[Propertalk] Proper 23 b

[robertpmorrison at charter.net]

Just off the keyboard, so unedited. Here are the thoughts I have for 
this weekend - so far!

I hope you all have fun.

Bob


THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY                          THE 
TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
JOB 23:1-9, 16-17                         					 
PROPER 23 B
HEBREWS 14:12-16	      				                            	 
14th OCTOBER, 2012
MARK 10:17-31							 
PSALM 22:1-15

	Is this the same place we were last week? Is this the same Job?

	Last week he wasn’t a wildly happy camper, but he told his family that 
he had to roll with the punches and deal with his skin affliction. 
Essentially he held God guiltless for his physical condition. But look 
at today. Now he has friends dropping by all the time, as well as his 
family, each seemingly suggesting that he needs to turn on God, to give 
up on life, to see everything as being out of control. Not that it would 
have taken that much for him to think that way – just as it doesn’t take 
much for us, with all that’s happening in our personal lives and all 
that’s going on locally, nationally and internationally.

There are times when throwing up our hands doesn’t seem like such a bad 
deal.

The problem as Job sees it is that everything seems to be coming from 
places where he feels God is absent or unable to effect any change. He 
said that if he could only get into God’s courtroom, everything would be 
cleared up, that there would be an explanation, that his faith would be 
justified, that his family and friends would be able to see why he 
couldn’t agree with them.

But Job, just like us, doesn’t get to choose where and when his faith is 
tested. It happens when it happens.

When you get right down to it, that’s why it’s called faith. If we knew 
that we could scurry off every now and again, or be whisked out of 
trouble at the snap of a finger or bat of an eyelid, then there would be 
little over which to have faith.

One of the interesting things which the example of Job gives us is that 
no matter how pained, how lonely, how frustrated Job was, he never 
stopped talking to God.

Yes, of course he shouted from time to time. His language may even have 
become a bit salty. But he never lost sight of the fact that there IS a 
God, even if he can’t understand what’s going on, why he seems to be 
unable to find out where and when the solution to his loneliness will 
become operative. Still, he kept talking; he kept exploring what he 
remembered about his previous interactions and contacts. His memory kept 
him going and held him together.

I’ve sure we’ve all had at least a few times in our lives when things 
seemed dark, or silent, or frustrating. We may have sensed where we’d 
like to be. Maybe we even had what we thought was a plan. But everything 
doesn’t always follow a straight path. That’s when we have to develop 
what’s entered our language as the “patience of Job”.

Does this mean that we can sit back, that things will sort themselves 
out if we wait long enough? Does this mean that there’s an inevitability 
of everything falling into place? No – we know that already, and that’s 
where the tension builds up. That’s when we begin to experience the same 
sense of isolation portrayed in that story. That’s when we can be so 
tired that we may wonder what may become of us. And that’s when the 
silence embraces the lightest voice. That’s when the darkness is split 
open by a sliver of light that comes, as it were, out of nowhere.

Some voice speaks, some golden beam comes into our lives and, no matter 
how short the duration, some energy is passed to us – a gift to keep us 
going, to keep us talking to God about what’s happening in our lives and 
why we don’t seem to be making much headway towards a resolution.

Perhaps one of the keys to understanding how to deal with the various 
problems we face is that we should take advantage of every word, every 
chance encounter, every laugh, and use them to build up our faith in God 
and those around us who’re important to us. This will give us the focus 
we need to see how to act, what to say to those who might appear 
negative.

Time and again, small things have been there for me when I’ve needed to 
find the energy to make choices, to continue. God, no matter how 
strangely behaving, God remains there where I least expect it, simply 
asking me to keep focused first on the next step, and then also on the 
ultimate goal.

Jesus was addressing that issue with the man who came to him genuinely 
seeking greater satisfaction out of his life. Jesus told him that he 
needed to focus on those things which wouldn’t divert his attention away 
from seeking to follow God’s will for him in his life. Apparently the 
man was fairly well-off. It may have been his clothes, or his jewelery, 
or his bearing that caught Jesus’ attention. Whatever it was, it proved 
to be a distraction, not because of these items per se, but because of 
the way in which that man’s life seemed to be tied so closely to his 
possessions.

Jesus’ response wasn’t seen as a special voice, a ray of light to 
encourage the man. Somehow, he couldn’t comprehend the beauty of what 
Jesus was talking about. As I said, there wasn’t anything wrong with the 
possessions per se. They were simply kept so close to him that they cast 
the sort of shadow in his life that he wasn’t able to perceive the hope 
that was offered him. He heard the words, but his heart wouldn’t or 
couldn’t respond. He couldn’t reach out to that spark that God was 
offering him; he couldn’t comprehend or respond to the note of joy on 
Jesus’ lips. So he left, still fogged in, unable even to argue with 
Jesus about how difficult it was not to be so snared by negativity that 
he couldn’t receive the light offered him, light which could have lead 
him away from his dissatisfaction, his sense of something missing from 
his life.

I wonder whether than man ever bumped into Jesus again, or if he met any 
of the disciples after the resurrection. I wonder if he ever had second 
thoughts about his response to Jesus. We’ll never know. And it’s not 
that important, for us anyway. God gives us all so many opportunities to 
respond that it’s unbelievable. Even after we put ourselves into what 
may seem like impossible situations. There’s no corner to far away that 
God can’t and won’t reach us. However, we have to be willing to continue 
the conversation, to argue if necessary, to accept risk.

Job didn’t stop to say, “Wait a minute, is this going to tick off God?” 
Job argued and argued, to the point that Job’s friends and family 
probably got sick of it. But there was a point there, a point missed by 
the ruler because – was this the reason? – because his heart may not 
have been completely in the question. He couldn’t let go of the 
possessions chained to him, like the ghost of Jacob Marley. He was 
afraid that without those things which he’d acquired somehow he’d be 
lonely.

As a contrast, while Job wasn’t given the option, he seemed to be less 
attached to his family, his farm, his animals than he was with 
communicating with God and keep that relationship as open and 
intelligible as possible.

Some things are simply too precious to give up. The question is, how do 
we evaluate them?

	You probably heard last week, and were as horrified and saddened as I 
was, to hear about Malala Yousafzai.
“The New York Times” editors wrote: “If Pakistan has a future, it is 
embodied in Malala Yousafzai. Yet the Taliban so feared this 14-year-old 
girl that they tried to assassinate her. Her supposed offense? Her want 
of an education and her public advocation for it.

	“Malala was on her way home from school in Mingora, Pakistan, in the 
Swat Valley, on Tuesday when a Taliban gunman walked up to the school 
bus, asked for her by name and shot her in the head and neck. On 
Wednesday, doctors at a military hospital removed the bullet that lodged 
in her shoulder. She remains in critical condition.

	“Malala was no ordinary target. She came to public attention three 
years ago when she wrote a diary for the BBC about life under the 
Taliban, which controlled Swat from 2007 to 2009 before being dislodged 
by an Army offensive. Last year, she won a national peace prize.

	“The Pakistani Taliban was quick and eager to take credit for Tuesday’s 
attack. Malala (the Taliban said) ‘has become a symbol of Western 
culture in the area; she was openly propagating it,’ a spokesman, 
Ehsanullah Ehsan, told The Times. If she survives, the militants would 
try again to kill her, he vowed.” 1

	Somehow, Malala not only heard that voice which talked about education, 
about discovering more and more about our role as individuals in taking 
responsibility for our decisions and for sharing with others; not only 
did she hear that, but she responded, with joy! Malala has spent the 
last three years campaigning for girls' education after the Taliban shut 
down girls' schools. If she survives, I have no doubt that she’ll 
continue with this, no matter how many death threats, no matter what the 
cost to her standing and approval wherever she is.

	Somehow, Malala was surprised by joy to be able to take on this 
ministry, no matter what the cost to her. Somehow, she’s been enabled to 
endure attacks in the past, to put up with terrible hardship, and not 
lose faith in what she believes is her interaction with her Creator. 
Instead of giving up, she’s accepted that she has the faith to be 
responsible with the resources with which she’s been blessed, whatever 
resources a fourteen-year-old may feel that she has.

	And that’s where we sit. We may not feel as if we’re strong, that our 
resources will make much of a difference. We may be tempted to give up 
when we’re ridiculed, or attacked, or isolated, or left with so many 
questions we don’t even know where to begin.

	The prayer of Job, the prayer of Jesus, the prayer of Malala is that 
we’ll be open to hear that voice of encouragement, that beam of light in 
our lives, and that we’ll continue to converse with Go, in whatever tone 
of voice, to affirm our engagement. That prayer with which I closed last 
week applies just as much today as it did then:

“Dear God,
Thank you for all that is good,
for our creation and our humanity,
for the stewardship you have given us of this planet earth,
for the gifts of life and of one another,
for the love which is unbounded and eternal.” 2

-	to which I may add: and help us to respond with faith and gratitude!
-	
NOTES:

1 	EDITORIAL “Malala Yousafzai’s Courage”  Published: October 10, 2012 
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/opinion/malala-yousafzais-courage.html

2	“Night Prayer” from “A New Zealand Prayer Book”, page 167 ff.


Robert P Morrison
Interim Vicar
The Episcopal Church of St Alban
PO Box 1556
Albany OR  97321   541-921-1076 (cell)