Job 2:3-7
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
“In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil”

With these words begins the story of Job. Now Job is one of the few biblical personalities along with Noah and Jesus whose story is familiar to most everyone.
It is a story that has a universal appeal for Job is in some respects the everyman, a man of wealth and upright life who is beset by the destruction of family, property and health. Now people may not remember the minute details of all 42 chapters of the book but they remember that the story is about a good man who suffers total disaster.

And they remember this because the book of Job has to do with the most painful and unavoidable question which can arise in our human experience. This question can and has been asked and will continue to be asked in many different forms.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
or Why do the righteous suffer?
And yet in the end the question is clear, “If God exists, why is there suffering?

It is a question that confronts all of us.  I believe that as people of faith it is this question, more than any other, that shapes our own understandings of who God is. Because it is those of us who believe in God, more so that the agnostic or the atheist who is forced to come to terms with the problem of suffering.
For we claim that despite all of the level of evil and suffering in the world, an all powerful and all loving God does exist and we claim that there must be a reason as to why God would permit evil.
Now this reason appears to be beyond our understanding and yet at the same time it does not prevent us from asking the question “why is there suffering?” or looking for a reason that emerges out of our own faith in God. For the evil and the suffering that exists touches our own lives both indirectly and directly.

Some philosophers and theologians through the ages have answered our question by suggesting that suffering is used in order to test one’s faith. I have had people with chronic illness tell me that this is the reason why they are suffering. Now suffering as a test of faith is certainly the case for Job as put forth by the author of this book.

As the curtain opens on chapter 2 of the book of Job we see the reason as to why he is being tested. The scene is once again the heavenly court and at this point Job has lost all of his children and all of his possessions.

Satan and the Lord are once again in conversation. The Lord says “you persuaded me to let you attack him for no reason at all, but Job is still as faithful as ever.” Implying that Job’s pain was not God’s punishment for sin.
Satan replies “A man will give up everything in order to stay alive. But now suppose you hurt his body-he will curse you to your face. And so Job is afflicted with terrible sores all over his body.

Each of us  know that painful events sometimes work out for the best. Sometimes they can help us grow and mature as individuals. We face a difficult situation in our lives perhaps the result of illness or injury and we emerge stronger people because of the experience. We emerge with perhaps greater insight and understanding.
But we also know that not all suffering is needed or valuable. Often the level and degree of suffering far outweighs any personal growth that is to be gained from the experience. A good example is found in Rabbi Kushner’s book when he is talking about the tragic death of his son Aaron.

Toward the end of the book Kushner writes; “I am a more sensitive person, a more effective pastor and a more sympathetic counselor because of Aaron’s life and death...but I would give up all of those gains in a second if I could have my son back.”

In some cases perhaps it can be suggested that suffering may be understood as a test of faith but how do we feel when the idea is put forward that God deliberately caused the evil for the purpose of testing faith or for any other reason?
 Indeed we must ask why God who is traditionally understood to be all knowing would find such tests of faith necessary.

And so we return again to our original question with some alteration, Since God exists, why is there suffering? The question still hangs there confronting and challenging our faith in God. Perhaps we need to ask ourselves who is this God in which our faith rests.

Job thought that he knew quite well the God that he worshipped but it was only later in chapter 38-the voice from the whirlwind that his narrow understanding of God was challenged. He came face to face with the limits of his own understanding, he came face to face with his own inability to even ask the right questions of God for his questions are brushed aside.
In chapter 38, Fredrick Buechner writes, “God doesn’t explain he explodes. He asks Job who he thinks he is anyway. God says that to try to explain the kind of things Job wants explained would be like trying to explain Einstein to a clam…
God doesn’t reveal his grand design. He reveals himself.”

Like Job, we are surrounded and immersed in mystery, And yet for us it begins with the mystery of the cross. For the cross of Christ is more than just a call to discipleship it is also the supreme revelation of God.

God enters into relationship with us and experiences not only our joys but also the suffering and evil that we experience. And by entering into our suffering it is transformed and given meaning. For the tragedy of evil and human suffering can only produce meaning when it is confronted by divine love.

The way of the cross shows to us that God is not an abstract idea of the philosophers but rather a living expression of love. God in the person of Christ allows himself to be pushed out of the world on to the cross.
He is weak and powerless in the world and that is the only way in which he is with us and helps us. This is a reversal of what we expect from God who is traditionally understood to be all powerful, all knowing etc.
God suffers at the hands of a godless world bringing meaning in the midst of evil through the power of love.

In the end as we face our question, since God exists, why is there suffering? Perhaps faith in God is all we have despite the evil and suffering in the world. But we are strengthened to know that God is fellow sufferer who offers us the grace and insight to enter deeper into the mystery of the cross.
THANKS BE TO GOD, AMEN.