Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost August 8-9, 2026
“Consider Job” Job 1:8
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
I don’t know if you know it, but I’ve been on a leave of absence for the last two months. Just in case you have forgotten, my name is John Larson.
During this time away I have been watching the videos of the Ascension sermons on YouTube. Tell me, where did those preachers on the Ascension Lutheran Church website get all their hair? Pastor Alb has the hair of a teenager. Curt Engle – well he looked like Samson from the Old Testament with that 6-foot six-inch frame and his long, flowing locks. I noticed that the advertisers quickly moved to trying to sell hair-care products during my absence. Now, they are quickly back to their usual hair-transplant spots!!
I last preached on June 7. After the service, one of our folks shook my hand and said, concerning my upcoming 2 month absence, “I hope you have fun.”
I wish I could have had fun, but I didn’t. And neither did Marilyn. Marilyn and I have been married for 47 years and somehow over those years our hearts grew further and further apart. Over these past months we have had many long conversations about this. Some of those talks, really many of them, were painful.
Initially, I thought we would have these problems solved in a few weeks. If only I could get the right balance between work and marriage I would have it all right. But I was wrong. I had to start looking at me and it wasn’t very pretty. Folks, I have a lot of work to do.
“Have fun?” No. It has been a time for struggle and challenge. We had many tears and days without a lot of hope. When I saw that the Sunday I was coming back to preach, and that the Old Testament lesson for the day was about Job, I knew where I would go. This is a sermon about suffering. Aren’t you glad that I’m back? Hey, Pastor, why don’t you take a few more months off?
You know about Job, right? This is how the first chapter of his book describes him: “This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” (Job 1:1) “He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.” (Job 1:3) And he had money. Tons of it. Land, animals, servants. Not just a few kids, but 10 of them. Like the Bible says, “His quiver was full of them.”
And everyone stood in awe of Job. Later in the book, Job says this, “When I went to the gate of the city and took my seat in the public square, the young men saw me and stepped aside and old men rose to their feet…whoever heard me spoke well of me, and those who saw me commended me.” (Job 29:7-8,11)
But in an instant, an instant, his whole life changed. The first tests of Job were concerning those things he possessed. It was the devil who came into the presence of God and God speaks glowingly about Job. “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” But the devil replied to the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” (Job 1:9,11)
So – God permitted it. He didn’t cause it. He was not the source of such suffering. But He permitted it. In an instant Job lost his livestock, his servants, all his possessions. Sort of like the folks in the Marshall fire of a number of years ago, or the Aspen Acres fire from this past month. And then, horror of horrors – his own children died. They were all together in the same place and the house collapsed on them and they died.
But his suffering wasn’t over. Satan came back to God and asked for a pound of Job’s flesh so that this man would be broken. Those infamous words came from the lips of the evil one, “Skin for skin! A man will give all he has for his own life. But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.” (Job 2:4-5)
And…God permitted it. “So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.” (Job 2:7) Later Job says, “My body is clothed with worms and scabs, my skin is broken and festering.” (Job 7:5) Sometimes death is a reprieve. Job had had enough. Job says about the day when he was born, “May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, ‘A boy is born!’ That night – may thick darkness seize it; may it not be included among the days of the year nor be entered in any of the months…May those who curse days curse that day.” (Job 3:3, 6, 8) No birthday cake for Job. Nobody had better start humming, “Happy birthday to you”, when his special day came around.
And his wife? What about for “better or worse”, “richer or poorer”, “in sickness and in health”? No. She was tired of it too. Her suggestion to her husband, “Curse God and die.” (Job 2:9)
Look at Job. What a sad story. I can’t imagine how life at one moment can go from secure and strong, happy and hopeful, to a pile of crap. Job, in his own confident words says, “My eyes will never see happiness again.” (Job 7:7) Maybe you can understand this all too well. Maybe suffering is part of your life every day. Physically. Emotionally. Mentally. Spiritually. Maybe these pains have been yours. Maybe these pains you feel are for your family and friends. It would be easier to die than to live. You have an alliance with Job.
Look at Job. Look at suffering. But we don’t like to look at it. We run from it. People tell me that they don’t watch the news anymore. It is too depressing. They say they don’t read the paper anymore. The news is too difficult. I guess we should just turn on “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune” and be content with that.
Why would God put such a book like Job in the Bible? I believe it is because God deals with the hardest things in life – like suffering. He doesn’t just pick out the happiest verses in the Bible and say, “That’s all I have to say about that.” No, it is a real world, with real struggles and real messes and real losses and real grief…and a real God.
What good can come out of suffering? Our salvation came out of suffering. Isn’t that what we say, “He was crucified under Pontius Pilate.” The suffering of God’s Son, Jesus, was unjust. It was brutal. It wasn’t right. But it was the only way to take away the sin that we committed. II Corinthians 5:21 says it well, “God made him who had no sin (Jesus) to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
On my leave of absence not only did I watch that new hit mini-series “The Preachers of Great Hair at Ascension Lutheran Church”, I also attended other Lutheran churches and some that weren’t Lutheran. There was one theme that I heard over and over again, and I loved it – “This Jesus is pretty good and it would be a good thing if you got to know Him.” Those preachers told me about Him. My fragile, broken heart needed to know about His care for my suffering – about His care for me.
One of those Sundays I was especially an emotional mess. I had gone to Renewal, the church plant at the old Emmaus Lutheran Church campus. When I came up to receive Holy Communion tears were flowing and I heard the greatest words I could ever hear. Pastor PJ said, “John, this is the Body of Christ for you.” “This is the Blood of Christ for you.” What came out of His suffering of flesh and blood took hold of me in my suffering. It was what I needed.
When you are suffering, when you are empty, when you are angry, when things are unjust and wrong, when you didn’t get a fair shake in life, you had better find a place of safety and strength and hope. Those preachers, not just in their sermon, but during their entire worship service and in the hymns that were sung, told me that Jesus had come to me. He sought me. He found me.
Just a few weeks ago Rabbi Jeffrey Myers retired. He was the Rabbi of Tree of Life Congregation, a Jewish synagogue, in Pittsburgh. On October 27 in 2018, a gunman entered that building and murdered 11 of his flock. After that awful day he struggled to pray. He hurt from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. His soul was crushed. He says, “There was an emptiness to it.”
Myers turned to the Psalms to find some footing for all that he and his congregation had faced. He wrote, “Something told me it’s in there somewhere, the inspiration that I need.” So, he started reading the Psalms, all 150 of them, and when he got to 121, he found words that clicked: “My help comes from God, maker of the heavens and the Earth.” (Verse 2)
Today consider Job. Look at suffering. Turn to Christ and His promises. Our help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. Our help comes from Jesus, God with us – God for us. Amen!!
