How would you sum up the Bible?
God is love?
God loves you?
Or how about God gets involved in the craziest things?
Or you won’t believe where God showed up?
God gets involved in the craziest things.
The Book of Job.
Today God shows up in the whirlwind of pain and confusion that has consumed Job’s life.
The craziest place.
Job is really surprised. Job wanted God to explain his unjustified suffering. What he got instead was the overwhelming presence of the Almighty. Job didn’t know what he was getting involved in and boy is he surprised.
Often we hear that the book of Job is about trying to find meaning, about reaching out for an explanation for suffering, for why bad things happen to good people.
I think it is up to something else. Job is about exploring all the various responses to suffering and trying to find God in that whirlwind of pain and confusion. How will we respond to suffering? Will we look for God?
It is about finding God in the craziest places.
One of the things that I have learned while serving here at Grace Church, one of the things that Grace has taught me is that God is found in difficult circumstances. Difficult circumstances are opportunities, invitations to respond, invitations to learn about the consequences of faith, and ultimately about growing as a community that learns how to respond together.
I once said at a vestry meeting that, “God gives the Church leaking roofs as an excuse for us to build community”, an inelegant way of saying that what really matters in difficult situations is how we respond together and grow as a community. It is about finding God in the craziest places.
Grace Church is in a difficult situation.
How will we respond? Will we find God in the craziest place?
If you pay attention to the announcements in the Sunday bulletin or to the newsletter then you are aware that this year financial giving is way down.
We have used up half of our reserve funds this year, that means we have spent over $30,000
more than has been given to date just to pay the staff and keep the lights on.
There is usually a small giving surge at Christmas that helps us balance the books at the end of the year, but nowhere near that size.
If this continues the consequences will be more than I can bear to think of. It will break my heart.
This parish needs to be aware of this, of the hand wringing going on. It is not fair to let your vestry suffer this anxiety. You elected them. They need your support.
So let’s talk about money, about not just giving the same old thing every year, about stretching, about sacrifice, about serious generosity, about a thanksgiving that is not merely polite but that is extravagant.
Please help with the giving short fall for this year. And when you send in your 2013 pledge card seriously consider working toward a tithe. At the very least we all have to give at least 10% more next year just so we can continue.
Opportunity abounds for us to respond to a difficult situation, to find God in the whirlwind of confusion, fear and anxiety. We have been given the invitation to grow as a community.
Financial shortfalls are really just an excuse to build community, to find God in the craziest places.