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July 26, 2009 The Patience of JobAs many of you know, I had surgery on my back ten weeks ago, a spinal fusion of two lumbar vertebrae. I am doing very well and am encouraged that I will have the hoped for successful result. During the healing process, I have been wearing a back brace, and I cannot bend, lift, or twist. These restrictions, naturally, have interfered with daily living, and I strongly believe that I drop things twice as often as I did prior to my surgery. As I fumble to try to retrieve these dropped items in a creative and successful way, I must admit to losing my patience from time to time. Reminding myself that patience is a virtue, I take a deep breath and try to look at my situation with a fresh attitude; sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t. I have been thinking a lot about patience lately, and how we all expect a quick fix for many of our problems. For example, we all want the economy to get better over night when it took years to get into this bleak condition. So for this morning, I thought a good look at patience might be helpful for me and, I hope, for you too. There are many times in life when we are called to have patience – patience with ourselves during a healing process such as with surgery, illnesses, or grief from the loss of a loved one; patience with others such as young children, spouses, co-workers, or people with special needs; patience with circumstances that are beyond our control such as the loss of one of our bodily functions, the loss of a job or the loss of our financial stability. The Webster Dictionary defines patience as “ the quality or habit of enduring without complaint; the exercise of sustained endurance and perseverance; forbearance toward the faults or infirmities of others; tranquil waiting or expectation.” The Bible uses the word endurance instead of patience in many translations. For example, the King James version uses ‘patience’ more frequently, whereas the Revised Standard Version seems to favor the word ‘endurance.’ Many times, especially in Paul’s letters, the two words stand together, calling us to practice ‘patient endurance.’ With the presence of the word endurance, we can assume that there may be a certain amount of suffering or discomfort involved with our call to have patience, and this virtue might be needed for lengthy period of time. Patient endurance requires a certain amount of acceptance of the situation, faith in God to be by our side, and hope that the situation will be relieved – so acceptance, faith, and hope. Some situations such as dealing with temper tantrums of young children, we can say, hopefully, that the children will outgrow it, and that brings comfort to the parents and caregivers. But when it comes to the loss of sight or hearing, or the loss of a job, or the loss of a loved one, patient endurance is not an easy virtue to manage day in and day out. We have heard the saying that a patient person has the ‘patience of Job.’ Today we are going to take a look at Job and see what we can learn about patience. What makes Job the quintessential man of patience? The Book of Job is part of the wisdom literature in the Bible. Written sometime during the 6th century B.C., the setting of the book takes place much earlier, about 2000 B.C. and resembles several ancient Egyptian texts written during that period of time and later. Each of these texts, like Job, explores divine justice or what we call ‘theodicy.’ How does God’s justice work? Is it anything that we can count on? Can we count on a reward for good behavior and punishment for poor behavior? And how do we reconcile undeserved suffering with God’s justice? In other words, how do we justify when bad things happen to good people? These questions and more are tackled in the Book of Job. Beautifully written as an elevated folktale, we learn that Job was a prominent, wealthy man in his community. He had a large family, a lot of land with a lot of livestock and servants. He was righteous before God, attending to all of the many sacrifices and rituals that were required of a man of his standing. He was known widely and admired for his integrity. The story begins with an encounter between God and Satan. Satan in the story serves as an imperial spy; he has not yet fallen totally from grace, but he is on the road to becoming the evil agent that we know in subsequent biblical stories. God brags to Satan about the righteousness of Job, that there is no one on earth like him. Satan retorts that of course Job is righteous, he lives a perfectly easy life of wealth and good living. Satan goes on to challenge God saying if everything was taken away from Job, he would curse you like others in the same situation. God gives Satan permission to put Job to the test. His children are kidnapped, his animals and servants are killed in one natural disaster after another, and he loses his house in a whirlwind. After all of this, Job tears his robe and shaves his head, and falls to the ground worshipping God saying, “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.” Unsatisfied, Satan strikes again, this time Job is covered from head to toe with terrible sores, so badly that he is not recognizable. Job’s wife says to him, “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die.” Job responds, “ Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad [as well]?” Several days later three of Job’s friends, hearing about his calamity, came and sat seven days with Job in silence; no one said a word. After the week of silence, Job opens his mouth and curses the day he was born. He has had enough. This cursing begins a very lengthy dialogue between Job and his three friends as they try to make sense of Job’s horrible situation and loss. One friend says that Job must have sinned, and he is being disciplined by God. Another friend says that Job must repent, that God punishes only the wicked. To which Job replies that the wicked often go unpunished, and yet he is righteous before God, and yet he has been afflicted in the worse way. The dialogue goes on for many chapters, wherein Job continuously defends his righteousness and challenges God to inform him on why he is suffering so unjustly. As in a trial case, Job confesses his innocence in all facets of his life, and demands an explanation or an indictment from God. He feels as if God is not listening to his case, because if God was listening, Job is certain that he would be restored. Finally a fourth friend comes for a visit, a younger man named Elihu. He rebukes Job’s friends for declaring that Job must be in the wrong for this calamity to have happened. Elihu rebukes Job for his self-righteousness, and reminds all of them that God is just and worthy of our worship. Elihu asks how can mere mortals even begin to understand the justice of God. God is all powerful, and we are not worthy to question God’s ways. We simply need to accept them. After this speech, the great creator God comes to Job and reiterates what Elihu had already stated. Job is deeply humbled and repents by saying, “I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted…. Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things to wonderful for me, which I did not know… I had heard you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you; therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” In the end, God forgives Job and restores all of his property and his family and grants him a life that is better than the one before the calamity. Job died at the very old age of 140 – twice as long as the average life in those days. In looking at this story from the perspective of patience, I see Job having incredible patience and tolerance for the first week, and then, very understandably, he begins to ask why? Why has this happened to him, when he has been so faithful and so righteous? How does God’s justice work? Where is the reward for righteous behavior? How are we suppose to practice ‘patient endurance’ in this seemingly unjust world? And where is God in all of this? Is God simply an inactive bystander? It seems to me that these are reasonable questions, and questions that we all have probably asked at some point in our life. Is Job’s questioning of God a loss of patience? I don’t think so. In questioning God, in trying to understand, we are actually practicing our faith, because we are interacting with God in a personal way; we are in an active relationship with God. In the story, God does not answer Job’s questions, at least not in a satisfactory way; we never learn how God’s justice works, or why bad things happen to good people; we simply have to accept that they do. But we do learn that God is listening. God does care, and God is with us always. In Psalm 73, the Psalmist reiterates this point. Listen to these words: When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in the heart, I was stupid and ignorant; I was like a brute beast toward you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me with honor. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For me, this beautiful Psalm captures the essence of patience itself: acceptance, faith in God, and hope for the future. If we turn to Paul’s letter to the Romans, Paul reminds us that patient endurance produces character, or we should say strength in character, and this strength gives us hope, and this hope in God will not disappoint us, because the Holy Spirit has been poured into us and will sustain us through all of our problems. Practicing patience through hard times does strengthen our character and makes it easier to endure through the long haul. It doesn’t mean that there won’t be some hard days, or some days that it simply does not make any sense, but practicing patience makes us stronger, and I believe more tolerant. In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, Paul adds one more dimension to our call for patient endurance. He writes, “May you be strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to God.” So here Paul wants us to practice patience and be joyful at the same time. Recall that the dictionary said patience was the quality or habit of enduring ‘without complaint.’ Paul elevates this concept -- to endure ‘while joyfully giving thanks to God.’ A tall order. We saw an example of this in our story of Job when he says after he lost his family and property, “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.” Many times in the lessons of the Bible, we are challenged to live our lives in ways that are nearly impossible to achieve, such as enduring hardship joyfully and loving our neighbor, which also includes loving our enemies as well. Having patience is hard enough especially when it includes suffering and a long length of time, and now we are called to have patience with thanksgiving to God. I have witnessed this joyful patience when I am in Haiti, one of the capitals of ‘patient endurance.’ Not with all people, but with many, more than you would believe. People who have nothing – a house that is a metal shack with no plumbing, no electricity, and an open pit for a kitchen; people who have little food, no healthcare, little clean water, no money to put their children through school, no prospect of an improved life, and yet I have witnessed such joy as they praise God in their worship services and daily lives. It humbles me greatly to witness their strong faith. Their joy comes from their ardent belief that Jesus is with them, and he will deliver them to God in heaven after this miserable life on earth is over. “Patience, patience,” they tell themselves, “Jesus is with us, Jesus is with us.” Their patient endurance is founded in the afterlife, not in this life and that is enough for them. We are each called to have patience in our life’s struggles, but it is difficult. Does patience come easier, say for the Haitians, who never have had the so-called ‘good life’? Or is it more difficult for someone like Job who had everything and suddenly it was taken away? I am not sure, but my guess is that patience under duress is difficult no matter what the circumstances. What are we to take from this sermon that would be helpful? First of all, we need to accept our situation and know in our heart, that unlike the story of Job, God does not want these afflictions to happen to us. God is a God of love and compassion. God is on our side. Second, that God is with us through all of the trials in life. God is listening. Third, that we look to God for our hope in the future, because in the end, it will all be good. That is our promise. Fourth, we strive to accept our situation, have faith, and hope for the future in a joyful way. Knowing that some days it simply may not work, but we will strive. And finally, to remember the psalmists words in the 73rd Psalm: Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me with honor. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Amen
The Rev. Rebecca Crosby First Congregational Church of Old Lyme
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