Pentecost +18 - Year B
Job 1:1; 2:1-10
What land are you from? Job was from the land of Uz, which was a traditional source of wisdom. Wouldn’t you like to be known as someone from the land of Wisdom?
A part of wisdom is to know where to focus; what is chaff and what good grain, what will lead to infinite arguments and what will nourish now and again.
The whole business of the Satan, the agent provocateur, the prosecuting attorney, the litmus tester, etc. gets us into all manner of theodicy issues we won’t find our way out of without some Gordian Knot getting sliced and diced.
Of more pertinence is the reprise of the Adam and Eve (fruit) story with Job and Sitis (bread). Are you going to persist in your understanding of G*D or not? In some sense Job bests Adam. As in Adam all sinned, so in Job are all made to question.
What is your bottom-line? What questions are you asking G*D these days?
[Aside: The description “foolish woman” goes back to a sense of “outrageousness” - in this case a word study leads to the incongruity of a married woman acting as though she were engaged in premarital sex. To have our actions repeat a previous stage of life rather than moving into a next stage is foolishness that does not sustain. This is the foolishness of Sitis contrasted with the wisdom of Job. Now take this out of the patriarchal model and apply it to your life. Are your questions reflective of where you were in a previous stage of life or are they stretching into new territory that will feed your soul?]
While appreciating the value of changing questions as life and experience proceed, it occurs to me that recycling the same question in new circumstances and stages of life is also likely to challenge previous "wisdom" and nourish the soul. Sometimes doing so turns out to be viewed as a step into a new question.
ReplyDeleteI can't tell that the above adds anything to the conversation but it does give evidence that the postings stimulate and provoke thought.