The Book of Job - SJA's Bible Study Group Fall, 2001

Catholics are not generally known as avid Bible readers, however, the SJA Bible Study, launched in the fall of 1999, is thriving.

The group has just finished the book of Job and begins a new session that will explore Corinthians I. Our first gathering will be Tuesday, January 8th at 7pm in Hospitality Hall. Our good friend Tom Smith-Myott will kick-off the session, open to all, with an introduction and overview of the Apostle Paul’s travels and writings as well as a short question and answer session.

The now public domain works of artist William Blake (1757-1827), are filled with symbolic imagery from the Book of Job. Here the Adversary is inflicting boils on Job.

Well, what does one say about the book of Job? It seems to many of us that God makes a ‘side bet’ with the Adversary(Job was written before the concept of the devil was developed) that Job, an upright and faithful man who is blessed with abundance, love and wealth, is only upright and God fearing because he has all his wealth. “But,” says the Adversary, “stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” So they play their game and we watch as Job suffers tremendously. He loses his possessions and wealth and when that doesn’t break him, the Adversary talks God into allowing physical ailments and Job is then afflicted with the most hideous ailments of the flesh. His friends come to see him and rather than comforting him they berate him for having sinned in the eyes of God. The belief at the time, and even now to a certain degree, was that God blessed the upright and saddled the wicked and sinful with physical ailments, poverty and general misery. The friends believe, or pretend to, that if Job would only fess up and admit his sin; God would restore his health and great wealth.

Job maintains his innocence and a dialogue between Job and his friends begins. The scene is very reminiscent of a court of law and the ‘friends’ argue back and forth with Job. Many in the Bible Study grew weary of the arguments as it became very repetitive. We were anxious to get to the “punch line.” Why did or how could God do something like this to a person? How could God be so petty? What would God’s explanation finally be? We also discussed that if God were Omniscient, Omnipresent, Infinite, wouldn’t God already know the outcome of this test?

In the end, Job never loses his faith in God and the Adversary finally admits defeat. However, when God finally speaks to Job, God delivers a magnificent speech filled with power and wonderful imagery but alas never answers (at least to many of the groups’ satisfaction) the question of suffering, be it human suffering in general or Job’s in particular.

Is the author of Job saying that we, being mere human beings with limited perceptive mechanisms, have no way of understanding the workings of God the infinite? The text appears to say that there are things beyond human comprehension and that maybe we should not expect answers to certain questions including suffering. The acceptance of suffering becomes a matter of faith.

Our only hope is that the message of Job is not one of resignation to the fact of human suffering(i.e. grinning and bearing it). For these are the very questions we need to keep asking of God and ourselves; with faith being that the answers are and can be known.

I believe that my constant search for truth and my innate desire to know the sacred in myself and in the world is what led me to the SJA Bible Study (along with mom telling me how darn interesting it was).

I showed up one evening and was warmly greeted by friendly people with seemingly every level of biblical knowledge (and lack thereof), which helped me to feel comfortable with my own limited knowledge. After all, many of us are Catholic, right? We are not expected to know much about the Bible. I am frequently reminded of this during wonderful discussions with my more conservative Christian friends. (I might add that after two years of attending, I can say I no longer suffer from that same limited knowledge.)

I really enjoyed and enjoy the combination of the historical scholarship information, the actual reading of the bible (both alone and aloud in large group), our attempt to get a handle on what the authors are saying and to whom and the large and small group discussion.

Then, there is the tremendous gift of developing fellowship!

The Bible Study has been for me a source of unbelievable and quite tangible growth and reward. I have experienced major transforming experiences in my life that have resulted in profound shifts in some very basic assumptions about reality. It is not difficult to notice this growth in other members as well.

I could make a long list of the gifts I have received as a direct result of becoming involved with this group. These include: the experience of the supreme simplicity of love and the power therein; the realization of the beauty and the necessity of serving our fellow human beings (this hit me in a way that is hard to verbalize); knowledge of the power of silence; the invincibility of surrender and new realizations about the teachings of our dear brother, Jesus, to name a few. The group for me has been like a springboard that has opened whole new avenues for the expression of the sacred and the resulting joy has seeped into all areas of my life.

Transformation is no longer an esoteric or mystical experience that happens to someone else but has become a natural human process that happens effortlessly when I simply get out of the way from time to time and listen.

My journey has become more spiritual as a result of these gatherings. I have been truly blessed with life-long friends and the group has become an integral part of my adult education and recreation. We break bread together, on occasion we sing together and we have performed old time radio theatre together! I have explored and expanded my faith in ways that would not have been possible had I not made the decision to check the group out.

The SJA Bible Study sincerely hopes that we have created an environment of acceptance and respect that makes for a safe and welcoming place to not only broaden our knowledge of scripture, but also to share our ideas, beliefs, insights and questions about faith, science and the sacred.

Rik Murray has been attending the 11:00am service at SJA off and on for about 15 years. He loves to share this time with his mom, step-dad, sister and nephew. In addition to the Bible Study, he enjoys attending the Movement/Meditation group in the Parish Center on Monday evenings. He loves to travel and hike, has dabbled in the theatre (he comes up with some funny impersonations), and says the most interesting trip he has been on lately was a wilderness expedition whose purpose was to film and or record vocalizations of a Sasquatch in the Syskiyou Wilderness Area of Northern California. Talk about living a dream!

Far from being a finished product we are a beautifully flawed work in progress. (There are Packer fans among us.) The group itself and our use of time is growing and evolving and we value new input. There is a spontaneous nature to the gatherings where one often senses that anything could happen, and there is a lot of love.

Our growing and diverse community would like to extend a hearty invitation to any and all to stop in sometime. We look forward to hearing about and sharing your journey.