Job 23:1-9, 16-17

Year B - Pentecost +20 or Energy to Witness ²⁰
October 11, 2015

Job 23:1-9, 16-17

Our complaint is still a bitter one. We so desire to bring our life and circumstance to a resolution and there is no court available for us to do that. We can’t do it internally for we know we are just fooling ourselves one more time as evidenced by repeating the same old tapes. We can’t do it externally for everyone is trying to do the same and nowhere is there a place where our common desires and willingness to be judged can be matched up—always power is by definition unequal.

Our bitterness is a desire to be justified and not being able to see where a hearing could provide an outcome we could live with. All we can find is a continuation of I win/You lose and its complement of I lose/You win. This will never do.

If only there wasn’t a sense of dread about this eternally being the case. Where can the Gordian Knot of everyday life be undone without a cheating blade?

We cry out to banish a darkness that covers our face, clouds our countenance, and leaves us feeling for maze walls even if they lead no where. Something more amazing is needed. There is no escaping suffering through any judgment. Some semblance of assurance or a helpful path/way will assuage our angst for awhile, but even here darkness has a duration that outlasts our willingness to await. Pressure to be about regular life stirs us up to keep us from knowing there is no such thing as regular life, only this one precious chance never fully grounded and ever bubbling with future’s life.

We can all join in Job’s wail. May we also be able to find our search for meaning to not need a judgment call on the present.

[For extra credit imagine Job’s wail to be the equivalent of a bat’s sonar click. It actually does penetrate darkness and identifies amazing assurance that has been there all along.