Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight. Amen.
God gives us (1) life (2) free will and (3) responsibility for all our relationships. We are given these gifts to use them. When we exercise free will with a view toward integrity, we become more fulfilled as active participants in God’s creation.
Satan symbolizes (1) self-delusion (denial of a fulfilled life), (2) slavery (a denial of free will) and (3) absolute rules (a denial of responsibility in relationships). When we deny ourselves full integration with creation, we deny ourselves fulfillment.
I see the recent movement in the Church to address global warming and to care for the ecosystem that supports us as an awakening to our responsibility and a step toward greater fulfillment, greater integration with all of creation.
Job 1:1, 2:1-10
Job describes a human relationship with God through poetry to illustrate that integrity is not about simply following rules. Before the poems begin, there is this prologue:
1There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
Job appears to be a good servant who prospered under a humble relationship with God. The readers were not assigned to read the next four verses.
2There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and very many servants; So that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. 4His sons used to go and hold feasts in one another’s houses in turn; and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5And when the feast days had run their course, Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” This is what Job always did.
And what did Job always do? Curse God Silently? Or cover up for his children (sanctify their behavior)? Does it matter? Although he knew that his children’s behavior lacked integrity, he couldn’t admit that he was in error: instead of teaching them integrity, he covered for them. Do some parents do that today? Do some politicians do that?
At the time this story was written, Satan was usually portrayed as an angel whom God used to test man for various reasons usually dealing with his level of “piety,” or integrity. They imagined God and angels to be like human rulers and officials they knew. Satan (a.k.a., the deceiver) convinced God that Job was pious only because he had been given so much, saying that, when tested, Job would show his true colors. Satan said:
11But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”
God, according to the story, agreed. This appears to suggest that God is not “all knowing.” We miss the main point if we take this story literally.
Job’s riches were taken (by invaders), his workers killed, and his estates were destroyed. And Job didn’t even see it coming! At the end of the chapter, a servant came to report:
18… “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldestbrother’s house, 19and suddenly a great wind came across the desert, struck thefour corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; Ialone escaped to tell you.”
20Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head and fell on the ground andworshipped. 21He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall Ireturn there; the Lord gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the nameof the LORD.”
22 In all this. Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.
We know that invasions and natural disasters come without warning – especially when we are not paying attention. They are more devastating when we are not prepared, and get worse when we blame others instead of helping the needy, strengthening our friendships and learning from each other how best to help and how to prevent what can be prevented. (We are reminded of some modern parallels). Well, the story continues:
2:3The LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason." 4Then Satan answered the LORD, "Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives. 5But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face." 6The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, he is in your power; only spare his life."
Satan, a symbol for Job’s delusions, had convinced God that his true lack of integrity would come out if he were to be tortured! So God permitted Satan to torture Job. (This may have been a common tactic among the barbaric rulers of those days.)
Predictably, Job wished he had never been born.
Again, can God be fooled? This is not really about God but about Job. (Maybe Job suffered from “post-traumatic stress syndrome,” diagnosed in this story as the work of Satan!) In any case, he was self-destructive, and his wife saw that:
7So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8Job took a potsherd, (apiece of broken pottery) with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes.
His wife saw his self-pity and his dishonesty:
9Then his wife said to him, "Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die." 10But he said to her, "You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?" In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.
We see that Job considered his wife to be a foolish woman for speaking what she saw and felt -- instead of keeping it in. Clearly, he was deluding himself. And yet he also saw that suffering is a part of life. There was hope for him, but not yet. While Job appeared loyal to God, faith without works is dead. The writer wrote that Job did not sin with his lips. He lacked integrity at that stage in his journey.
As we read further in Job this month, we will learn that Job’s friends were less than helpful, blaming him for not obeying God’s rules! Stay tuned…
Psalm 26 In Psalm 26 David pled for Justice and declared his integrity and humility:
O Lord, I love the house in which you dwell, and the place where your glory abides. Do not sweep me away with the sinners, nor my life with the bloodthirsty, those in whose hands are evil devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes.
David’s Psalm is a call to all to live in community with intention and integrity. The ecosystem (God’s house) faces ruin at the hands of deluded and selfish leaders who blame one another and do not work together with integrity.
Hebrews: 1:1-4, 2:5-12 calls us to be responsible for all of creation that is within our reach: It is under our power to keep it healthy or destroy it for ourselves.
7You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crownedthem with glory and honor, 8subjecting all things under their feet." Now insubjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control.
Mark 10:2-16
This section of Mark illustrates of integrity in human relationships by showing how a good rule can become a weapon of evil in the hands of power. And we can defuse that weapon by exposing its true spirit.
The Pharisees set a trap, asking Jesus to clarify the rules for divorce: “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce his wife.” He knew they were using Moses’ rules to subvert the intention of God. He noted that Moses made that rule just for people who had no integrity. He pointed out that the integrity of marriage is more important than the rules for divorce. They weren’t listening.
Later, the disciples, who also did not understand, were told straightforwardly that any divorce is a form of adultery -- in the sense that it is not in the spirit of a good marriage. If a marriage has gone beyond the point of recovery, divorce confirms that fact. And a premature divorce is evidence of a lack of integrity. In another place, Jesus did not treat adultery as a mortal sin. He saw it as a sign of a failed relationship. Instead of killing the sinner, as the Pharisees wanted, he suggested, “He who is without sin, cast the first stone.” Then he advised the adulteress to “go and sin no more.” Restore integrity.
My wife Jeannette and I are both in a second marriage. We learned, painfully, what did not work the first time (too many rules, not enough discussion, and misunderstanding). We learned from our mistakes. Our marriage together has been wonderful for 23 years. We are fully aware of, and enjoy our differences. That doesn’t mean we don’t ever get grumpy. But we don't fight or blame each other when we are not at our best, or when things don’t work out as we hoped.
The Presbyterian Book of Order reflects the search for integrity as a tension between the letter and the spirit of the law: every congregation is free to choose its own leadership and set its own rules by majority vote – and within a larger context: “Presbyters are not simply to reflect the will of the people, but rather to seek together to find and represent the will of Christ,” i.e., the will of God, that Christ tried to teach us by example. Jesus called himself “The Son of Man” to illustrate that he lived his life as an example for humans. The Book of Order goes on: “The church in its witness to the uniqueness of the Christian faith is called to mission and must be responsive to diversity in both the church and the world. Thus the fellowship of Christians as it gathers for worship and orders its corporate life will display a rich variety of form, practice, language, program, nurture and service to suit culture and need.” Therefore, majority rule should reflect the uniqueness of any given congregation but not deny our responsibility for integrity: to cherish the diversity that supports the whole of creation.
Jim Caldwell Elder
