RoboPreacher

in the night with a sigh A sermon on the conclusion to the book of Job : The book of Job is full of surprises . But none of them bigger than this last one. And no , I don’t mean the way Job gets everything back , and in spades ! And no , I don’t mean the way Job finally quits arguing with his friends and just prays for them. And no , I don’t mean the way Job gives up making preemptive sacrifices for his children and instead gives them all a share of the estate . Including his daughters , an unheard -of act at the time! No, for as shocking as all that is, and it is shocking, none of it holds a candle to the throwaway line God makes when letting Job’s friends know they’ve tested the limits of divine patience. “…for you have not spoken of me what is right , as my servant Job has,” says God.   Job? Job spoke rightly of God?!? Job?!? Are you kidding ?!? Job said some pretty controversial things. Including accusing God of being nothing more than a tyrannically moral anarchist ...

who will arrange my great escape A sermon Job's final response to God's speeches : I have a confession to make: I have a favorite person to pastor. I know! Pastors shouldn’t have favorites. But I can’t help it! I do. Here’s the silver lining, though, it’s not a particular person who’s my favorite. It’s a particular type of person. And the bright shining sun behind the silver lining is that any of us can be this type of person. In fact, if we’re honest, we all are this type of person.   And who , exactly, am I talking about? Well, they’re the ones who stagger through the church door, looking a little haggard and yet strangely exhilarated . They’re the ones who come to church after a whirlwind of a week, gasping, “you’ll never believe what happened to me !” …Before COVID, I naively said that church works best when there’s a sense of desperation . Well, I got more than I asked for, didn’t I? I doubt  I’m the the only one who was a little more desperate this past y...

& watch the sun sink like a stone A sermon on God's reply to Job : At last, God speaks up! After 36  tortured chapters of Job pleading for a hearing from God, his petition is finally granted. And God’s rejoinder here is rightly considered the climax of the book. God’s fiery speech is as compelling as it is captivating. Like Job, it leaves us rapt . The trouble , though, is once the spell of God’s speech wears off , you find yourself in as much of, if not more of, a bind than before God spoke up! God’s speech covers literally everything under the sun and more, too! Everything that is, except Job and his claim. God’s retort never once addresses Job’s complaint or even the cause of his suffering! As far as God is interested, it would appear, Job’s concerns about law and order are totally beside the point! In fact, God seems to takes a special kind of delight in all those things that elude Job’s grasp! The cumulative effect of this speech is to cow Job, as I suspect it does...

there's no one left to ask if i'm alright A sermon on Job's prayers :  Last week we made the somewhat  provocative statement that Job was losing his religion. Well, this week, Job doesn’t walk that back an inch. In fact, if anything, he doubles down.   Just to be clear, though , the religion Job is losing isn’t much of a religion at all. It’s a religion that assumes a mostly absent God. A God who is just there to occasionally check in and see if you’re behaving. And then , and only then, to try and help make life turn our accordingly . Now I know when I say it like that , it sounds ridiculously crude . The truth is, though , for the most part, this is the religious assumption we all carry around with us. We all have this working formula that presumes the degree to which life is going our way is fundamentally contingent upon our behavior. Like Job and his friends, we are all susceptible to falling into this faux religion.   Job, however, has been shake...

between water and wind A sermon on Job's tête-à-tête with his friends, & even God Last week Job stood tall in the face of everything ! This week, though , all he has to show for it is how much worse it all has become. Last week Job lost everything he had , including his children. This week, though, he’s even lost his health . Job was afflicted with oozing, awful sores that covered his body. And then, as so often happens in times like these, Job got into a bitter argument with his spouse, too. Unable to bear it any longer, Job goes off by himself to lick his wounds. But then, in the middle of that misery , three of his friends show up. And what friends they are, too! They just plop down right next to Job. For seven days and seven nights, no one says a word. They just sit there with Job. Letting him know, by their presence, he isn’t alone. The silence is broken , though, when Job pipes up and curses the day of his birth. All that chaos and calamity just built up too muc...

but the reeling's make mistakes A sermon on the beginning of the book of Job : The book of Job is often said to address the problem of suffering . A fancy word for this is theodicy . But the way it turns up in regular conversation is, “why do bad things happen to good people.” Or, “ If God is good , WHY does God ALLOW bad things to happen at all.” The truth , though, is all those questions are more manageable than the one the book of Job itself addresses. And it’s the question none other than Satan himself poses. “ Does Job fear God for nothing ,” the old satanic foe asks. …Well, what do you think? Does a person worship God just because ? Or do we only worship God for what we get out of it? I suspect we would all rather think on theoretical questions about hypothetical bad things and good people out there somewhere . Rather than this question about the mettle of our faith that hits close to home. Wouldn’t we? A finer point of Bible study is in order here. Job was written i...