for Sunday School class tomorrow, Oct 17
Good morning, friends and neighbors!
There is no homework; membership and participation in our Sunday School class never requires advance preparation or any other sort of work. I will tell you what I have in mind for tomorrow, though, and if you would like to familiarize yourself with the material, it might enhance your enjoyment, participation, and benefit from our session tomorrow.
Currently, our Sunday lectionary has us reading bits and snippets from Job as our Old Testament lesson. In my view, Job is the most powerfully challenging theology text in the Bible, Old Testament or New, as much so as Paul’s letter to the Romans. The fact with Job, though, is that it’s like the “case studies” that used to be given to students in Harvard Business School, that were copied and used in other business schools including my alma maters, the school of business at the University of Florida and the school of business at the University of Michigan: the case, which might be a paragraph or many pages with numbers and reports and balance sheets and profit & loss statement, just gave you the facts, a situation. It was up to you to figure out whether there were any problems (there always were) and what might be possible actions, and their repercussions, and fight in class to conclusions.
Job is a “once upon a time” story. Bishop Duvall called it a “stage play”. It is packed with theology of all qualities, with wisdom and folly, with truths and lies, with good guys and pompous, certitudinous jackasses, with God and man.
In our hour tomorrow, I intend for our Time to be spent on Job. There are 42 chapters, so there’s not time to read the whole thing aloud in class, much less is there time to read and discuss. I’m going to prepare and do the best I can as class mentor, moderator for our discussion. IF YOU WANT TO, what I suggest is (1) that you read or scan Job in the readable and enjoyable Message translation, which begins below; and (2) that you observe what’s going on in the story and raise questions in your mind. I’ve already read it again this morning, but I’m going to do the same two things and come to class ready to read just a very little, but discuss a lot. I will not give you my questions now, because the idea is to ask your own questions.
Remember, in our class there are no questions that cannot be asked, and there is no discussion that cannot be had, no taboos, nothing is “off the table”. No question is “stupid” and everyone’s participation is invited, encouraged, welcome, and valued.
See you tomorrow, either in person or online as the class session is streamed on HNEC Facebook.
Tom
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+1&version=MSG
Job 1
The Message
A Man Devoted to God
1 1-3 Job was a man who lived in Uz. He was honest inside and out, a man of his word, who was totally devoted to God and hated evil with a passion. He had seven sons and three daughters. He was also very wealthy—seven thousand head of sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred teams of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and a huge staff of servants—the most influential man in all the East!
4-5 His sons used to take turns hosting parties in their homes, always inviting their three sisters to join them in their merrymaking. When the parties were over, Job would get up early in the morning and sacrifice a burnt offering for each of his children, thinking, “Maybe one of them sinned by defying God inwardly.” Job made a habit of this sacrificial atonement, just in case they’d sinned.
The First Test: Family and Fortune
6-7 One day when the angels came to report to God, Satan, who was the Designated Accuser, came along with them. God singled out Satan and said, “What have you been up to?”
Satan answered God, “Going here and there, checking things out on earth.”
8 God said to Satan, “Have you noticed my friend Job? There’s no one quite like him—honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil.”
9-10 Satan retorted, “So do you think Job does all that out of the sheer goodness of his heart? Why, no one ever had it so good! You pamper him like a pet, make sure nothing bad ever happens to him or his family or his possessions, bless everything he does—he can’t lose!
11 “But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away everything that is his? He’d curse you right to your face, that’s what.”
12 God replied, “We’ll see. Go ahead—do what you want with all that is his. Just don’t hurt him.” Then Satan left the presence of God.
13-15 Sometime later, while Job’s children were having one of their parties at the home of the oldest son, a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing in the field next to us when Sabeans attacked. They stole the animals and killed the field hands. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
16 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Bolts of lightning struck the sheep and the shepherds and fried them—burned them to a crisp. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
17 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Chaldeans coming from three directions raided the camels and massacred the camel drivers. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
18-19 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Your children were having a party at the home of the oldest brother when a tornado swept in off the desert and struck the house. It collapsed on the young people and they died. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
20 Job got to his feet, ripped his robe, shaved his head, then fell to the ground and worshiped:
21 Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
naked I’ll return to the womb of the earth.
God gives, God takes.
God’s name be ever blessed.
22 Not once through all this did Job sin; not once did he blame God.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+1&version=MSG
I HOPE YOU WILL WANT TO KEEP READING, OR AT LEAST SCANNING, SO YOU GET THE PICTURE FOR THE WHOLE STORY!
Tom