Talking about Job and Jesus for Lent...

One of my all-time favorite books is Out of the Whirlwind (the Book of Job) by Stephen Mitchell (his Gospel According to Jesus is pretty fine, too.) One of the observations that he makes is that many progressive spiritual people have what he calls a "nostalgia for the future." That is a poetic way of saying that we ache and long for that time when all things are made right - when justice flows down like a rushing stream - when the lion lies down with the lamb - when God wipes away every tear from our eyes- and everyone lives 'neath their vine and fig tree in peace and unafraid.

This is a powerful yearning: in our era it has informed Gandhi and King, feminists and GLBTQ activists as well as those in liberation movements throughout the world. Conservatives seek solace in rules and guidelines, but progressives look for justice - and both are illusions. Neither is untrue, just incomplete for there will always be chaos breaking into our ordered existence and the kingdom of God will always be not yet or still to come.

That is why Mitchell spends so much time with Job: here is a spirituality that is honest, unsentimental and mystical all at the same time. Job accepts that much of life is grossly unfair and harsh - the story borrowed from Babylon speaks of tragic death in the family as well as the loss of income, status and personal health. Job also speaks of living within a religious tradition that seeks to blame the victim of tragedy instead of standing in solidarity and compassion - not much has changed.

Think about it: Ellie Wiesel - and thousands others - are left impoverished by a brilliant thief like Madoff, children are brutalized and abandoned every minute, the old are discarded like used tissues and curable disease runs rampant. At the same time, people like Gates/Bono/Carter are bringing hope and healing to millions of lives, Nelson Mandela found a way to bring resolution to the injustices of South Africa, Obama is advancing the cause of reordering a broken America and billions of small acts of kindness happen every minute alongside the evil. Job just rings true...

In addition to describing life as it is actually experienced, the book of Job then goes on to tell us that it is only when Job get angry with the One who is Holy - rails and accuses God - that he has a mystical encounter that empowers him to both accept his reality with inner peace and rebuild his life. In fact, the text tells us that after Job rants at the Lord - and God responds in an way that is simultaneously inexplicable but sacred - Job confesses:

I know you, O Lord, can do all things

and nothing you wish is impossible...

I have spoken of the unspeakable

and tried to grasp the infinite.

Listen and I will speak; I will question you,

and wait for your instruction.

Because before I had heard of you with my ears;

but now my eyes have seen you.

Therefore I will be quiet,

comforted that I am dust (that is humble.)

Mitchell writes: Job's final words issue from surrender, not from submission... never spiritual depression. Surrender... means the wholehearted giving up of oneself. It is both the ultimate generosity and the ultimate poverty, because in it the giver becomes the gift. (It is as if he is saying to God) I have face evil, looked straight into its face - and then through it - into a vast wonder and love.

Curiously, we are not told how this happens for Job: there is no 12 step program or advice for a purpose driven life. "We aren't told the details of his realization... just the serenity of his tone. All we know is that Job's grief and accusations, his ideas about God and pit for humankind, arose from utter ignorance... somehow his hungers are not enough, he must taste and see." And he does because at the end he embraces his mortality - I am dust - and lets go of everything in order to "surrender to the light."

Like Jesus who said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit" - that is, the humble and dependent on God - so, too the ancient wisdom of Job. Not only is this essential reading for Lent... but also for closing the gaps in what often looks like Christian triumphalism.