The Liberating Wonder of Being Displaced from the Center

Is it wrong to want God to answer for what I have been through?

Job reaches the end of his rope, writes out his case, and asks to have it heard against God. He is not rebuked for hurting; he is met by a voice, and that voice is not the one he expected to fight with.

Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat! I would set my cause in order before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would tell me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, but he would listen to me. There the upright might reason with him, so I should be delivered forever from my judge.

Job 23:3–7

…oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment! Surely I would carry it on my shoulder, and I would bind it to me as a crown. I would declare to him the number of my steps. I would go near to him like a prince.

Job 31:35–37

Then Job answered Yahweh: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be restrained. You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ therefore I have uttered that which I didn’t understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know. You said, ‘Listen, now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you will answer me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job 42:1–6

How do I stop living like I am the center of everything?

Job spends thirty-plus chapters building his own defense until the defense is all he can see. God does not argue him down; he asks questions Job cannot answer, and Job himself is the one who shrinks. The line of the sermon is that this shrinking is where joy comes back.

Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer me! “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding. Who determined its measures, if you know? Or who stretched the line on it? What were its foundations fastened on? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Job 38:1–7

“Have you commanded the morning in your days, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and shake the wicked out of it? It is changed as clay under the seal, and presented as a garment. From the wicked, their light is withheld. The high arm is broken.

Job 38:12–15

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained, what is man, that you think of him? What is the son of man, that you care for him?

Psalms 8:3–4

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job 42:5–6

What makes repentance feel like relief instead of shame?

Job repents in dust and ashes, and the sermon calls that liberation not humiliation. Job saw God, and seeing God made it possible to see himself without defense. David in the psalms prays the same way, asking to be searched and known rather than hidden from.

Then Job answered Yahweh: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be restrained. You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ therefore I have uttered that which I didn’t understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know. You said, ‘Listen, now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you will answer me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job 42:1–6

Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.

Psalms 139:23–24

Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me. Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge. Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit.

Psalms 51:1–12

For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death.

2 Corinthians 7:10

If Jesus was God, why did he let himself be pushed to the side?

The sermon turns from Job to Christ, who belonged at the center by right and stepped out of it: a donkey, a basin and towel, a cross. Job was broken out of the center by a whirlwind; Jesus went there on purpose.

…who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:6–11

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came from God and was going to God, arose from supper, and laid aside his outer garments. He took a towel and wrapped a towel around his waist. Then he poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

John 13:3–5

“Tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your King comes to you, humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The disciples went and did just as Jesus commanded them, and brought the donkey and the colt and laid their clothes on them; and he sat on them. A very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The multitudes who went in front of him, and those who followed, kept shouting, “Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

Matthew 21:5–9

The chief priests accused him of many things. Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer? See how many things they testify against you!” But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate marveled.

Mark 15:3–5

What is actually happening to me when I am moved by something beautiful?

The sermon says wonder takes us out of the middle of our own world: a valley in Yosemite, a first child, an obelisk someone dropped in Central Park. God put the morning stars in their place with joy and tells Job to attend to the size of what he cannot explain. A psalmist lifts his eyes to the hills and finds his help there.

“Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion? Can you lead the constellations out in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish its dominion over the earth?

Job 38:31–33

I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from Yahweh, who made heaven and earth.

Psalms 121:1–2

The heavens declare the glory of God. The expanse shows his handiwork. Day after day they pour out speech, and night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their voice has gone out through all the earth, their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,…

Psalms 19:1–4

Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has first given to him, and it will be repaid to him again?” For of him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.

Romans 11:33–36