Job 42: 1-6, 10-11

Until the fog lifts

Remember the Tule Fog?  It used to cover the entire central valley for days or even weeks on end in winter.  It followed so clearly the contours of the hills that forms its boundaries that from the air it could look as  if someone cut it out of a thin layer of cotton and pasted it on the valley floor.   You could drive right out of it to the east or to west, but to the north and to the south you were stuck in it.  Together with the opening of the Northwest Passage for summer shipping, it is probably one of the few pleasant results of global climate change, although I am not sure farmers would agree.  When I first moved to Sacramento from the Bay Area I hated it and disliked the city as a result.  It even covered our wedding day here in gray.  Don’t worry, we enjoyed it anyway.   Friends, when you are stuck in the fog you can’t see anything and you can’t imagine anything else. When you are on a ship moving through the fog in the harbor there is this eerie quiet except for a fog horn.  In the old days at sea all you have to trust you compass heading to guide you in the right direction in the fog. When you drive across the Golden Gate bridge in the summer and the fog has moved you have only the double yellow line and the pylons to go by. You have to stay that course and trust the fog will lift.

Friends, Job is in a fog, a fog of trauma, grief, anger and despair.  He seeks wisdom.  At the same time he is being tested, to see if he will lose faith in God.  With everything lost faith is pretty much all he has left. But he figures it doesn’t do him much good.  Will he cross to the evil side?  The book wants to know.  It is 41 chapters of emotional and philosophical struggle and one chapter of insight, the one we have for our readings today. It asks the fundamental question of why God allows evil.  There are three ways to deal with the issue: either evil does not exist and bad things are good, God is not loving and wants bad things for people or God’s power is limited.  None of these explanations are acceptable in traditional Christian theology.  These three elements; love, power and evil are all in the book of Job.

Job is in a fog about all this.  His losses are beyond imagining.  The film “Fog of War” deals with the awful decisions Robert McNamara took as secretary of defense during the early days of the Vietnam war.  Job fights his own war.  In a way his struggle, his fighting of the war in his heart and mind and soul keeps him going. It provides him with fuel for survival.  Cheryl Kirk Duggan writes about this:”The wisdom tradition (that Job is part of) holds in tension divine sovereignity and  human responsibility. Job maintains his personal integrity.”(The People’s Bible, NRSV. P. 631) Ultimately, friends, the wise author offers no explanation. God remains  unknowable.

Friends, are you in a fog? Are you in a fog in your personal life, your health, your family?  Are you in a fog when it comes to this country where even facts have become foggy?  What do you do until the fogs clears?  Do you struggle or do you give up?

About 38 years ago, just a month or so after I moved to Sacramento, one early morning I drove up highway 50 and I took a walk in the mountains. It was this time of year. I was walking along the edge of Echo lake and as I went up to about 9000 feet I found myself in the clouds.  I  stayed on the path and as I kept going up I came to the edge of the Desolation Wilderness.  And then suddenly, the fog cleared, revealing the beautiful first dusting of snow of the season.

Friends, the fog does clear eventually, but we need faith to make us well.  Without faith we stay in the fog of the moment.  For those who believe that God can create something good out of moments of utter despair, there is hope. For those who think all of it is permanently random and unredeemable, they’re just waiting for the new fog bank to roll in.

One thing is clear that Job could not philosophize his way out of his misery.  The clearing happened because of a flash of sudden spiritual insight which remains private to him.  He reaches a peace with God.  He has kept his integrity.  We just talked about Faust.  Faust didn’t hold on to his integrity. That’s one difference between the two stories.  So this is the message: in the foggy spells of life we have to keep our eye on the yellow lines, not veer off our compass heading. Stay focused, stay faithful, until the fog clears. Thanks be to God.