William H. Willimon - "Defying Chaos with God" (February 10, 1991)
Loading the media player...
Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(organ music) | 0:00 | |
- | Good morning. | 4:42 |
We welcome you to Duke Chapel on this Sunday. | 4:44 | |
This week we began the Christian season of Lent. | 4:49 | |
We call your attention to the announcements | 4:52 | |
of the Lenten schedule here at the chapel. | 4:56 | |
Beginning with our Ash Wednesday services, | 5:00 | |
this Wednesday in the morning and in the afternoon. | 5:03 | |
We also remind you of the Memorial, the AIDS Quilt | 5:07 | |
that is located in the Bryan Center | 5:13 | |
that is sponsored in part by the chapel | 5:16 | |
and the other activities that are listed in the bulletin. | 5:20 | |
It is our privilege again this year | 5:26 | |
to be sending a work team and to an area of need | 5:28 | |
in the world again, our United Methodist Campus Minister | 5:33 | |
Olly Jinkins is leading a team, like those students | 5:38 | |
who will be participating in this year's work team, | 5:42 | |
to just come up and stand so that you can see them. | 5:45 | |
And Scott Cooper, a freshman, Jackson Tennessee | 5:48 | |
is going to just say a word about the work team | 5:52 | |
which will be the recipient of today's offering. | 5:55 | |
Scott. | 5:58 | |
- | Good morning. | 6:02 |
We are the Duke Work Team en route to Honduras | 6:03 | |
during spring break this year. | 6:05 | |
We are a group of 17 undergraduate and graduate students | 6:07 | |
from various faiths and denominations. | 6:10 | |
We are working for the Ecumenical Christian | 6:13 | |
Commission on Development, which is the only | 6:15 | |
ecumenical organization in Honduras. | 6:17 | |
They have assigned us to begin construction | 6:19 | |
on a desperately needed school and a church center. | 6:22 | |
The church center will be used as a place to worship | 6:25 | |
as well as a training center for teachers, | 6:27 | |
farmers, medical personnel. | 6:29 | |
Many have asked me why I volunteered | 6:32 | |
to spend my spring break doing missions work | 6:34 | |
in a third world nation. | 6:36 | |
I reply that as a Christian, | 6:38 | |
I am called to help those in need. | 6:40 | |
My help should extend beyond the borders of our nation. | 6:42 | |
We are going to an area that desperately needs our help. | 6:47 | |
Honduras is the second poorest country | 6:49 | |
in the western hemisphere. | 6:51 | |
I also reply that I go not only to help, but to learn also. | 6:53 | |
I want to see what it is like | 6:58 | |
to live a third world nation. | 6:59 | |
I want to meet new friends of a different nationality, | 7:01 | |
yet a similar faith. | 7:04 | |
Our trip will cost over $20,000. | 7:06 | |
Your offering this morning will be used | 7:08 | |
to cover part of these expenses. | 7:10 | |
You will know that what you give this morning | 7:12 | |
will go directly to help those who need your help. | 7:14 | |
Thank you very much. | 7:17 | |
- | Go down with them. | 7:21 |
Thank you Scott and Work Team. | 7:23 | |
The Work Team has raised their own expenses themselves, | 7:24 | |
the money that you will provide | 7:30 | |
will help to go for materials which the Work Team | 7:32 | |
will be using and also for the leaders. | 7:35 | |
Now let us stand and, | 7:39 | |
for the greeting. | 7:41 | |
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. | 7:44 | |
Audience | And also with you. | 7:48 |
- | The splendor of Christ shines upon us. | 7:49 |
Audience | Praise the Lord. | 7:53 |
(organ music) | 7:56 | |
(congregation singing) | 8:28 | |
(words drowned out by organ and echo) | 8:29 | |
- | Oh God you are the one who on the first day | 12:27 |
of creation declared, "Let there be light." | 12:31 | |
And there was light. | 12:34 | |
And you saw that it was good. | 12:36 | |
Since the beginning your light has shone within us, | 12:39 | |
but our sinfulness has eclipsed its brightness. | 12:42 | |
We can no longer see the sun you set above us | 12:46 | |
to illumine our way. | 12:49 | |
Come to us oh healer of blindness, | 12:51 | |
and shine your glory upon our hearts | 12:54 | |
that we might be your witnesses once again. | 12:57 | |
Amen. | 13:01 | |
- | Let us pray. | 13:12 |
All | Open our hearts and minds oh God, | 13:15 |
by the power of your Holy Spirit | 13:18 | |
so that this word is read and proclaimed, | 13:21 | |
we might hear with joy what you say to us this day. | 13:24 | |
Amen. | 13:29 | |
The first reading is taken from the book of Job. | 13:31 | |
Why is light given to one in misery? | 13:36 | |
And life to the bitter in soul who long for death, | 13:39 | |
but it does not come, and dig for it more than | 13:43 | |
for hidden treasures, | 13:46 | |
who rejoice exceedingly and are glad | 13:48 | |
when they find the grave? | 13:50 | |
Why is light given to one who cannot see the way, | 13:53 | |
whom God has fenced in. | 13:57 | |
For my sighing comes like my bread, | 13:59 | |
and my groanings are poured out like water. | 14:02 | |
Truly the thing that I fear comes upon me. | 14:05 | |
And what I dread befalls me. | 14:08 | |
I am not at ease, nor am I quiet. | 14:11 | |
I have no rest but trouble comes. | 14:15 | |
Do not human beings have a hard service on earth? | 14:19 | |
And are not their days like the days of a laborer? | 14:22 | |
Like a slave who longs for the shadow, | 14:25 | |
and like laborers who look for their wages, | 14:28 | |
so I am allotted months of emptiness | 14:31 | |
and nights of misery are apportioned to me. | 14:34 | |
When I lie down I say, when shall I rise? | 14:37 | |
But the night is long and I am full of tossing until dawn. | 14:40 | |
My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt. | 14:45 | |
My skin hardens and breaks out again. | 14:48 | |
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, | 14:52 | |
and come to their end without hope. | 14:55 | |
Remember that my life is a breath, | 14:57 | |
my eye will never again see good. | 15:00 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 15:04 | |
All | Thanks be to God. | 15:07 |
- | Please stand as we join together as singing | 15:12 |
responsibly Psalm 50 verses one through six | 15:14 | |
found on page 783. | 15:18 | |
♪ The mighty one, God the Lord, ♪ | 15:28 | |
♪ Speaks and summons the Earth ♪ | 15:33 | |
♪ From the rising of the sun to its setting ♪ | 15:35 | |
(congregation's response drowned out by organ) | 15:40 | |
♪ Our God comes and does not keep silent ♪ | 15:48 | |
♪ Before whom is our devouring fire ♪ | 15:53 | |
♪ Round about whom is a mighty storm ♪ | 15:57 | |
(congregation's response drowned out by organ) | 16:02 | |
♪ Gather to me my faithful ones ♪ | 16:13 | |
♪ Who made a covenant with me by sacrifice ♪ | 16:18 | |
(congregation's response drowned out by organ) | 16:23 | |
♪ Oh glory be to you oh, God ♪ | 16:33 | |
♪ And to Jesus Christ our savior ♪ | 16:36 | |
(congregation's response drowned out by organ) | 16:40 | |
♪ As it was since time began ♪ | 16:46 | |
(congregation's response drowned out by organ) | 16:50 | |
- | This reading is from the gospel according to Saint Mark. | 17:17 |
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter | 17:22 | |
and James and John, and led them up a high mountain | 17:24 | |
apart by themselves. | 17:27 | |
And he was transfigured before them. | 17:30 | |
And his clothes became dazzling white, | 17:32 | |
such as no one on earth could bleach them. | 17:34 | |
And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses | 17:37 | |
who were talking with Jesus. | 17:40 | |
And Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good | 17:42 | |
for us to be here. | 17:45 | |
Let us make three dwellings, one for you, | 17:46 | |
one for Moses and one for Elijah. | 17:49 | |
He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. | 17:52 | |
Then a cloud overshadowed them and from the cloud | 17:56 | |
there came a voice. | 17:58 | |
This is my son, the beloved, listen to him. | 18:00 | |
Suddenly when they looked around, | 18:05 | |
they saw no one with them anymore. | 18:06 | |
But only Jesus. | 18:09 | |
As they were coming down the mountain, | 18:11 | |
he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen | 18:13 | |
until after the son of man had risen from the dead. | 18:17 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 18:22 | |
All | Thanks be to God. | 18:24 |
("Warum ist das licht gegeben" by Brahms) | 18:49 | |
(choir singing in foreign language) | 18:52 | |
- | These are words, out of chaos these words of Brother Job. | 24:58 |
Why is light given to one in misery? | 25:04 | |
Life to the bitter in soul? | 25:06 | |
Job has lost his family, he's lost everything he has, | 25:10 | |
now he sits on an ash heap, body covered in sores. | 25:15 | |
He asks God, "Why?" | 25:20 | |
And these words are being addressed to you in chaos. | 25:25 | |
CNN visions of Persian Gulf water fowl blackened with oil, | 25:33 | |
the doll of an Iraqi child amidst bombed rubble, | 25:40 | |
the beaten face of an English pilot, | 25:46 | |
an old man that has nowhere now to live in Israel. | 25:50 | |
Chaos News Network. | 25:57 | |
Job asks God, "Why is light given to one in misery?" | 26:02 | |
It is dangerous to be invited by the Bible in Job | 26:11 | |
or today's anthem to speak to such a question, | 26:15 | |
to such chaos. | 26:18 | |
Any time a preacher, or I think any of you, | 26:20 | |
attempt to speak about God and human suffering, | 26:23 | |
there's always a danger that we'll risk sounding | 26:28 | |
like Job's friends, | 26:31 | |
Zophar, Bildad, Elihu, Eliphaz, | 26:35 | |
preachers all. | 26:40 | |
Job is their unwilling congregation. | 26:43 | |
And in the face of his loathsome sores | 26:47 | |
and the tragedy of his life, what do these friends | 26:50 | |
of Job preach? | 26:54 | |
Eliphaz. | 26:57 | |
Think now Job, who that was innocent ever perished? | 26:59 | |
Are you perishing? | 27:05 | |
Well let's sit down and figure out | 27:06 | |
what you've done to deserve this. | 27:07 | |
Bildad. | 27:11 | |
Are you suggesting God is unjust? | 27:14 | |
No, you are unjust. | 27:18 | |
Zophar. | 27:24 | |
How dare you ask such questions? | 27:25 | |
Would great God take the time to explain himself | 27:27 | |
to a liar like you? | 27:30 | |
Get well soon, love Zophar. | 27:34 | |
But have we no sympathy for Job's friends? | 27:39 | |
Just listen to us sometimes when we are explaining chaos. | 27:42 | |
It's just God's will. | 27:49 | |
You'll have to learn to accept it. | 27:53 | |
God never puts more on us than we can bear. | 27:57 | |
AIDS? It's their own fault. | 28:00 | |
I'm sure the president knows more what to do | 28:05 | |
in this situation than we do. | 28:08 | |
Oh, we mean well, we mean well, | 28:12 | |
but just pause for a moment and just listen to us | 28:14 | |
as we're busy talking about chaos. | 28:18 | |
And all of our explanations are just this pitiful, | 28:23 | |
Tinker-Toy bridge built over some great abyss. | 28:25 | |
Little mumblings that explain nothing. | 28:31 | |
Upon being told upon the death of her beloved daughter | 28:37 | |
by a friend, this is just God's will, | 28:40 | |
I heard her say, | 28:45 | |
"Listen to yourself." | 28:49 | |
In the face of such pitifully inadequate platitudes | 28:54 | |
no wonder that some are driven to even great despair. | 28:57 | |
She said, "If this is God's will, | 29:04 | |
"then I want no more of this God." | 29:06 | |
Or as Job said, "Why | 29:12 | |
"did God even go to the trouble | 29:16 | |
"to give light to one in such misery?" | 29:18 | |
So most of us, realizing the inadequacy of our theology | 29:26 | |
of chaos have learned to mutter something | 29:30 | |
a bit more sophisticated like, "Uh uh uh" | 29:32 | |
or "Well, we'll be thinking about you." | 29:35 | |
Night before Thanksgiving NPR reporter Linda Wertheimer | 29:41 | |
interviewing children at an elementary school in Texas, | 29:47 | |
interviewed a little boy about 12 years old, I think, | 29:53 | |
whose mother had, whose single parent mother | 29:57 | |
had been deployed in the Gulf during August. | 30:00 | |
He said, "She writes to me nearly every day. | 30:05 | |
"She tells me to do my work, study hard. | 30:11 | |
"But she also tells me she's scared. | 30:16 | |
"And all I pray every night is God, | 30:20 | |
"don't let my mother die." | 30:23 | |
And Miss Wertheimer had enough sense not to say anything. | 30:29 | |
Job says that this world sometimes, | 30:39 | |
all sermons by the Bildads and Zophars and Elihus be damned, | 30:42 | |
this world is not in order, it is not fair. | 30:47 | |
Things don't work out. | 30:52 | |
Why is light given to one in misery? | 30:54 | |
In Robert Coles' new book "The Spiritual Life of Children," | 30:59 | |
he interviews little Margarita. | 31:05 | |
Margarita's life is circumscribed by the brutal reality | 31:10 | |
of her hillside favela overlooking Rio. | 31:14 | |
She says, "When I look at Jesus up there," | 31:21 | |
and here she points to the well known Christ of the Andes | 31:24 | |
overlooking Rio, "When I look at Jesus up there, | 31:28 | |
"sometimes I wonder what he's thinking. | 31:31 | |
"He can see all of us, he's got to have an opinion. | 31:37 | |
"I try to talk to him, 'cause he's all I have. | 31:41 | |
"Mamma still works as a maid in Copacabana | 31:48 | |
"even though she coughs and she bleeds." | 31:51 | |
Coles says the mother had tuberculosis | 31:56 | |
and died shortly after this conversation. | 31:59 | |
"A lot of times I ask him why he does things like this." | 32:03 | |
And she waved then her hand in an arc | 32:09 | |
over the squalid favela. | 32:11 | |
"He's got to see what we see. | 32:15 | |
"Mother used to tell us that we'll go to heaven | 32:19 | |
"because we're so poor. | 32:20 | |
"I used to believe her. | 32:24 | |
"But now I know that she just tells us that | 32:26 | |
"to shut us up when we're hungry. | 32:28 | |
"Now when I hear her say it, I look up at him | 32:32 | |
"and I ask him, well what do you say, Jesus? | 32:35 | |
"Do you believe her? | 32:40 | |
"Do you believe the priest who says the same thing? | 32:43 | |
"Do you notice the big car he drives? | 32:46 | |
"Do you notice the nice house he lives in? | 32:48 | |
"What do you think of him? | 32:53 | |
"I shouldn't blame Jesus. | 32:57 | |
"I do though, sometimes. | 33:00 | |
"He's right there, that statue keeps reminding me of him. | 33:04 | |
"And I'm either upset with him, or I'm praying to him | 33:11 | |
"to tell me why the world is like it is." | 33:14 | |
Well Margarita, we could explain to you | 33:22 | |
the historical roots of Brazilian poverty, | 33:25 | |
the difficulties of third world debt. | 33:29 | |
We could mix in a little Augustinian theodicy. | 33:31 | |
But I bet after everything had been said and done, | 33:36 | |
and it took Bildad, Zophar and Elihu about 30 chapters | 33:41 | |
to explain it to Job, I bet after all that's said and done, | 33:45 | |
I bet a smart girl like you, an honest confronter | 33:50 | |
of the chaos like you, | 33:54 | |
would still ask why. | 33:59 | |
I look up at him and I say, | 34:05 | |
"Well, what do you think, Jesus?" | 34:08 | |
And thus Margarita prepares us for Job's second move. | 34:14 | |
Job, man on the ash heap of life, moves | 34:19 | |
from resignation, quiet resignation, | 34:23 | |
oh let the day perish wherein I was born. | 34:27 | |
Why is light given to one in misery? | 34:29 | |
He moves from resignation to clench-fisted defiance. | 34:31 | |
"You're all miserable comforters!" Cries Job. | 34:37 | |
"Shall your vain words have no end? | 34:39 | |
"I am sick of your preachments. | 34:42 | |
"God has broken me. | 34:44 | |
"God has taken me by the neck and just shaken me. | 34:45 | |
"Will God hear my cry? | 34:49 | |
"Oh that he would hear me! | 34:51 | |
"Oh that the All Mighty would answer me." | 34:52 | |
And I think this is when you just love Job. | 34:58 | |
If you've ever been a fellow sufferer, fellow questioner. | 35:02 | |
Ya just love it when he finally rises up | 35:07 | |
off that ash heap, clenches his fist, | 35:09 | |
raves at God, defiantly demands to know why. | 35:13 | |
Job's friends become preachers, Bildad, Zophar, Elihu, | 35:20 | |
Eliphaz, respond to the horror of the chaos | 35:23 | |
in Job's life with the same old tired cliches. | 35:28 | |
God is all powerful. | 35:33 | |
Amen. | 35:35 | |
God makes the rules. | 35:36 | |
Amen. | 35:37 | |
You obey the rules, life will go fine for you. | 35:38 | |
You disobey the rules you're gonna be cursed. | 35:43 | |
Everything is so nice and stable and mathematical. | 35:46 | |
Religion as reassertion of time-honored platitude. | 35:51 | |
This'll all work out for the best. | 35:58 | |
Who that was innocent ever perished? | 36:01 | |
But Margarita looks up into the face | 36:08 | |
of that stone Christ | 36:10 | |
and demands an answer. | 36:15 | |
Job defiantly | 36:18 | |
tells God, see you in court. | 36:21 | |
And finally, finally after the gauntlet is thrown down, | 36:27 | |
38 chapters late, God shows up. | 36:30 | |
"Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind." | 36:34 | |
Job 38:1. | 36:38 | |
And what a God Job gets. | 36:40 | |
Who is this one that dares to speak to me? | 36:44 | |
Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth? | 36:47 | |
Can you create an ostrich? | 36:50 | |
Have you ever tried to make a giraffe? | 36:51 | |
Who are you? | 36:54 | |
I'm sorry for those of you who thought | 36:57 | |
that we had a smooth talking, well spoken God. | 36:59 | |
This God takes on Job with bombastic, whirlwind rhetoric. | 37:04 | |
Enough of these preacherettes and their sermonettes. | 37:10 | |
I'll do the talking now. | 37:13 | |
And when God answers, God answers Job | 37:15 | |
with a bunch more questions. | 37:18 | |
Insolent questions. | 37:21 | |
Where were you? | 37:24 | |
Who are you? | 37:26 | |
What can you do? | 37:28 | |
In other words, God said to Job, "Shut up." | 37:31 | |
And Job does just that. | 37:36 | |
Oh behold, I've uttered questions, I did not know. | 37:37 | |
I've spoken once, I will not speak twice. | 37:41 | |
I put my hand over my mouth. | 37:43 | |
Dumb, numb, stupefied resignation. | 37:47 | |
I mean, what would he say after all that bombast | 37:52 | |
about can you create a giraffe? | 37:55 | |
Where were you when I made the sun | 37:57 | |
to rise for the first time? | 37:59 | |
Can you make an ostrich? | 38:01 | |
What else could Job do except just | 38:05 | |
to resign himself to silence? | 38:07 | |
Margarita, who do you think you are? | 38:12 | |
Poor, uneducated, young. | 38:14 | |
Your poverty is a complex global, economic, | 38:17 | |
culturally conditioned phenomenon. | 38:22 | |
How in the world could we ever explain it | 38:24 | |
to somebody like you? | 38:26 | |
"We are in our times of chaos but the dumb playthings | 38:30 | |
"of the gods," said Homer. | 38:34 | |
But not of this God. | 38:40 | |
'Cause the story isn't over. | 38:44 | |
If Job's forced resignation, his quieted, dumb capitulation | 38:48 | |
were the end, | 38:55 | |
then we really are to be pitied. | 38:58 | |
Since God has got no answer, I suppose any answer you pick, | 39:03 | |
no matter how trite or nihilistic, is as good | 39:07 | |
as any other answer. | 39:10 | |
Just go ahead, take an answer. | 39:11 | |
But that isn't the story, the end of the story of Job. | 39:15 | |
God speaks a second time. | 39:19 | |
Will you overturn my justice? | 39:24 | |
Will you make me out evil in order | 39:29 | |
to preserve your innocence? | 39:32 | |
Want you to remember those questions, | 39:37 | |
'cause I think they're pivotal here. | 39:38 | |
"Behold," God says, "Behold now behemoth, | 39:42 | |
"which I made even as I made you." | 39:48 | |
Behold behemoth, I made him just like I made you. | 39:51 | |
Behemoth? What is behemoth? | 39:54 | |
Well the footnote in my RSV Bible says, | 39:56 | |
"Behemoth is a Hebrew word for hippopotamus." | 39:59 | |
But no that's not the word. | 40:05 | |
The word is behemoth. | 40:07 | |
Can you draw out leviathan with a fish hook? | 40:10 | |
Will leviathan speak soft words to you? | 40:15 | |
The footnote in my bible says, | 40:19 | |
"Leviathan, that's a Hebrew word for crocodile." | 40:21 | |
No, no that's not the word. | 40:24 | |
The word is leviathan. | 40:26 | |
Leviathan which Isaiah speaks about is | 40:28 | |
that dark torturous serpent. | 40:31 | |
Behemoth. | 40:35 | |
Leviathan. | 40:37 | |
These are two dark ugly creatures | 40:40 | |
known in Canaanite mythology picked up by the Hebrews. | 40:43 | |
Primeval forces which embody great power. | 40:48 | |
They live somewhere down in the depths of the world. | 40:52 | |
Behemoth, leviathan. | 40:55 | |
See what God has done in the second speech? | 40:58 | |
First speech God was talking about the ostrich, | 41:00 | |
the giraffe, the natural world. | 41:04 | |
Now God has moved Job way, way down deep, deep, | 41:07 | |
to the supernatural world. | 41:12 | |
The world way down there, where behemoth and leviathan lurk. | 41:17 | |
And thus God reveals to Job something of what it's like | 41:26 | |
to be God. | 41:29 | |
God reveals something to Job of what it's like | 41:34 | |
to have to run this kind of world. | 41:36 | |
But the vision he gives Job is not of the God | 41:40 | |
or the world that Job or Eliphaz or Bildad or Zophar | 41:44 | |
thought they wanted to see. | 41:47 | |
That is a world of nice, flat, easy moral equations, | 41:50 | |
tit for tat, this for that, no no. | 41:53 | |
God shows Job a deeper cosmos, confusing creation, | 41:55 | |
he takes him way down deep, underneath the surface | 42:00 | |
where behemoth and leviathan live. | 42:04 | |
Can you manipulate behemoth? | 42:08 | |
Well, I made him, just like I made you. | 42:11 | |
Can you pull up mighty leviathan with a fish hook? | 42:15 | |
Can you press down his tongue with a cord? | 42:18 | |
I don't think so. | 42:19 | |
In other words, I hear God say to Job, | 42:24 | |
"Job if you think you can do a better job | 42:29 | |
"with this ambiguous, dark, threatening, | 42:31 | |
"sometimes chaotic, creation, | 42:34 | |
"if you think you can do a better job, go ahead. | 42:37 | |
"Be my guest. | 42:42 | |
"And you may find out something of what it's like to be God. | 42:43 | |
"You'll find out that justice in this world | 42:49 | |
"is a good deal more complicated than you think." | 42:52 | |
Leviathan and behemoth, they just give us just a little, | 42:59 | |
just a hint of that chaos down deep | 43:01 | |
at the heart of the world, | 43:05 | |
that God must wrestle with every day. | 43:08 | |
Can you draw up leviathan with a fish hook? | 43:13 | |
Can you press down his tongue with a cord? | 43:15 | |
I doubt it, and yet I have to get out of bed | 43:17 | |
as God and do that every day. | 43:21 | |
I gotta go out and confront leviathan every day of the week. | 43:25 | |
See, Job has cried out in his chaos, | 43:30 | |
he is desperate to sustain his own innocence. | 43:33 | |
But how much greater the chaos against which God strives? | 43:38 | |
I didn't say this was an answer. | 43:45 | |
At least not the answer Job or we would like. | 43:49 | |
I said it was a picture of reality, | 43:54 | |
against which God struggles. | 43:57 | |
'Cause human suffering, as bad as it is, | 44:00 | |
it's just one little corner of the great chaos | 44:02 | |
of this cosmos. | 44:05 | |
The chaos against which God must battle. | 44:09 | |
So as it turns out God and Job do have a lot in common | 44:13 | |
after all, because like Job, | 44:18 | |
God is also busy attempting to bring some order | 44:21 | |
out of the chaos, | 44:26 | |
some sense out of the craziness. | 44:28 | |
And like Job, God says, I will not give up the battle. | 44:31 | |
For some reason, some reason we do not know, | 44:40 | |
behemoth and leviathan have a place in this world. | 44:43 | |
Even the rule of Almighty God doesn't destroy them. | 44:49 | |
But God will fight them. | 44:55 | |
He's gonna press down leviathan's tongue with a cord. | 44:59 | |
Oh, it's a vision, a big vision of a world | 45:04 | |
that's complex, not simple. | 45:08 | |
It's a world that is full, not only of seemingly pointless | 45:10 | |
animals like the ostrich and the giraffe, | 45:13 | |
but a world that's also filled of chaos. | 45:18 | |
This world is not some mechanism to be picked apart | 45:23 | |
by physicists and biologists, nor is it to be explained | 45:26 | |
to you by preachers, | 45:30 | |
with our little cliches and little moralisms. | 45:32 | |
We can't explain it to you. | 45:36 | |
Simplistic explanations only lead, from what I've observed, | 45:40 | |
to even greater despair when you're walking | 45:44 | |
down some dark alley at 50, | 45:47 | |
and you meet behemoth and leviathan face to face. | 45:51 | |
And these little Sunday school explanations just crumble. | 45:56 | |
God says, "I made behemoth, | 46:03 | |
"just like I made you." | 46:08 | |
Behemoth, | 46:14 | |
that beast, | 46:16 | |
I made him, yeah, | 46:17 | |
just like I made you. | 46:19 | |
And sometimes I don't know which beast | 46:23 | |
causes me the most trouble, behemoth or you. | 46:25 | |
Of all the confusing, chaotic, | 46:32 | |
troubling creatures in this cosmos, | 46:34 | |
are there any so confusing | 46:39 | |
as Job and his brothers and sisters? | 46:45 | |
The trouble that God has handling behemoth | 46:49 | |
and leviathan is nothing compared to the trouble with us. | 46:52 | |
Of what creature could it be said in the bible, | 46:57 | |
the thoughts of his heart are evil | 46:59 | |
from the days of his freshman year? | 47:02 | |
Genesis 8:21. | 47:04 | |
If you think it's tough for me to tangle with leviathan, | 47:07 | |
you oughta see the trouble I have with sophomores | 47:10 | |
and people up at the Pentagon and people, wow it's tough. | 47:12 | |
Yeah, I made behemoth, I made leviathan. | 47:17 | |
And you. | 47:21 | |
And I'm gonna continue to struggle with all of you. | 47:22 | |
So Job says something beautiful. | 47:28 | |
Now, I had heard of you, I had heard of you, | 47:30 | |
but now my eyes see you. | 47:33 | |
Previously Job had heard of a God. | 47:37 | |
A simple God who sat around meting out justice | 47:42 | |
in a stable, orderly clockwork of a world. | 47:45 | |
But now he sees a God who is busy, deep, | 47:48 | |
struggling with chaos, suffering the darkness. | 47:52 | |
And now this God proudly addresses him as my servant Job, | 47:56 | |
and God tells the preachers to shut up. | 48:02 | |
Job, so defiant and questioning, | 48:07 | |
is made in God's very own defiant image. | 48:10 | |
The questions can continue, that's okay. | 48:17 | |
But now we've seen a God. | 48:20 | |
We've seen a God that struggles with the chaos | 48:23 | |
and promises us never to defy it, | 48:26 | |
to give up on it, and always to defy it. | 48:30 | |
So Margarita looks up into that cold stone statue | 48:35 | |
overlooking such human misery, and says Margarita, | 48:38 | |
"My little sister's always crying, | 48:44 | |
"'cause she doesn't get enough food. | 48:47 | |
"I hope Jesus sees everything that goes on down here. | 48:50 | |
"I hope he doesn't just stare out into the ocean | 48:56 | |
"like that statue." | 48:58 | |
Margarita, | 49:03 | |
Jesus is not up looking over Copacabana | 49:06 | |
as some stone-faced statue, | 49:11 | |
impervious to human misery below. | 49:14 | |
No no, Jesus is where we put him. | 49:18 | |
We, put him. | 49:22 | |
Behemoth, | 49:25 | |
leviathan, | 49:26 | |
and us. | 49:30 | |
He's on a cross, | 49:32 | |
beside two thieves, | 49:36 | |
overlooking a garbage dump. | 49:37 | |
And I'll tell you there, he just didn't stare | 49:41 | |
out into the ocean. | 49:43 | |
But he took up the cross. | 49:46 | |
He made war on our chaos, | 49:49 | |
and the world's, | 49:53 | |
as a fellow sufferer. | 49:56 | |
He asked God why, as a fellow questioner. | 49:59 | |
As a fellow defier. | 50:05 | |
(organ music) | 50:16 | |
(choir and congregation singing) | 51:05 | |
(words drowned out by organ and echo) | 51:06 | |
Nancy | The Lord be with you. | 53:32 |
Audience | And also with you. | 53:34 |
- | Let us pray. | 53:35 |
Once again, gracious God, | 53:47 | |
we have gathered to praise your name. | 53:50 | |
That with all the suffering, the sadness | 53:53 | |
and broken dreams which befall us, | 53:56 | |
it is still a gift to be alive. | 53:59 | |
We thank you for the small blessings of the week just past, | 54:03 | |
for the silent reminders of your continuing presence | 54:08 | |
in our lives, for the sun and the rain | 54:11 | |
and the promise of springtime which nature foretells. | 54:14 | |
We thank you even for the coldness and bleakness of winter, | 54:19 | |
without which the splendor of springtime could never be. | 54:23 | |
So too, we thank you for the bitter medicine that heals | 54:27 | |
and for the failures from which we learn more | 54:31 | |
than our successes. | 54:34 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 54:37 | |
All | Hear our prayer. | 54:38 |
- | Hear now our prayers of intercessions | 54:41 |
for those who are in need this day. | 54:43 | |
Let us pray for all who cry out for healing. | 54:46 | |
That you will give patience, courage and faith | 54:50 | |
to all who are disabled by injury or sickness. | 54:55 | |
That you will comfort those who endure continual pain, | 54:59 | |
pouring upon them the healing balm of your spirit. | 55:03 | |
That you will grant fearless confidence to all children | 55:08 | |
stricken with chronic or terminal illness. | 55:11 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 55:15 | |
All | Hear our prayer. | 55:16 |
- | Let us pray for all who suffer mental | 55:20 |
and emotional distress, that you will abide | 55:22 | |
with all who are depressed or despondent, | 55:25 | |
having no one to comfort them. | 55:28 | |
That you will restore all who struggle | 55:31 | |
with demons of the mind to soundness of mind | 55:33 | |
and cheerfulness of heart. | 55:36 | |
That you will draw near to all who have no alternatives | 55:39 | |
to spending their lives within institutions, | 55:43 | |
surrounded by people, yet lonely beyond words. | 55:46 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 55:50 | |
All | Hear our prayer. | 55:52 |
- | Let us pray that you would grant eternal rest | 55:55 |
and peace to those victims of AIDS who we honor | 55:57 | |
through the AIDS quilt, and for all other victims of AIDS, | 56:01 | |
both unknown to us and those whom we name at this time. | 56:05 | |
Steven, Michael, Jim, | 56:36 | |
Roland, | 56:40 | |
Jack, | 56:41 | |
Thomas, | 56:43 | |
Gary, | 56:44 | |
Norb, | 56:46 | |
Woody, | 56:48 | |
Sheldon, | 56:49 | |
David, | 56:51 | |
Wayland, | 56:52 | |
Anson, | 56:54 | |
Tony, | 56:56 | |
Robert, | 56:58 | |
Ed, | 56:59 | |
Jeffrey, | 57:01 | |
Jim, | 57:03 | |
Al, | 57:04 | |
Richard, | 57:06 | |
Gary, | 57:08 | |
Christofer, | 57:10 | |
Vern, | 57:11 | |
Kenny, | 57:13 | |
Scott, | 57:15 | |
Rick, | 57:16 | |
Billy, | 57:18 | |
Michael, | 57:19 | |
Kay, | 57:21 | |
Mark, | 57:22 | |
Kathy, | 57:24 | |
Mimi, | 57:26 | |
Kelly, | 57:27 | |
Tony, | 57:29 | |
Jan, | 57:30 | |
Irma, | 57:32 | |
Ben. | 57:33 | |
Let us pray you would give your wisdom | 57:36 | |
in ample measure to those doctors and researchers | 57:38 | |
seeking a cure for AIDS that you would strengthen | 57:41 | |
family and friends who mourn the loss of loved ones, | 57:44 | |
many in the prime of life and that you would take away | 57:47 | |
the fear and apprehension which distort | 57:50 | |
our understanding of this dreaded disease. | 57:53 | |
Lord, in your mercy, | 57:56 | |
All | Hear our prayer. | 57:58 |
- | Let us pray for our enemies not by naming their sins, | 58:01 |
but by remembering our own. | 58:03 | |
Save us from weak resignation to violence. | 58:06 | |
Forgive us from becoming hardened to the news | 58:10 | |
of their suffering and remind us that they too | 58:13 | |
are fed by the same food. | 58:16 | |
Wounded or killed by the same weapons, | 58:18 | |
have children for whom they have the same high hopes | 58:21 | |
as do we, that we might pray without ceasing | 58:24 | |
for peace in our world. | 58:28 | |
Lord in your mercy, | 58:30 | |
All | Hear our prayer. | 58:32 |
- | Oh Lord our God, accept the fervent prayers | 58:36 |
of all your people. | 58:39 | |
In the greatness of your mercy, look with compassion | 58:41 | |
upon us and all who turn to you for help. | 58:44 | |
For you are gracious oh lover of souls | 58:48 | |
and to you we give glory, now and forever. | 58:51 | |
Amen. | 58:55 | |
In thanksgiving for the mighty acts of God | 59:00 | |
let us offer our gifts and ourselves unto God. | 59:02 | |
(organ music) | 59:06 | |
("Lass dich nur nichts nicht dauren" by Brahms) | 1:00:39 | |
(choir singing in foreign language) | 1:01:13 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:05:31 | |
(organ music) | 1:06:03 | |
♪ Praise God from whom all mercy flow ♪ | 1:06:44 | |
♪ Praise God all creatures here below ♪ | 1:06:50 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:06:57 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:07:00 | |
♪ Praise God above in heavenly host ♪ | 1:07:05 | |
♪ Praise father, son and holy ghost ♪ | 1:07:11 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:07:18 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:07:21 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:07:24 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:07:27 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:07:31 | |
- | Oh eternal God, giver of life and health and peace, | 1:07:42 |
we thank you for the good news which you have revealed | 1:07:47 | |
to us this day, that you will abide with us until the end. | 1:07:50 | |
We thank you for peace makers who seek to build | 1:07:55 | |
bridges of reconciliation in the midst of our broken world. | 1:07:58 | |
For faithful friends and caring teachers | 1:08:02 | |
who see the best in us when we only can see the worst. | 1:08:04 | |
For good will from unexpected sources | 1:08:08 | |
in times of misery and despair. | 1:08:10 | |
We thank you especially, oh saving God | 1:08:13 | |
for your love in Jesus Christ | 1:08:15 | |
who is for us, the way, the truth and the life | 1:08:17 | |
and in whose name we pray. | 1:08:21 | |
All | Our father, who art in heaven, | 1:08:23 |
hallowed by thy name. | 1:08:26 | |
Thy kingdom come, they will be done | 1:08:27 | |
on earth as it is in heaven, | 1:08:30 | |
give us this day, our daily bread, | 1:08:33 | |
and forgives us our trespasses | 1:08:35 | |
as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. | 1:08:37 | |
And lead us not into temptation, | 1:08:40 | |
deliver us from evil, | 1:08:43 | |
for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. | 1:08:45 | |
- | Amen. | 1:08:49 |
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace | 1:08:52 | |
in believing so that you may abound in hope | 1:08:56 | |
by the power of the Holy Spirit. | 1:09:00 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:09:07 | |
(organ music) | 1:09:28 | |
(choir and congregation singing) | 1:10:00 | |
(words drowned out by organ and echo) | 1:10:01 | |
(organ music) | 1:13:09 |