Restoration

An out of season sunflower in my garden

Lectionary Readings for October 28

Job 42:1-6, 10-17;  Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22); Jeremiah 31:7-9;  Psalm 126; Hebrews 7:23-28;  Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 10:46-52

This week's readings return to some themes from the last couple of weeks. We return to Job with some nuances I didn't catch last week. Psalm 126 was also in the readings two weeks ago. The Hebrews passage continues with more from the imagery of Jesus as our eternal high priest.

First of all, Job

Last week, my thoughts were centered on the fact that we can no more understand the wonders of the world than we can the suffering. But today, we have the words of Job himself, after he has encountered the very presence of God.

I have uttered what I did not understand,

things too wonderful for me, which I did not know...

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,

but now my eye sees you;

therefore I despise myself,

and repent in dust and ashes.

I love those words.

Job's losses still exist at this point. He is still covered in sores. His friends are speechless.

But everything has changed.

There is something in the recognized presence of God that changes everything.

Moses experienced it, and his skin shone.

Peter, James, and John wanted to build places of worship.

It must be a kind of paradigm shift.

The question, "Why?" isn't answered, but it seems to stop requiring an answer.

I don't quite resonate with the idea of Job despising himself, but sincere humility must surely accompany the experience of seeing God clearly.

After this experience, Job is restored.

He becomes richer than he was before his suffering,

and he has seven more sons and three more daughters.

This part is interesting because it is one of the places in the Old Testament where women are ranked above men. We are told the names of Job's daughters, but not the names of his sons. The daughters were more beautiful than any other women of the land, and they received inheritance along with their brothers. Did Job's experience with God result in a cultural change impacting his relationship with his daughters? I wonder about that.

Psalm 34:1-8 (19-22) could be something Job might sing. It is full of wonder and gratitude at the goodness of God and for the relief of being restored from hard times.

Jeremiah 31:7-9 and Psalm 126 The words from Jeremiah is in the voice of God, speaking restoration to the people who long to return to their homeland. There is hope for the blind and the lame. There is imagery of being gathered from far away places and brought together to a place of safety. There is recognition of grief and promise of consolation.

The psalm echoes those words, remembering the grief as well as the restoration, and pleading again for renewed restoration.

The news this week has included stories of a caravan of immigrants fleeing the violent crime in Honduras. I hear the words of God in Jeremiah and of the Psalm and they become the words of my prayers for those who have gathered to flee from faraway places, leaving with tears, hoping for consolation and safety and restoration.

At the end of this post I'll add some info from an email I received from the San Antonio Mennonite Church regarding the caravan, what they are fleeing, what they experience as they travel, and the needs they will have as they arrive.

Hebrews 7:23-28 highlights the sinless and eternal nature of Jesus as our high priest. We don't depend on a priest who fails, but on a priest who lives without fault forever, and is "able for all time" to restore us, and who always makes intercession for us.

Mark 10:46-52 is the story of the restoration of sight for Bartimaeus, the blind man. We begin the readings with Job, a man who is afflicted and then restored, and end with Baritmaeus, another individual who needs and receives restoration. Bartimaeus calls out, and is willing to be annoying, and to continue even when he is hushed by the crowd. He meets Jesus. He is restored. Maybe it is a "Job" moment, because it changes his direction. He immediately begins to follow Jesus.

So that is what I hold on to today.

1. Meeting Jesus, meeting God, changes the questions and changes the questioners even before restoration is offered and received. But some more basic form of restoration happens just in that meeting and recognition of who God is, who we are.

2. Not everyone in the Bible had this face to face experience, so it isn't something to expect or demand. At the same time, there are ways we sometimes have moments when we move beyond the questions and into the recognition of who God is. I don't yet understand totally how we get there. I think honesty with God is a piece of it. Job and Bartimaeus were both willing to be honest above the comfort level of those around them. But it is less something we can control through a formula of "how to get God to show up", and more something we are open to as we walk through our lives.

3. Restoration is for individuals, as in the Job and Mark passages, but also for the large multitudes of people who need and desire restoration, as in the Jeremiah, Psalms, and Hebrews passages. God is personal and beyond personal.

May we be open to meeting God and to restoration.

Here is the info from San Antonio Mennonite Church:

A quick reminder of

what is happening:

• Families are being terrorized by escalating violence in Central America. They are being violently extorted by gangs entwined in the government, or their children have been threatened with rape, human trafficking, or forced gang-membership.
• They begin a journey to seek asylum in the United States, generally with very little preparation or knowledge. They sell-off all of their resources.
• The journey through Mexico takes about a month, involving dangerous freight trains and the ever-present danger of horrifying cartels, human traffickers, and extortion. They describe violent robbery, group rape, and extreme hunger and dehydration.
• Reaching the U.S. border, and unable to cross at legal points of entry because of week-long lines, they cross the river and seek out Border Patrol Agents to ask for asylum.
• When apprehended, they are charged with a crime and are taken to Customs and Border Patrol Processing centers.  These prisons are kept at icy-cold conditions, and there are no beds on the concrete floors. The asylum-seeking refugees are given metallic blankets. They describe terrible food, bright lights, and a desperate attempt to keep their children warm in their filthy, wet clothing. Here, families are often separated (children are no longer taken from their parents, but fathers are often taken from their spouses and children).
• After asylum processing, they are given a date to appear in court. If they can find a sponsoring family, they are released from detention to begin their asylum case. Busses drop off released asylum-seekers in downtown San Antonio to make their way to their sponsor families around the country. Most are fitted with GPS tracking shackles on their ankles.
• Asylum-seeking refugees, fleeing violence, exposed to trauma on their flight north, robbed of all of their possessions, and released from a terrifying prison experience find themselves in San Antonio with no resources and a multi-day journey ahead of them (to North Carolina, Kansas, New York, Indiana, California, etc)