[1994] The Congregational Church in Norwich, VT, where we lived invited me to guide a discussion about ‘remembering’. I prepared the following thoughts based on the story/play Job –
Prior to a devastating series of tragedies, Job held an exemplary and defining position within his various ‘communities’ (i.e., religious, family, economic, political, social). The meta-narrative within his ‘communities’ presumed that upright (merciful, fair, respectful) living resulted in blessed circumstances and that sinful (callused, manipulative, selfish, base) living resulted in cursed circumstances. Gathering with and around Job increased their sense of security. After a devastating series of tragedies, Job lost his exemplary and defining position within his ‘communities’. To them he was obviously cursed. He no longer confirmed the meta-narrative. To remain in ‘community’ with him would have threatened confidence in the meta-narrative. Those with shallow and quite conditional loyalty to Job ridiculed him, ignored him, gawked at him, spit on him, expected him to ‘repent’. Those more invested in Job – his wife, his family, and his closest friends – eventually failed him. ‘Communities’ must cross a critical and radical threshold in order to remain in community with a ‘scrapheap’ Job. That threshold entails the ability and courage to permit presumptions about the meta-narrative to be challenged. The ‘scrapheap’ Job refused to take this pressure off his ‘communities’. He maintained his innocence . . . and his integrity. When his closest friends began to speak, they knew only the language and responses characteristic of the meta-narrative. They did not know how to be with their friend. The story/play Job is so composed in its canonical form that the ‘communities’ receiving the story can remember without rethinking what it would mean to remain in community with a ‘scrapheap’ Job. The story ends with Job’s ‘communities’ gathering again around him. No doubt they had heard report that he had said, “I repent”. The socio-economic indicators of favor had returned to him. They interpreted this reversal to mean that the meta-narrative had been proven true and dependable. They are not forced to see that, for ‘communities’ to be able to risk remaining with a ‘scrapheap’ Job (and, thereby, to remember him with humility and gratitude), they must be modest in their presumptions about life’s meaning, grasp the place doubt, be penitent, be gathered by a cause/identity that makes holding together as ‘communities’ a significant but secondary goal, appreciate the art of silence.
