society, we place so much emphasis on the individual that I think we often forget how interconnected we really are. We have been taught that our success belongs solely to us, even though thousands of people fail miserably at the task of being successful through no real fault of their own. And we believe that our failure is only ours, even though we see the pain caused to people around us every day because we have messed up.

And Job falls into the same trap that we do. His assertion is that if he is wrong (and he really doesn’t believe that he is) his error isn’t hurting anyone else. His sin is private and it is his concern alone. He is the only one that is suffering the pain of his sin and so his friends should mind their own business.

It is something that we try to convince ourselves of – that my error and my sin only hurt me. We even have a category of offenses that we like to pretend are victimless. But the truth is something a little different. Our sin affects everyone. For Job, his pain is affecting his friends as they try to figure out the reasons why. Jobs struggle, and his error, has become a teaching time - not just for Job, but for his group of friends as well.

The ugly truth that I have to come to terms with is that my sin is never just my sin – my sin and my error has an effect on the community that gathers around me. There is no such thing as a private concern. And all of our struggles are also a teaching time that God can use, not just for us, but for the community around us. And I know that idea scares us, but it is part of the community of which we are a part – and the encouragement that we can provide for each other.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 20

When will you end these speeches? Be sensible, and then we can talk. – Job 18:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 29, 2012): Job 18

I sometimes wonder when we will stop talking about the things that we seem to like to talk about. I am going to get in trouble here, and I recognize that I am not an American – and I don’t really want to reveal my political leanings - but I have to admit that sometimes I don’t get it. People that call themselves followers of Christ preaching hate for a person or a racial group – or even a President. Now before someone accuses me of thinking it is different on my side of the border, It happens in Canada too. Just ask someone in the west how they feel about the Bloc Quebecois – or anybody from the east about how they feel about Alberta. And so we make speeches, or Facebook entries, or tweets from our Twitter accounts – and sometimes I just want to scream – STOP. Can we just listen to what it is that we are saying. Is this really what we believe? Or are we just making speeches of words that sound good and will get our emotions going and our supporters riled up for the next round of the fight.

It is the point in the conversation that Bildad has come to. So far everyone is making speeches (and there are a lot more speeches still to come), but Bildad wants to urge caution. His question is this - “what is it that we really believe? And where is it that we should go from here?

And while this speech (and yes it is still a speech) has a great beginning, it will also begins to degrade itself. Bildad soon starts to reveal with his mouth the rational belief system which will later get the whole group of men in trouble with God.

But, even though I may not agree with where Bildad takes the conversation, it is still a good question. What do you believe? For me, and I can only really answer this question for myself, believe that my God is a God of love. That is his main attribute. So, if I am trying to reflect him, everything that flows out of me needs to reflect that basic belief in love. And the truth is that if those of us who call ourselves followers of Christ could just master that one thing, our world would be changed. If we could have just learned to love, it wouldn’t have taken us so long to get rid of slavery, to recognize the equality between the sexes and between the races - and wars would be a lot harder to fight

.

And, it would change the face of politics all over what we call the Western world. But, maybe that is a change that we need to consider. Maybe it is time to stop making the speeches and just start talking to each other – and listening to each other.

  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 19

My days have passed, my plans are shattered, and so are the desires of my heart. – Job 17:11

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 28, 2012): Job 17

In the movie “Spiderman II” there is this poignant moment where Peter Parker turns his back on his Spiderman persona. He decides that his life is more important, things have been slipping, and because of his absence, Mary Jane, the only girl that Peter ever loved is getting married. And it is all too much for Peter. His life is more important, and he believes that he deserves to have a life, and for that to happen, Spiderman must die.

Of course, it was the same decision that Peter Parker had made at the beginning of the saga. Peter thought that what he wanted was more important than striving for right and against wrong. And because of that decision, his Uncle Ben would die – and Spiderman would be born. The struggle between what it is that we want to do and the hard things that simply need to be done because they are right are a big part of the Spiderman ethos. It is the battle that Parker fights from the opening moment until the closing credits.

The myths and comic book stories of my generation are important because they really do tell our story. They show our struggle. And part of the reason why the Spiderman saga is important is because it is about the universal struggle that we all face between doing what we want and doing the right thing. And that question haunts us every day of our lives.

And it was the question that Job seemed to have a handle on for most of his life. It was what God saw in him in the very first chapter of the story. He was a man that just wanted to do what was right. But then he fell into the trap to which we are all susceptible. Doing what was right just wasn’t enough anymore. And so he mourned the days that had passed, the plans that were shattered, and the dreams that had faded into the darkness. And as weird as it might be, centuries later a comic book character in a movie would ask his question, one that he had asked millennia earlier  - “Am I not supposed to have what I want – what I need? What am I supposed to do?”

So, maybe the answer to Job’s dilemma is the same one spidey needed to hear, in this case spoken by Peter’s Aunt May.  “We need a hero, courageous sacrificing people, setting examples for all of us. Everybody loves a hero, people line up for 'em, cheer for them, scream their names, and years later tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one who told them to hold on a second longer. I believe there’s a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble. And finally gets us to die with pride. Even though sometimes we have to be steady and give up the thing we want most, even our dreams.” Job’s dreams weren’t done yet – but he did need a hero to tell him to hang on just a little longer.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 18

I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you. – Job 16:4

Today’s Scripture Readings (March 27, 2012): Job 16

I have a question. Did God know that we would go through the pain that we go through? The most common response to the question is that God did not make the choices that have placed us where we are. And the responses are right. But the question still remains, did God see the decisions that we would make. Did God know when he created Adam and Eve that, in the end, his creation was going to go so wrong?

For me, the answer is no. Oh, I believe that God knew of all of the possibilities, but not which decisions we would make. He created us free, with the ability to choose. And so choose we have. The consequences that we now surround ourselves with are due to the choices we have made. But I know that there are those that would argue with me. For them, all of the decisions that we make were known before the beginning of time. God gave us the freedom to choose, but part of his omniscient character is that he also knew the choices that we would make.

Maybe it is a question that cannot be answered – at least not this side of eternity. But the one thing we do know is that God has called us from the beginning to be the wounded healers. Whether or not God knew that we would go through the struggles that have plagued us, he did - and does - have a purpose for us in the middle of our pain. Because we are the only ones that truly understand the pain that others are going through. It is because of our personal pain that we have the right to speak into someone else’s pain.

And that was the complaint that Job had against his friends. Because they had never gone through the things that Job was now experiencing, they really couldn’t speak into his pain. They just didn’t know what it was that he was going through.

If there is pain in your life, I don’t know if God before the beginning of time knew that you were going to go through it. I do believe that he knew it would be a possibility, but that possibility wasn’t enough for him to want to take away your freedom to choose. But it also does not mean that God does not have a purpose for you. There are Job’s in your life right now that only you have the right to speak to – because you are the one in their circle of friends that share their pain.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 17

Your own mouth condemns you, not mine; your own lips testify against you. – Job 15:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 26, 2012): Job 15

Sometimes I practice what I am going to say. I really don`t mean to, it just happens – especially when I am stressed. I don`t know if it is normal (I admit, I think it might be) but I do know that it isn`t healthy. And I have never had a conversation that I had practiced turn out the way that I thought it might. But I have had conversations that went horribly wrong, all because I had practiced my words.

A number of years ago I received some bad news about a colleague. I knew that I was going to have to talk to some of the people that were acquaintances of both of us. And I was nervous about the meeting. I knew that it was not the best idea to rehearse the conversations that were to come, but I involuntarily started to practice my responses to the questions that anticipated would come up at the meeting. I started to rehearse all of the things that I thought might be said. I said the phrases in my mind with the appropriate righteous indignation. How dare they say those kinds of things against my friend? (Okay, I know that at this point no one had said anything, all of the conversations were still just in my mind.)

Later, I met with another friend, and the negative news came up in the conversation. And somehow I found myself spouting the very words that I had placed in the mouths of my critics. I hadn`t even realized when I was rehearsing the conversations that maybe I held some of the same concerns as I thought the critics would. I was condemned by my own words – words that I had unwittingly already rehearsed.

In our unguarded moments, we often speak the words that come from the core of our being – words that reflect a belief that we hold, one that is affecting our behavior, and we don’t even realize it. Most of us become very practiced at building up walls so that we never have to reveal who we really are. These walls protect the things that we would change if we could. But maybe the path to real change is to simply listen to our unguarded voice, and examine the inward beliefs that it conceals.

     

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 16

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

Keep silent and let me speak; then let come to me what may. – Job 13:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 24, 2012): Job 13

I remember the service. It was held on a Sunday night. And in this church that meant that it was held in a small room in the basement of the church. And one of the common elements of an evening service in this church was a sharing time. It was a time when people just said whatever it was that impacting their soul. On this night, it was a young man named George that had something that needed to be said. And so he stood and slowly spoke the pain that was in his heart. And then he sat down.

After he had spoken his pain the room was filled with an awkward silence. No one quite knew what to say – and I have to admit that deep down I was hoping that the silence would win out. There are times when any answer is simply the wrong. There are times when the only appropriate action that we can take is to listen. And this was just one of those times.

  

I learned very early on that the most important trait necessary in order to be a friend is simply the ability to listen. We all face times when that is all we really need. We don’t really need answers, in fact during those dark times of the soul we know that answers don’t really exist – and whenever someone tries to answer our pain, the answers always seem weak and inadequate – and somehow the words seem disrespectful to our pain. It is in those times that we just want someone to listen.

Job was in the middle of one of the darkest points in his life. Earlier I mentioned that Job’s friends were doing exactly the right thing as they simply sat in silence and listened to him. But the uncontrollable temptation in the middle of the silence is to say something – to break the silence. Often it is really just white noise. We really don’t know what to say, only that the something needs to fill the void created by our silence. It takes a special kind of friend to just let the silence reign.  And for a while Job’s friends seemed to sense that, but then the silence had to be broken.

And so they chipped in their white noise, not really knowing what it was that needed to be said. But now Job reminds them of what is necessary. He doesn’t need their words. He needs their ears. He just needs his friends to listen to him. There are times in all of our lives when that is all that any of us really need.

My hope for you is simply that when you experience your dark night of the soul that you will be lucky enough to find a friend that will simply listen. And when you meet the Georges of your life, I pray that you will have the courage to give your friends your ears instead of your words.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 14

To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his. – Job 12:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 23, 2012): Job 12

Maybe one of the worst things that has happened to us as the “race of man” is that we began to understand. I am not really advocating that we should go back to the dark ages of our knowledge. But there was a time when the answer for us was simple. We understood that things worked the way they did for no other reason than that God had ordained them to work that way – the answer to every question that we had was God.

The downside of a lack of understanding is that we began to act superstitiously. We responded, not out of understanding, but because we hoped that our actions would somehow mysteriously affect the outcome. So we didn’t walk under ladders, not because something might fall off the ladder and hit us on the head, but because walking under ladders was considered to be bad luck. And so were black cats and crossing of their paths.

But, slowly, we began to gain some understanding about how the world around us works. And that understanding brought the idea that we could, if not control at least influence, events through that understanding. And every generation has had their own version of understanding and control. As we stand early in the twenty-first century have greater understanding about our lives than any that have gone before. And yet sometimes it is hard to remember that others have felt the same way about their understanding and now we consider them to be backward and ignorant. And as great as our understanding is today, the time will come when our descendants will consider our understanding to be backward as well. Because the truth is this – we don’t understand this world half as well as we think we do. And the more that we learn about it, the less we really understand.

Job’s friends struggled to find meaning in the events that had happened in the life of their friend. And at best their beliefs were based on superstition. And that is exactly what Job wants to remind his friends of – that the ultimate wisdom and understanding belongs to God. And while our understanding changes from generation to generation – God’s doesn’t. His understanding remains firm throughout all of the events of our lives. And it is his understanding that we can rely on during all of those events.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 13

Oh, how I wish that God would speak, that he would open his lips against you ... – Job 11:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 22, 2012): Job 11

I have to admit that I am very uncomfortable with the churches interpretation with who is in and who is out of the church. One of the foundational beliefs for the Baptist movement (of which I am a part) is the priesthood of all believers. That doesn’t mean that we all fulfill the role of pastor (although I do think we are all pastors in certain situations in our lives), but that we all have equal access to God. I no longer need to go to the priest to have my concerns heard by God. I have access to God’s throne room all by myself. And in that way, I fulfill the role of a priest.

But inside the Baptist Church, the priesthood of all believers has also taken on the connotation that we all have an equal right to read and interpret the Bible for ourselves. And on one level I cheer that idea. But on another level I shrink away from it, because I watched us do exactly that without a generous accepting spirit to the beliefs of others. We believe that our interpretation is truth, and whoever disagrees with us is deceived. And I am not sure that we are right.

Zophar enters the discussion with Job and he says that he wishes that God would speak, because he knows that God would support his (Zophar’s) interpretation of what was going on and would speak out against Job. and we have an advantage that Zophar didn’t have; we know that this part of the Job’s story started with God speaking. But God wasn’t condemning Job (as Zophar had hoped.) God was pleased with Job.

And I wonder if the same thing might be happening with the people that we disagree with. In our pride we think that God is on our side, when in actuality, God is on the other side – or on no side. I know what it is like to be called a heretic. And there are some issues that that judgement might be appropriate. I know that I haven’t struggled as much as I should have on these points. But there are other beliefs that I have sweated over, and prayed about, and the conclusion that I have arrived at might not be right, but it has moved to the core of who I am. And, in those circumstances, when I am called a heretic, it is a word that hurts me to the core of who I am.

If we really believe that God opens the bible and allows all of us to interpret it, I think we need to develop a gracious nature about what others believe. Not that we accept everything, but that we are willing to enter into dialogue with others with an open mind over the issue of beliefs and what the Bible says. Because I also know this, most of what we accept as truth inside of the Christian Faith communities today, started with one heretic that had sweated over an idea and asked the question – what if this is true?

And whenever we call anyone a heretic, we echo the words of Zophar. What we are saying is that we wish that God would speak up and condemn the person we are talking about. But we need to remember in those moments that there is the very real possibility that we are speaking to a Job – someone that God is proud of.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 12

Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? – Job 10:8

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 21, 2012): Job 10

I have a question. Does ownership imply that the owner has authority or responsibility? I have to admit that it is a question that I wrestle with. It is not that I own that much, but I sometimes wonder what it does mean to own anything. For the big ticket items in my life, maybe it is a little of both – or more precisely, the authority element exists (I can sell or dispose of any item I own - any time that I want to), but it is the responsibility side of ownership that I occupies more of my time and on a more daily basis. Acting responsibly with what I own means I am taking positive steps to protect the value of my possessions. But I still am not sure what the primary attribute is – authority because it is the ultimate power to dispose of my property or responsibility because that is the attribute that occupies most of my time.

As far as the Bible is concerned, God holds the ownership papers on all that is. But the Bible does the same balancing act that we do on the idea of ownership. Sometimes I hear a parent joke to an annoying child that “I brought you into the world and I can take you out of it” (at least, I hope that they are joking.) But the words could actually be spoken by God. He created this world and everything that is in it – and at his command he could destroy it.

And yet, that is not his action. Job asks God, “Is now the time that you will destroy me.” And our response is to ask whether it is within the rights of God to do that? And the only answer that I can come up with is – why not? The truth is that we are doing a pretty good job at destroying this world ourselves. But God’s most common response, testified to by the fact that we are still here and the world hasn’t been destroyed, is one of responsibility.

Even within the story of Job, it is God’s responsibility for the world that wins out. The story starts off with Job being bragged about by God to Satan, but by the end of the story there is no one in the story that God is really proud of. But God isn’t about to take anyone out either. His desire is to shape those who are involved in the conversation – his response is responsibility.

God wants to shape us. And that shaping is God taking responsibility for us – his creation.

  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading:  Job 11

Even if I were innocent, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would pronounce me guilty. – Job 9:20

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 20, 2012): Job 9

I admit that I wage a daily battle with my tongue. I have often described Peter as having his mouth in gear while his brain is still in neutral, and it seems that I am continually trying to prove my affinity with him. Too often I seem to come to the end of the day wishing that I hadn’t said something. Daily it seems that words have betrayed me.

We have so many good plans, things that we want to do. We work hard at making a good impression. We work hard at being good people. And yet, we are also haunted by the ghosts of our past actions – and of our words. Our desire is that our good works would cover up for all the ways that we have failed. We dream that the good deeds of our hands would cover over the missteps of our lips. But the truth is something different. Even in the midst of all of the good that we do, there is a smell of death that covers us.

Job compares himself with God, but he seems to be fighting a battle with in himself. There is part of him that wants to proclaim that he is blameless. He has lived a good life. In fact, there is no evidence that he is wrong. Job worked hard to do what was good. And because of the life he had led, even God asks Satan “have you seen my servant, Job?” It is as if God is proud of all that Job had done. And if God was proud of Job, maybe Job had a right to believe that he was blameless before God.

And yet the battle still raged inside. Job knew that there was no way that he could win the comparison. Even if he was as righteous as he thought he might be, he would still be condemned by the words of his own mouth. The whole story of Job is that story. Job is a righteous man of whom God is proud, and yet even he is betrayed by his own words.

No matter how righteous we might think that we are, no matter how hard we work at being good, we still stand in the same place as Job. We know that our words betray us – and that our only hope is that God is willing to come and save us.

And the story of the Gospel is that God is willing. He has come to save.

  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 10


Note: The VantagePoint Sermon "The Price of Following - A Single Minded Obedience" is now available on the VantagePoint Website. You can find it here http://www.vantagepointcc.org/The_Price_of_Following___A_Single_Minded_Obedience.htm

What he trusts in is fragile; what he relies on is a spider’s web. – Job 8:14

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 19, 2012): Job 8

Growing up, I loved to read superhero comic books. Batman, Superman, and Nova were some that I loved to read. But my favorite was Spiderman. I guess I related to Peter Parker in some ways that I probably didn’t realize until I was much older. I was never really a wallflower, but I didn’t enjoy the fight. But I did enjoy – and I still enjoy – the intellectual pursuits that this life has to offer. And yet, at the same time, I also enjoyed the more physical aspects of life. I loved to play football or pickup games of hockey. I liked basketball, but my first reaction on defense was to tackle the ball carrier, and for some reason the rules of basketball seemed to frown on that action. It was like somewhere deep inside of me there was a battle raging – a battle between the intellectual Peter Parker who enjoys the more cerebral activities of life, and the Spiderman persona that enjoys the more physical elements and activities. And at various points in my life, a different aspect of my personality seems to win the battle. Sometimes it is Peter Parker, but at other times it was the Spiderman side of me that prevailed.

In the Spiderman saga, Spiderman is the strong side of the equation. Even his webs are strong, almost unbreakable. He is able to swing from and bind his prey with them. But in real life, Spider webs are inconsequential. I have never been a bug person. And there is nothing worse than walking through a dark space and feeling the spider webs clinging to you as you break through them. It is especially annoying if you don’t know that they are there. But ultimately, the webs of spider are too fragile to cause us harm.

Bildad’s comment is that those that trust in something other than God will find that they are trusting in something that is as fragile as a spider web. It has no hope of holding you up – and all it will ever do is annoy us. But our reality is that we still put our trust in them. In our minds, they are more like Spiderman’s webs than they are like the spider webs of our reality. We believe that they will hold us up, but they won’t.

It is the reality that we need to come to terms with. What we rely on, outside of God, will never be as substantial as we hope. And what we trust to the spider webs of this life will always be in danger of falling. Because the webs of Spiderman exist nowhere outside of the comic books of my youth. 

      

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 9

Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins? For I will soon lie down in the dust; you will search for me, but I will be no more.” – Job 7:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 18, 2012): Job 7

It is the common misconception of Christianity – that belief in God results in an easy life. If we follow God, then we think that our existence will follow an easy path. And when things go wrong in our lives – when we lose that job or our health begins to fail – we think that these things are happening because we have somehow failed God. It is really what we could call “easy beliefism” – the idea that belief is superficial and that it results in an easier life. But that isn’t what God requires of us. God wants all of our beings. He wants, requires, our total surrender. And total surrender historically has meant a life filled with joy, but also a life filled with trials.

Part of the basic message of the book of Job is summed up in this passage – or rather it is the antithesis of this thought. Just because things were not going well for Job didn’t mean that God had refused to listen to Job, or that his offenses and sins had not been forgiven. The trouble that Job was in did not reflect his spiritual reality. And it doesn’t reflect our either.

The promise that God has made us is that our sins will be forgiven – in fact our sins are separated from us as to the farthest or deepest place that we can imagine. We are forgiven, even when we don’t feel forgiven. And sometimes we don’t feel forgiven because we struggle imagining a forgiveness so vast that it would include us.

It is Sunday, the day that we gather for worship. And whatever has happened this week, no matter what the trials are that you have walked through this week, that reality doesn’t sum up your spiritual certainty. God is doing a good work in you. And it is him that we have come to worship.

  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 8


The Sermon "The Price of Following - The Call to Christ" is now available on the VantagePoint Website. You can find it here. http://www.vantagepointcc.org/The_Price_of_Following___The_Call_to_Christ.htm

“What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient? – Job 6:11

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 17, 2012): Job 6

Spring is getting closer. Officially, the first day of spring is only days away. But where I live the actual beginning of flowers and birds and warm weather is a little more distant. No one in my neighbourhood is getting ready to plant their flowers quite yet. The problem is that even if it is warm today (and we are starting to get a few warm days) we have no guarantee that it won’t snow next week. In fact, some of the old timers would tell you that it isn’t really safe enough for most planting until at least the middle of May. And so, even though the calendar might say spring, we are still waiting.

The problem with planting now is that the seed or the young plants just won’t survive the cold that is most likely still to come. And if we spend all of our efforts now, we won’t have anything to show for our effort when summer rolls around. In the words of Job, we won’t have any prospects because the seed we have planted is already dead, and we won’t have any strength, or seed, left for a new planting. And when that happens, all hope is lost. Waiting won’t help. There is nothing left to grow even if the warm weather does come.

And that is the position that Job finds himself in. All the seed in his life has already been planted and the seed now has died leaving him no prospects for the future and no strength to plant more. There was no longer any reason to be patient and there was no reason to have hope. The game had ended – the final bell had already rung.

Except that Job’s hope had never been placed in his own strength and on his own prospects – his hope and his prospects had always been dependant on God’s strength and it was God that he had constantly waited on. And that hadn’t changed. But what Job’s friends had started to do was to transfer Job’s focus from God onto himself. And that was a problem.

We often feel like we have lost both prospects and hope. But that would assume that everything in this life depends on us – and it doesn’t. It depends on God. It always has – and it always will. As long as we can find within ourselves the ability to place our faith on God, we will always have strength and prospects – and hope.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 7

Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple. – Job 5:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 16, 2012): Job 5

We live in a dysfunctional world. Everyone of has suffered a circumstance that has negatively impacted their lives. We didn’t ask for the event to happen. Sometimes it wasn’t even our fault that the event happened (although, if we are honest with ourselves, often it was.) But that doesn’t change the fact that things have happened in our lives that have hurt us – all of us. It is the universal truth of this life. No one is exempt from dysfunction – no matter how good we might look on the outside.

Sometimes it is interesting (or maybe a better word might be distressing) to watch how we react. Too often our response is to hurt ourselves more. We react in anger, and we hold grudges. We compare ourselves to others and wonder why we can’t have what they have. We think that our anger somehow lifts us up and puts them down. We tell ourselves that our reaction is justified. And part of the problem is that it might be, but that fact still doesn’t help. We think we feel better because of our anger. But life doesn’t work that way. All we are really doing is letting the dysfunction win.

And we think that forgiveness is something that we do for others, but the truth is that forgiveness is one of the most selfish things we can do. It is the key to winning the battle against resentment and envy. In the act of forgiveness, we don’t let someone else off the hook. We let ourselves off the hook. We stop paying the debt that someone else owes.

Resentment and anger really are killing us. In our culture, we have a growing list of diseases that we can only blame ourselves for. Our pent up emotions are leaving us mentally, socially and physically crippled. For our own health and the health of our society we need to deal with our resentment, anger and jealousy issues. But as Christians, the effect is even worse. We are losing the ability to even try to act in Christian love to those that are not like us, something that is essential to our character in Christ.

The price we are paying for resentment is just too high. It is time to just say “I forgive” and start the recovery.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 6

Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker? – Job 4:17

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 15, 2012): Job 4

I have grown up in the church. I have a number of great memories of events and relationships that have taken place inside the walls of the church. I have some friends that have had some negative experiences in the past about the church, and much of what they do now inside the walls of the church is a reaction against the negative events that they carry with them from their past. But that is not my story. I haven’t always liked the church, but I do have a lot of good memories, memories that I would not trade for anything, that have to do with the church.

But I also grew up in the Holiness tradition. Holiness movements have long been misunderstood as the belief that we can live perfect lives in our performance. And while that is a misstatement of the beliefs of the Holiness movement (I think a better way of phrasing it is that it is the belief that we can grow toward perfection in love - it is not that we never sin or never make a mistake as we live our lives, but rather that our motivations are gradually changed, through the work of the Holy Spirit, so that the reason that lies behind our behavior is more and more based on love), I understand the reason behind the misstatement. It is so easy for us to look perfect – we clean up well. It is easy to become rule keepers and believe that our keeping of the rules is what makes us holy. But that isn’t reality. We are only made holy by the action of God.

It is the question that Job’s friends begin with when the silence ends. Can we really talk about what you are going through? Because it sounds to us like you have never made a mistake – you have never found yourself in sin. Can we talk about this?

It is so easy, in our defence, for us to sound like we have never done anything to deserve the negatives that seem to come with life. But I think the truth, and maybe the truth that Job misses until the end of his story, is that it more likely that it is the positives in this life that are undeserved by us. Job was a good man, but he was not a perfect man. He had been blessed by God beyond what he deserved. And so are we.

The truth is that our blessings are seldom deserved. And the bad things that happen in life are often deserved, and it is easy to draw the line between our hardships and our own behavior. But, in spite of this, God’s purpose is still to bless.

Job was blessed, not because he was perfect – not because Job was more righteous than God – but because God had desired to give him the blessing. And so are we. No matter what your circumstance today, know that even though you deserve the trial, God still wants to find a way to bless you.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 5

After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. - Job 3:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 14, 2012): Job 3

Everyone has their favorite Christmas movies – the ones that just have to be watched every year as the holiday comes around. At my house those movies would include one of the renditions of Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” (although the one with Alistair Sim in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge is often requested), one of the versions of “Miracle on 34^th Street,” and usually “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

The story of Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” follows the actions of George Bailey on Christmas Eve as he contemplates committing suicide. George’s problem is that he questions whether or not his life has made a difference. And the moral of the story is that we all make a difference – even when we don’t think that we do. In the story, it is an angel named Clarence that shows George the error of his way by showing him an alternate reality where he had never existed. In the end, George realizes the difference that he has made and just wants to go home.

There are maybe a few reasons to want to end your life. In our culture the main reason is pain, but I wonder if the more distressing reason is because of a lack of significance. For George Bailey, it was the significance question that was the forefront of his mind. And I believe that it was for Job as well.

I don’t want to minimize the pain that Job was going through. Just reading through the account of Job’s illness can make you hurt for him. But it isn’t the pain that has brought him to the point of wishing he had never been born. It is that he feels that he has nothing to show for his life. He valued his kids, but they are gone. To a lesser extent he valued his material possessions, but they are gone as well. Everything that he has worked his life to achieve has vanished. It is literally as if he had never lived. And so he wishes that the day he was born was gone as well.

What Job underestimates is the same thing that George Bailey underestimated. Job’s worth was only partially found in the size of his now non-existent bank account and in the presence of the family that he loved. Job had touched the community around him and the friends (even though soon they will begin to say some stupid things) that gathered around him in silence were proof of that community. He had made a difference.

And that is the story of your life. Whether you realize it or not, you are making a difference. The only real question is – what kind of a difference are you making?

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 4

Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was. – Job 2:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 13, 2012): Job 2

One of the things that I don’t like to do is to drive to conferences with someone that I don’t really know in the car. The situation arises periodically – someone needs a ride and I am going anyway – and so we ride together. But as we ride, we need to talk. So we work hard to find things that we can talk about – common experiences, stories from our childhood, or maybe things that we think are important. The conversation isn’t natural, but it is better than the awkward silence that exists without the topics. So the conversation wins out and the silence is beaten to the borders of our consciousness.

The problem is that there are times when conversation just isn’t necessary. There is a time when the silence is appropriate – and there are also times when that silence is essential. But it is only a friend that can recognize those times and also that have the confidence to move through the silence. It is only a friend that can simply be the presence that we need in those dark times of our lives without adding unnecessary words.

Job’s experience with his friends starts off well. They are exactly who he needs them to be. They are the silence in the midst of Job’s grief – their presence without the need to speak is exactly what Job needs, and what his friends were able and willing to give. They knew Job well enough to comfortable in that silence.

Maybe the greatest gift that we can give someone in pain is our presence, without our words. There is only so much that can be said in the dark moments of our lives - and much of it only amounts to the clanging of cymbals. But our presence and silence can speak of how much we really care.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 3

When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom. – Job 1:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 12, 2012): Job 1

There is something about children. I am not sure that the reality of what our kids will mean to us is possible until that first moment when we hold them in our arms. And it is in that moment that the game seems to change for us. It is then that we realize that there is another life that depends on us. Over the years that follow that realization may lessen for periods of time, but it never leaves. But there will also be times when the emotion will come crashing back with all of its intensity.

And the feeling never leaves. I still feel responsible for my kids, even though they are now adults and fully capable of handling life all by themselves. And for our clan, we have continued the expansion now with grandchildren. And the feeling of responsibility also continues even for those who are displaced by a generation. It just seems to be this way.

As a parent, it isn’t hard to understand the heart of Job because his heart is where his kids live. What might seem strange is Dad’s offering of a sacrifice for his kids. And the reason that it might seem strange is because of the high priority we place on the individual in the pursuit of faith. But we need to understand that in the Bible, matters of the faith are always closely connected with the family and the believing community. And here, Job is simply performing a task that would equate with our praying for our kids.

While the book of Job does seem to be about the faith journey of one man – Job - it both starts and ends with a description of the family and of the community. And part of the message is that we aren’t supposed to go through life alone. Family and friends are important – and worthy of our prayers and our sacrifice.

So, have you prayed for your kids today? (And kids, are you praying for your parents?)

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 2

Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. – Genesis 22:8

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 11, 2012): Genesis 22

What is the plan that you have for the rest of your life? What is it that you want to accomplish with the days that you have left? As I got up this morning I had a moment. I was sitting in my office and looking at the bookshelves that sit across from my desk. I wasn’t really looking at the books that were there, but I was thinking of all of the things that I still want to do. I thought about the books that I want to write, the sermons that I want to preach, and the websites that I want to build. And I realized in that moment that I have a lot that I have yet to accomplish. And the question is this – how am I going to get there? There is a second question, one that I don’t like to think of and it is this – how much of what I want to accomplish does God want me to accomplish?

It may surprise you to hear this from me, but I don’t always know where it is that God is going. Let me rephrase that, sometimes it seems that I never know where God is going. In this I am more like Isaac than I am like Abraham. Abraham had an idea of what God was doing. I don’t know whether it was a prophetic moment that he experienced here when he said that God would provide the sacrifice or whether he was just trying to spare Isaac the mental anguish that he would experience if he knew that he was the sacrifice, but the reality is that Abraham had a bit of an idea of what was going on. Isaac, on the other hand, knew none of this. He was simply along for the ride.

And that is the description of me. Often it just feels that I am the one who is just along for the ride. And there might be some that would say that it is because there something wrong inside of me. But I have a different answer. I think it is a way that God teaches me faith.

We need to be able to walk in faith – and that is something that I sometimes struggle with. And so God leaves me like Isaac. I have to learn to submit to his will and direction, even when I don’t understand everything that is going around me.

We are designed to be a people of faith. We trust that God has a plan. But we don’t require that we know everything that will happen. Only that God will provide. And it is the God that will provide that we gather to worship. 

   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 1

Note:  Happy Birthday Dad


Also, the VantagePoint Sermon "The Price of Following - Costly Grace" is now available on the VantagePoint Website. You can find it here. http://www.vantagepointcc.org/The_Price_of_Following___Costly_Grace.htm

… and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.” – Genesis 21:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 10, 2012): Genesis 21

Gifts are strange things. Throughout my childhood I always looked forward to gift times like Christmas or my birthday, but there was always part of me that really didn’t want the day to come. The problem was that often the anticipation of the gifts exceeded the reality – even when I received exactly what I wanted.

Life seems to be like that. Often we seem to want something, but when we actually get it - it doesn’t measure up to what we thought it would be. Sometimes it is just better to live with the anticipation of what might be, than it is to live in the reality of what really is.

And that is exactly the place that Sarah finds herself. It wasn’t that long ago that Sarah sent her servant in to sleep with her husband, Abraham. The custom was that any child that was born to her servant would be hers. Besides, the promise that God had made to Abraham was that he would be the father of many peoples. And so far, Sarah felt that she was letting God down – after all, she hadn’t been able to provide Abraham with even one descendant.

So her idea was Hagar. And in the beginning it had been a good idea. Hagar would give Abraham the son that God said he would have. But not only that, Hagar would give her, Sarah,  a son. And that gift would be worth whatever the cost might be in the long run.

But all of that was before Isaac. And the birth of Isaac changed everything. What had been a good idea was now a bad one. A gift that Sarah thought at one time she had been given had now soured. The reality didn’t lead measure up to the anticipation.

Of course, the gift that Sarah thought she wanted from Hagar was not the gift that God wanted to give to her. He had something much better in mind – something that Sarah couldn’t even imagine. And if she had just waited on God, things would have been much simpler.

And that is the way it is for us as well. The things that God has for us are always better than any gift we could dream up for ourselves.

    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 22

But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.” – Genesis 20:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 9, 2012): Genesis 20

I grew up watching some old T.V. shows, and there seemed to be some recurrent themes. One of them is the idea of a speed trap. Today we think a speed trap is just a place where the police like to wait for speeders because people like to speed there. (By the way, those don’t work for long because once we realize they are there we just speed somewhere else.) The speed trap that I remember from the television shows I watched as a kid were places where speed limit signs were hidden by the branches of the tree or maybe behind a bush or buried in some really tall grass. And, at least in my shows, whenever the driver complains that he didn’t see the sign – that is when the police officer pulls back the bush to reveal that the speed limit sign really was there. Now, that is a speed trap.

But the one thing that never happened in these shows was that the police officer looked astonished at the driver with the words “Oh, you didn’t see the speed limit sign we hid in that long grass over there? Oh, in that case let me tear up the speeding ticket I was writing for you.” No, in these shows the speed limit sign is never an accident – it is planned. And just because you didn’t know the sign was there doesn’t mean that you aren’t guilty of violating the law.

One of the fallacies of our culture is that ignorance means innocence. If I don’t know, then I can’t be held responsible. In the church it is in the belief that either it is better to ask forgiveness rather than permission, or more often in our idea that people aren’t responsible for God’s law if they don’t know what God’s law is. But this verse would seem to argue the reverse.

There is no reason to believe that Abimelech was a believer in the one true God. And he definitely didn’t know that the woman that he was about to sleep with was the wife of Abraham, and yet God still held him responsible. And maybe that is what it means to walk in fear of God. It definitely is the reason we need to keep short accounts with God – and act at the will of his Holy Spirit in us, even when we don’t understand the reason why.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 21

He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of.” – Genesis 19:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 8, 2012): Genesis 19

Culture spreads. A culture is never limited to one place. I am a Canadian – and I am proud to be a Canadian. But as a Canadian I realize how much our culture is a gift from our neighbours to the South. We might try to pretend that it isn’t true, but in reality we are greatly influenced.

Most of the culture spread (although definitely not all) is because of television. And I have to admit that when I was younger I could tell the difference between Canadian and American television in a few minutes of watching a show, but that difference is disappearing. And part of my belief is that the cultural influence that at one point only seemed to travel one way – from the United States into Canada – is now becoming a little more of a two way street. (I would apologize for “Nickleback” but I kind of actually like them – especially their early stuff.)

A couple of months ago I responded to an American friend on Twitter in regard to the political situation in the United States. My intention was to provide encouragement, but that was not the way that my Tweet was understood. My friend thought that I was trying to say that my country was better than his, and his response was that he was tired of British people sticking their collective noses in the business of the United States. Now, I am not British, I am Canadian – and if you want to back further I am Irish – so I am still not too comfortable in being called British. Because the reality is that the Irish part of me seems to rebel against the idea of being British as much as my Canadian identity rebels against the idea of being American, and yet I can’t deny the fact that culture spreads. And the part of me that made me want to respond to my friend from the United States with encouragement was the part of me that realizes that my country is heavily influenced by his. And everything that happens in the United States – politically, economically, even spiritually – will have an effect on my country.

God came to Abraham with a message. The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah has become great. Except that it didn’t just end with Sodom and Gomorrah, because culture spreads. We think we have found the location of Sodom and Gomorrah. The cities are located just off the Southern Coast of the Dead Sea. And so far we have found five of them – all which suffered the same fate at about the same time. It wasn’t just the two cities that were destroyed, but God destroyed at least three others because the culture of the cities had spread.

Evidently, because of Lot’s request at least one town in the area wasn’t destroyed, but the text seems to indicate that if Lot had not intervened it may have been destroyed as well. Culture spreads. And in our global culture, we have long since passed the days when one culture could be destroyed. We are too interconnected. And that means that we need to learn to be like Lot and stand in the gap between our culture and God – that forgiveness would reign where we continually seem to fall short – and we avoid the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 20

When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home. – Genesis 18:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 7, 2012): Genesis 18

A local radio station likes to occasionally play an online game with its listeners. The idea is that you have a chance to win some money. Each time you decide to spin the wheel or roll the dice or take a turn, two situations are possible. Either you add more money (a random amount) to your pot or you lose the game and any accrued winnings you have built up in the game. So to win the game, you want to get as close to that “lose everything” point as you can, but then quit before you lose. The problem is that you never know where the “lose point” is going to be.

To increase the drama, after the contestant decides to quit, they run the game to find out how long the person could have gone before the lose point. Sometimes they quit at just the right moment, but others could have won a lot more money than they finally ended up with, if they had only known when to stop.

Sometimes, as I read this passage, this is what I sense that Abraham is doing. He is playing the game, and at each step he is asking himself the question – do I dare speak up one more time or should I quit now? And the stakes for Abraham were high, higher than they are for any contestant on a radio station game. This was God, the one that holds all of creation in his hand. And with each question, Abraham found himself just a little more out on the limb.

But I have to admit that part of me wonders if God was cheering Abraham on, and maybe that he wanted Abraham to take his questions just a little further. Because when it comes to God’s love, we can never out love – or out forgive – God.

 

No matter what it is that you have done, God still loves you – still forgives you – and is just waiting for any excuse to connect with you and your life. And he is cheering you on, whether you hear those cheers or not.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 19