Here are my thoughts for the 18^th Sunday after Pentecost. The Scriptures for this Sunday are Job 1: 1, 2: 1 – 10; Hebrews 1: 1 – 4, 2: 5 – 12; and Mark 10: 2 – 16.

As I have mentioned before, my favorite book in the Bible is probably Ecclesiastes. I came to know the verses from this book from sources outside the Bible, namely “Turn, Turn, Turn” by the Byrds. I suppose that one could say that you are supposed to find your interests in something from a devoted study of the subject but I think that when you can see something you have studied from another view, it offers a deeper meaning.

I did study the Bible when I was young and while in conformation class but it was just another class with more things that had to be memorized for the moment and such things just don’t carry much weight with me. But when I can see something outside its context and I have the opportunity to think about it, then it does have some meaning.

By the same token, my least favorite book in the Bible is probably the “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.” I have always had a hard time hearing people speaking of this book with a finality that has no option. Perhaps these are the “End Times” but if we see them coming, shouldn’t we be working to stop them? To presume that war and violence are necessary for Christ to come again on this earth seems to be a rather distorted view of the Gospel message first given in the Nazareth synagogue some two thousand years ago. War, death, destruction, and violence have no place in the Gospel message but those who preach the “End Times” seem to think just that; that war, death, destruction, and violence are what Jesus meant when He proclaimed that he was bringing health, hope, and freedom. I have studied Revelations and I find a message that echoes those same words of Jesus, not the words that John Darby found. But Revelations will never be one of my favorites.

And then there is the Book of Job. There have been times in my life when I thought that I was reliving the life of Job, of having my life and possessions stripped away and suffering for no apparent reason. But as is the case with any of the books in the Bible, further study showed a different story. And it is a story that echoes throughout the ages, of people holding onto their faith even in the toughest of times.

Job is one of the books in the Bible that offers an alternative wisdom, of a different view from the mainstream. The writer William Safire viewed the story of Job and his encounter with God as a victory for Job because Job called the Lord of the universe to account. It was a dialogue between a powerless individual and an all-powerful authority. It is a model for the miraculous thing that individuals such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Andrei Sakharov accomplished. Safire concluded that injustice in all forms need not be accepted; on the contrary, justice must be pursued and established authority confronted. One person can make a difference. (Adapted from http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/searchview.php?id=13244)

But the rules by which society operated in Job’s time and by which we still operate today say that bad things do not happen to good people. If something has befallen you, it is because you have done something wrong. The rich are rich because God has blessed them; the poor are poor because they have lost God’s blessing. Clearly, to many in this story, Job’s losses of health and wealth are a clear sign that he had displeased God and that he should blame God for his troubles. That was the thinking two thousand years ago and it is the thinking even today. How can God claim to be a loving God when there is war, death and destruction in this world and young children die for no apparent reason?

It is difficult for some to accept the words of Job in this day and age when there are no explanations for what is happening. All Job wants is to meet with God and get an explanation for what has transpired. In the end, he will meet God and he will hear God and he will accept what God says. But we are not willing to persevere as Job did; we expect an answer right now. We speak of our right to take an eye for eye, a tooth for a tooth, without realizing that in demanding such “justice” we are doing exactly the opposite of what we are asked to do.

The rules of society, the rules that we expect the church to follow and teach, demand revenge, not justice. The rules of society, the rules that we expect the church to follow and teach, say escalating war and striking first are the answer to threats by our enemies. Society’s rules say that one’s status in society determines one’s power, yet Jesus would put a child in His lap and say those who were not like children would never enter the Kingdom.

We put a great emphasis on power, fame, and riches. And we have allowed our society to be ruled by those who would only enrich themselves. I have been reading one of Bill Moyers’ books (Moyers on Democracy) lately. His life continues to be one of faith and hope, even when those who would take hope away have done the best they could to silence him. He is an unabashed liberal who saw the hypocrisy in a political system that taught that all are created equal but which would suppress the rights of minorities and women in the name of justice. He has taken to task many of those who have led this country the past few years for their greed, their lust for power, and their absolute dislike for openness and honesty.

To some extent, he has taken on the role of a 21^st century Amos. Amos lived in Israel some three thousand years ago during a time of tremendous prosperity. It was a time of immense wealth for some but not for all. The rich were getting richer but the poor were getting poorer.

In Amos 2: 6 – 8 we read that the rich would sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. They would trample the head of the poor into the dust and push the afflicted out of the way. Translations are often a tricky thing but in essence Amos is telling us that the rich and powerful are selling the poor and the needy into slavery and they were doing it through legal methods. And all the while, the rich and powerful were in the synagogue and the temple every Sabbath praising God. Yet, as Amos will say later in Chapter 5 (verses 21 – 27), despite all that the people of Israel were doing, the singing of songs of praises, the offerings, the festivals, they might as well have been worshiping some astral deities because there was no justice in the land for the poor and the disenfranchised. (adapted from The Phoenix Affirmation by Eric Elnes)

It isn’t much different today. We put great credence in the law and we allow the law to take away peoples’ homes. Our legislators write laws that favor to the rich and the powerful and give them tax breaks that the poor and middle class must pay for. We are arguing for laws that would deny health insurance to many people because we are more interested in the god of mammon than we are in making sure that all the children of God are healthy. We have created laws that create injustice and call it right. We believe in the law and the rules that are set by such laws.

The Pharisees and scribes constantly sought to trap Jesus in the law, the laws they had strived so hard to keep in place so as to keep them in power. If it was not divorce, it was marriage; if it wasn’t healing the sick, it was working on the Sabbath. But the writer of Hebrews reminds us that Jesus did not hold his position as God’s Son over us, as many of might have done or have tried to do.

And in placing Himself on the same level as us, Jesus changed the rules. He gave us a new set of rules. He gave us a chance to seek hope and justice, not condemnation. All Job asked for was the opportunity to meet with God and discuss what was happening. For us, that is exactly what Jesus did; He changed the rules that society operated under.

We have allowed the scribes and Pharisees of today to again rule us by laws that limit life and keep them in power. It is time we operate under a new set of rules, rules that say that all are welcome into God’s Kingdom and that the sick will be made well, the lame shall walk, the deaf shall hear, the blind shall see, and the oppressed shall be set free. It is time for a new set of rules and those rules begin with the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior.