1 Samuel 17:(1a, 4-11, 19-23), 32-49

It's not unusual for a Lection to break up the texts, but boy we get a heavy dose of that this week. Try reading the whole chapter and you might see why. Characters get introduced more than once and seem to not know something that was just said a few verses earlier. We are experiencing the combining of the different authors from the JEDP theory of how the Bible was written. There were many tales of David, and someone wanted to include them all and somehow make it all one flowing narrative. He, or they, sort of succeeded. You will probably recognize this origin story of David, but didn't we just hear one last week? And there's another in there that is skipped entirely by the Lectionary.

What we are getting is three aspects of David. One is that he is chosen and anointed. Anointing was already a thing, but it will continue as a theme, including up to Jesus himself. David is also a musician, a singer and an author. Some Psalms are referred to as the Davidic Psalms. Others are said to be authored by the Psalmists. This generic, anonymous authorship is more honest. In today's passage, we meet David the warrior. Such a hero had more than one origin story.

Job 38:1-11

We'll see some more of Job this summer, but we start that exploration at the end of the story. This is not one of the easiest books to incorporate in any theology. In Doubt: A History, Jennifer Michael Hecht separates the original folktale from the Biblical version. Rabbis and preachers sometimes do this also, by downplaying the middle section, where Job rebels, turning it into a simple tale of faith and patience. The story begins with a bet with Satan and includes the death of children and animals at God's hand. These elements can be ignored if you follow the Lectionary, but some people would notice you did that.

The philosopher Martin Buber describes the clash between Job and God. Job starts out worshipping a living God, but then finds one described in rational religious terms. Job only finds justice in himself, sometimes you win sometimes you lose. God should impose order on that, but he doesn't. Justice is not addressed in this passage, only questions, heaped upon him as to make a point; it's not for us to understand and God is the sum of the world's secrets. He doesn't even offer that it will somehow work out, in fact he's not too happy Job even asked. What kind of God is that? Does it care? Is it capable of caring? If it can create all those things, shouldn't it be able to create a more just existence? Is it choosing not to?

Jack Miles, in a literary reading of the Hebrew Bible notes that after the Book of Job, God never speaks again. It may be an accident of how the books were assembled, and Miles may be stretching the interpretation, but there was a change going on around the 5th century BC. Hecht says God appears as a metaphor for the universe in this story. It's not about faith it's about resigning to a world without justice. If there is justice inherent in the universe, we can't conceive of it, we only get of it what we bring to the world.

Mary Catherine Bateson, in an interview with Krista Tippet says this is the universe/god telling Job to get back to his sense of wonder. When the story starts, Job is described as a good member of his religion, doing all the right rituals. After the ordeals, he is given this speech about the wonders of creation. She says wonder can take you into science or into art or into being amazed by other human beings. In its time this passage was a list of unanswered questions. That we have answered many of them should be evidence enough of the power of wonder.

When Catherine studied the 3 major monotheisms with an eye toward addressing prejudice, she looked for what would make her empathize with a Muslim or a Jewish person. What she saw was that we all have the sense of wonder that leads to praise. That is one aspect of religion. Unfortunately it's one that is often lost in the arguments about how to manage the church kitchen or what politician is more godly or what color banners should be used this week. But looked at this way, the Job story is not necessarily one of doubt about the existence of the supernatural, but doubt about what we do to acknowledge the unknown and express our sense of what it is to live with limited knowledge of the natural world.

2 Corinthians 6:1-13

2nd Corinthians is agreed by most scholars to be authored by Paul so this is most likely his reaction to problems in that Church. His response is classically Christian; say that you are taking this abuse like Christ, that you are the pure and holy one, therefore your words are the authentic Godly ones. Then you get to be "treated as having nothing and yet possessing everything." Whatever the actual dispute is about is really not that important. I have no argument with the virtues he lists, only that he claims he somehow has them and the Corinthians do not. And he has them because he's with Christ, so there's your problem Corinthians.

Mark 4:35-41

We continue with the Markan theme that the very people he has trained and taught in private can't figure out who he is. Even when he has power over the storms.