What could possibly be chaotic about a beautiful Summer Day? Picnics and family reunions beckon, baseball games on the IPad go unwatched as we snooze on the terrace… And yet there’s no joy in Mudville: snappy bosses, malicious divorces, illnesses of various kinds insert their claws into our serendipity–and we begin to question God. “Where’ve you BEEN?! Can’t you see that we’re dyin’ here??” Today’s lessons will speak to far too many; will they help the present malaise?
The one who reads the passage from Job (38:1-11) needs to give a brief synopsis: Job is a good guy, a “righteous man”, yet his family/property/fortune has been destroyed by a devilish plague of bad happenings. “But I’ve been GOOD! Why do bad things happen to good people?” Why, indeed? It takes a while for Job to look beyond his cultural legalism to see the cosmic elements of Creation. When he begins to open himself to omnipotence, he can finally hear the majestic poetry of the text. God has limited the chaos-monster: “Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped.”
The Epistle, II Corinthians 6:1-13, is characteristically oblique. What’s more, there’s little take-home wisdom. Yet there is a feeling of urgency–“now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!” And there’s an exhortation to open their hearts wide. In between, Paul tells of the chaos he’s survived, with the implication that God has rescued him, so why not YOU? There really are limits to the rages of the sea.
Mark describes Jesus’ missionary journeys around the Sea of Galilee in 4:35-41. He wants to go to The Other Side, the land of the Gentiles. (Isn’t there always Another Side?) On the way, the capricious weather of Galilee threatens to swamp their boat –and Jesus is asleep! Seasoned sailors though they were, they angrily woke Jesus: “Don’t you care that we’re drowning here??” Still unsure about Lordly power, they figured they had nothing to lose. And they probably needed the catharthis of angry shouting to clean out their senses for a word from God! (So did Job.) So once again God limited the waves and tamed the chaos-monster…
Job, Paul & the Disciples all faced the daily threats and the immensity of the Creator’s power which once made order out of chaos. Leanne Pearce Reed concludes (FEASTING on the WORD, B 3:151), “The chaos is still there, but so is God. And that is enough.”
God Bless Us, Every One Horace Brown King
My ritual drowning in the scriptural passages for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook; or at horacebrownking. com
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