Tag: suffering
-
Reflecting on Job 8 1-10, 20-22
How much do we agree with Bildad the Shuhite, that God does not pervert justice, nor the Almighty the right? (Job 8:3) How much do we agree that the pattern of sufferings and serenities we see in the human world around us and in our own lives reflects the working-out of divine or cosmic justice?…
-
Studying Job 8 1-10, 20-22
We are being asked to think about a conventional – and not only ancient – understanding of cosmic justice this week. We are studying Job 8:1-10 and 20-22 – so, really, Job 8 – for Sunday, February 20. This is Bildad’s first speech challenging Job’s lament over his innocent suffering. Spending time with it will…
-
Questions for Reflection and Discussion – Habukkuk 1 1-4 and 12-14
We are studying Habukkuk 1:1-4 & 12-14 for Sunday, March 8; these are Habakkuk’s’ opening complaints about the evil situation in Judah before the invasion of the Babylonians, and the even worse situation in Judah after that invasion. [Some notes on the text are here.] Here are a few questions on the text we might…
-
A Deeper Look at the Book of Job
I did some extra reading on the book of Job over the past month. Here’s what I learned: Job is an unusually complex book, even for the Bible. It includes clear and possibly perplexing divisions in the text: the narrative prologue and epilogue in chapters 1-2 and chapter 42; the carefully structured speeches of the…
-
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
[A sermon on the Uniform Series text, Ezekiel 3:1-11, delivered at a small church in southern Indiana.] There is a famous story from ancient Greece – actually, supposedly from about the 4th century – about Alexander the Great and the Gordion knot. Many maybe already know that story – how a prophetic oracle predicted that…
-
Thoughts on “separation from love”
Here’s an additional thought on what, upon reflection, is a peculiar statement in Paul’s letter to the Romans: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Romans 8:35) Where does this statement come from? How would hardship or distress or…
-
Good Friday
When I was in our local nursing home/rehab facility recently, recuperating from a hip replacement and hoping to get all the feeling back into my left foot (still working on that), I had a hard enough time sleeping that I would leave the TV on in the room overnight … it helped, although I can’t…
-
What I fear as a white Christian
A lot of texts are on my mind, but here are two: The first is a text that is coming from my white Christian friends from various quarters: “There’s nothing to be afraid of,” or alternatively, “Christians have nothing to be afraid of.” That counsel seems to be contextualized in the immediate political context of…
Matters of Interpretation 