Looking Forward to June 3, 2018 -- Beginning of Series on Job

This week we begin a 6 week series looking at the book of Job.

As this is the first Sunday of June we will celebrate the Sacrament of Communion.  The next scheduled Communion service will be in September.

The Scripture reading for this week is Job 1:1-2:10

The Sermon title is Job the Good

Early Thoughts: Job was a good man, a paragon of virtue. Job was also a patsy, a pawn in a larger game. For the record, Job is also (in the view of many scholars) a folk tale. He never really existed. But his story raises some very important and difficult questions for people of faith.  Over the next 6 weeks we will start to wrestle with some of those questions.

One of the questions in this week's reading is "why is Job pious?". Is Job good and pious simply because Job lives a life full of blessings? Or is there something inherent in Job that makes him good and pious and faithful?

That is the question God and The Satan (apparently a member of the heavenly court whose job it is to be something like the "Devil's Advocate", not evil personified as later generations will use the term) debate. And the way to test it is to take away everything Job has: his wealth, his children, even his health.

Which brings us to Job and his patience (patience which really is only evident in these two chapters). Job remains faithful, even when his wife tells him to curse God and die. Job remains Job the Good even when he has lost everything.

But that only raises more questions. In the book of Deuteronomy (and elsewhere in Scripture) there is a clear suggestion that God rewards the good and punishes the evil. Another recurring theme in Scripture is that God is in charge (technically called the Sovereignty of God in theological terms). God causes or at least allows all that happens. The writer of Job clearly subscribes to this theological position. So if Job is good why is he punished? Is that just? (We will touch more on that question next week)

And then there is the big question from this beginning of the story....
If our lives were destroyed, would we be patient and faithful like Job the Good?
--Gord