Proper 23B An argyument with an innocent God. October 13, 2024

 Have you ever wanted to really go at with God? I mean, have a knock down drag out, no holds barred argument where you tell God all the things about your life which you are furious about and then listen to God try to answer you? Where you ask the age old question of God—why do bad things happen to good people?  
Yes? Well, welcome to the Book of Job. This is how this metaphorical story is set up—God and the number one fallen angel of all time—Satan are having their own argument. Satan maintains that all human beings are corruptible. That, given the right amount of heartache, despair and pain any human being will turn their back on their faith and abandon God. God disagrees and so finally, to settle this debate, God agrees to let Satan have a crack at the most faithful, honest, honorable person in all the world—Job from the fictional land of Uz. God promises not to intervene as long as Satan promises not to kill Job. Satan agrees and then proceeds to do everything EXCEPT kill him.
Job’s wife is so distressed and disgusted by Job quietly accepting all this indignation and humiliation which God is apparently indifferent to that she encourages Job to lie down and die. To stop fighting the good fight and give into what she sees as the inevitable. Then, Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar the Naamahite are so taken by the intensity of Job’s suffering that they sit with him for seven days, horrified by what’s happening. After seven days and nights of silence, Job finally speaks; cursing his life, the day he was born, begging that his very existence be swallowed up in eternal darkness. Whether Job is speaking to his friends, to God or to himself is unclear, but the speech is damning to all, except God. Job will not damn God. He’ll yell at God and ask God why, but he won’t damn the Divine. Sure that bad things only happen to those who deserve it, the friends  try to discern what horrible sin Job has committed to cause such Divine retribution.
Such begins a back and forth debate between Job, his friends and God.
It’s a debate for the ages. At times, Job defends himself, at other times he seems to accept that he’s behaved despicably, even though he has no idea what he’s “done” and still at other times rails at what he considers completely unfair treatment. While Job’s friends put him on trial trying to prove that he deserves what’s happening to him, Job puts God on trial trying to prove to God that he doesn’t deserve all this heartache. There’s a lot of point, counterpoint all adding up to nothing. You see God didn’t cause the suffering of Job, suffering just happens.
Job was so busy trying to prove his innocence he didn’t even realize that God was his companion in all this suffering.
God didn’t do it to Job, but God did live it with Job.  
You’ve heard me tell the story of the suicide of my of the members of my youth group, many years ago. In the sermon I preached at his funeral  I said that while Ian was readying the gun to shoot himself, God was right there with him, screaming for him not to do it. And then immediately upon pulling the trigger, God was there to take Ian home. God is with us through it all. God was with Jesus’s cries on the cross, God was with Job in his trials and God is with us in ours.
It’s easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for us to comprehend the full depth and breadth of God’s love for us.
What scripture shows us, again and again is that we shouldn’t blame God for our troubles, rather let’s welcome God into them. Because God is already there.
Amen