Lectionary for 2/21/09

Today's readings are Job 16.1-21 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Job+16.1-21 ) and John 7.1-13 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=John+7.1-13 ).

 

Job expresses the desire that we all have when we endure trials.  He really does want to know why God does not seem to be protecting him.  This is what we all wonder.  Our friends accuse us of wrongdoing, our circumstances are indisputably bad.  We thought we were trusting in the Lord our protector.  Why, after all, do bad things happen to good people?  We confess that we are not entirely good, that we harbor evil, but we think the bad things we endure are beyond the measure of reason.  They are really really bad.  Sometimes we are busy repenting and confessing but find "it doesn't work" the way we thought it would.  Maybe there's something wrong with our faith.  Maybe our repentance is not adequate.  Maybe we didn't confess well enough.

 

When this happens, if we step back and look at it carefully we see that we are entirely wrong.  God is in fact protecting his people.  If we received what our sins deserve for even one moment we would perish in agony, condemned to eternal suffering.  Christ's atonement on our behalf is what we need to look toward, not the quality or quantity of our repentance, confession, or faith.  The fact is that we didn't and can't confess well enough.  We do not have adequate repentance.  There is something wrong with our faith.  But that isn't why our lives don't seem better than they do.  Christ's work on our behalf is right and adequate. 

 

It is, in fact, our expectations which are wrong.  We expect God to move and work in the way we would devise, not the way he has ordained.  We expect our physical earthly life to be blessed in ways that seem best to us, particularly in ways that would lead us to eternal life on earth, rejoicing in the creation rather than in the creator.  We thing this is all there is.  Our Lord, on the other hand, is busy, day after day, showing us that to hope in this life alone is futile.  Our hope is in heaven, our reward is eternal, and we are living on a planet which is temporal and will pass away.

 

Let us look in faith to our Lord, the creator, redeemer, and sustainer of all.  Let us trust his promises, not our own promises.  In all our actions and attitudes let us see that he is just.