We are reading Job in the Hebrew Scripture portion of the lectionary right now. We had the option in year B of reading Genesis and Amos and Isaiah, but we chose the enigmatic Book of Job. The Book of Job offers a theological critique, a theological challenge to the dominant Deuteronomistic theology of Hebrew Scripture, the theology that pervades the Law and the Prophets. The theology goes like this: If the people Israel are loyal to Yahweh, worshipping only him, then they will receive blessing; if the people of Israel are disloyal and stray in their devotion to the worship of other gods (yes, there were many in ancient Palestine and in Jewish culture) then God would curse them…the quid pro quo of the Covenant.
Job is a good man, loyal, faithful, pious and dedicated to Yahweh. He is the archetype of Israel keeping Covenant…and yet all manner of pain and suffering and loss is visited upon him…and Job won’t take it lying down. He becomes Everyman demanding an answer of his God to the time immemorial question as to why, as Rabbi Kushner puts it, why do bad things happen to good people. For some thirty five chapters Job demands not just answers but he demands that God show his face and stand face to face with this loyal but suffering soul, and fess up as to this profound paradox called creation.
And then God finally speaks…this, the longest soliloquy that God has in the whole of scripture. God begins to describe the wonders of creation found in the natural order…full of God-enthusiasm, God gets carried away, almost ecstatic, exulting in God’s own artistry, an artistry that is random and playful, an artistry that even sets God awestruck…Can’t you see it!? God lovingly asks Job…..Can’t you see the divine in this heaven that you call earth? And the climax of this legend is that Job does see at last…Job sees God face to face within the mysterious beauty and genius of God’s artifice we call Creation. To experience God’s genius is to experience God….Dogma won’t do it…beauty and mystery will.
We would do well to look well…for our God is all around and among us…We only have to look to the slanting light among the live oaks…the cobalt of the sky…the splash of the pelican…the music of the seasons…the cool of Fall…the miracle of eggs…the warmth of human touch….the gift of forgiveness…It is in beauty in her myriad manifestations where we will encounter our Creator who is enthusiastic to a fault still about the prospects of creation…It is in beauty…God’s very genius, and ours as well, that we will know the days of heaven right here in earth…Just look and you will see.
