Tensions

I enjoy playing a couple video games as I have shared with you before and most nights when Bekkah is putting Madi down for bed I switch off between playing those games and watching people play those games. The main reason I watch other people play games is to become better myself. Well just the other night as I was watching and listening to the player, someone in the chatroom began explaining that he was having a really hard time with his significant other that he just broke up with. He said that he was really down and that chatting and hanging out with the player and the other people watching was helping him get his mind off things. The player, or streamer as they’re called, began to tell him he went through a similar situation when he was in his 20’s and someone said to him at that time was, “When you are 10 or even 5 years past this breakup, do you think that this moment or that breakup will be a part of your life, or do you think you will be a different person? Don’t let this temporary pain define who you are.” The person in chat responded to that piece of advice and even though it was just text on a screen, he seemed to really be encouraged by it.

Obviously Job and this young man in the chatroom had different experiences but they both were experiencing loss that was consuming their life. And I get it. When any one of us experience great loss, it has the potential to take up a good part of our focus and attention and it seems like nothing else in the world either matters or is as important as what we are going through at this moment.

This is true so much so for Job that in the first part of our text today Job wants nothing more than to face God and account to God everything he went through and is experiencing because of it. He is so convinced of what he thinks and feels that he has no fear facing God like a prince approaching a king. That is how much Job wants to share his case of his loss (and as we have talked about before about his innocence in this whole matter).

In Chapter 38, after 36 chapters of what seemed like endless chatter between Job and his friends, God does step in to have a conversation with Job and not only does God come in the form of a whirlwind, but God also seems to take Job on a whirlwind journey about creation and how it came into being, and who brought it into being.

Job wants nothing more than to bring his case before God and when God shows up, God doesn’t seem interested in discussing Job’s experiences or feelings but instead wants to talk about the wonders of creation. So maybe you, like me, are wondering why is God focusing in on creation and not directly correcting Job on why he is wrong or explaining about the deal he made with the Adversary? How come none of that is ever brought up between God and Job? Is God trying to establish how awe-some and majestic God is so that Job will be silenced into submission by the Almighty?

Perhaps God is pointing out that nothing would have happened had God not stepped in and made it happen. Job wouldn’t even be here, you and I wouldn’t even be here, had God not stretched out God’s hands and spoken the world into creation. But as I look at this text and more of this chapter and beyond and see God continue to talk about creation I wonder if there is more to what God is saying. I began to think about how creation is one of the surest signs to me, and many of you I have talked with, of God. One of the first things we ever say about creation is about how beautiful it is. It reminds me of Psalm 19 which says that the heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaim his handiwork. Psalm 19 talks about the glory and beauty of God’s creation.

So I think just as much as God is proclaiming God’s work in everything that exists I think God is also reminding Job that as much as there is human loss and pain, there exists simultaneously beauty in the world. I don’t think God is trying to erase Job’s real pain and suffering but bringing about this tension and understanding that in life there exists both suffering and beauty. There is both life and death. One cannot exist without the other. We cannot live in one without the other. We need both to be grounded in both the reality of the world and the majesty of God.

Right now we can both lament the loss of all the things that are not happening right now because of COVID19 , like in-person worship and all the other things we used to enjoy, while simultaneously knowing that God has blessed us with technology to connect with one another and to give us family and friends with whom we can interact with in many different ways.

No matter the loss or frustrations that we experience in life there is also intrinsic goodness and beauty through the world that God gave us. I believe that is what God is telling us. Live into the tension of loss and beauty. Live into a world where there is suffering, and the knowledge that God sent us a suffering servant so that no matter what loss, frustration or anger we experience, there is Jesus who experienced the ultimate suffering on our behalf so that we could know and see the other side of the coin. The side of the coin that says God created this world for US. God sent God’s son for US. God loves US. Even if this world is messy and imperfect God is there right in the midst of it, creating life. What will the world or my life look like in 10 or even 5 years from now? I don’t know. But I do know that despite any possible despair I may experience, ultimately it is nothing compared to the love of God that we have been given through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. Amen.