Calamity's Fear

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 -- Week of Proper 16

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 981)
Psalms 5, 6 (morning) 10, 11 (evening)
Job 6:1-4; 8-15, 21
Acts 9:32-43
John 6:60-71

There is a line that catches my breath in today's reading from Job. "You see my calamity, and are afraid."

Job's friends have come to him in his suffering. But they aren't willing simply to be with him. His misery is so profound. The spiritual, psychological and emotional weight is so heavy, that they cannot keep still with loving respect before him. Instead, they feel like they need to do something to "fix" him. They want to make it better.

They also seem to need to do some explaining -- to defend God in the presence of something mysterious. Job maintains that he is innocent. Yet he is suffering terribly. That doesn't fit into their theological worldview. So Eliphaz has just tried to correct Job. Everyone sins, said Eliphaz. Surely you have sinned, maybe without even knowing it. That is why this misfortune has happened to you.

We hear such "comforters" in the presence of our own suffering and tragedy. "God never gives us more than we can bear." "God knows best." "There is a reason for all of this." (after a death): "God needed him more in heaven." "You'll get over it." Friends mean well when they speak so in the presence of great suffering or loss. But so often the words are an articulation of our own fear in the presence of calamity. We need to speak some word of reassurance, lest the world's foundations be shaken -- for us. We need to say something we've learned in church lest our sense of God be shaken -- for us.

Job faces his intense suffering with passionate honesty. He wishes he could die. He wishes God would relieve him of his misery and annihilate him. (Ironically, that part of the wish will come true in some sense when Job experiences the presence of God in the theophany of the whirlwind. He will be annihilated by God's mystery and power.)

Some of Job's complaint give words of prayer to human suffering in the extreme. "Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze? In truth I have no help in me, and any resource is driven from me." He speaks of the discomforting teaching that his friends have given him: "My companions are treacherous like a torrent-bed, like freshets that pass away." (a freshet is an overflowing stream) Job is overwhelmed.

The word "compassion" means literally "to suffer with." "Cum" is Latin for "with" and "passio" means "to suffer." To bring another compassion is to suffer with the other. Sometimes that means to share their helplessness. Sometimes it means resisting the urge to fix. (And not running away in fear.)

That can be hard. We are a pragmatic people. We want to fix things, to make them better. But sometimes we are called simply to love and to suffer with another. That was Jesus' response to our deepest suffering. He embraced our helplessness and suffering on the cross, and he did nothing. He just hung there, until he died. From his faithful compassion, God brought resurrection. But he had to go through the cross to get there. And he too was innocent.

Lowell

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About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
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The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas