“What do you get when you play a country song backward?”, asks the old joke. You remember the answer: your best friend brings back your wife and your 18-wheel rig, your bass boat gets fixed and resurfaces on the lake, and your old dog comes back to life. Happy ending! The scriptures we’ll hear this weekend remind us that a gracious Deity offers a second chance–and more–at finding fulfillment.
We close out several weeks of considering Job by hearing the moral at the ending (chapter 42). Job finally acknowledges that God is God, and that he is not: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted….therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (vv.2, 6) No matter how long it takes to finally see the light, God waits: “And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before!” Or at least Job appreciated it twice as much… (v.10) “And Job died, old and full of days.” THE END
The unknown writer of the Letter to the Hebrews is determined to assimilate the Christ into the Jewish tradition and theology. In Chapter 7, s/he speaks at length about Jesus as the Eternal manifestation of the High Priest. But here’s the contrast: human high priests need to offer sacrifices for their own sin, whereas the Christ does not! In Jesus, God presents the Perfect as an indication that human foibles will not persist in the new regime. “For the law appoints as high priests those who are subject to weakness, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.” (v.28)
Mark’s Gospel recalls the healing of the blind beggar, Bartimaeus. (10:46-52) Ol’ Bart evidently hadn’t always been blind: he answered Jesus, “My teacher, let me see again.” I have no trouble in believing that this occasion really happened; but is the blind beggar an archetype of the human awareness that there’s “more to see”? Blinded by all kind of distractions and lusts, our field of holy sight grows more ‘n’ more narrow–’til we sit by the side of the road, dependent upon the largess of those who still travel there. Bottom line: there IS restoration and perfection to be received when Jesus comes near!
All in all, these are “happier” readings than we’ve had of late. The Season of Kingdomtide has swung in a great arc: the first snow-shower of the year presages putting the gardens to bed and closing the deck. This has always been a time of introspection for me: early darkness urges our souls to a new appreciation of participating in eternal and marvelous cycles. May these words of worship restore and perfect our trip toward harvest-time….
God Bless Us, Every One Horace Brown KIng
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