WHEN YOUR HUT IS BURNING
A sermon by the Rev. Dr. James G. Kirk
Harundale Presbyterian Church
Text: “I will question you, and you shall declare to me.” (Job 38: 3)
First
Second
In
Archibald MacLeish’s play JB we hear
Job cry out: “God, my God, my God, answer
me! I cry out of wrong but I am not
heard…I cry aloud but there is no judgment.
Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him…But I will maintain my own
ways before Him…Oh, that I knew where I might find Him!---That I might come
even to His seat! I would order my cause
before Him and fill my mouth with arguments.
Behold, I go forward but He is not there, Backward, but I cannot
perceive Him…
Then out of the rushing wind the distant voice is heard: “Who is this that darkeneth counsel By words without knowledge?...Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth…When the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for Joy? Hast thou commanded the morning? Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea Or hast thou walked in the search of the depth? Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? Where is the way where light dwelleth? And as for darkness, where is the place thereof? Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? By what way is the light parted Which scattereth the east wind upon the earth? Can’st thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades? Hast thou given the horse strength? Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; He smelleth the battle afar off, The thunder of the captains and the shouting. Doth the eagle mount up at the command? Shall he that contendeth with Almighty instruct Him? He that reproveth God, let him answer it!
J.B. answers God: “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Whereupon the distant voice answers: “Wilt thou disannul my judgment? Wilt though condemn Me that thou mayest be righteous? Hast thou an arm like God? Or canst thou Thunder with a voice like Him? Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency And array thyself with glory and beauty…Then will I also confess unto thee That thine own right hand can save thee.” J.B. then raises his bowed head and says gently: I know that thou canst do everything…And that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understand not: Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak:…I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear…But now…mine eye seeth thee! Wherefore I abhor myself…and repent…” And with that the scene ends.
The story is told of the only survivor of a shipwreck who was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements and to store his few possessions. But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up the sky. The worst had happened; everything was lost. He was stunned with grief and anger. God, how could you do this to me!” he cried. Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him. “How did you know I was here?” asked the weary man of his rescuers. “We saw your smoke signal,” they replied.
There are many people today who feel like J.B. or the weary survivor. Their hut is burning and they’ve cried out to God to help them. Yet, it seems as though either God hasn’t heard their cries or God is about other business. One person in particular comes to mind. Six months ago she and her husband were busy planning their next trip. During a routine breast examination, she found she had a lump which would necessitate surgery. The surgery discovered the lymph system involved and now she’s under extensive chemotherapy to be followed by radiation treatments. To make matters worse her latest CAT scan discovered a hot spot on her liver. Her reaction is, “Why me?” “Why now?”
Her hut definitely seems to be burning down around her and as of this morning no one has seen the smoke to make her cancer go away.
Not long ago the pastor sat with his wife in the kitchen of their home. They had sent the kids to their grandparents overnight. They were in the midst of dividing what had been their common property through the eighteen years of marriage. Who would get the furniture, the pictures that had hung on their walls, the dishes and the pots and pans? All was loaded into the pickup truck and off the wife went to start a new life for herself. Since he lived in the manse it was his responsibility to make the most of the now almost empty house.
The next
morning at precisely
So, there’s
a woman recently discovered to have cancer wondering where God is in the midst
of her pain and a young pastor who’s left with the realization that with his
life at the lowest point he’s ever known all he has left is God. Kathleen Norris has written that “For grace
to be grace, it must give us things we didn’t know we needed, such as the pain
of loss, or illness, or spiritual drought.
As we stumble through the altered landscape of our lives, we find that
God is enjoying our attention as never before.
And maybe that’s the point. We
have finally dropped the mirror, and are looking for God.” (
“We have finally dropped the mirror, and are looking for God.” Is that what J.B. meant when he confessed, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear…But now mine eye seeth thee! Wherefore I abhor myself…and repent…” Is that what the weary traveler meant when he asked his rescuers how they knew he was stranded on the island and they replied they had seen his smoke signal? Is that what the young pastor meant when amid the pile of ashes of what had been his marriage that all he had left was God? And is that what our friend means when six months after she and her husband had planned all their wonderful travels together, now amid her cancer ravished body she has finally dropped the mirror and is looking for God.”
The final scene of J.B. finds him and his wife Sarah arranging the chairs in their living room. Sarah speaks, “Then blow on the coal of the heart, my darling…It’s all the light now. Blow on the coal of the heart. The candles in churches are out. The lights have gone out in the sky, Blow on the coal of the heart and we’ll see by and by…We’ll see where we are. The wit won’t burn and the wet soul smoulders. Blow on the coal of the heart and we’ll know…We’ll know.”
And you know what we’ll know? We’ll know that God feels our pain along with us. We’ll know that God is working with the doctors and the nurses who are tending to us. We’ll know that God’s network of prayer continues to surround us as God sends the healing power of the risen Christ within us. We’ll know that God surrounds us with the Holy Spirit who somehow in the midst of our treatments and discomforts strengthens us with endurance sufficient for each day, and that endurance will breed a hope that will never disappoint us. We’ll know that even in the midst of despair there will be that hope, since we are not alone, but rather we rest secure in the one who, after all, “laid the foundations of the earth,” and hope will abide eternally.
Thanks be to God,
Amen