Job

When Job doesn’t Jibe with Reality

What happens when suffering is meaningless?

October 22, 2012 By The Hardest Question 2 Comments

by Carol Howard Merritt

Old Testament Reading: Job 42:1-6, 10-17

For Sunday, October 28, 2012: Year B—Ordinary 30

I saw the young man in the fall. He looked like a well-equipped urban hiker, getting ready for his next adventure. He had an optimistic attitude. He had lost his girlfriend, job and home, but he would work as hard as he could until he got back on his feet.

A Different Man

I met with him regularly, listening to him, praying for him, and giving him a bit of spiritual direction. As the weeks wore on and the nights got colder, his situation became more desperate. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Job, Old Testament, YearB Tagged With: homelessness, hopelessness, meaninglessness, suffering, Theodicy

This is Not an Answer

This is a strong man showing off for the children.

October 14, 2012 By The Hardest Question Leave a Comment

by Mark Stenberg

Old Testament Reading: Job 38:1-7

For Sunday, October 21, 2012: Year B—Ordinary 29

If you consider Job a formal theodicy that gives definitive, systematic answers about evil, Satan, suffering, and ethics you are barking up the wrong lotus tree. Job has more soul than that.

Job is funny, engaging, primitive, and playful—a tall tale told around the campfire—that provokes some serious critique about what we tell each other when things go wrong. Good luck constructing a theodicy out of that. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Job, Old Testament, YearB Tagged With: advice, answer, job, Mark Stenberg, pie hole, Theodicy, three amigos

When Whirlwinds Speak

June 17, 2012 By The Hardest Question 1 Comment

I know I’m in trouble when God calls me a pansy.

by Mike Baughman

Old Testament Reading: Job 3:1-11

For Sunday, June 24, 2012: Year B—Ordinary 12

For my undergraduate education I went to Duke University. My Masters degrees come from Princeton Theological Seminary (the actual diplomas are in Latin). My high school is called The Pingry School and, yes, it is every bit as pretentious as it sounds. The strange thing is, I’m very rarely snobbish about education and don’t look down on people from other schools (unless, of course, you attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

But I’m still a snob. I’m a spiritual snob.

So there. And Furthermore…

I wrestle with God. I challenge God because God’s children are not named after Abraham—the first one to make the covenant with God. They’re not named after Noah—the one who saved creation from utter destruction and who was righteous enough to give God hope. The children of God are named after Israel—one who wrestles with God.

I wrestle with God because it’s intimate. You cannot wrestle with someone and not smell their sweat, feel their breath and quicken your heartbeat to match theirs. I challenge God and I ask hard questions of God, again and again, because it is in those questioning places that I most often encounter the Holy.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Job, Old Testament, YearB Tagged With: Israel, job, Mike Baughman, questions, spiritual snob, Whirlwind