Jason Micheli, pastor of Annandale United Methodist Church in Annandale, Virginia, begins this Sunday’s sermon by saying, “In the year 1889, after several days of torrential rain, the South Fork dam on the Little Conemaugh River failed, flooding the city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and killing over two thousand people.” Micheli points out that after this catastrophe, people used the stories of Noah and Job to try to answer the question of why bad things happen to good people. In today’s sermon from Job 42:1-6 and 10-17, he says, “The book of Job is not an attempt to explain the mystery of suffering…The book of Job is a rage against explanation. Job does not receive the reasons for his suffering. Job receives a revelation. And to the incredulity of many modern readers, that’s enough for Job.”
Manuscript available: click HERE
Note: this sermon was originally released as B48: The Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost, Year B (2021)