Proper 24 (B) + The flea the lion loves + 10.17.21

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Emily Larryware

M. Campbell-Langdell

All Santos, Oxnard

(Job 38:1–7, (34–41); Psalm 104:1–9, 25, 37; Hebrews 5:1–10; St Mark 10:35–45)

 

"Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Gird up your loins like a man,
I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

Listening to God confront Job here, I can’t help but think of the song from the very irreverent musical “The Book of Mormon” called “Man Up”! Part of the song goes like this:

'Cuz there's a time in your life
When you know you've got to
MAN UP.
Don't let it pass you by,
There's just one time to
MAN UP.

Watch me man up like
Nobody else!
I'm gonna man up all
Over myself![1]

Without getting too far into the territory of toxic masculinity which is a whole other sermon, God reaches back to Job here and tells him to gird up his loins because he is about to take him on a trip around the universe. God is big and Job is very small in the scheme of things. Some commentators have pointed out that in the Bible this is one of the few times when we see the smallness of human beings in the complexity of creation.[2]

And yet, why is Job content after this interaction? He has suffered and now God is yelling at him. Barbara Brown Taylor suggests that we can understand that by understanding the flea and the lion. Job is like the flea on the back of the lion, i.e., God. As she says it:

“It was as if the flea had insisted that the lion upon which it was riding stop- stop right now- and explain why the ride was so bumpy and hot. The flea roared and roared as loud as it could, never expecting to be heard, much less answered, until one day, the lion turned around and roared right back, so that the flea saw itself reflected in both golden eyes at once. Never mind what the lion said. The lion turned around. The lion roared back. And that is enough for anyone to live on the rest of his life.”[3]
The lion roared back. And herein is the wonder of this moment in Job. On the one hand we are reminded that we are but dust, stardust indeed but the dust of a much larger universe, of a much larger creation. But we are also reminded of Psalm 8- what are human beings that God is mindful of us? The lion roared back at Job and God cares for us too. Amazingly.

Barbara Brown Taylor reminds us that it is not necessarily to suffer that is our worst lot in life, but rather it is to suffer without God, something we do not have to do. As she says it:

“When there is nothing left- when all the flocks have been stolen and all the children have been buried- when there is nothing left but a potsherd with which to scratch our sores, what is still left is the God of all creation, who laid the foundation of the earth, who has walked in the recesses of the deep, who has made Behemoth and Leviathan and everything that breathes. This is the Lord of all life, who never runs out of life, and whom we may always ask for more.”[4]

We may always ask for more life. This is good news all the time. But in the light also of our current climate crisis I believe this is even better news yet.
For diocesan convention this year, the delegates are invited to acquaint ourselves with the book Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, edited by Paul Hawken. Paging through the book, I was amazed. I only know a little about wind and solar power, but the energy section alone has many more chapters on various forms of alternative energy. Solutions are suggested for agriculture which I had never before heard of, many of which are indigenous in origin. And the book even includes information about future technologies that are still being developed. Everything from building materials to buildings that produce rather than drain resources to electric and autonomous cars abound.

I am reminded of two things. This climate crisis reminds us that while we are a flea on the back of a large creation, we only have this one island home. But we fleas are also incredibly gifted and resourceful. With God’s help we can indeed find solutions to reverse global warming and make a better future for our children’s children.

What are we?
We are dust;

We are stardust;

We are the flea

That the lion loves.

Amen.


[2] With thanks to Working Preacher’s Sermon Brainwave for today.

[3] Barbara Brown Taylor, Home by Another Way (Cambridge [MA]: Cowley, 1999), 168.

[4] Ibid, 168-169.

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