Job 1:1-3:26
Gulp. If there has ever been a meeting anywhere in which you just hope your name didn’t come up, then this has to be it! God and Satan’s great philosophical debate about the human species and their capacity for good gets a little bit personal for poor old Job. Amidst our distress over seeing Job treated like a human guinea pig it’s worth bearing in mind that God is always on the side of Job - he believes in his faithfulness and capacity for pure worship and is convinced that Job will prevail - while Satan always acts as the great accuser, attacking not only Job personally but also the whole concept of what it is to be human. (It is interesting to reflect on our society today, where we see being played out the battle over what it is to be human. I’m desperate for us as the church to step forward and redeem the concept of what it is to be a person, tearing down the ideas of reductionism and pessimism that surround us.)
Finally, it’s worth noting that, while we are mercifully let into the heavenly back-story (or should I say front-story - I have no idea!), Job has no way of knowing that his response to his sufferings has any wider significance. He’s just a bloke having his head kicked in. Even more amazing then is his determination to keep his tongue under control and not sin in what he said.
Matthew 18:10-35
Mercy is a fine word don’t you think? It’s one of those words that isn’t used too much (except for in the game “mercy mercy” in school play-grounds - which I always used to lose...) so still has some potency. I think mercy is the common theme in today’s 3 discrete sayings of Jesus. Following Jesus, and living in the church is always about looking out for others, trying to find ways to keep them close to you and in touch with God. It really pains me that so many Christians shy away from the grubby reality of our faith - rubbing up alongside people, being inspired and offended, supported and wounded by them. We seem so quick to take a step back and not really throw ourselves into friendship with the church. We often say the problem is with the church being too institutionalised or too full of difficult characters but is the truth really that we are just not that good at forgiving people? If we are serious about following Jesus we have to seriously get stuck into the local church, doing life together with the other “little ones”, challenging them and then forgiving them (note that “forgive and forget” is a gross distortion of Jesus’ teaching here - challenge first and, when they repent, then forgive them. If they don’t repent well... maybe we can get to that another day). All this effort is not just to play happy families though, a properly functioning church has immense power to bound and loose, to ask and receive.
Psalm 16:1-11
A psalm with an amazing sense of contentment tied up in it but, goodness me, did no-one ever teach David not to mix his metaphors?
