tas . m4 4 Fy SO ga + F Spee Sage 1 {> wyryi}
ne jd of Feith Job 38:1-18 Oetober Fo, 1Oh4

in what has been called the (‘age of omeeek F \ ana it seems as

us tbo
if each new week brings t @s some new and ominous reason for anxiety.

When one looks out on the world through the telescopic spectacles of news-

print, radio and television, one sees a Wildering array of unanswered

earaee nismnnii
questions, chaos and meaningless events}\In the pgst few days we have heen
—— i

subjeécted to the added anxieties of a Soviet break-through in space technol-

ogy, a drastic change in Russien leadership, the explosion of a nuclear

device by the Chinese Communists and a tragic revelation having to do with
|
the highest councils of our governnent .\ These new question maeks, of course,

are seen against the backdrop of continuting world problems:-Viet Nam, Berlin

Nuclear Testing, Civil Rights: problems we have learned to accept: and yet

problems that bear in upon us with forbidding imngdiacy .|when we allow our-

selves a moment of integrity, and look at the meaning or non-meanhng of these

events and situations, we very well might join 08 Psalmistg in his

Casa

despairing ery: ‘How Long, O Lord, how long.’ ‘)

ay Actually, our anxieities over eecent a in the world have
dee eper roots than the past few weeks Ain the past one hundred years our

civilization has undergone a cataclysmic upheaval’ of most of mux its basic

traditions and cornerstones \ Little by little, certainty has peor stripped
—_ ———ee P) — 5

+ }

away, until there is very little you and I wan be sure of.\As science
ee i ——

probes further and further into the wonder and intracacy of the natural

world, our knowledge diminishes in importance and significance | One_hundrea

years ago A man looked at the sky, and assimilated and understood what he

———

saw.|Today, scientific inquiry has pushed our knowledge aside. a look at

i —_
1

the sky today tells us that the unknown is far greater than the known: and

that man's fantastic scientific and technological achievments have merely

opened the lid of a "Pandora's Box" full of mystery.

Fifty years agd the average American couldn't have cared jess about the

——

slumBering Soviet Union or

the Prussians and their designs

——$_—

.| america

Was a continental fortress, safe, self-sufficient. and secure | 50 years later
eee aa | —
@ kidnappimeg in Venezuela, a skirmish in the Himilaya's and a brick and

Lae

concrete wall inflence our thinking an@ acting and oir daily living.

Domestically the certianties of family, work: and religion have succumbed

—

to an internal revolution \ We all face unemployment, delinauency, inflation

depression, as viable possibilities in our own lives.) And meanwhile the churg,

the bastion of American culture, grows in numbers and diminshes in

: te ; . ; So . . .
effe tiveness .| Christianity in American life has: deteriorated ssa pean t

ae |
thet a candidate for the presidency can be proud of staying at home on

Sunday morning: while his opponent goes to church to see if the game sermon
is as good as _ the one in his home church.

ft is probably true that we have no more or less resson for nersonal

anxiety than our fore-ro there .\nut we are no longer just indivituals consernd
ee

with our little vorta. \tne twentieth century fic Ferced us to be part of
—— ee ————— 7

[oe

mumpity as it struggles with eretaer proviane \ oom aus nfe Poreed ur ta be

BEC Diy Gemeemuco wlth were than our ramitios | Weare, more so thin cover be¢e

Sar
beforey cart of the eam: Bancuity cs ‘he Cubsno, Germans, Puncicns vac
Z vee aaa
7 17 1 ae oe a tw : ce ane cosas. — r ae pt - remit tat ca. ae . ra
ze oofs Bayi oo With me

as ang our énxicties - and the sls

—_ Ce

Su know, dob was a good man; 3 devout

—

and pious iosr wuc serbed the Lord, was homored by; hie friencs and loved by

his romily | Bat one day dou's life cams erashing Gown upon him. | His fortune,

his lifets labor, wos gons im a moment; he wae isolated from his family anda
ne! x} i SS , —

offlieted with a physical illness ffJob's real croblem, however, was not this

imag
2

earl

ian
a

fa

f cisasters \1t was his anxiety . \ He wasi:a strong man , ne believed

—

in Ged. \even in sickness and gris? he held his head high.\ He had nothing to

Se —

be ashamed of, and he could retain his self respect: he coulé still be Job,

—_—_—

if he could keep hold_of his Faith.

More than anything else, Job needed a support: something to hold on to: a

resource where he might find the answer to his burning question of “Why”.

Toree fpiends came to Jov:\ each In turn failéd miserably to answer

his guestions or even to comfort in| ang SS) finally Job turned to God.

TF -

“Fhrough several discourses he asked God: /{"What are the charges | against me |

what have I done to deserve this? If only I could know why, I would be at
peace, If only you_would allay the uncertainty, the despair of my anxiety."

disintigration of life's basic structures | Like many a modern man Job's

Like many_a modern man, Job was bewlldered and confused by the total

anxiety grew out of the total absence of answers.\ There was no apparent
pea Ye a8 nN EES

meaning to what had happened .\ If only he could know the reason, the logic

behind it all, he could adjust and live through the tragedy. | ana like many

a

a modern man, Job brought his anklety, his despair, his unanswered questpns

to God and demanded answers.

rH

The 38th chapter begins ith God's response to Job's questions:

"Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirl wind. 'Who is this that
darkens counsel wi¥ words without knowledgé? Gird up your loins like
ao a yan, I will question you, and you shall declare to me."

CH At the outset it appears that Job is not about to receive the answers

he requested \ instead he found himself the object. of a relentless interoga-

®re were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me
if you have understanding. Who determined: its measurements? Surely

you know,"

Relentlessly, with a mocking cadence, the interoga tion continues:

: "Have you commanded the morning since yorr days began? Arid caused the
dawn to know its place? Have you entered into the springs of the sea?
Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you comprehended the

expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know ail this."

Wierth ’ Desparate, isolated, ruined financially and

——

morally, ne How finds himself cruelly rebuked by iis God \\ang yet it is

precisely this fianl rebuking by God thal makes true faith possible for Job.

He was searching for answers to some very difficult guestions:| questions, tha

in one forme or abother, present themselves in the life of every man | Why
rt —

tragedy, why sickness, why death, WHY mE? \\sob was demandeing answers from

® but the only answer he received was a lengthy " There is no answer".

(tm 2 sense the entire story of Job is the Lesson we are so reluctant to

ee

learn that there ere no answers for the mind to!life's most urgent question

and that true faith in God is possible only when we see this truth and grasp

it for ourselves. | With hés questions God drove Jab to the wall, and taught

him that there were no answers: and that as long 4s he depended on reasonable

rational answers to his questions, he would continue to wallow in anxlety,

God taught Job that true_faith begins when we peep into the dark void and say

a

I believe: /"L trust in God. "JArid the discourses of Job end: ("Therefore

understand, things $00 wonderful for me which
i

I did not kmow. TI had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my

I nave uttered what I did no

eye sees thee,—therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." )

Bob found tne faith he thought he .had, not when he received

ee

In othe’ word

—_— ee,

the answers to his questions, but precisley at that moment when he realized

there were no answers to be had. | 4t that moment faith was born in Job] faib

that depends on nothing but God himself: faith that goes beyond all the

tragedies lire may deal out: faith that heals despair and anxiety.)

The story of Job is a Bibl¢cal poem: a story handed down throggh the

centuries, adorned with literary imbe11ishment .\ But what about today? What
i ———_——_—
about mankind and his fith, or lack of it, tod ay?

ed ——— od

The Protestant Reformed church rests heavily on Faith. \we believe with

St. Paul, that the righteaus are saved by faith: that is, not by the good
eee bee ee

I

ls

things we do, not by good works, but by our trust in Goa. \ang yet within me

I feel that we don't know very much about either that kind of Faith, or that

kind of saving. \1 think we have, for too long, thought of religion as merely

something that begins only after we die, \ And faith--our faith is very

the vehicle to heaven. | I think we regard religion--as our way of _ winning

much dependent oan what we can know and understand; 4

ay (1: is interesting to notice that the same Biblical word can be

translated by the English words “save! and "heal, | Jesus apparently used

the same word when he said "you are healed’ and you are saved, | In other

words the state of being saved,(salvation,) begins now, ftis something that

happens now-~in our life time, and not just after we die, | When we talk

about God's saving grace we mean something that affects a change in us
aka aie

now--not only after we aie. \ We mean that salvation 1s an added dimension to
i ————_—_—_—

—

life in the immediate present; an added di
Sar
one with God, our neighbor and the world,

a —

ension thatmakes us whale men-<«at

This sving,healing wholeness

the N,T, deseribes Is the opposite of anxiety. Job found this salvation

when the truth finally bro'’e in upon him that there Were no answers, but

there was God. \ It is this salvation; this wholeness and newness of life
its bai

that we believe depends on faith. \ It is not some thing we can earn--or

conjure up by a series of good works, or by obey in rules or daws.| Rather

a, is it, then, that we seem to have sueh aiffioulty with sn tostnal
y 8

ee

things are that simple why isn!t everybody at peace? \ ny don't we know more

about our own salvation?

The ariswer lies hidden in our own hearts; an answer that wes eloquently

ri

expressed by Job. \ Very simply --we Want answers to. our questions; we don't

—

want to trust in anything that we cannot comprehend with our minds Like

———oee

Job, we want to be able to trust facts, logic, knowledge. \ Like Job,

—_— ———

—

u

Jf Man's fist ana original sin

Was the desire _to have all knowledge and therefore” be like God, | Even in

rarden of Oey man was loathe to put this: ‘final, ultimate trust in God
Ana f bye nave h t
— S ave trouble finding the faiths that heals, because we are

reluctant to bow before the mystery of God--we find it impossible to

accept the fact that because we are men we will ‘never know the answers

dae

to life's burning questions. \ we turn our backs on the God who is Almighty
i :

the God who was and is and ever shall be--and put all our eggs in our own
baskets, \ ana instead of faith we find depair; ‘instead of salvation

we find anxiety: instead of peace we find ourselves in a hell that has

~SnTortunately, much of what goes under the name of Christianity

eagerly accommodates us in our desparate need for answers . |. The great

appeal of the conservative, fundamentalist schools in both Protestantism

and Csatholociam is precisely the availability off Simple, clear cut ansers,

Both provide 4 framework in which to Live ;|botn structure living and

thinking;| both, in this regard, provide the security of ready answers;

both live off the fear and promise of salvation: after death.| And both

—

inhibit, almost entirely, the faith that is fing-—the trust that is ultimat
ee

and the whelenesss that can begin right now,

we ali, at times, want our religion to do this for us.

wesponsibllity of fselng the unknown of life with coursse
ae
douet Laue numenity necde calverton,| there is something
a o_O
it ree if - rane \ atid ~ is = rt a Tig by tes > * - - 4 cooee
ina
Gis Sarray. By Ty py Elope f SME Lal oe 32:
3
en a
wales ot SLa]ly teed “hie hesling,csuvin we
Lee Liss in the eky when we die,” but newiese, 3

wholeness in cur lives vient now. ) &&)

ee 20 GED los CG 2°nh gur lteatowt wih Wile Stive 3 | t 45 €08y to believe
tT — mT

tnat We will find the jnowers to all our ‘qusnttones i is easy to aocept

i hundred different substitutes for the faith that demands aboslute

ge andintegrity Of us,
WC Wili experience Salvatin, however, when | With Job, we look into the

gab void vold of the unknown, arfirming that there iare no answers, giving up

our trust in self and placing it _in God, A

irsretthtesebf. Ager
God hee given vs Me gif of Fe Ve has Forder given

oF loecomind uw woe: Wr Tam, ak pecs

_ ve oppo mea - —_ yo As on Qa lane
ck he wooctd- | His . : om

ele AR God aces Ud lee COUT ora Lio Fac rho uronre cron
aes C \ we waht,
. 6 - Wee ees answers -\S A ° % -