Job: Beyond Words

God responds to Job’s complaint by recounting the wonders within creation, a creative wildness way beyond Job’s knowledge and control. Diana Butler Bass described this section of Job as a “poetic celebration of cosmic creation”. She writes that this vision of a God-soaked, awe-filled creation is God’s response to Job’s suffering: 

“The answer to suffering isn’t that a big, all-powerful God will defeat evil, or that God puts us mortals in our place. The answer to suffering is that since the creation of the stars, sacred intention and presence have been the very essence of all of existence.”

Sacred intention and presence. 

God gives Job a direct, experiential knowing of the Presence that is in all things, above all things, beneath all things, over all things, and woven through all things, a presence beyond the confines of our words. In this conversation, God does not give Job the answers he wanted. But somehow, this encounter with God’s presence is enough. Job backs down, his anger is spent. 

Isn’t it a relief to be reminded of this? That there is Something beyond all our God-Talk? Something beyond the principalities and powers of this world. Something beyond our political and economic systems. Something beyond the reach and power of Musk, Trump, and Putin. Something beyond even our own suffering and the short span of living between our birthing and our dying. Something which gathers up and holds all the pieces.

We catch an unnamed sense of this Presence. We see the full moon hang low and golden over the waters. We witness the setting sun turning the snow clad mountains purple and pink. We glimpse a sleeping child. Or hear the bittersweet notes of the cello. Our gaze softens. Our hearts open. We ground back into the present.

This Presence adjusts our attention and helps us see things from a new perspective. There is something out there that is greater, older, bigger, deeper; something that will last well beyond the concerns that grip us, valid as they are.

In the book of Job, the author makes room for the full breadth of our experience: absence and presence, suffering and fulfillment, complaint and satisfaction, anger and awe, righteousness and injustice, shallow God-Talk and wisdom, good and evil, mystery and revelation, creation and Creator. All of it is invited to show up in this book. All of it belongs. Which means, all of what’s within us belongs, too. 

We live in a troubled and troubling world, rife with the suffering of the innocent. We, like Job, are trying to make sense of what we are experiencing in the world. We generate a lot of God-Talk. Beyond our God-Talk, beyond our meaning-making, beyond our confusion, there is Presence.

It is possible to keep our eyes open to the work of darkness, to be present to it and look it in the eye. And to be present to beauty, goodness, mystery, and awe. To be present to Presence. Perhaps this is even our vocation as people of faith. 

Deep peace and blessing,

—Anne

Rev. Anne Baxter Smith
Pastor, Southpoint Church

Sun Dec 1   Christie Goode
You Are A Blessing Luke 1:26-38, Isa 43:1-7

Sun Dec 8 Anne Baxter Smith
We Don’t Go Alone Ruth 1, Eccl 4:9-12

Sun Dec 15 Anne Baxter Smith
Do the Good That’s Yours To Do

Sun Dec 22 Anne Baxter Smith
Hope is Worth the Risk Matthew 1:18-25/Luke 1:46-55

Tue Dec 24 Anne Baxter Smith
Christmas Eve Service, 4:00 pm
Love Knows Your Name Matthew 1:18-25/Luke 1:46-55

Sun Dec 29 ALL OUT
10:00-11:30 Annual Skating Party!
No service in the Sunnyside building

New to Southpoint?

At Southpoint, it all begins with God’s love. Just as a plant grows, it receives sunshine, so we grow as we receive God’s love. At Southpoint, we are growing in our capacity to love God, ourselves, one another, and Creation.

We seek to be a community of grace that is intentional yet organic, spacious yet authentic, grace-filled yet accountable. * We are fully welcoming. *

We encourage relationships rather than run programs, yet we recognize the importance of intentionality and structure as we nurture life together.

As a community, we seek to put our love in action. We value helping out on Sunday mornings, sharing food, and showing up in hard times. We keep our church life simple so folk have time to build relationships with family, friends, and neighbours. We encourage folk to serve in tangible ways within the wider community. We rent space rather than own a building, allowing us to do more with less, supporting missions at home and abroad.

Curious to know more?

These six slides express what motivates our ministry (best viewed on a monitor). Here’s the bio of our Pastor, Rev. Anne Baxter Smith.

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