The Book of Job is not an easy book to love. It's not even an easy book to read, and it offends most people who take the trouble to read it. But the Book of Job squarely faces our common observation that the world contains a lot of undeserved suffering. A lot of innocent people get beat up pretty badly in this old world, and it is cold comfort for some preacher to intone, "We suffer because we are sinners and bring it on our own heads." Not what *I* want to hear when I suffer.
The Jews offer a tradition of The Lamed Vovniks -- the 36 righteous men who must exist at any one time and who bear the suffering for the world. This opens the story of Jesus to us from a new light. Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Ky for this week's sermon, The Lamed Vovniks.
Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky, was built on the casting floor of a 19th Century iron blast furnace. We use "The Casting Floor" as an image for the power of the Spirit to form us. Visit us at http://communitypresbyterian.org.
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