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Praise for
Finding God in Suffering
Richly textured with biblical, theological, and pastoral insights, this volume—one of Epperly’s finest—challenges age-old assumptions that not only added to Job’s woes, but still remain entrenched in modern thinking. Journey with Job is a wise, honest, and liberating approach to one of the most difficult questions we face.
Patricia Adams Farmer
Author of Embracing a Beautiful God
In the skillful and insightful hands of Bruce Epperly, Job becomes one of our earliest theologians, raising questions about how we understand God and live out that understanding. Reminding us that Job is designed to counter theologies that blame the victim and promise more than they can deliver, Epperly uses Job to unmask these pretenders and invites us to cast a different vision, in which we can discover God’s presence even in the midst of suffering. This slender book should prove to be a blessing to all who are searching for a God whose love is steadfast and liberating.
Robert Cornwall
Pastor, Central Woodward Christian Church
I have a love/hate relationship with Job. If I’m reading an insightful exposition, one which highlights the deep, poetic messages of the book, I love Job. If I’m reading a dry commentary drawing traditional conclusions, I want to chuck Job in the round file. Today I love Job again.
Epperly doesn’t pull punches, yet his writing is tender and honest. As he explains, reading Job is not for the faint-hearted. It is a theology which emerges from the vantage point of excruciating and undeserved pain. It is written in the place where the rubber meets the road. And it is the experience of every man and woman on earth.
The question of why remains unanswered. Are we really supposed to believe that Job’s intense pain is the result of God and Satan sharing a friendly wager? Is God really that amoral, acting no differently than the arbitrary behavior of the surrounding nations’ deities?
God’s ways are beyond our comprehension. Job’s spiritual growth requires stepping out of his comfortable paradigm where the universe is intricately structured, where goodness is always rewarded and evil is always punished, so that he can embrace the unknown and unsolvable … while retaining an intimacy with God even in times of pain. In this chaos, Job finally finds peace.
Here’s an interesting observation by Epperly: “I have found that many people are more reticent to question God’s omnipotence, his unrestricted ability to achieve his will, than God’s love. They can live with God causing cancer or a devastating earthquake, but worry that a loving God might not be powerful enough to insure that God’s will be done…”
Read this one; it’s a journey you don’t want to miss. You may find yourself losing faith in the God you thought you knew, only to find the living God. Comfort hides in deep waters.
Lee Harmon, The Dubious Disciple
Author of The River of Life: Where Liberal and Conservative Christianity Meet
In a world daily presenting calamities riddled with your own personal suffering, you need a reliable guide. Bruce Epperly takes you to the concentrated point of suffering in the Bible’s story of Job, whose friends fire off answers one by one. Epperly leaves you with a God bigger than failed theological boxes and held by a Web of Love inviting you to prayerful practices on your own and together.
Kent Ira Groff, Denver, Colorado
Retreat leader, spiritual guide and author of Honest to God Prayer and Clergy Table Talk
This book takes an honored place on the shelf of Bruce Epperly’s large number of published works. The author brings readers to look into the face of suffering, one of life’s most difficulty experiences. Using the experience of Job as a lens, Epperly empathetically helps us name the multiple dynamics in experiences of suffering. In dialogue with the theology of the book of Job and the wider family of process theology, the author helps us articulate a way of understanding God’s presence in suffering in which God is not responsible for such devastating turns of events, but in which God is ever present, ever in solidarity, and ever in support in love. Written in touch with deep human experience, in pastoral theological tone, and with clarity, this book is an excellent resource for individual reading and for group discussion. As a preacher, I have to note that it has many passages that will make their way into sermons in the coming years.
Ronald J. Allen
Professor of Preaching and Gospels and Letters,
Christian Theological Seminary
FINDING GOD IN SUFFERING
A JOURNEY WITH JOB
BRUCE G. EPPERLY
Energion Publications
Gonzalez, FL
2014
Copyright 2014 Bruce G. Epperly
Other than those translated or paraphrased by the author, Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Electronic ISBN:
ISBN13: 978-1-63199-617-7
Print Edition ISBNs:
ISBN10: 1-63199-107-8
ISBN13: 978-1-63199-107-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014957828
Energion Publications
P. O. Box 841
Gonzalez, FL 32560
850-525-3916
energionpubs.com
A Word for the Journey
Over thirty years ago, my pastor-mentor George Tolman, Senior Pastor of First Christian Church in Tucson, Arizona, stated in a sermon, “life is risky business, no one gets out alive, and on the way, there’s plenty of pain as well as joy.” The author and main character of Job would agree with this sentiment. As a pastor for nearly thirty five years, I’ve experienced the pain and grief occasioned by serious illness, the dying process, and the loss of loved ones. I’ve struggled with persons dealing with addictions, job loss, divorce, depression, unexpected catastrophic accidents, and financial and professional failure. Often there appears to be no hope for healing and recovery, and we walk together not knowing where to find a path toward wholeness and unsure of the final outcome of our journey. Explicitly or implicitly, questions of God and the meaning of life, as well as our role in the pain we and our loved ones experience emerge. A pastor’s role is to be a companion on the journey, rather than the source of clear and concise answers, as we seek healing in challenging situations. A pastor’s calling is to be present and remain open-hearted to others’ pain and distress.
It has been said that theology begins in the experience of suffering. At the very least, debilitating suffering challenges our images of success and security, and invites us on a quest for something solid and dependable when the foundations of our lives are shaking. The book of Job emerges from one person’s unexpected encounter with suffering. Job seeks God’s presence, and to find a God he can trust again, he must jettison his previous images of God. He must let go of his image of an intricately structured universe, in which goodness is always rewarded and evil always punished proportionate to our behavior. On the way, he loses faith in his tradition’s image of God, and begins to discover a vision of God large enough to embrace the unknown and unsolvable, and yet intimate enough to be a source of comfort and insight in time of pain.
As pastor-theologian, it is my calling to be a pilgrim with those who suffer, and to reflect on the meaning of suffering, and God’s presence in the pain we experience, often for no apparent reason and no fault of our own. In this spirit, I am grateful for the opportunity to share my insights based on a course “Experiencing God in Suffering: A Journey with Job,” held at South Congregational Church, United Church of