Once long ago, in the land of Uz, there was a man named Job who had a deep respect for God. He had a clean record, always doing the right thing by everybody and having nothing to do with evil.

One day in Heaven, all the beings who watch over the earth gathered to report to the LORD. The Accuser came with them to make his report. The LORD asked the Accuser, “Where have you been?”

The Accuser replied, “I have been wandering around on the earth, going wherever I please.”

The LORD said to the Accuser, “Have you checked out the form of my servant Job? No one else can hold a candle to him. His record is spotless. He honours me, he does the right thing by everyone, and he stays out of anything corrupt. Even after he was wiped out – his property trashed and his family killed – for no other reason than that you slandered him and persuaded me to allow him to be put to the test, even then he didn’t miss a beat. He proved himself to be a man of integrity and he continues to trust me.”

But the Accuser spoke back to the LORD, saying, “Ha! Everyone has their price. You can get anyone to sell out if their life is on the line. Just try it – a direct hit. When his own body is wracked with pain, he’ll curse you to your face.”

The LORD replied, “Okay, we’ll see. You can make him suffer as much as you want, but you’re not allowed to kill him.”

So the Accuser headed off immediately and got stuck into Job. Horrific sores and lesions appeared all over Job’s body, from the top of his head to the tip of his toes, and the pain was excruciating. Sitting outside on the scrap heap, he scratched, and tried every lotion he could get his hands on, but nothing helped. He was in agony. His wife said to him, “Are you just going to cop this and let God get away with it? You’re a goner anyway – just curse God and die and get it over with.”

But Job said to her, “You’re talking through your hat, woman. If we are going to welcome all the good things that God gives us, we’ve got to take the bad with the good. We can’t spit the dummy the moment trouble arrives.”

Despite everything that had happened to him, Job didn’t speak a word against God.

©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Clear my name, LORD.
I’ve been true to my word;
I’ve staked everything on you and stood my ground.

Check me out thoroughly, LORD;
weigh up my every thought and desire.

I keep myself focussed on your rock-solid love,
and I stay in step with you all the time.

I don’t hang around with worthless scum;
and I keep clear of those who talk the talk
but never walk the walk.
I can’t stand corrupt company,
and I keep my distance from liars and cheats.

There’s no blood to wash off my hands;
I can dance round your altar with a clear conscience
singing a song of thanks to you, O LORD,
and telling the stories of the great things you’ve done.

O LORD, I love the temple you call your own,
the place where we can bask in your presence.

Don’t wipe out the good with the bad;
........make sure I’m not on the list to be chopped
with those who ruthlessly trample over others,
with the callous, the corrupt, the con-merchants,
those who think their money puts them above the law.

I’m not like that — I play a straight bat.
Be good to me, LORD. Put me back where I belong.

You know I’m on the level;
I align myself with your people,
and sing your praises in their company.

©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Down through the years, God has spoken to our ancestors through the prophets in all sorts of different ways. Lately though, at long last, God has sent a Son to speak to us directly. It was through this Son that God created the world in the first place, and it will all belong to him in the end. You can see all the glory of God mirrored in this Son. God’s essential nature is imprinted on him perfectly. Everything in the universe holds together at his say so. The Son took action to bring about the forgiveness of sins, and having done that he was given the most honoured seat in heaven as God’s right hand man. He had proven himself to be in a league above the angels, and the title he was granted made this clear.

Now on the subject of the coming new age, God has not put the angels in charge of it. Somewhere in the scriptures someone said:

“What are human beings that you take any notice of them?
Here today and gone tomorrow —
why would you give them a second thought?
Yet you have put them on a pedestal;
starting them off just a step below the angels.
You have honoured them highly — hung medals round their necks —
and handed them control of the earth.”

Nothing is exempt from this — God has given human beings authority over absolutely everything. It may not look that way yet, but take a look at Jesus. He too was, for a while, a step down from the angels, but now, having made it through the suffering of death, we see him promoted to number one and receiving all the honour and glory that come with that position. In the extraordinary generosity of God, everyone else can claim exemption from death on the grounds that Jesus has gone through it for them.

Everything exists for God and because of God, and God set out to gather everyone into one family on the road to glory. It was only right that the one who God chose as the trail blazer to lead people out of danger should first earn a perfect 10 in the same arena of suffering as them. You see, the one who sets the pattern for holy living and the ones who are patterned by it are all children of the one God, born through the same labour pains. That explains why Jesus has no hesitation in calling them his sisters and brothers. He says to God,

“I will tell these, my sisters and brothers, all I know of you.
Whenever they gather, I’ll be there, trumpeting your virtues.”

©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Some members of the devoutly religious Pharisee party approached Jesus intending to give him a hard time. They asked, “Is it legal for a man to kick out his wife?”

Jesus turned the question back: “What instructions did Moses give about it in the law?”

They replied, “Moses said a man is allowed to fill out the divorce paperwork and send his wife on her way.”

Jesus wasn’t finished though. “Moses only said that because it was about the best he could hope for from a callous and cruel mob like you. But God created things to be different. You know the scriptures. First it says, ‘God created them male and female.’ Then it says, ‘Because of this, a man leaves his parents and joins up with his wife, and they will be a single union.’ In marriage, then, they are no longer just two individuals. They become one – something new and whole and greater than the two of them. Don’t anyone go tearing apart this union that God has created.”

Back home, later on, his followers picked up the subject again. Jesus spelt it out to them: “Anyone who abandons his wife in order to take up with someone else has betrayed her. It’s still adultery – whether you’ve filled out the paperwork or not. The same goes for any woman who walks out on her husband for someone else.”

At another time, some people approached Jesus with their children hoping that he might take the little ones in his arms and give them a blessing. His followers told them to clear off, but when Jesus saw this, he tore strips off them. “Little children can come to me any time they like, and don’t you dare try to stop them. The culture of God can be found in the hands of children such as these. The fact of the matter is that little children and the culture of God welcome one another naturally. Anyone who won’t join in on that welcoming will miss the lot.”

And with that, he gathered up the children into his arms, laid his hands on each one in turn, and blessed them all.

©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prior to the revision of the Lectionary in 1992, the 1st reading and the psalm that responded to it were chosen to link thematically with the gospel reading. After hearing the critique of those who said that the Hebrew Scriptures, from which the first reading is usually chosen, should be allowed to speak with their own voice rather than just add support to the gospel reading, the Lectionary was revised so that during Ordinary Time, the 1st reading runs in its own semi-continuous series, working through various books of the Hebrew Bible. The older themed series continues to be available as an alternative.

The weekly prayers offered here at LaughingBird Resources are based on the four readings above, and do not draw on the themed 1st reading and psalm.

After creating the man, the LORD God said, “It is a bit tough for the man to be all alone. I will make a partner for him, to share the load.”

So getting to work, the LORD God formed from the ground all the land animals and the birds of the air. The LORD brought them to the man to see what he would make of them. The man gave each living creature its first name, and the names stuck. He named them all: the wild animals, the farm animals, and the birds of the air. But none of them made the grade as a suitable partner for the man. So the LORD God put the man into a deep sleep, out for the count. While the man was under, the LORD removed one of his ribs and sealed up the flesh where it had come from. And then, using the rib from the man’s side, the LORD God fashioned a woman, and brought her to the man. This time the man said,

That is why men and women leave their parents and tie the knot with one another. They become an item — one flesh.

©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Our LORD and ruler,
all over the world
the mere mention of your name sets hearts pounding!

Your glory fills the universe!

The gurgling of babies makes more sense
than the clever arguments of your enemies.
The innocent chatter of children
silences the venomous talk of your opponents.

When I gaze at your handiwork in the night skies
— the moon, the stars, the milky way —
the whole cosmos under your control;
I can’t help but wonder why you bother with us.
Why do you care so much for mere human beings
when we count for so little in the scheme of things?

And yet, for reasons known to you alone,
you created us almost on a par with yourself
and decorated us with the highest honours and glory.

You have even entrusted us with power over your precious creation;
you placed the future of all life in our hands:
sheep and cattle;
emu and kangaroo
insects, reptiles, birds, and sea creatures;
air, land and water and the planet itself.

Our LORD and ruler,
all over the world
the mere mention of your name sets hearts pounding!

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net