I seem to make more mistakes when I am tired. Apologies for getting the name of Old House Farm wrong yesterday.
Meanwhile, with Sunday’s lectionary, I find it hard to integrate the ending of the Job story into my worldview. After all the suffering and heartache and pleading and … stuff, there’s a happy ending in which Job has his wealth restored and more (he has to concede that God’s the boss first). It’s just that in my experience there’s a lot of people who just don’t get a happy ending of that kind. It’s been suggested that the beginning and end of Job belong together, maybe as an even more ancient story, and the middle bit, the meat, the part to which I can relate, was authored separately. Anyway, there you go – a work in progress in my head.
The Jeremiah reading speaks of an emotional homecoming. It may not have to be a literal homecoming. I recall the feeling of worshipping for the first time in retirement at a new church. It wasn’t even the same denomination – but for some reason it felt like a homecoming.