Revved UP! October 3rd, 2021

Forgive the window in the background. It seemed like a good idea at the time

We start into two new books today, the first being Job, which is introduced with a scene from the divine courtroom, where God (the king) dialogues with his courtiers, most notably 'the Satan', who is depicted as an official whose job it was to seek out sedition in the empire.

God points to Job as a model servant of the king but Satan suggests that his loyalty is only skin deep. If' he's pushed, Satan suggests, Job will show himself to be just as disloyal and seditious as any of the king's enemies. God gives Satan permission to test Job, and so the story begins.

We are going to spend four weeks in Job, and more still in the Letter to the Hebrews, which we also begin today. Hebrews is a letter we know little about. We don't know who wrote it or who exactly it was written to. The word 'Hebrews' never turns up on the letter but it appears to be addressed specifically to a Jewish audience and is steeped in Hebrew imagery.

Despite the fact that, historically, most Jews denied the idea that Jesus shared in God's divine nature, the letter to the Hebrews makes some of the most extreme statements about Jesus that we see in the New Testament.

"He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word." (Hebrews 2;3)

At the same time, the author is keen to affirm that Jesus is our brother in humanity: "For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters." (Hebrews 2:11)

Our Gospel reading contains words that many of us find difficult - most obviously, those of us who are divorced.

"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery" (Mark 10:12 )

Like so many in our community, both Joy and I are divorced. I'll let you listen in to hear how we respond to these words from Jesus.