It was a dark and stormy night.
Both outside and inside.
The children were scared, they had been hurt, they were grieving.
The parents sat down with them and opened up the Bible to the first page, and they read about the beginning, about God creating the heavens and the earth, page after page of detail. They heard of the goodness of creation. They heard that creation is well ordered and purpose filled. They heard of God resting after a whole bunch of hard work.
The darkness was still inside, the storm still shook the windows, but the children knew they were safe, and though the world was a scary place, ultimately the world is good and that there is shelter from the storm.
Sometimes life is too much.
At those times it is good to be reminded that God laid the foundations of the world, measured out the lines of existence, placed the cornerstones on which we are held up and that the stars sing and shout for joy with God.
This is how God begins to answer Job, with the reminder of the orderliness, the intent filled, and purpose full fact of creation. God answers out of a storm out of a whirlwind.
Out of the disordering chaos of a storm God speaks of building the house, the temple of the world.
God speaks without apology, and with accusation. Does Job know about the goodness and purposeful nature of existence? Can Job know? Has Job forgotten?
It is not a very pastoral response, but it is the voice of conviction on a dark and stormy night, both outside and inside.
Remember that Job had lost his family, his fortune and his health in a matter of days. His friends were all telling him to ascribe blame, to curse God, or that he must have really deserved what came to him.
Job would only be satisfied with an answer from God for his condition, for more than thirty chapters Job has been waiting and asking.
And Job got more than he bargained for, he reaps the whirlwind, the storm of God came for a visit. Gird up your loins like a man, Job!
God reminded Job of creation, the sure thing, the reliable and predictable but then God spoke of floods, and lightening and clouds and dust and drought and wild animals the lion, the raven and their prey.
God speaks of the unpredictable, the disordered, the chaotic, the destructive, the dangerous and the wild.
God asks what does Job know about these things? That life is scary and God lets it be that way. Can Job answer why? Could Job even understand why?
Job wants God to explain these things, the bad things, to justify them and God out of the whirl wind answers back: if you don’t get it then you don’t get it.
Sometimes we make too much about being close to God, about wanting to know God intimately, about communing with God and we forget that to do so we open ourselves to all the pain in the world.
Skip forward to Jesus and the disciples and their wanting to be important, to be the right and left hand man in Jesus’ glory, they want to be close.
But Jesus glory is the cross, not a position of status or power.
Jesus glory is about being stripped of power, to lose his freedom, to be bound and carried away and nailed down.
Jesus’ glory is the cross.
Jesus baptism is the baptism of his own blood poured out.
The cup Jesus drinks from is the cup of suffering.
And those who are at his left and right hand in glory are not James and John but two thieves, two criminals, two from the bottom of the barrel, crucified right there next to Jesus.
Jesus warns of the lord’s and tyrants who command and control, wreaking havoc on others in their acts of self preservation and promotion.
Jesus shows us a different kind of Lordship, the authority to serve others. True greatness is found not in avoiding suffering, but rather in suffering for others.
To be close to God is to be opened up to all the pain in the world. Be careful about getting too close
Job cried out to God in his pain for God to come close, and God came close and then Job shared in something that was beyond his capacity.
Out of the whirlwind of the cross, out of the glory of God’s shame a ransom has been paid, and those who are held captive are being set free.
How to make sense of all this darkness and pain and God’s storm?
We can’t.
Job wanted it to make sense some how, but it never does.
Jesus drinks that cup of suffering.
That is what we are left with.
That cup becomes for us the cup of salvation and that makes all the difference.
On a dark and stormy night, outside and inside, God opens up the book, reads about the creation of all things and the wild chaos that is loose in the midst it all.
God gets up, opens up the door, lets the storm in and is carried away by the flood, a ransom for many.