March 3: At All Times
♫ Music:
Day 3 - Friday, March 3
The Temptation of Job
Scripture: Job 2:9-10,19:13-22 & 25-27
Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” But Job said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil? He has put my brothers far from me, and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me. My relatives have failed me, my close friends have forgotten me. The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes. I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy. My breath is strange to my wife, and I am a stench to the children of my own mother. Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me. All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me. My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh? [Yet] I know that my Redeemer lives,and at the last he will stand upon the earth.And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
Poetry:
"Job"
by Elizabeth Sewell
They did not know this face
Where the chin rested on the sunken breastbone,
So changed it was, emptied, rinsed out and dried,
And for some future purpose put aside.
Expecting torment, they were much perplexed.
His world had gone
And he sat isolated, foul and flyblown,
Without a world, with nothing but a mind
Staggered to silence since it could not find
Language to utter its amazing text.
For where was Job?
In some strange state, unknown and yet well-known,
A mask that stared hollowly in God’s breath,
Mind that perceived the irrelevance of death,
And the astonished heart unmoved, unvexed.
They did not see his soul
Perched like a bird upon the broken hearthstone,
Piping incessantly above the ashes
What next what next what next what next what next.
So they sat down with him upon the ground
seven days and seven nights, and none
spake a word unto him: for they saw
that his grief was very great.
AT ALL TIMES
In September, my mom died tragically and unexpectedly. She was among my best friends, a fierce and loving advocate for my wife, and a passionate friend to my daughters. There is an enormous hole in my life; I had not known sorrow until this.
But I’ve discovered something powerful in this darkness. For years, I have made a spiritual practice of praying the Liturgy of the Hours, a liturgical practice of daily prayer centered in the Psalms. For years, I have prayed words like these words:
“I love You, O Lord, my strength.” The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, And I am saved from my enemies. (Psalm 18:1-3)
And for years, I’ve thought them mere poetry: a poetic depiction of an abstract, theological truth that God saves.
Lately I have discovered, though, that the reality described by these words is no mere abstract, theological truth. It is an existential, experiential reality, available to us in times of darkness—indeed, at all times. God is my rock, my refuge, my shield: despite the swirling pain and chaos around me, I find, in the center of my soul, an overflow of God’s loving presence: I feel his light, his kindness, his sweetness. He is there; I sense his profound peace. It comforts me, and spills out of me, to comfort those around me.
I am convinced that the words of the Psalmist name the existential reality I describe. So too, Paul’s words here:
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)
It’s what Job is hinting at in our passage:
I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! (Job 19:25-27)
May this Lenten season draw us ever deeper into the loving presence of our Abba. My heart faints within me!
PRAYER
To thee, then O Jesus, do I turn my true and last end. Thou art the river of life which alone can satisfy my thirst. Without thee all else is barren and void. Without all else thou alone art enough for me. Thou art the Redeemer of those that are lost; the sweet Consoler of the sorrowful; the crown of glory for the victors; the recompense of the blessed. One day I hope to receive of thy fullness, and to sing the song of praise in my true home. Give me only on earth some few drops of consolation, and I will patiently wait thy coming that I may enter into the joy of the Lord. Amen. (Bonaventure, 1221-74)
Tom Crisp
Professor of Philosophy / Scholar in Residence, Center for Christian Thought
Chair, Department of Philosophy
About the I’ve Been Buked (from Revelation Suite) Video:
Revelations is the signature choreographic work of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. It was first produced by founding choreographer Alvin Ailey (1931-1989) and his troupe in New York City in 1960. Revelations tells the story of African-American faith and tenacity from slavery to freedom through a suite of dances set to spirituals and blues music. It has been performed hundreds of times by dance companies around the world. This particular rendition is performed by Taller de Dannzas Troupe, Argentina.
www.alvinailey.org
About the Artwork:
Job and His Friends
Ilya Yefimovich Repin
Oil on canvas, (1869)
Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
About the Artist:
Ilya Yefimovich Repin (1844-1930) was a Russian artist known for the power and drama of his work. Born into poverty, Repin learned his trade from a painter of icons named Bunakov and in 1864 became a student at the Academy of Fine Arts at St. Petersburg. In 1871 he won an academy scholarship that enabled him to visit France and Italy, and when he returned to Russia he devoted himself to depicting episodes from Russian history as well as paintings from the Bible. In 1894 he became professor of historical painting at the academy in St. Petersburg where he had studied. In 1869 he was awarded a gold medal for his painting Job and His Friends. Repin often based his works on dramatic conflicts rooted in reality. Some of his religious works are among his greatest.
About the Music:
“Lacrimosa”
Lyrics:
Mournful that day.
When from the ashes shall rise,
Guilty man to be judged.
Lord, have mercy on him.
Gentle Lord Jesus,
Grant them eternal rest.
Amen.
About the Composer:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was an Austrian composer, widely recognized as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music. Unlike any other composer in musical history, he wrote in all the musical genres of his day and excelled in every one. The Requiem was “anonymously commissioned at the end of Mozart’s brief life. Mozart became consumed by the work, believing he had been cursed to write a requiem for himself. The work was never delivered by Mozart, who died before he had finished composing it. In fact he only finishing the first few bars of ‘Lacrimosa.’” Even though he was acknowledged as a great composer at the time of his death, he died a pauper. Though Mozart lived for only 35 years, his legacy is unparalleled. With almost 600 musical pieces, Mozart’s influence continues to reign in all genres of classical music ranging from symphonies, concertos, operas, chamber music to piano solos.
About the Performers:
The Berliner Philharmoniker Orchestra & Chorus formed in 1882, is considered one of the world’s best orchestras. Conductor Claudio Abbado (1933-2014) joined the orchestra in 1989. Abbado placed emphasis on interpretations developed from a lively exchange between colleagues. The result was often a chamber music-like transparency that enhances the style of the Berliner Philharmoniker to this day. Under Claudio Abbado, Gustav Mahler became a focus of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s repertoire.The Abbado era was also marked by cycles of concerts based around literary themes, such as Prometheus and Faust.
About the Poet:
Elizabeth Sewell (1919-2001) was an English poet, critic, and novelist. Sewell was born in India and educated in England, taking her B.A. in Modern Languages from Cambridge University in 1942. She performed war service in the Ministry of Education in London and then returned to Cambridge to complete her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. She came to the United States in 1949 and became an American citizen in 1973. She taught at a number of universities, including Vassar, Notre Dame and the University of North Carolina, and was the recipient of numerous honorary degrees. She once described herself as weaving together poetry, mathematics, logic, and physics--a life perspective which led to her mentorship of the Hungarian-British polymath, Michael Polanyi. “Job” was published in Poems, 1947-1961.