Job 1:1; 2:1-10

I read in the paper the other day that U.S. Representative Liz Cheney is going to be the featured speaker at the Nancy S. Loeb School of Communications’ First Amendment Awards on November 9, to be held at St. Anselm College’s Institute of Politics.  Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has intrigued me for a while now.  And I have to say that I have come to have a good deal of respect and admiration for her.  Because in the current culture of Republicanism, Cheney has refused to endorse the Big Lie in order to advance her career.  Instead, she has chosen to persist in her integrity, publicly opposing former president Donald Trump, particularly since the January 6 riot at the United States Capitol.  And she has paid dearly for it.

The Big Lie is the belief by many Americans that Donald Trump actually won the 2020 presidential election.  According to a new CNN poll released in September, 36% of Americans don’t believe that Biden got enough votes to win last November.  Among Republicans, 78% believe that Biden did not win the election and 54% believe that there is solid evidence to support that view, in spite of the fact that dozens of courts have rejected Trump’s challenges to the election results.  The truth is that Biden won by more than 7 million votes.  The Big Lie threatens the foundation of our American democracy, as seen by the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6.  Stephen Collinson writes, “If the will of millions of people is no longer expressed through voting, what other outlets are there?  Already the January 6 insurrection has shown what happens when aggrieved groups – in this case incited by a massive lie – take matters into their own hands.”

In this climate, I respect those Republicans who dare to state the truth, who refuse to compromise their own integrity, even if it may mean the loss of their elected position.  And it has cost some of them their seats in Congress already.  I respect anyone who holds on to their integrity, no matter what, even under pressure.

Politics is not the only arena in which personal integrity is often compromised.  Larry Broughton writes in an on-line article, “From politicians that shamelessly lie (but keep getting elected) to careless business leaders who bankrupt their own companies (but still walk away with millions), [to] sports heroes who display morals and values fit for a sociopath (but still keep their fans) …, the very concept of integrity seems to be at odds with today’s ‘modern’ society.”  In that kind of environment, people notice those who maintain their personal integrity.  And they respect them.  Harvey MacKay, a business guru is famous for saying, “If you have integrity, nothing else matters.  If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.”

This morning I want to consider a Biblical character who persisted in integrity, even when it would seem that he had every reason not to.  His name was Job.  And the first thing that the Bible tells us about Job is that he was blameless and turned away from evil.  The Bible mentions integrity only nine times, and four of them are in the book of Job. 

This is probably the oldest book in the Bible and it deals with one of the most difficult issues in life.  Why do good people suffer?  In other parts of the Bible, the theology seems to be clear that good people don’t suffer; only bad people suffer.  They suffer because it is punishment for their sin.  And good people are blessed because they have not sinned.  But in Job, it is clearly stated up front that Job had done nothing wrong.  And it appeared that he lived a blessed life.  But then everything changed in the blink of an eye.

One day Satan, or the Accuser, came with the other heavenly beings to present himself to God.  Satan and God struck up a conversation and God bragged on Job, about how good a man he was and how he never did anything evil.  Satan said that Job never lost faith or did evil because he never had any reason to; his life was so good that he would never turn away from God.  But if he lost what he had, then he might curse God.  And so God allowed Satan to test Job.  In one day, Job lost all of his wealth, his property, and his possessions, and all of his children died in an accident.  Job tore his robe and shaved his head to show his grief, he fell to the ground, and he WORSHIPED.  And the Bible says, “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.”

Then Satan approached God again, and again God bragged on Job’s faith.  He said, “He still persists in his integrity.”  Even though Job had lost so much, he did not lose his integrity; he did not give up his faith in God; he did not stop living for God.  Then Satan asked to afflict Job with a disease in order to test him again, and God allowed Satan to do that.  So Job broke out in boils all over his body.  He had sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.  Job was in such misery that he sat among the ashes.  And his wife came to him and asked, “Do you still persist in your integrity?  Curse God and die.”  I guess she figured it would be better to be dead than continue in such physical pain.  But Job answered, “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?”  And in all this Job did not sin.

Paul E. Capetz, an associate professor of theology at the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, writes, “In spite of everything he suffers, Job ‘persists in his integrity’ (2:3).  He serves God without expecting reward or complaining about misfortune.  He does not put himself in the center of things … I once heard someone who was in the middle of a deep personal crisis remark, ‘God doesn’t owe me anything.’  Like Job, this person understands that true service of God is not motivated by hope of reward for oneself.  That is the kind of fidelity exemplified by Job.”

I think that the true test of a person’s integrity is whether it holds up under pressure.  A woman named Hannah wrote in an on-line article, “Integrity is not something that can be measured or evaluated when there is nothing at stake.  You can’t gauge the integrity of a ship’s hull if it is not being tossed about at sea or scraping up against icebergs.  Likewise, the only way to tell the integrity of a man is if you take the person that he claims to be in his comfort zone and put him under immense pressure.  The man will either conquer the testing and be proven pure, or will crumble under the pressure and be reduced to the basic essence of his humanity.

“Integrity is who you are behind the scenes, when all the masks come off and nobody is watching you.  When it’s just you and the silence, and you don’t have to put on a façade for anybody.  The test of your integrity comes in secret, where nobody is around to applaud you if you succeed or cheer you on even if you fail.”

The lectionary Psalm for this Sunday is Psalm 26, and I can almost imagine Job speaking these words to God in defense of himself:

Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.  Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and mind.  For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in faithfulness to you.  I do not sit with the worthless, nor do I consort with hypocrites; I hate the company of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked.  I wash my hands in innocence, and go around your altar, O Lord, singing aloud a song of thanksgiving, and telling all your wondrous deeds.  O Lord, I love the house in which you dwell, and the place where your glory abides.  Do not sweep me away with sinners, nor my life with the bloodthirsty, those in whose hands are evil devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes.  But as for me, I walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be gracious to me.  My foot stands on level ground; in the great congregation I will bless the Lord.

One of the really fun things I did with my dad while he was here was to work together on a book called My Father’s Life.  It is a book that has questions about a dad’s life, from early childhood to old age, with a blank page for the answer.  Since he can no longer see to read, I read the questions to him and wrote down his answers.  We worked on it over about 4 or 5 different evenings.  I had done something similar with his mother years ago when she was visiting me for a couple of weeks.  The questions ranged from who his friends were, what were his favorite toys or games, what were his favorite subjects in school, to things like how did he know my mother was “the one,” and what did he think when he found out she was going to have a baby.  There were questions about who were the people who had been influential in his life and why, what music he listened to, what his favorite books were.  We enjoyed lots of laughs and some serious moments also.

One of the last questions in the book was, “How do you want to be remembered?  What do you want your legacy to be?”  With many questions in the book, he had to stop and think a while.  But this one he answered pretty quickly.  “As an honest man.”  I thought about that a lot over the past week, since I wrote the answer down in the book.  My dad wants to be remembered as an honest man; he wants to be remembered for his integrity.  And I know he is a man of integrity.  And I know that it cost him at times.  And I respect him so much because of that.  To know that he persisted in his integrity even when it cost him something impressed me when I was in junior high school, and it was a lesson that I have carried with me all my life.  I would like to think that I have followed that example, even when it has cost me.  Persisting in integrity – it’s a worthy way to live our lives.