Separation anxiety is common in children, dogs, and certain parents. (I've been afflicted lately with separation ecstasy, a whole other disorder.) It arises from a sense of loneliness and abandonment which provokes fear and anxieties. We know it happens to average adults, too.
We consider what happened with Job and how he dealt with this, and the marked contrast that emerges in looking at Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
You're likely familiar enough with the story of Job, the one who is so faithful and devout, and who has enjoyed a very good life. He is suddenly beset by one calamity after another until he has lost everything, family, home, possessions, social standing, and is reduced to writhing pain as even his own health is under assault.
The selection has Job seeking an audience with God, confident that if he explains to God the mistake which God has made, God will make all things right. But he ends not finding God anywhere that he might look. Separation anxiety!
This should be familiar to any of us who lost someone or something that we cherished. We may feel that something unjust has happened, that surely God has made a mistake. We may wonder, like Job, why this has happened to us, or why this happened to this god person, unable to make sense of it. But we also may feel a sense of abandonment, that God is not there, not reliable, out to lunch. It provokes confusion at least, and perhaps fear and anxiety.
If we look at what happens with Jesus, we find that in his moment of greatest need, Jesus, too, is abandoned by his closest friends and allies, his best disciples. After sharing his sense of impending doom and pleading for their company, he returns from prayer to find them fast asleep. How does Jesus respond?
Normally I'd say, 'Check out the sermon video,' but I can't. Having neglected to delete the previous sermon, my memory damaged video camera (it lost 60% of its memory; hey, do you know what that's like?) had only 12 minutes of video recording space. I doubted you wanted to see about half of a sermon so I deleted it. However, I did order a replacement that should have its 2 hour full memory intact.
So, I offer the sermon text below as a download as well as the Fairfielder answer sheet. We'll get back on track next week. Sorry about the lack of video.
We consider what happened with Job and how he dealt with this, and the marked contrast that emerges in looking at Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
You're likely familiar enough with the story of Job, the one who is so faithful and devout, and who has enjoyed a very good life. He is suddenly beset by one calamity after another until he has lost everything, family, home, possessions, social standing, and is reduced to writhing pain as even his own health is under assault.
The selection has Job seeking an audience with God, confident that if he explains to God the mistake which God has made, God will make all things right. But he ends not finding God anywhere that he might look. Separation anxiety!
This should be familiar to any of us who lost someone or something that we cherished. We may feel that something unjust has happened, that surely God has made a mistake. We may wonder, like Job, why this has happened to us, or why this happened to this god person, unable to make sense of it. But we also may feel a sense of abandonment, that God is not there, not reliable, out to lunch. It provokes confusion at least, and perhaps fear and anxiety.
If we look at what happens with Jesus, we find that in his moment of greatest need, Jesus, too, is abandoned by his closest friends and allies, his best disciples. After sharing his sense of impending doom and pleading for their company, he returns from prayer to find them fast asleep. How does Jesus respond?
Normally I'd say, 'Check out the sermon video,' but I can't. Having neglected to delete the previous sermon, my memory damaged video camera (it lost 60% of its memory; hey, do you know what that's like?) had only 12 minutes of video recording space. I doubted you wanted to see about half of a sermon so I deleted it. However, I did order a replacement that should have its 2 hour full memory intact.
So, I offer the sermon text below as a download as well as the Fairfielder answer sheet. We'll get back on track next week. Sorry about the lack of video.
| 10-11-15-separation_anxieties.pdf |
| 10-11-15-ff-answers.pdf |