Saturday, October 3, 2020     (today’s lectionary)
Let your face shine upon me
Marc and Chris fought over the computer back in 1995, when we spent $2500 on a Gateway Pentium 90 Windows 95 computer with 16 MB of RAM and an 800 MB hard drive. Speakers and woofer poured out big sound, and video games came to life. They both wanted to play, all the time.
The worst time was when they switched, because if they weren’t careful they would lose what they’d done. Nintendo’s “quit” screen said, “Everything not saved will be lost.” There was no going back. This Japanese warning was real.
I know that you can do all things
And that no purpose of yours can be hindered.
I have dealt with great things that I do not understand.
Should I keep playing so nothing will be lost? Or should I save everything so nothing will be lost? Perhaps I should play a different game? Perhaps I should stop playing games?
Job’s friends, Job’s wife, Job himself, all really had no idea. What should they do? In his mercy, God changed the question. Their own lives, supposedly so much in their own hands, were not theirs to govern or guide. It only seemed that way. They could not save themselves.
Don’t just do something, God said. Sit there and let me love you.
I had heard of you
But now my eye has seen you, Lord.
And now I repent in dust and ashes.
Going backward from adulthood into the second half of life, into the “second naivete,” doesn’t go well until God shows up and speaks up. Job’s group of know-it-alls are silenced only when God’s voice is louder than theirs. Job had the “advantage” of suffering and loss, so his voice had already softened. But in the wake of his friends’ advice and accusation, he too was heating up.
There are so few things worth saying in times of confusion and loss. Questions, mostly, and requests for salvation. “Everything not saved will be lost.”
Teach me wisdom and knowledge,
It is in your commands that I trust.
It is good to be afflicted that I may learn your laws.
It is in your faithfulness that you have afflicted me.
Careful, now. My ego is acting up, trying to get a word in. Don’t I get a say in all of this?
Well, no. Not now, in this last resort. Now is the time to be still and know that God is God, and I am not.
I am your servant.
The revelation of your words sheds light
And gives understanding to the simple.
That’s me, David the Simple. As I return to childhood I hear the blessing of Jesus and rejoice. This wisdom is more true, more lasting, more full than what I’ve known before.
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
You have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom.
As of today, I am surrounded by books and computers and music and movies and food and tools and bank statements and clothing and toothbrushes and soap. What will there be tomorrow? Yesterday hail broke windows on one side of town, while we felt only a soft shower. There is a roof under our head today. What will be there tomorrow? Everything not saved will be lost.
And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his earlier ones.
Thousands upon thousands of oxen and sheep and camels and goats.
Seven sons and three daughters and he gave them all inheritance.
He livd a hundred and forty years and then died,
Old and full of years.
What better praise can we pray with each other than to share the blessing of Moses and Aaron, given to them by God for the people …
The Lord bless thee and keep thee.
The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee.
May the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
           (Job 42, Psalm 119, Matthew 11, Luke 10)
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