St Thomas Methodist Church, Exeter
Weekly Worship Resources
October 2024
06 October – When you don’t understand
The story of Job begins. He is an honest and upright man, who loses everything (home, family, prosperity, health) yet refuses to blame God, believing that both good and bad comes from God’s hand. A dialogue between God and Satan (called ‘The Adversary’ or ‘The Accuser’ in some translations) seems to indicate that God has allowed Job to be tested in this way.
The God who allows Job to suffer appalling losses is the same God who takes a child in his arms and blesses them. There are some things we are not equipped to understand, but as God is faithful to us so we are called to be faithful to him.
Lectionary Bible readings for RCL Proper 22 Year B
Job 1.1; 2.1-10; Psalm 26; Hebrews 1.1-4; 2.5-12; Mark 10.2-16
Job 1:1; 2:1-10 [NRSVA]
Job and His Family
1 There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
Attack on Job’s Health
2 One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. 2 The Lord said to Satan, ‘Where have you come from?’ Satan answered the Lord, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.’ 3 The Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason.’ 4 Then Satan answered the Lord, ‘Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives. 5 But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.’ 6 The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, he is in your power; only spare his life.’
7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8 Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes.
9 Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die.’ 10 But he said to her, ‘You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?’ In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Thought for the week
If someone who knew nothing about the Christian faith heard the passage from Job today, what would they make of it? Hearing how God agreed that Satan could torture a good man, how many questions would that raise? We can feel under pressure to have all the answers, but it is only by looking more deeply into the whole biblical story that we can even try to understand our awesome God.
Like a Shakespearean play, the book of Job contains ‘truth’ without being factual. It carries a message in a dramatic form to teach us about God and about ourselves. Its lesson is timeless: disasters and suffering can and do happen to us, even in our modern age when we might pretend to be in control through our technology. How must God feel when he looks at his beautiful world? We are still affected in so many ways by the pandemic of 2020. Wars, floods and earthquakes tear lives apart somewhere in his world each day. God understood Job’s suffering.
To counter the troubles of our world, the good news of the New Testament is that through Jesus, God comes alongside us and shares our suffering in a way that we cannot fully understand, because that is the nature of faith.
The inclusion of Job’s challenging story does blow apart the theory that suffering is always a result of our sin. It also makes a rather laboured point of showing how not to come alongside others in their troubles, making a good case for listening with empathy, rather than wearing down with judgement. The book as a whole also offers reassurance that, eventually, there will be blessings equal to our losses. Our challenge, through all that life brings, is to trust God more than we can understand him.
A prayer of confession
Merciful God, we confess that we have questioned your goodness, power, or justice when we face suffering or evil.
We have doubted your promises, which are sure and true.
We have neglected the praise that is due to your name.
We confess that we have not followed the example of Job, who remained faithful to you despite his trials.
We have failed to trust in you or seek your will in all circumstances.
Forgive us, O God, for our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Restore to us the joy of your salvation, help us to hold fast to our integrity, and to worship you in spirit and truth.
Assurance of forgiveness
Loving God, your forgiveness heals hurts and restores relationships. Give us a spirit of compassion and kindness, that we may do likewise. Amen
13 October – Where are you, God?
Despite the unhelpful accusations of his friends that he must be a sinner to have suffered so much, Job continues to protest his innocence. He wishes that he could find God, who he believes would listen to him as he argues his case. Job is in deep darkness, though still alive.
Searching for God may start quite close to home: in speaking out our questions we may find that help comes from those who listen and allow us to share our problems. Solutions may take longer, but God has a plan for us that includes this life and the next.
Lectionary Bible readings for RCL Proper 23 Year B
Job 23.1-9,16-17; Psalm 22.1-15; Hebrews 4.12-16; Mark 10.17-31
Job 23:1-9; 16-17 [NRSVA]
Job Replies: My Complaint Is Bitter
23 Then Job answered:
2 ‘Today also my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy despite my groaning.
3 O that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling!
4 I would lay my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would learn what he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me.
6 Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; but he would give heed to me.
7 There an upright person could reason with him, and I should be acquitted for ever by my judge.
8 ‘If I go forward, he is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive him; 9 on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see him.
16 God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me;
17 If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face!
Thought for the week
Job is not the only person to have ever cried out, ‘Where are you God?’ It’s what people say when they are overwhelmed by troubles – even if they claim not to believe in God. They may even ask ‘What did I do to deserve this?’, which may be a subconscious acknowledgement of the ancient story of Job’s claim to innocence. To read of Job’s problems should put our own into perspective, but that is no consolation when darkness has overcome us. Last week marked World Mental Health Day (10 October). Issues of mental health have been increasingly highlighted over recent years, with the Covid lockdowns exacerbating many longstanding problems. What can we, as people of faith, offer to those who are struggling to make sense of life and to those who are asking the big questions?
While Job feels that God is hidden from him, as the writer of Hebrews assures us, we cannot hide from God and eventually Job does have his conversation with God, who restores him. Being listened to plays a huge role in finding a way out of the dark times. ‘It’s good to talk’ is an advertising slogan with roots in encouraging the sharing of problems and, more recently, ITV has run a campaign ‘Britain Get Talking’
It’s okay to ‘be a Job’ and to speak out our complaints against the world and against God. Jesus knew about suffering, about being a refugee, vilified, persecuted, arrested, tortured, executed. He went off alone to pray: he needed to talk to his Father. Where do you seek God in your tough times?
In church life, there is often a lot of talking but not so much genuine sharing that could open the path to help and healing. There will be times when confession and repentance are appropriate. In other cases, there may need to be forgiveness of those causing the hurt. As we create safe spaces for truly listening, where God can be challenged and sought, we can trust in Christ’s mercy and grace, offering what we can, while signposting to additional resources for support.
A prayer of adoration
Holy God, you are awesome and majestic, beyond our comprehension and imagination. You are the creator of all things, the ruler of all nations, the judge of all people. You are the source of all wisdom, the giver of all grace, the defender of all justice. You are faithful and compassionate, merciful and forgiving, loving and good. We praise you for who you are and what you have done for us in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. Amen
20 October – Do you know who I am?
As we continue our journey through Job, we come to a dialogue between Job and God. Rather than providing words of comfort in Job’s suffering, God points Job towards his power as the creator of the universe. God’s omnipotence throws Job’s creatureliness into stark relief.
This is an opportunity to hear God’s side of the story of Job. He calls Job to consider who he is – and we are invited to do the same. There seems to be a contrast when Jesus speaks about being a suffering servant. But here is the paradox of the God we serve.
Lectionary Bible readings for RCL Proper 24 Year B
Job 38.1-7,(34-41); Psalm 104.1-9,24,35c; Hebrews 5.1-10; Mark 10.35-45
Job 38:1-7 [NRSVA]
The Lord Answers Job
38 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
2 ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.
4 ‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?
Thought for the week
The Narnia series of books by CS Lewis introduce us to the Jesus-figure, Aslan. The cleverness of this analogy becomes more apparent as you read through the series, but in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, where Susan and Lucy first meet him, Aslan is introduced as the Great Lion. Susan is amazed and scared. She’d thought he was a man. She asks how a lion could be safe. Mr Beaver explains that he is most definitely not safe. But he is good.
It feels as if Lewis had been reading Job when he wrote this. Because in today’s Old Testament passage we see the full force of who God is in relation to mere mortals.
In portraying Aslan as a lion, Lewis points us towards the otherness of God. The parts of him that we will never fully comprehend. The parts of God that aren’t safe. What is safe about a lion? Perhaps our concept of God has become too safe. After all, it’s easier to relate to Jesus as the friend that he is and God as our Father than to God’s otherness. Christianity is founded on relationship, on our being God’s children. But can that sometimes lead us away from remembering the greatness of God? Are we in danger of trying to make God our ‘mate’ rather than acknowledging his greatness and complete otherness? How often are we tempted to ‘make God in our own image’ rather than allowing him to be the God that he is, even if we don’t like it?
We might like to rewrite the book of Job, to have God’s intervention here as showing compassion and care, taking Job in his arms to comfort him. But, the reality is, that instead we hear God effectively saying, ‘Job, look around you. This is who I am.’ Because God is who he is, he has every right to act in the way that he does. He is the one who created not just atoms and cuddly creatures, plankton and billions of stars but also fierce beasts, volcanoes, hurricanes and storms. We cannot fathom God. And nor should we try. Just like a child sometimes has to acquiesce to the parent who says: ‘Because I say so!’, so do we need to bow to the God of the universe. Authority figures may not be popular in our culture, but there are times when we just have to accept that they are there. This is what Job was learning when God spoke to him out of the storm. God is not tame. He is not safe. God is.
But Job’s story isn’t the end of the story, as we know. Let’s jump forwards to our Gospel reading and here, again, we see a God that we cannot truly comprehend. We see God in Jesus. But we don’t see the majesty this time. We don’t see the glory. At least, we don’t see it where we would look for earthly glory. We would look in the boardroom, in the parliament buildings, with the Hollywood greats and the billionaires. But God has baffled us again. In our Gospel reading we hear Jesus telling his disciples: ‘The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many’. Here, again, we need to recognise the unfathomability of God. The one who, in Graham Kendrick’s words ‘flung stars into space’ is now surrendering ‘to cruel nails’. Surely, no sane person who wanted to create a god-figure would allow them to suffer and die? What sort of God is that? What sort of God indeed. Only the God that we worship.
Prayers of intercession
When we seek power and glory for ourselves and overlook the needs of the humble and weak, Christ, the servant king: help us to follow your example of service.
Where there are those who rely on food banks and on benefits,
Christ, the servant king: help us to follow your example of service.
Where stronger nations ignore the plight of the poor; where food and medical supplies are stockpiled while others cry out in need, Christ, the servant king: help us to follow your example of service.
Where churches focus on their own desires and fail to see the needy at their gates, Christ, the servant king: help us to follow your example of service.
When our neighbours are sick, imprisoned by addiction, cold through lack of shelter, lonely through isolation or tearful because of bereavement, Christ, the servant king: help us to follow your example of service. Amen
27 October – I had heard, but now I see
The Book of Job concludes with Job’s second response to God and his realisation that he has come to a deeper knowledge of his place within God’s creation. There is a rebuke for Job’s friends and their counsel. Job’s fortunes are restored, there is an inheritance for his daughters and he dies at a great old age.
Job’s realisation that God is the omnipotent creator leads him to recognise that he spoke of things beyond himself. The only way forward therefore is to repent and recognise God’s unfathomable mystery. We, too, are invited to embrace the mystery, and allow ourselves to be changed by our encounter with God – to see him with new eyes, just as Bartimaeus was able to do.
Lectionary Bible readings for RCL Proper 25 Year B
Job 42.1–6,10-17; Psalm 34.1-8,(19-22); Hebrews 7.23-28; Mark 10.46-52
Job 42:1-6; 10-17 [NRSVA]
Job Is Humbled and Satisfied
42 Then Job answered the Lord:
2 ‘I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 “Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?” Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
4 “Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.”
5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; 6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.’
Job’s Fortunes Are Restored Twofold
10 And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. 11 Then there came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house; they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him; and each of them gave him a piece of money and a gold ring. 12 The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys. 13 He also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 He named the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. 15 In all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers. 16 After this Job lived for one hundred and forty years, and saw his children, and his children’s children, four generations. 17 And Job died, old and full of days.
Thought for the week
What is your idea of God?
- Is it the same when life is going well and when life is painful and difficult?
- Does our perception of God stay static, or should it be growing and changing daily?
- How much does what I first knew of God matter now?
- And how much of what I will know of him tomorrow is related to what I know of him today?
- Is how we perceive God related also to how much of himself he is prepared to reveal to us at any one time?
- Does he take us from where we are today and bring us to a new understanding of him only when we are ready?
- If so, how do we get ourselves to the point when we are ready for more of him?
- Is it up to us to make ourselves open and ready for new things of God, or is it only in his timing?
- Does this revelation come in the high moments of life or in the depths of despair?
There are so many more questions we could ask…but maybe, this side of eternity, we will never truly know the answer.
It is intriguing that Job learnt more of God in the midst of his pain than when his life was going well. Is this, in fact, the story of Job? That God wanted him to know more; God sought a deeper relationship with Job – God wanted Job to know him better, but Job wasn’t open to it until he was in a desperate place. Not that this should make us long for suffering so that we can learn more of God. That would be perverse. And yet, there seems to be a sense that we can use Job’s example to learn how to ‘suffer well’.
When life is hard, painful, almost intolerable even, it is easy to turn our back on God, or, at best, to rely on the God we thought we knew. There is something deep in the heart of Job’s story that invites us to use adversity as a stepping stone to find more of God. Just as the true nature of God was revealed on the cross, so our deepest darkness can lead us deeper into the heart of our suffering God – a God who knows what it is to suffer with us; a God who yearns to reveal more of himself to us while holding us in his comforting arms. Job’s friends urged him to turn away from God to make himself feel better. Clinging on to a God who seemed to have turned against him seemed like lunacy. But Job was shrewder than that. He knew that, somewhere, God had not brought this suffering upon him.
What Job didn’t do at first was recognise that God is distinctly other – he has his own ways, his own reasons. Sometimes he lets us see what he’s doing and sometimes he doesn’t. There are times when all we can do is cling on by our fingertips, trusting that he is there somewhere.
As a line from the hymn ‘Rock of Ages’ says: ‘Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.’ And it is in these moments that we often discover that God is not the God we thought he was. He may well also not be the God that we hope he is. But he is and will be the God that we need for that moment. He is the God who holds the universe in his hand and the God who holds us. The God who can see far beyond what we can see or understand. The God who knows how much closer to him we can become if we choose to look more closely to him.
As Job discovered, the God who chooses to deal with humanity is not a human. He is not made from human hands or flights of fancy, but the creator of the universe who knows and sees far beyond what we can see. He holds everything securely, even in his otherness. It was only when Job saw who God really was that he truly began to see that he would never understand. But it didn’t matter because God did understand, and God is God. No matter what. And once we understand that for ourselves, our Christian journey may not necessarily be any easier, but our relationship with God will deepen. God cannot be made in our image, but the more we let God be God, the more like him we will surely become.
A prayer of thanksgiving
God of power, our great High Priest, you are holy and blameless, exalted above the heavens.
You have been made perfect for ever.
Thank you that you came to our world, in vulnerable human flesh, to give sight to the blind, hope to the weary and comfort to those in pain.
You show us the way to the Father, and model the way of compassion.
All praise to you. Amen
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