Text: Job 42:1-6, 10-17
Theme: “Thank Heaven for Little Girls”
22nd Sunday
after Pentecost/Reformation Sunday
October 25, 2015
October 25, 2015
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Denton, Texas
Rev. Paul R. Dunklau
+In
the Name of Jesus+
Then Job replied to the Lord:
2
“I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3
You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my
plans without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not
understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4
“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.’
5
My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6
Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.”
10 After
Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him
twice as much as he had before. 11 All
his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate
with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the
Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver[a] and a gold ring.
12 The
Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had
fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a
thousand donkeys. 13 And
he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the
second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land were there found
women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an
inheritance along with their brothers.
16 After this, Job lived a hundred and
forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so Job died, an old man and full of
years.
“Reform” is at
the heart of “Reformation”. To “reform”
means “to change”. As we have observed
in the reading, things changed for Job.
But who is the active agent? Who
is doing the changing? Job 42:10 declares: “…the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him
twice as much as he had before.”
Twice as
much? Our Lord tends to overdo it a bit
with His reforming generosity. If Job 42
doesn’t convince you, try Isaiah 40 on for size:
Comfort,
comfort my people,
says
your God.
Speak
tenderly to Jerusalem,
and
proclaim to her
that
her hard service has been completed,
that
her sin has been paid for,
that
she has received from the Lord’s hand
double
for all her sins.
Is that double punishment for all her sins? Or is that double forgiveness for all her
sins? Don’t be shy! Always take the
latter – the double forgiveness! The Lord forgives us more sins than we’ve got!
If that weren’t enough, the Lord’s generosity is unique to
the person! Job’s daughters are
named: Jemimah, Keziah, and
Keren-Happuch.
My daughters are Amanda, Kiersten, Caroline, and
Bridget. Job 42:15 says: “Nowhere in all the land were there found
women as beautiful as Job’s daughters.”
Hmmm. I have a bone to pick with
that. My daughters are beautiful too.
Lerner and Loewe nailed the lyrics, and Maurice Chevalier
gave them voice:
Thank heaven for little girls
For little girls get bigger every day! Thank heaven for little
girls
They grow up in the most delightful way!
Those little eyes so helpless and appealing
One day will flash and send you crashin thru the ceilin’!
Indeed, those girls grow up and face a world where a
motorist, driving under the influence of alcohol, rams into a crowded
homecoming celebration in Oklahoma City.
Lives are lost. Many were injured
– a number of them critically.
We shake our heads and try to forget it. Or we, too, numb the pain and make sure we
have a designated driver. Then we go
about our daily business – hoping that we don’t get rammed in one way or
another. Life goes on pretty much as it
always haws, but there’s this lingering dis-ease as the days grow colder and
time grows shorter.
Martin Luther, living nearly five hundred years ago, knew
all about this. He struggled mightily
with his devotion to God, to his prayers, and his piety. But for him it always fell short. His soul, like Job’s, had its dark
night. And when Luther tried to conform
himself to Christ (with his devotion, prayers, and piety), it did not signal
the dawn; it deepened his darkness! How
could he know, for sure, that God was gracious and forgiving?
Meanwhile, in the Roman Catholic Church of Luther’s day,
representatives from that church were selling indulgences. The proceeds went to fund the building of St.
Peter’s basilica in Rome. An indulgence,
basically a sheet of paper, granted your deceased loved one time off in
purgatory. At least, that’s what the faithful were told by their ecclesiastical
leaders.
Luther, now a university professor in Wittenberg,
observing all this, decided to take up his pen.
With his 95 Theses pinned to the door of the Castle Church, four hundred
ninety eight year ago next Saturday, he essentially said that forgiveness
cannot be bought.
This seminal event began a wave of change that has
continued unabated to our own day. The
Reformation initiated a seismic shake-up of church, secular government, and
society that is still being felt.
In our Presbyterian circles, we speak of ourselves as
“Reformed, and always reforming.” In
other words, we’re into change! I was
reminded by one of our members last year:
“Yes, pastor. But you forgot the
entire phrase: ‘Reformed and always
reforming – according to the Word of God!”
That member was right.
But my question is: what Word of
God is it? Is it the Word of the Law, of
the old covenant that kills? Are we
talking Ten Commandments with its rights and wrongs, thou shalts and thou shalt
nots? In many churches of the
Reformation today (Protestant churches), that law is taught primarily as a list
of “how to”’s that help you live in conformity with Jesus. This, then, is put forth, in so many words,
as “godly living”.
Luther knew that quite well, and I’d argue he knew it far
better than the most pious Presbyterians. But he discovered something: all of that trying to live in conformity to
Jesus and His perfect love was never enough.
And this made him as miserable as he was pious.
In 1517, Luther had not yet figured it out. Eventually, though, it dawned on him. An ancient Old Testament prophecy from
Habakkuk put it straight to him: “The
just shall live by faith.” Then he
tacked that on to this from the New Testament:
“By grace are you saved through faith.
And this is not from yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Then, chiming in from the book of Romans,
Luther read this one again:
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made
known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through
faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
There is no difference fir all have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came
by Christ Jesus.
And all the bells that signaled the dawn started to ring! He described it as a turmerlebnis – a “tower experience”; it was though he was set free
from a prison. The Gospel came
clear. No longer was it covered up by
tradition, by piety, by politics, by fear-based fund-raising, by conformity. It became what it was and still is: a gift!
Like Job, Luther’s fortunes were restored. Thank heaven for little girls? Absolutely!
But above all, thank heaven for the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
“I am not ashamed of the Gospel,” declared St. Paul, “it
is the power of God unto salvation.” At
heart of that Gospel, that good news, is what the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ are all about! It’s that Gospel
that makes the reformation, that makes the change!
My friends, thank you for the opportunity of sharing some
meditative thoughts on the book of Job for the last four weeks. In keeping with the material, we’ll let Job
have the last word. Here it is from the
19th chapter:
Oh,
that my words were recorded,
that
they were written on a scroll,
that
they were inscribed with an iron tool on[a]
lead,
or
engraved in rock forever!
I
know that my redeemer[b] lives,
and
that in the end he will stand on the earth.[c]
And
after my skin has been destroyed,
yet[d] in[e] my
flesh I will see God;
I
myself will see him
with
my own eyes—I, and not another.
How
my heart yearns within me!
Amen.
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