Are You Able?

Job 38:1-7
Mark 10:35-45

Brock Babb, 40, Evansville, IN
Johnny Craver, 37, McKinney, TX
Joshua Deese, 25, North Carolina
Joshua Hines, 26, Olney, IL
Joseph Kane, 35, Darby, PA
Charles King, 48, Cleveland
Timothy Lauer, 25, Saegertown, PA
Jonathan Lootens, 25, Lyons, NY
Keith Moore, 28, San Francisco
Jonathan Simpson, 25, Rockport, TX

Each morning as I work my way through The New York T= imes over a cup or two of coffee, I eventually get to the pages updating the news from Iraq and Afghanistan and every day there’s a box printed there w= ith the heading “Names of the Dead.” It contains the most recent na= mes released by our government of military personnel who will return to their families in the form of a folded flag and a few medals. No mention is ever = made of the 20,000-plus who have so far returned injured --- many without limbs = or sanity.

Although they who release the names wish that those sacrifices of life be invisible to the rest of us, lest they stir political trouble, I slowly read that list every day and pay them the respect of meditating for a moment on each name and the information given about them; their age, their rank and unit, and the hometown and family that will miss them.

And I wonder what kind of questions we’re able= to ask ourselves about those deaths, and whether we’re asking the right ones. Are the questions political --- like, are they about Republicans and Democrats; liberals versus conservatives? Global geopolitics and national self-interest? Or are the real questions spiritual --- like, are they about seeing ourselves as others see us; about recognizing that we are brothers and sisters of all who share the human journey, all children of God by whatever name that God is called, who must learn to cherish rather than destroy one another? It’= ;s important for the people of God to know.

An emotionally disturbed milkman with an all-too-ava= ilable gun kills some school girls in a faith community known for its pacifism; or elsewhere a student brings a gun to school and people end up dying. . . . A= nd I wonder what kinds of questions we’re able to ask ourselves about those deaths, and whether they’re the right ones. Are the questions politic= al --- like, are they about gun control and provision of community services th= at might reach the disturbed before the disturbed reach into the dark side of their disconnected humanity? Or are the real questions spiritual --- like, = are they about what happens to the human soul when living in a culture that assaults us with violence day and night in the form of ‘kill-or-be-killed’ video games, television shows and movies, t= he lyrics of pop music, the easy availability of guns, the aggressive recruiti= ng of our children to send them to war? It’s important for the people of= God to know.

Full-page newspaper ads I see from time to time show= a young mother holding the hand of a little girl. With reference to breast ca= ncer, the message communicates that the woman is poor and without health insurance and, because of that, will not live to see her daughter graduate, or get married or have her own children. And I wonder what kinds of questions we’re able to ask ourselves about that situation and whether we’= ;re asking the right ones. Are the questions political --- like, do those who have governed us and prioritized= our national budget in recent decades simply not care about the health needs of those in dire poverty and the working poor. Or are the real questions spiri= tual --- like, is it a matter of doing unto others what we would want done to us= ; of looking into the faces of the homeless and the hungry --- of those who have= a different life story to tell than ours --- and seeing there, if not the presence of Christ, at least another fully human being with the same wants = and needs we have? It’s imp= ortant for the people of God to know.

Asking questions --- and often the wrong questions -= -- is a common theme in our lectionary readings for today.

The story of Job has its counter parts in other trad= itions of the ancient Near East, some perhaps pre-dating the Hebrew version. The p= rose with which the story begins reflects those influences and creates the setti= ng for three rounds of poetic discourse as the character of Job and three of h= is friends go back and forth debating why Job --- a faithful believer in God a= nd prosperous, upright member of the community --- has suddenly lost almost everything and everybody who gave meaning to his life.

Job is angry at God and demands justice from the div= ine power he had always thought to be just. His friends spout all the tradition= al answers which orthodox religion gives to Job’s questions, presuming to speak for God. But Job knows that there’s nothing he’s done to deserve what happened to him. He wants an accounting from God for his suffe= ring and raises those questions which come to our hearts and minds when bad thin= gs happen to good people, when hard times come to those we feel don’t de= serve them.

In today’s reading, God finally responds to Jo= b and his friends in the ‘voice from the whirlwind.’ God never really responds to the questions Job has been asking. Presumably, they’ve not been the relevant questions, however humanly logical they seem.<= /p>

Bernhard Anderson, in a text widely used in undergra= duate courses entitled Understanding the Old Testament, notes that in Job the mys= tery of suffering is left rationally unanswered, as it is finally unanswered in = the Bible as a whole. For the crux of the human problem, according to Israel&= #8217;s faith, is not the fact of suffering but the character of man’s relationship to God. Outside the relationship for which man was created, suffering drives men to despair or to the easy solutions of popular religio= n. Within the relationship of faith, suffering may be faced in the confidence = that man’s times are in God’s hands and that (quoting Romans 8:28) ‘in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are ca= lled according to his purpose.’ Anderson concludes that the key to the book of Job is Job’s acknowledgement th= at his claim to understand how God put the universe together only darkened the counsel he presumed to give others. In the ‘voice from the whirlwind,’ Job’s questions were revealed as the wrong question= s, words (spoken) without knowledge of that which, in the limitations of human experience, is unknowable. Or, as a colleague of mine puts it, “You j= ust don’t ask those questions.”

“Were you around when I created the universe?&= #8221; God inquires of Job. “Do you know how all things are knitted together? From the few years = of your life’s journey are you able to see things in eternal perspective?” Job replies by simply yielding to the wonder and the mystery of it all.

Following the recent killing of young girls in their schoolhouse, news writer Laurie Goodstein (NYTimes) observed that the Amish community was more resigned than angry. “They accept these tragedies,” she said, “as the will of God, an approach to life = they call yieldedness.” They quickly knocked the schoolhouse down and plow= ed the site back into a field from which new life might spring. Together they = will quickly raise a new schoolhouse in a new spot. And they quickly started a charity fund to help not only the victims’ families but also the wido= w of the gunman.

“This is imitation of Christ at its most naked,” said Tom Shachtman, author of a recent book on the Amish. “If anyone is going to turn the other cheek in our society, it’s going to be the Amish,” he said. . . . “[they] walk the walk as= much as they talk the talk.” Rather than dwelling on unanswerable questions, perhaps irrelevant questions, they are able to draw strength from their community of faith and simply continue on their journey and help othe= rs make it through their journeys. Perhaps there’s much wisdom in that.<= o:p>

In today’s Gospel reading we find the disciples still unable to ask the right questions even after several years of mentori= ng by the Jesus they now followed on his way to Jerusalem. As they tag along, a little = spread out on the road, James and John, already among the ‘inner circle̵= 7; of the twelve, try to push the envelope a bit with Jesus while the other disciples are presumed to be not within hearing distance.

The questions James and John ask indicate that they expected the unveiling of God’s kingdom to be that of a triumphal kin= gdom modeled along the lines of the only models they had --- kingdoms of this wo= rld that were ruled by exercising coercive authority over others and advancing their self-interests through the love of power rather than the power of lov= e. And so the only questions these disciples were yet able to ask were about being co-chairmen of the board when Jesus took over the company.

It was such an embarrassing request, as it turned ou= t, that in his version of the story, Matthew has the request originate from th= eir mother because . . . well, you know mothers! The offense taken by other disciples after finding out what had been asked was due only to their same interest, not wanting to be left behind when positions of privilege were be= ing assigned. They, too, were not yet able to envision what God’s kingdom= of love and justice would be like and, therefore, ask the wrong questions.

Jesus attempts to set them straight by responding in= three ways: that a place in God’s kingdom will involve suffering; that God alone determines our status in the kingdom; and that leadership in God̵= 7;s kingdom means being a servant of others. Jesus himself came not to be served but to serve and even give his life for others. Those who follow Jesus are = to model his example of serving others, not the world’s example of ‘lording it over others.’ The right questions have to do with whether the disciples were able and willing to do that. And we are confront= ed with the same questions: are = we able and willing to do that. It is “with deeds of love and mercy [tha= t] the heavenly kingdom comes,” say the words of a well-known hymn. And = so it is our task as God’s people in this time and place to discern what= God wants us to be doing by way of serving others and preparing our hearts and minds for such service.

Next Sunday we will begin using the renovated chapel= and fellowship hall next door and the education and office floors of our church house. Bring your kids, your neighbors, your friends and come at 9:30 for t= he tours and parties so that you get used to coming at 9:30 again. Church scho= ol classes will begin meeting at 9:30 the following week, November 5. You̵= 7;ll see nicely renovated spaces, hopefully functional for at least the next 30 years of this congregation’s ministry. But the hallways and classroom walls you’ll see are as yet lifeless and sterile, mere museums of fre= sh paint. They are eagerly waiting to come alive with signs that our church is alive, that together we are able to continue the journey of faith to which Jesus calls us and to which generations before us in this place have respon= ded: “We are able!” Fo= r that journey, today’s gospel lesson gives us good directions.