Society has an expression—“the patience of Job.” Even if you haven’t read the Bible, you have probably heard the expression. We like to pretend we know what this means, like Job is really patient. If only we could be as patient as Job was. Most of us know the expression, but most of us don’t actually know the story behind it. Job’s story is essential this: he was considered a very prosperous individual, but because Satan decided that Job should be tested, he lost most of his family, his property, etc. Most of the book we hear Job lamenting that he has been good and yet is still suffering. He tells whoever will listen that his suffering is undeserved. And this is in the backdrop of the Jewish religion, specifically the Deuteronomist’s approach, which is very similar to what we now know as a prosperity Gospel—good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. God rewards the saintly and punishes the evil. This is part of Job’s culture (and ours to some degree) to believe that goodness and evil are somehow deserved. And so, Job invites or petitions God to appear in court and have each argue their case. No doubt, Job will show how his suffering is not deserved.
And despite what we think of as the “patience of Job,” when God shows up, God does not answer Job’s questions. Instead, God is the one asking questions, rhetorical questions, but questions none the less. And if we are honest, then our answer to God’s questions, if there is an answer, is “yeah, I wasn’t anywhere when you made the foundations of the world….never mind, didn’t mean to bother you. I am a worm and no man.”
Let’s be painfully honest here, let’s get real. There are times when it does feel like God’s help fails. Sometimes it definitely feels like we are given more than we can handle. I can only truly speak for myself, and I know there are times I am given more than I can handle, and in many ways, I have had a cushy life. But honestly, Job probably did get more than he felt he could handle, and things were bleak. And he didn’t get an answer from God as to WHY.
Then again, maybe God’s answer to Job is not, “it’s a mystery that suffering is part of the universe, who are you to understand the cause?” Maybe God’s answer is really, “you aren’t asking the right questions.” Is it really that Job, and we, need to know why bad things happen to good people? Why it seems that the suffering of the good sometimes far outweighs the blessings that they know? Maybe the bad stuff happening was not actually Satan convincing God to put Job to the test, but instead it is a metaphor that reflects a wrong understanding of the whole human situation. After all, Satan’s doing is not much different than Job’s friends, who are trying to come up with what he could have done to make God so angry. These all reflect a view that the good and the bad that happens to us is some kind of calculus, and we want to know the cause. Try to make sense of why bad things happen to good people. In both instances there is a question about cause and effect… in this case, why the effect seems so much larger than any cause.
Maybe, instead, this is not about the cause of suffering at all. Maybe it is about what God will do with our suffering, whatever its cause. Let’s lean further into the psalm to see what is there:
28 in their trouble they cried to the Lord, *who delivered them from their distress.
29 God stilled the storm to a whisper *and quieted the waves of the sea.
30 Then were they glad because of the calm, *and God brought them to the harbor they were bound for.
31 Let them give thanks for the mercy of God, *and the wonders the Lord does for all people.
We give thanks for God is good. God wishes no ill will to anyone, God, whose mercy endures forever. Whatever storm we are in in this world God made, and whatever its cause, God will show mercy on us.
In the gospel this week, we get the same message. Jesus calms storms. No other person calms storms. Not every time that a storm gets dangerous does God calm the storm. Sometimes God calms the storm, sometimes God is in it with us, in the stormy times of life. Jesus’ life tells us more about who God is. We learn more firsthand that God’s mercy never fails. We see this in Jesus who welcomes sinners, who loves the unlovable. Jesus —who isn’t trying to be good so that he will get good stuff, but Jesus who welcomes us with open arms, regardless of our screw-ups. Jesus–who doesn’t tell us where the storm comes from or why it is stormy, but who walks with us through it.
What this means for us is not just that God’s mercy is unending, but we learn from the epistle that we are to function like Jesus and not put obstacles in anyone else’s way. Our affection for others is also to be wide open. We are to love others as children do. Our actions should not make it hard for others to love God. Our actions are to manifest God’s mercy. We are not called upon, like Job’s friends, to explain the cause of human travail – just to have mercy as God is merciful.
Still God rarely saves us the way we think God should save us. During these times the question is not where is God, the question is where are we? God save us from thinking we need to know all the reasons; and instead, may we know in our hearts that God already saves us despite our best efforts. As the words of the today’s Collect puts it: “O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your lovingkindness…”
Job 38:1-11
Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Mark 4:35-41