Pastor Tim McConnell of First Presbyterian Church, Colorado Springs, shared a very sad commentary on (un)civil discourse on February 23, 2025. But first a set-up from the comic strip Pearls Before Swine by Stephen Pastis, February 25, 2025:

Pig (a naive character): I just read this big book on the history of war. It’s so depressing. Why do people even go to war?

Goat (a wise character): Well you have two sides that don’t see things the same way. Things escalate. And soon they’ll stop at nothing to destroy each other.

Rat (a cynical character): Best description of Twitter I’ve ever heard.

Goat: Not what we were talking about.

Pastor Tim was preaching from Hebrews 12 and developing applications from verses 14, 15:

Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled. (Hebrews 12.14, 15, NKJV)

Here’s what he said:

I have had people leave our church for our politics. I say, “Was it something I said?” No. “Was it one of the Pastors?” No. “What was it?” “It was the Facebook posts of other members of the church. I can’t worship with those people anymore.” I’ve had that both directions. On social media, it’s fun to let the root of bitterness run rampant. Can we bear witness to a community of faith bigger than current, American political differences? Then they will see something. – Tim McConnell, February 23, 2025

“The Facebook posts of other members of the church…Can we bear witness to a community of faith bigger than current, American political differences?”

Folks, can we tone it down a bit? I’ve written before, quoting Breakpoint:

Outrage is not a strategy.

Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For …

“He who would love life And see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, And his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.” (1 Peter 3.8 – 12, NKJV, quoting Psalm 34.12 – 16)

I had hoped not to write anymore about my health issues since my surgery on February 27. But you should know that recovery is going more slowly than I had hoped. Prostate is OK, but I have no stamina, largely the result of general anesthesia and the effect of surgery on a 78-year-old body.

I began to turn the corner over the weekend, however, and I’m claiming Psalm 103.

Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103.1 – 5, NKJV)

That’s what I want:

• Who heals all your diseases
• Who redeems your life from destruction
• Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies
• Who satisfies your mouth with good things
• So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

We make fun of the weather people for their errors or for either missing or over-predicting events. Monday, March 3, culminates several days of really nice weather. Highs in the upper 50s. At 10:30 Monday morning, it was sunny and 53 degrees. Here’s the view from my driveway. At the same time, the Weather Channel App had a different take:

What to believe? What I’m seeing now? Or the dire warning of a blizzard? Turns out in this case, the snow came, but not 5 inches, at most 2 inches.

It was a good warning. I wouldn’t have wanted to be out in it. Warnings and predictions of the future are not to satisfy our curiosity but to change the way we live today.

For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5.3, NKJV)

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3.10 – 13, NKJV)

You know that I like to recognize good work when I see it so I want to give a shout-out to the entire staff of the Audubon Surgery Center at Sisters Grove where I had my procedure on February 27. The pre-op nurse, operating room nurse, recovery nurses, anesthesiologist were all fantastic.

But I want to recognize what I would consider the most boring job in the facility: the check-in person. You sit down, and he gives you form after form to read and sign. Only Anthony did it with a smile and with “please” and “thank you.” It was amazing.

I had just watched him go through the same process with the person in front of me, and here he is doing it again, and I said, “I can’t believe you do this all day, every day. I’d slit my wrists.” He said, “No. I actually enjoy this job. I used to be an accountant.”

Working with him brightened my day and kicked off a pleasant (as pleasant as it could be!) surgery day.

A cheerful heart is good medicine… (Proverbs 17.22, NIV)

A fair amount of Job, especially monologues that come from his “friends,” is a tutorial on how not to counsel people. Those of us who are teachers and who like to help people need to be careful.

Chapters 4 and 5 contain Eliphaz’s first speech, beginning with, as we mentioned a few days ago, Santa Claus Theology:

Whoever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright ever cut off? (Job 4.7, NKJV)

Later on, Eliphaz knows that Job is being chastened by God:

Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. For He bruises, but He binds up; He wounds, but His hands make whole. He shall deliver you in six troubles, Yes, in seven no evil shall touch you. (Job 5.17 – 19, NKJV)

Not bad counsel: “Do not despise the chastening of the Almighty,” except in this case, it’s NOT the chastening of the Almighty. What Eliphaz knows isn’t true. Like I said, we “helpers” need to be careful.

My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment…But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. (James 3.1, 17, NKJV)

Job begins his lament in chapter 3 with a strong wish that he would never have been born:

After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job spoke, and said: “May the day perish on which I was born, And the night in which it was said, ‘A male child is conceived.’ May that day be darkness; May God above not seek it, Nor the light shine upon it. May darkness and the shadow of death claim it; May a cloud settle on it; May the blackness of the day terrify it…Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, Nor hide sorrow from my eyes. “Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb? (Job 3.1 – 5, 10, 11, NKJV)

“Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?” I’ve read this many times, but this time I was reminded of It’s a Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart. This summary paragraph captures the essence:

The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his personal dreams to help others in his community and whose thoughts of suicide on Christmas Eve bring about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody. Clarence shows George all the lives he touched and what the world would be like if he had not existed. – from the Wikipedia article, emphasis mine

What would the world have been like if Job hadn’t existed? Here’s a clue from Job 29 (which we’ll no doubt revisit when we get there):

Because I delivered the poor who cried out, The fatherless and the one who had no helper. The blessing of a perishing man came upon me, And I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy…I was eyes to the blind, And I was feet to the lame. I was a father to the poor… I broke the fangs of the wicked, And plucked the victim from his teeth. (Job 29.12 – 17, NKJV)

So back to the question: “Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?” Answer: because you did a lot of good in the world.

And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4.17 – 21, NKJV)

“Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” – God to Adam, Genesis 3.19

Nothing like reading Job when Ash Wednesday comes around…

My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, And are spent without hope. Oh, remember that my life is a breath! (Job 7.6, 7, NKJV)

“My life is a breath.” We just saw that last week…

Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. (Psalm 39.5, NKJV)

For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. (James 4.14, NKJV)

When May 4 rolls around, the Ewellogy has been known to pay tribute to Star Wars: May the 4th Be With You. But not until my friend John Ed Mathison posted a blog last year, had I ever thought about “the only calendar day that’s a command:”

March 4th!

March Forth! It’s not a bad word.

…but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3.13, 14, NKJV)

Sounds like March Forth to me! What’s the alternative?

I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man. Proverbs 24.30 – 34, ESV)

Let’s not be like that!

The righteous keep moving forward and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger. (Job 17:9, NLT)

Trick question: are there lies and untruths in the Bible? Of course, beginning with Satan in Genesis 3:

Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. (Genesis 3.4, NKJV)

But there’s no bigger collection of falsehoods than we’ll find in Job. It’s part of Satan’s destructive strategy. He took not only Job’s wealth, health, and children, he sent three friends:

Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him. And when they raised their eyes from afar, and did not recognize him, they lifted their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven. So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great. (Job 2.11 – 13, NKJV)

The next long section of the book consists of alternating discourse among Job and these “friends.” The problem is that these men are shot through with “Santa Claus Theology.” One time when I read Job I put a little “SCT” in the margin whenever I saw it. For example:

For you have said, “My doctrine is pure, And I am clean in your eyes.” But oh, that God would speak, And open His lips against you, That He would show you the secrets of wisdom! For they would double your prudence. Know therefore that God exacts from you Less than your iniquity deserves. (Zophar – Job 11.4 – 6, NKJV)

Iniquity? Remember that God himself said in chapters 1 and 2:

Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” (Job 1.8, NKJV)

Santa Claus Theology? “He’s making a list and checking it twice, gonna find out who’s naughty and nice…” Good boys and girls get presents. Bad children get lumps of coal. To Job’s friends it was simple: “Good comes to good people; bad comes to bad people. You’re experiencing bad. Therefore, no matter what the appearance, you’re a bad person. Confess your sin!”

Very helpful.

Then Job answered and said: “I have heard many such things; Miserable comforters are you all! Shall words of wind have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? I also could speak as you do, If your soul were in my soul’s place. I could heap up words against you, And shake my head at you… (Job 16.1 – 4, NKJV)

So as you read Job, keep an eye out for Santa Claus Theology. Just because a sentence is in the Bible, doesn’t make it true. It depends on the speaker!

If this looks familiar, I apologize. I accidentally posted this blog on February 23. Now is when it should be coming out.

No putting it off…here we go into everyone’s favorite Old Testament book: Job. No? I’m with you. It’s a tough read, especially the first two chapters when Job loses his wealth, his health, and his children despite:

Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” (Job 1.8, NKJV)

Blameless, upright, fears God, shuns evil. Wow. Then he shouldn’t have to suffer, right? Wrong. As Eugene Peterson puts it in his introduction:

It is not suffering as such that troubles us. It is undeserved suffering.

Almost all of us in our years of growing up have the experience of disobeying our parents and getting punished for it. When that discipline was connected with wrongdoing, it had a certain sense of justice to it: When we do wrong, we get punished.

One of the surprises as we get older, however, is that we come to see that there is no real correlation between the amount of wrong we commit and the amount of pain we experience. – from Introduction to Job in the Message Bible, emphasis mine

As I write, I’m coming out of a long “pause” between June’s fall on December 7, and my bout with an enlarged prostate beginning January 17. I read about Job, and I think, “I shouldn’t complain. Others have it way worse.” I said that to a pastor who had called to check on me, and he responded, “Yes, but that doesn’t help, does it?” He’s right.

So over the next weeks, we’ll catch some of what God wants to say to us through the story of Job, but I need to say one more thing before we start: do you know what Santa Claus Theology is? Stay tuned.

Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1.20, 21, NKJV)