Good Morning! Karen and I have come home after our too brief vacation, and it’s always good to come home. We got Jacob settled into Mankato, spent a few days in Rochester, and then took our first look and “the Cities.”
Rochester is a marvelous city. The whole rationale for its being is healing and mercy. It seemed that anything that wasn’t directly involved in healing (Mayo, Methodist Hospital, and St. Mary’s Hospital) was engaged in offering gracious hospitality to patients and family members.
We have difficulty understanding the presence of illness in the lives of believers. In today’s Psalms, the psalmist writes about the rewards from the Lord being related to the writer’s personal righteousness. For the most part the psalmists seem to usually be referring to protection from their enemies or even vengeance against their enemies.
Another of today’s readings is from Job, and that’s a very difficult story to understand. It sounds like the exact opposite of what the psalmists are saying. In Job we have a man who was reckoned by God to be a righteous person but disaster befell Job. In fact in the first chapter of Job we read: “That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.” And we know what happened next.
Why? We always want to know why.
I don’t have an answer that can explain what happened to Job or the differences between what happened to Job and what the psalmists are talking about. Job’s “friends” thought they knew “why.” They were convinced that somehow, somewhere Job had done something to offend God, but we know that wasn’t the case. Scripture doesn’t give us an answer to why Job’s life was taken apart piece by piece. Perhaps “why” is the wrong question altogether.
Throughout scripture and throughout history we have continual examples of the fact that bad things do happen to good people. The innocent are made to face suffering just as often as the guilty and the malicious. And we are called to respond to the suffering with mercy and love.
I believe that the question that we must ask in the face of suffering (both the suffering of others and the suffering that afflicts us) is “How?” How do we best respond? How can we be of help? How can we learn from it? How can we teach in the face of it? How can we represent the heart of the living Christ who took on suffering for our sakes? How can we bring glory to the One who has called us, has sent us, so that the world may know more of God’s love, God’s mercy, and God’s suffering?
Prayer: Merciful God, take our lives and use them to Your glory. In the face of human suffering empower us with the courage to bring Your healing power. In the face of despair allow us to bring Your message of life eternal. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Today’s readings are Job 8:1-10, 20-22; Acts 10:17-33; John 7:14-36; Psalm 18.
Blessings.
Pastor Jim
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