Job's Prayer and Peter's Act

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 -- Week of Proper 16
Thomas Gallaudet with Henry Winter Syle

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 981)
Psalms 119:1-24 (morning) 12, 13, 14 (evening)
Job 6:1; 7:1-21
Acts 10:1-16
John 7:1-13

"God, leave me alone!" is Job's cry. He is haunted and suffering. Long sleepless nights of tossing and bad dreams. Illness that will not improve. The only way out is death.

He parodies Psalm 8, "What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?" That psalm thanks God for glorifying human beings beyond our deserving. Job turns the psalm on its ear, asking God why do you pay so much attention to us to make us so miserable. Just look the other way and leave us alone, he tells God. I'll be dead and gone soon, "as the cloud fades and vanishes, so those who go down to Sheol do not come up; they return no more to their houses, nor do their places know them any more. ...I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be." Death will be his relief from suffering and his escape from God's hand.

On of the messages of the story of Job is that God accepts such frank lament and complaint. Job gives us an example of honesty. He can tell God what he really thinks without covering it with pieties or respectful "prayerful" language. This is the real language of prayer from the heart. Job blasts God with his anger and hurt. He is an example for us. We also can tell God anything.

In fact, it is helpful to direct our anger and hurt toward God. God is big enough to take it. If we project our anger and hurt on another human being, we are likely to hurt or confuse that person. If we project our anger and hurt inwardly, we are likely to become depressed. The healthiest and safest way to express our deepest and most conflictive emotions is to direct them to God in fierce honesty.

Sometimes we hear nothing in response. Sometimes we sense that though we hear nothing, God is still there. God does not depart just because we have challenged God.

Sometimes we sense a response. Jeremiah railed at God, calling God a "deceitful brook," and God's response was to scold him for speaking foolishly, and to give him more authority and work to do. In the book of Job, we hear Job's complaints, and we will wait a long time for God's response. Eventually, Job will experience God face to face, and Job will be changed.

Only God is big enough to take our most extreme emotions. It is right to communicate them to God honestly.
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A note about our reading from Acts. We are beginning a story that narrates an important turning point in the history of the early Church. By a revelation in a dream, Peter will have his traditional, Biblical understanding of clean and profane challenged. Then he will sense himself sent to the home of a Roman army officer. Peter will witness the presence of God in this household of unclean, Gentile pagans and he will see the gifts of the Holy Spirit manifest in them. He will then do something remarkable and very controversial. He will baptize them into the fellowship of the community.

Peter's act will cause a huge church conflict. Why would he do such a unilateral thing that is contrary to the Scripture and tradition that they have inherited? Peter will have to face the other apostles and explain his behavior. After all, those people are uncircumcised, unclean Gentiles. Peter will explain his vision, his observation of the gifts of the Spirit among these outsiders. "If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?" (11:17) The apostles will be silenced and will thank God for the manifestation of the Spirit among the Gentiles.

That won't end the story. There will be scandal later, when the church learns that Paul and Barnabas are baptizing Gentiles without requiring circumcision. The Apostolic Council of Acts 15 will endorse their ministry, and the door will be open to the church's Gentile mission. Had the church not heeded the Spirit's radical direction, we might have remained a sect and movement within Judaism rather than the worldwide communion we have become. God would have had to work harder to teach us to spread the Gospel.

We are living through a similar process today. The American and Canadian churches of the Anglican Communion have seen the manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the loving, committed relationships of its gay and lesbian members. Like Peter and Paul some of us have given them the church's blessing, and, in a few places, the sacrament of marriage -- full inclusion like the baptisms that Peter and Paul conducted with the Gentiles.

It is causing a controversy and a church conflict. With time the Holy Spirit will move the church into recognizing that "God gave them the same gift that he gave us" and will teach us again, "What God has made clean, you must not call profane." We are still in the middle of our story.

P.S. Today is the feast day of two Episcopalians who initiated the church's ministry among deaf persons. When Henry Winter Syle was ordained priest in 1876, it was a controversial act, opposed by many who believed that the impairment of one of the senses disqualified one for ordination. It seems that we learn something new every generation.

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
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


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