Old job for the new year

By Jeff Long

I'm reluctant for these holidays to end. They must, and they will, but if they could linger awhile into the new year, it'd be all right with me. We all go back to work, we put away the lights, we stow the detritus of Christmas and we make ready to re-board the fast-moving train of normal, everyday life. Because things slowed down over these past couple of weeks, getting back on life's locomotive is akin to a giant leap while standing still.

Yes, the holidays will end and along with them go at least some of the optimism and good cheer that Christmas/New Year's bring.

Since we can't extend the holidays, we must re-embrace reality.

The Bible offers us two disparate ways of viewing reality: both are presented to us in the Old Testament, but only one is supported in the New.

In the wisdom literature, Psalms and Proverbs especially, there is a simple quasi-mathematical formula at work: The righteous are rewarded and the wicked are punished. How that translates to everyday life is this: If something goes wrong, it's your fault. If something goes right, you will benefit. There are an awful lot of folks walking around today who seem to fully trust in those last two sentences. Why else would this statement be uttered so regularly:

"I keep wondering what I did to deserve this?" That's using the formula from Psalms and Proverbs.

It is true that people bring some suffering onto themselves. Example: Indulging in vices, failing to heed warnings to avoid them, often results in pain and suffering. Yet it seems to be true that genetics is as strong a factor in longevity and a disease-free existence as a healthy lifestyle. How else to explain the life of comedian George Burns, who famously played God in the 1980 movie, "Oh God! Book II," and who lived to be 100 despite a lifetime of smoking unfiltered cigars? Only a fall in the bathtub and the skull fracture that followed began Burns' irreversible decline. Genetics are often determinative. No cause to brag. In the same way, genetics can prematurely end lives. Just this week, 14-year old Josiah Viera died of a rare genetic condition, progeria, which results in premature aging. Nobody's fault, certainly not Josiah's. The Psalms-Proverbs formula seems like firm ground but it's quicksand. The righteous, whatever is meant by that definition, are not always rewarded and the wicked, again reader, insert your interpretation, are not always punished. There's more at work in changing circumstances than our behavior.

I'm hoping we can shrug off this Psalms-Proverbs formula in 2019. Considering old Job in this new year can help. I'm persuaded that the book of Job is in the Old Testament canon, the official list of acceptable writings, partly because it shreds the formula. From the beginning of his eponymous volume, Job is described as the best man on the planet. Good by any standard, including God's. Yet everything bad that can happen to a man happens to Job. He loses nearly all of his family and his wealth due to catastrophe. His health is also compromised, leaving him sick and depressed, reduced to cutting sores off his arms. Job's three friends, who were apparently taught the Psalms-Proverbs formula, try to convince the protagonist that his misery is his fault. Job steadfastly rejects that conclusion. His integrity is such that he never surrenders to his friends' thinking. Job never buys into the formula.

Jesus takes up Job's case in the New Testament. Confronted with a man who spent his whole life without sight, Jesus' disciples -- who know the formula -- conclude that he must be at fault. "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9) "Neither," Jesus responds. "You're looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do."

There is no New Year's resolution recommended here. Instead, a suggestion: Give old Job another look in the new year. 2019 is coming. Tick tock.