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Popes and Monks: Finding Hope in the Book of Job During the Fall of Rome · Faith at Work

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  SPEAKER_00: About every 500 years or so,
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  SPEAKER_00: the church experiences what Phyllis Tickle calls a rummage sale,
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  a great upheaval where the church clears out accumulated
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  clutter and rediscovers
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  SPEAKER_00: its essential identity.
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  SPEAKER_00: And today, we're looking at one of those pivotal moments.
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  SPEAKER_00: The 6th century reformation,
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  when a collapsing world found hope in one of the oldest stories
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  in Scripture,
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  SPEAKER_00: the book of Job.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now,
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  SPEAKER_00: after the resurrection of Jesus,
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  SPEAKER_00: for about three centuries,
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  SPEAKER_00: Christians were persecuted,
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  SPEAKER_00: meeting in homes and catacombs,
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  SPEAKER_00: singing resurrection hymns,
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  SPEAKER_00: while Rome,
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  SPEAKER_00: the empire at that time,
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  SPEAKER_00: crushed them,
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  SPEAKER_00: persecuted them,
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  SPEAKER_00: tortured them,
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  SPEAKER_00: and even killed them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Like Job,
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  SPEAKER_00: in his ash heap,
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  SPEAKER_00: they had no power,
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  SPEAKER_00: they had no prestige,
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  SPEAKER_00: they had no status,
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  SPEAKER_00: they had no place in the world order at that time.
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  SPEAKER_00: Only the audacious claim that their Redeemer lived.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then came Constantine.
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  SPEAKER_00: In 313, Christianity went from persecuted to tolerated.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then by 330, it became the official imperial religion.
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  The church moved from catacombs to cathedrals,
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  from the margins to the mainstream.
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  And then the great councils of Nicaea in 325 and Chalcedon in
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  451 defined orthodox faith.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ, fully God and fully human, one being with the Father.
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  SPEAKER_00: But something dangerous happened, I think.
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  SPEAKER_00: When Christianity became the religion of empire,
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  SPEAKER_00: it was tempting to read the gospel as prosperity theology.
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  SPEAKER_00: In other words, faith equals power.
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  SPEAKER_00: Righteousness brings success.
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  SPEAKER_00: The theology of Job's friends crept back into the life of the church.
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  SPEAKER_00: They decided suffering must mean God's judgment.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then the empire collapsed.
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  SPEAKER_00: Rome
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  that had ruled the world for over 800 years fell to
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  quote-unquote barbarian invasions.
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  SPEAKER_00: First sacked in 410 and finally dissolved in 476.
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  SPEAKER_00: Everything built on earthly success was just swept away.
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  SPEAKER_00: Cities declined, trade collapsed, learning just disappeared.
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  SPEAKER_00: And Christians, they sat in the ruins asking Job's question.
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  SPEAKER_00: Is God good when everything falls apart?
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  SPEAKER_00: And into that scene enters Gregory the Great.
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  SPEAKER_00: born in 540, died in 604.
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  SPEAKER_00: He lived through this collapse.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, Gregory started out serving as a Roman prefect.
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  SPEAKER_00: He was managing a dying city,
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  SPEAKER_00: and somewhere along the way,
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  SPEAKER_00: he decided that that just wasn't the trajectory of his life,
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  SPEAKER_00: and he became a monk.
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  Then he became a papal administrator and finally he became Pope
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  during plagues and invasions.
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  And in the midst of all of this catastrophe,
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  Gregory taught on the book of Job.
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  SPEAKER_00: His lectures,
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  SPEAKER_00: compiled in a huge six-volume book series called Moralia in Job,
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  SPEAKER_00: The Morality of Job,
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  SPEAKER_00: became a foundational teaching in medieval Christianity.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now,
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  SPEAKER_00: Why Job, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, because Job spoke to their crisis with perfect clarity.
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  SPEAKER_00: Job, if you remember, suffered without cause.
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  He refused his friend's theology that suffering equals
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  punishment for past sins.
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  SPEAKER_00: He maintained his own integrity while losing everything.
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  And in his darkest moments,
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  Job cried out,
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  I know that my Redeemer lives.
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  And at the last he will stand upon the earth,
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  yet in my flesh I will see God.
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  SPEAKER_00: Gregory saw this as prophecies fulfilled in Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: So when Job says redeemer and not creator,
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  SPEAKER_00: in Gregory's eyes,
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  SPEAKER_00: he is proclaiming the incarnation.
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  SPEAKER_00: God clothed in flesh to free us from death.
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  SPEAKER_00: Gregory imagined Job declaring,
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  SPEAKER_00: everyone knows Christ was scourged,
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  SPEAKER_00: crowned with thorns,
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  SPEAKER_00: crucified and dead.
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  But I believe with unwavering faith that my Redeemer lives,
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  who died at the hands of impure men.
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  Job's promise,
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  in my flesh I shall see God,
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  became the church's anchor at that time.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not vague spiritual survival, but actual resurrection of the body.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here is the resurrection, Gregory declared.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here, the skin.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here, the flesh openly confessed.
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  SPEAKER_00: Rome had fallen.
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  SPEAKER_00: But Easter?
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  SPEAKER_00: Easter remained.
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  SPEAKER_00: Present suffering did not determine final destiny.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Redeemer lives, he proclaimed.
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  And to the medieval church,
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  Job offered three revolutionary truths,
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  among others.
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  SPEAKER_00: First...
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  SPEAKER_00: Job demolished the theology of deserved suffering.
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  SPEAKER_00: And we still hear about this in our day.
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  SPEAKER_00: Job's friends said his suffering revealed hidden sin.
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  SPEAKER_00: Job just refused that idea.
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  SPEAKER_00: He maintained his innocence and God vindicated Job telling the friends,
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  SPEAKER_00: you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has.
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  SPEAKER_00: The sixth century church needed this and I think we do too as well.
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  SPEAKER_00: Rome's fall wasn't divine judgment.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the righteous suffer.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes nations, well, they just collapse.
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  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, Job authorized honest lament.
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  SPEAKER_00: Job complained.
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  SPEAKER_00: Job complained.
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  SPEAKER_00: Job complained.
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  SPEAKER_00: Job complained.
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  SPEAKER_00: He questioned, even cursed the day of his birth.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yet God never rebuked this honesty.
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  SPEAKER_00: Instead, he rebuked the friends who spoke properly but falsely.
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  Christians facing catastrophe didn't have to pretend anymore
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  that everything was fine.
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  SPEAKER_00: They could bring their full humanity.
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  SPEAKER_00: Confusion, anger, grief, complaining to God.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is a valuable insight for us today.
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  SPEAKER_00: And third, Job pointed to Christ's innocent suffering.
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  SPEAKER_00: Both Job and Jesus were righteous men who suffered unjustly.
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  Both maintained their integrity through incomprehensible pain
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  and both trusted God
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  SPEAKER_00: when circumstances denied God's goodness.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, Job's story prepared God's people to understand the cross.
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  SPEAKER_00: Innocent suffering that became redemptive, transforming death into life.
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  When we read Job alongside of Jesus' teachings,
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  we find remarkable consistency.
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  SPEAKER_00: Consider the Beatitudes.
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  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the poor.
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  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the poor in spirit.
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  Those who mourn,
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  the meek,
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  the people that are persecuted for righteousness' sake.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus calls blessed those who the world calls cursed.
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  SPEAKER_00: The very people Job's friends said must be guilty.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus reveals that God's kingdom belongs to those who know their need,
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  SPEAKER_00: those who can't rely on their own strength.
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  SPEAKER_00: In John chapter 9, Jesus encounters a man born blind.
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  SPEAKER_00: Do you remember this story?
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  And his disciples look at this man born blind,
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  and they ask Job's questions.
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  SPEAKER_00: Who sinned?
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  SPEAKER_00: this man or his parents, that he was born blind.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus' answer revolutionizes everything.
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  SPEAKER_00: Neither this man nor his parents sinned.
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  SPEAKER_00: He was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is Job's vindication.
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  God himself in human flesh declares that suffering is not
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  always divine judgment.
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  People suffer because we live in a broken world,
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  and God meets us there to bring healing.
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  SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, Jesus is Job fulfilled.
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  SPEAKER_00: Everything Job experienced, Jesus experienced more profoundly.
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  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus' innocent suffering was redemptive.
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  It absorbed the sin and the death of the world and opened a way
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  to eternal life.
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  Through his resurrection,
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  Jesus vindicated Job's ancient cry,
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  my Redeemer lives.
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  SPEAKER_00: Death is not the final word, and we will see God in our flesh.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now,
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  SPEAKER_00: while Gregory taught Job in the cities,
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  SPEAKER_00: the desert fathers and mothers were living in the wilderness.
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  They fled the church's entanglement with power,
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  choosing voluntary poverty and contemplation.
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  SPEAKER_00: Like Job, they were stripped of comfort and security.
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  Like Job,
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  they discovered God meets us not in false piety,
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  but in honest poverty.
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  SPEAKER_00: Around 530, St.
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  SPEAKER_00: Benedict wrote his Rule for Monasteries,
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  SPEAKER_00: a practical guide for communities living the gospel amid chaos.
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  SPEAKER_00: Benedict monasteries became islands of stability,
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  SPEAKER_00: preserving learning,
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  SPEAKER_00: practicing hospitality,
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  SPEAKER_00: and embodying patient hope in the midst of a chaotic time.
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  SPEAKER_00: They embraced what looked like defeat from the world's perspective.
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  SPEAKER_00: No wealth, no power, no glory.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yet in that weakness, they found true strength.
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  SPEAKER_00: Job's patient endurance became the model for faithful communal life.
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  SPEAKER_00: So what does this all mean for us today?
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you haven't noticed, we live in another age of upheaval.
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  SPEAKER_00: Old certainties are crumbling.
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  SPEAKER_00: Institutions are proving fragile.
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  SPEAKER_00: The church, it's declining.
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  SPEAKER_00: Like the sixth century, we watch a world in collapse, it seems.
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  SPEAKER_00: But Job, Gregory, and the monastic movement show us a way through.
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  SPEAKER_00: Those movements tell us, abandon the theology of deserved suffering.
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  SPEAKER_00: Our struggles aren't necessarily divine judgment, friends.
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  SPEAKER_00: We can be honest in our confessions while trusting in God's goodness.
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  SPEAKER_00: We need to embrace honest lament.
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  SPEAKER_00: Stop telling people to stop complaining.
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  SPEAKER_00: Stop complaining.
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  SPEAKER_00: Bring your full humanity to God.
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  SPEAKER_00: Anger, grief, questions.
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  SPEAKER_00: God prefers raw authenticity to polished piety.
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  SPEAKER_00: Distinguished suffering from sin.
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  SPEAKER_00: Cancer is not judgment.
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  SPEAKER_00: Mental illness is not weakness.
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  SPEAKER_00: Poverty is not moral failure.
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  SPEAKER_00: Our calling as the church is presence, care, and light, not judgment.
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  SPEAKER_00: We need to cultivate communities of patient hope,
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  SPEAKER_00: creating stable,
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  SPEAKER_00: faithful communities focused on prayer,
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  SPEAKER_00: service,
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  SPEAKER_00: hospitality,
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  SPEAKER_00: and learning.
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  SPEAKER_00: from history and the present with a hopeful future,
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  SPEAKER_00: placing a hold on resurrection hope when the world seems dark around us.
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  SPEAKER_00: We need to anchor ourselves in resurrection faith.
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  Whatever we lose,
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  status,
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  security,
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  even civilization,
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  we cannot lose Easter.
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  SPEAKER_00: Christ is risen, and that changes everything.
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  Job spoke powerfully to the 6th century because it's a
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  universal story about
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  SPEAKER_00: suffering without explanation and trusting without guarantee.
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  Yet this ancient story pointed to the newest hope,
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  the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: Job's cry from thousands of years ago was vindicated on Easter morning.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Redeemer did come.
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  SPEAKER_00: He did stand upon this earth.
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  SPEAKER_00: He did die and rise again.
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  SPEAKER_00: And because he rose, we too will rise.
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  SPEAKER_00: Gregory.
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  SPEAKER_00: Gregory.
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  The desert monastics and Benedictine communities reformed the
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  church not by
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  SPEAKER_00: grasping for power,
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  SPEAKER_00: but by returning to Job's ancient wisdom.
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  SPEAKER_00: Faith persists through suffering.
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  SPEAKER_00: Honest lament is prayer.
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  God meets us in our weakness,
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  and resurrection hope sustains us when all earthly hope fails.
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  SPEAKER_00: May we,
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  SPEAKER_00: like them,
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  SPEAKER_00: find our hope not in human institutions,
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  SPEAKER_00: but in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: May we, like Job, trust God when we cannot understand.
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  SPEAKER_00: And may Job's ancient cry echo in our time.
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  SPEAKER_00: I know!
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  SPEAKER_00: that my Redeemer lives.
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  SPEAKER_00: And at the last he will stand upon the earth,
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  SPEAKER_00: and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
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  SPEAKER_00: yet in my flesh I shall see God."