Grand Annual Communication Service
By: Worshipful Alexander Szramoski, Grand Chaplain
I was originally asked to give a brief sermon on Job based on its timeless message of struggling, suffering and perseverance. The story of Job is one that timelessly seizes us with its narrative of a man who struggles to hold his head high and endure every manner of suffering imaginable when God feels so distant.
For this reason, the narrative is one that many struggle with because of the titular figure Job. He is a wealthy, happy and God-fearing family man. He was a living icon of the goodness of God but suffered greatly after his reputation is slandered.
We are introduced to Job immediately in the beginning of the Book.
“In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.
He had seven sons and three daughters,
and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.”
Job does not seem like a man who would deserve the wrath of God. In fact, he seems like a man who is reaping God’s blessings. And this is the exact argument of Job’s accuser. The ancient enemy of the Lord, ever the liar that he is makes accusations about Job’s character all wherein he cannot speak to his accuser as well. The evil one makes the claim, like a demented attorney that Job’s devotion isn’t the result of a deep spiritual love of God; it is God’s repeated blessings on Job’s house that have fostered his devotion.
He argues that Job is like a dog who responds to rewards and praises because these things stir a primal sense of physical pleasure or euphoria and nothing else. He responds out of pure rationalism instead of seeking after God for more noble and glorious purposes beyond, physical life. In short, he makes the accusation that Job’s love of God is transactional because he is spoiled.
“Take everything he has and see if he will bless you” said the accuser.
And so, God allows the evil one to test Job.
In front of God, Job is slandered, in front of the judge of all people, Job’s reputation is tarnished.
It’s not hard for us to think on it from this perspective: an innocent person accused of a very serious offense. His or her name is dragged through the mud before their peers and that life of prestige and trust they once lived is shattered in court or in the public sphere.
When an innocent man is accused of a crime it is a shock to us all. There are men and women who are totally innocent but accused of crimes where the evidence places them at the wrong place at the wrong time and condemns them before they can even speak. And, on the other hand we can all think of a time or a person who had a noble reputation until to our shock and horror, that person lived a secret life steeped in immorality and or criminality.
And so, as it is true to life, the accuser managed to take everything from Job in an effort tear him down. The destruction of Job’s worldly blessings came with supernatural speed. His loss came so swiftly and turned his life to ruin that no one could deny it was by supernatural means. And so, his good fortune had run dry all in one day.
Raiders from the wilds came and slaughtered his entire herd, his sheep and their shepherds were killed in a fire, a warband stole all the camels he owned and killed their handlers. And worst of all, on that same day all his sons and daughters were gathered in his first son’s house. They were reveling with wine and music in a joyous event. But for them there was no fire, there were no raiders, there was no warband. Suddenly and without warning, a great wind swept around the house, and it blew down the walls crushing all of them instantly.
Upon learning of all these things Job fell to his knees, shaves his head and tore off his robes stating: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”
At one point, he lived in a great manor surrounded by his family and wealth. Now he sits in the gutter covered in boils and rashes, penniless and alone. It is here that Job truly begins to despair. He turns his head up and says:
“May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’ That day—may it turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine on it.”
Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb?”
He bears on his body all kinds of boils and wounds as if to mark him deeper than any kind of social ostracism could accomplish. His separation from his fellow man could not be more tangible, people look at him like he’s human wreckage; a tragedy that no one can repair.
But through all this suffering, the despair, the anguish, the crying and the pain, Job pleads to God and in the presence of his three friends that his innocence be recognized.
In all these things, his friends only increase their accusations. Because to them and to our understanding, God knows the truth in this. To them, Job suffers because he must repent for offending God but the process of repentance can only begin once our sin is unveiled. And what sins does Job have? Because he does not give them any ammunition to work with, they cannot guide him and this turns them into even more accusers.
They wonder why he would plead so much if he knew he was innocent; why does an innocent man need to plead his innocence to One who no lie can stand against? To them, Job is making his situation worse, he should be showing repentance and acknowledge his guilt.
And he said to God in prayer, “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not. And do you open our eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with you? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one. Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass, look away from him and leave him alone, that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.”
On and on did they debate. On and on was Job denied by his friends. Again, and again did his friends tempt God to finally judge Job for his unseen sins. And Job was ready to give in and accept whatever wrath awaited him if it give him rest.
And so, God from the clouds spoke to Job and his friends in all their errors saying these things. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Have you commanded the morning since your days began? Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion?”
In this humbling moment, God removes all veils and mysteries. He shows Job that it is His desire to see His creation fluish beyond merely surviving on earth. It pleases God that Job had made it this far without sacrificing his faith when it seemed that God had truly abandoned.
God’s trial of Job served as a strengthening as it does to all of us as well. In the heart of a noble and ignoble person, there are two opposing reactions to being blessed by God. The noble heart seeks to find more ways to honor God because it seeks God. The ignoble heart seeks God because the blessing is pleasing to more tangible sensations at the expense of the spiritual.
This is exasperated further when they are punished. A noble heart that has offended God seeks to make itself right with God because it knows that to return to God after losing its footing is the right thing to do. An ignoble heart loses sight of God and says “Why did you even bother?”
In the end, Job’s family and his estate is restored and doubled for his devotion because he was tried and found to have a heart for God when it was tested beyond its limits.
The infinite immortality of our God and our desire to mimic Him though our work, because He is a creator as well is the force that binds everyone here together. When the going gets tough we may struggle and fall but like Job we must not let go of our faith and our conviction. Do not give up, do not lose hope, do not put out the light. Lift up your eyes, turn to the east and face new dawn whom God has ordained for His good works.
From the words of another great Matthew, we derive this noble axiom that applies to us, to Job and to all who need the strength to go on. “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”
Amen.
