DAY TWO: Boils at Christmas?

In order to really understand Christmas, we need to get some perspective. This may prove a little intense, so stick with me, ok?

I have mentioned plenty of times that I believe that humankind is somehow messed up. We only have to read incredulous stories of rape in Darfur, study the Holocaust outlined in our history books, and contemplate the reality that children are trafficked as sex slaves for profit.

Sometimes, when I’m tempted to feel morally superior, I ask God what it is inside us all that make us capable of such atrocities.

I’m not sure if you watched the finale of Survivor. I am fascinated by what happens to people when they are hungry, sleep deprived and isolated. This season, however, I was left speechless when a young woman named Corrine verbally attacked another woman named Sugar. It was so dark and sad and mean. I sat there wondering, “What is wrong with us?”

As crazy as this seems, I want us to start our journey in the Old Testament book of Job (pronounced with a long o). Most everybody has heard of Job – the guy that suffered BIG TIME. In short, here’s what happens:

Job is a blameless and upright guy. He has a large family and a lot of wealth. Okay so far, right? Then the Bible says this: 6 One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. 7 The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?"
Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it."

Now, to me, this is a fascinating exchange. It’s almost as if Satan tags along with the angels on a whim to see God and then he and God have this strange conversation. And isn’t interesting that an all-knowing God asks Satan about His whereabouts? It gets worse:

8 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."

9 "Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied. 10 "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face."

12 The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger." Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

You guessed it. TERRIBLE things happen to Job, including the deaths of his children, the collapse of his wealth and the ruin of his property. He even ends up covered in boils, writhing in pain.

Almost every sermon or teaching I have ever heard about the book of Job has been about suffering. While I admit that Job suffers, I no longer think that is the point of this strange and fascinating book. Our first clue comes in Satan’s question to God when he asks, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has?”

Satan is accusing God of being naïve. He is claiming that Job only loves God because God has been good to him and blessed him. Basically, Satan is asserting that humankind believes in and loves God because it’s in our best interest to do so. We cling to, pray to, sing about, and love Him because we think He will give us good things in return (or, conversely, will withhold His wrath). Hmmmm…

And, to take it one step further, our belief in God has the potential to modify behavior and prevent chaos as well, right? People, striving to please God, are less likely to rape women, gas Jews and sell children, right? Then we remember the crusades and Spanish Inquisition…

The book of Job is a clear example of how distorted things have become. God intended to be in close relationship with humankind. Ever wonder why it’s hard to feel Him or want to hear His voice, but can’t? It wasn’t meant to be like this at all. God had something altogether different in mind.

Ah, well, God wanted to fix it. Not only did He want us to stop thinking that He is a “what can you do for me god” but He longed for us to realize that relationship with Him is not primarily about behavior modification. He wants to restore His ideal, to close the gap that has formed between us and Him, to reconcile the broken relationship – behaviors are changed only after things are made right. He knows our whereabouts, but He wanted to ask us if we recognize how far away from Him we are. He wanted to show us the path to an alternative reality that we have lost the ability to see.

So, HE DECIDED TO COME AND GET US.

We sing, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” The name, Emmanuel, means “God with us.” Cool, huh?

Questions for today: Can you think of things you have done that reveal a darkness within you? When you try to talk to God, does it feel like a speech or a conversation? What is your reality and how does God fit in (or not)? If you call yourself a believer, why do you believe? Is your faith based on a God who will bless and protect you?

This post is already crazy long, but no one said it better than Philip Yancey in his book The Jesus I Never Knew. If I haven’t lost you, read this:

I learned a lot about incarnation when I kept a salt-water aquarium. Management of a marine aquarium, I discovered, is no easy task. I had to run a portable chemical laboratory to monitor the nitrate levels and the ammonia content. I pumped in vitamins and antibiotics and sulfa drugs and enough enzymes to make a rock grow. I filtered the water through glass fibres and charcoal, and exposed it to ultraviolet light. You would think, in view of all the energy expended on their behalf, that my fish would be at least grateful. Not so. Every time my shadow loomed above the tank they dove for cover into the nearest shell. They showed me one "emotion" only: fear. Although I opened the lid and dropped food on a regular schedule, three times a day, they responded to each visit as a sure sign of my designs to torture them. I could not convince them of my true concern.

To my fish I was a deity. I was too large for them, my actions were too incomprehensible. My acts of mercy they saw as cruelty; my attempts at healing they viewed as destruction. To change their perceptions, I began to see, would require a form of incarnation. I would have to become a fish and "speak" to them in a language they could understand.

Yeah, I'm setting you up. See you tomorrow.