People's Prayers: Prayers of the People: Setting Our Soul's Sights ~ Proper 23, 21st Sunday after Pentecost '24 Yr B

For Sunday, October 13, 2024, Readings: Job 23:1-9, 16-17; Psalm 22:1-15,

Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31

Oh that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling!...he would give heed to me. There an upright person could reason with him, and I should be acquitted forever by my judge. [Job 23:3, 6b-7]

…you were my God when I was still in my mother’s womb. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. [Psalm 22:10b-11]

The word of God is living and active... able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart...we have a great high priest...Jesus...Let us...approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. [Hebrews 4:12 a,b; 14a, 16]

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God...[but] for God all things are possible...many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. [Mark 10:25, 27b, 31]

Job, poor Job! We're 23 chapters into his story and things are not only as grim as ever in this terrible game between Satan and God, they are getting worse. In this passage he is answering the continuing attacks from Eliphaz and his other friends. He keeps trying, keeps wondering, keeps asking God: WHY?! And then he answers himself as he knows deeply in his faithful heart, that God would listen to reason and acquit him of these terrible trials, if only he could find God, if only he didn't feel “terrified.” STILL, he doesn't give up; he perseveres. He is honest in his self-defense and in his fear. How long, I ask myself, would I endure with half of Job’s troubles without giving up on God, let alone my friends?

We’re just barely halfway through the Book of Job and there are many difficult questions posed by this entire story in how it shapes our faith and what we believe about what really does God do to us, for us, and, as Job asks, “Why?”

Job is considered by many scholars to be the oldest book of the Bible, written before Genesis, possibly between 1900 and 1700 BCE [Before the Common Era, formerly and still sometimes referred to as BC, in Christian commentary, before Christ]. But the authorship of Job is unknown ~ was it Moses or Solomon? No one knows because the original manuscript does not exist.

The Psalmist lays out the entire case so painfully and so well as to what happens within us when we hit those inexplicable walls of grief and terrible misfortune. Sometimes it feels helpful when I need to scream in despair, to come to this psalm and yell it to the wind as catharsis, to cry it out to feel emotionally lighter and regain some hope however fragile.

The writer of Hebrews confirms what Job believes, that God knows and judges the thoughts and the intentions of our hearts. We have help to hold fast to our faith in and through Jesus, our great high priest, who was tested in every respect as we are and remained without sin. With faith in Christ’s support, we are to be bold and ask God for the mercy and grace that we need to keep us strong and faith-filled on our soul’s journey to eternal life.

This piece from Mark’s Gospel is asking us what it is that we truly need in this life. A man grieves as he walks away from Jesus because while he follows the commandments he doesn't want to let go of his earthly possessions. Perhaps he expected Jesus to extol him for following the Law and confirm his personal sense that there was nothing more he needed do. How many in recent years, months, and weeks, all over this world, and ongoing in our own country as I write, have lost so much because of winds, floods, fires, war, and the everyday tragedies and tempests of life? How many of us say "Oh yes, I believe and follow the Commandments" and go about our everyday lives as if there was nothing we have to do differently, assured of our place in the front of the line at the gates of God’s Kingdom? Will we cry out "Where is God?" when the winds, tragedies, and tempests hit our lives? Will our faith crumble; will we give in to despair? Perhaps we think we will not because our faith is that strong, or those awful things of life won’t happen to me.

Job never stops asking for God to be present because hope keeps him going, as it can for us all even in the times when our faith is weakest. And if we wonder if Jesus literally meant that a camel would have to go through that needle’s eye, Jesus tells us plainly, with God all things are possible.

Through the intentions of our hearts we can seek the path of Christ that is sometimes rocky, sometimes tempestuous, and sometimes calm as we try to remember always that each moment and each day begins and ends with Him beside us.

As difficult as it is in the worst of times, we are called to cling to hope. As great as it is on the greatest day ~ let us give great thanks and continuing prayers of hope for others. Let us set our soul’s sights on the eye of that needle with Jesus as the thread that will pull us through.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ Holy God, Living and Active, keep us mindful of our thoughts and the intentions of our hearts, that we may measure our spiritual wealth each day, by the ways we live into and out of our love for You.

O Lord our God