On Faithfulness and Keeping Score - Job 1:1; 2:1-10; Mark 10:2-16

Well, it’s safe to say that between Job from the Old Testament and divorce in the Gospel, my sermon work was cut out for me this week. To be honest, it was a long week. I had to depend on my friends and family and my colleagues to love me through it. It was one of those weeks where I received more grace than I offered. I trust that you’ve all been there. In times like these, I’m grateful for the relationships in my life that are based on unconditional love and kindness. I’m grateful that there are people who know who I am regardless of the kind of week I’m having, and who can forgive my shortcomings. Because, if my friends and family and colleagues were in the habit of keeping score in our relationship, I would surely be in the dog house this week. 

In my experience, relationships that are based on score-keeping, on measuring tit for tat, relationships that are essentially transactional, are not very healthy. And what’s more, they aren’t the kind of relationships that God calls us into in order to reveal God’s love to the world. And as much as we resist taking a close look at Job and Jesus’ teaching on divorce, I believe that these two passages have much to teach us about relationships, both with other people and with God. 

Jesus spends a lot of time during his ministry helping those around him to unpack the Law of Moses for their own context. But he was certainly not the first to do so. Our ancestors in the faith have been looking at the foundational texts with a creative and critical eye from the very beginning. Many modern scholars believe that the Book of Job is a beautiful and poetic investigation of the nature of “blessings and curses,” as described in Deuteronomy. 

Many people have and do interpret the passages about blessings and curses to mean that God gives blessings, or rewards, to those who earn them, and likewise with curses, or punishments. In this interpretation, it then makes sense to assume that those who are more fortunate have pleased God, and therefore received blessings, while those who are less fortunate have displeased God and are being punished with curses. In short, this understanding of blessings and curses indicates that our relationship with God is transactional. 

But then we get Job. The meat of today’s lesson from Job comes from the second chapter, which opens on what I imagine to be a heavenly poker game. God and a few angels are enjoying a cold one after a long week and offering playful jabs at one another as they toss pennies into the pot. No one really wants for Satan to be there but for some reason God always insists on including everyone so they have to grin and bear it. 

When the subject of good ol’ Job comes up, a different kind of wager is brought to the table. Satan brags about his exploits and claims that no one is immune to his charms. But God knows Job inside and out and tells Satan, “bring your worst. Job will remain faithful to me.” Now Job has no idea what went down around the poker table. But as readers, we now know that Job is about suffer unfathomable trials not because he was unfaithful to God, but because he is faithful. This turns the transactional interpretation of blessings and curses on its head. 

Job’s faithfulness is really quite extraordinary. In fact, it is only matched by God’s faithfulness. But their relationship with one another is not based on keeping score of every display of generosity or righteousness. It’s based on relentless grace and love. In the face of severe tribulation, both God and Job reveal themselves to one another in their fullness and as we’ll see in coming weeks, it is something to behold. As Frederick Beuchner says, “God himself does not give answers. He gives himself, and into the midst of the whirlwind of his absence gives himself.”

Perhaps the 42 chapters of the Book of Job are a slightly dramatic way to prove a point about the non-transactional faithfulness of God to which we are also called. But as someone prone to hyperbole, I’m willing to let the Spirit have a little poetic license here. Because as is often the case, as our Old Testament lesson has something to teach us about our relationship with God, in our Gospel passage, Jesus shows us how to translate that lesson into our relationships with one another. 

The Pharisees are trying to test Jesus’ knowledge of the Law. They don’t realize that they are thinking in the same terms as Job’s wife and friends. Job’s wife encourages him to turn his back on God because God’s behavior is unsatisfactory. The Pharisees believe that it is righteous for a man to do the same to his wife if her behavior is unsatisfactory. But when questioned, Jesus responds with one of my favorite lines from our wedding liturgy: “therefore what God has joined together let no one separate.”

Jesus refuses to accept their terms. He says that the caveat about divorce is about protecting women, because marriage, as with all relationships that reveal God’s love, is about faithfulness. People in holy marriages do not keep score, or repay tit for tat. We do not get to return our unsatisfactory purchases for free when it comes to relationships. Instead, one of the many blessings of marriage is getting to rest in the love and faithfulness of a partner, even in times when we receive more grace than we offer. 

Now, not everyone is called to marriage, and hopefully no one has to endure anything as extreme as what Job went through. But whether we like it or not, we are all in relationships with people around us, and with God. Chances are, some of those relationships are healthy and faithful, revealing glimpses of God’s relentless grace and love. And perhaps some of our relationships need a little work. 

Resisting the temptation to keep score takes practice - especially when it comes to our relationship with God. I’m grateful for Job’s example, fantastical as it may be. And I’m grateful that this week I was able to rest in the faithfulness of my friends and family, which is only possible through the faithfulness of God. A faithfulness which gives me the strength I need to show a little more grace to those around me this week. And if I happen to struggle with that, I know that God will love me through it, and won’t be keeping score. Amen.