Suffering and Blessing

Sermon for Sunday, October 4, 2015
19^th Sunday After Pentecost
Job 1:1, 2:1-10
Mark 10:2-16
At The Parish of the Messiah, Auburndale, Massachusetts

Those who have heard me preach at Trinity know that, from time to time, I will preach, not one sermon, but rather two or even three smaller ones.  Today is one of those times, as I wish to say something briefly about two of our readings, and also what we are about to do here this morning in the Blessing of the Animals.  (It’s a three sermon morning.)

First, I want to say something about the book of Job, from which we will be hearing this month.   In trying to understand Job, it helps to remember that the story of Job is about the timeless question – “Why do the innocent suffer?”  Job’s friends, who will shortly enter the story, are in the “you must have done something to deserve this” camp.  God is just, they argue, rewarding the righteous but punishing the wicked.  “You must have done something to deserve this,” they say.  “But I didn’t do anything,” says Job.

Praying with Scripture – Entering the Story

Sermon for Sunday, October 5, 2014
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

 

This morning, I’m going to preach two sermons.  The second will be very brief and about the Blessing of the Animals.  The first, likewise somewhat brief, will really be about prayer – specifically, the kind of prayer with scripture called “entering the story” – but it will look a lot like a sermon about time, especially our sense of time and God’s sense of time.

Moses with the Ten Commandments by Rembrandt

And I want to approach this “entering the story” kind of prayer through some of the commentary that has been written in the Jewish tradition about today’s lesson from Exodus, what we call “the Ten Commandments, but which in the Jewish tradition is called the “standing at Sinai.” (Remember that the people were standing at Mount Sinai when God, high above on the mountain, gave the commandments to Moses.)  Some of the Jewish commentary on Israel’s “standing at Sinai” I find quite wonderful and creative.