Reading: Job 2:11-3:1; 16:1-4; 42:7-9
Theme: Job's Friends -- with friends like that...?
What do you say when something bad happens to a good person, or an innocent creature suffers needlessly or unjustly?
No point in denying that it happens. That such things happen ... and that we are asked by others, or feel compelled in ourselves to say something meaningful and helpful about it.
But what is there we can say that does not come off sounding trite and unconvincing? Or, in another direction, hurtful and judgemental? Or in another direction still, simply wrong and not satisfying even to ourselves?
It's for good reason most of us feel uncomfortable in the presence of unjust suffering. It challenges much that we believe.
Sounds like heavy going for a warm summer morning worship service.
But don't worry. To get a bit of a handle (and yes, only a bit ... but hopefully a good bit) on this real, down-to-life question, we'll read the verses above from The Book of Job, but then we'll turn to two great sources of wisdom -- "Calvin and Hobbes" and St. Francis, to help us find a way through.
I'm looking forward to it. Dare I say it even sounds like fun?
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