Job and Peter Parker: Sermon for October 18

Job 38:1-7, 34-41

I am a reader of comic books. Mainly the Marvel comics: the X-Men and the Avengers and my favourite, Spider-Man. When family and friends give me the weird “why are you reading that?” look, I explain that comic books are full of deep and meaningful explorations of life’s big questions. And usually my family and friends snort and walk away.

Issue 40 of The Sensational Spider-Man is called “The Book of Peter”. In it Peter Parker, who as a high school student was bitten by a radioactive spider, is having an extremely bad time, culminating in his Aunt May, his last remaining family member, lying in a coma after being shot. Peter goes to take his anger out on a dumpster and in the middle of destroying it is interrupted by God, who looks a little like a homeless New Yorker. God and Peter then have a discussion about the meaning of human suffering. Peter asks God if he’s being punished for something, or tested, and God says no, human suffering is a mystery. God’s exact words are: “Hard to explain why it’s necessary to someone who wasn’t there when the foundation of the earth was laid … or when the walls were built around the oceans …”

And this is why I love comic books. Because in the middle of a Spider-Man comic, God references the Book of Job.

In The Hunt is on its way

So, remember that essay I wrote last year on the TV show Supernatural? The one that I didn’t call ‘A Very Supernatural Theodicy’? Well, the book that it is in is about to be published.  The press release is below the cut. Check it out.

Various matters of little interest to anyone but myself

It is the first of September. The first day of spring. Hooray! Even more importantly, the date means that I have been going to the gym three times a week for a whole month! And I’m weirdly enjoying it. Last Friday I dragged myself out of bed, moaning and groaning, and only went to the gym because I knew that if I skipped I wouldn’t be able to look an Internet friend from Sydney in the eye. (Which, given we’ve never met in the flesh, might not actually be that much of a problem.) And after all my moaning and groaning I actually felt energised and inspired as I headed home after my workout. Weird and bizarre! Exercise may be working for me.

Thank God!

Australia is apparently about to change its policy on the mandatory detention of asylum seekers. As in, we’re only going to detain those who may be a risk to the community (which I’m hoping will never include children). A long way from perfect, but bringing us closer to the rest of the civilised world.

Thanks be to God!

And, in other news, my quote of the day:

The duty of the Christian as a peacemaker is not to be confused with a kind of quietistic inertia that is indifferent to injustice, accepts any kind of disorder, compromises with error and with evil, and gives in to every pressure in order to maintain ‘peace at any price’ … Peace demands the most heroic labour and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war.

That was written by Thomas Merton in 1980, and I found it quoted in my book of the day, Holy Superheroes! Exploring the Sacred in Comics, Graphic Novels and Film. Which I heartily recommend most of all to Pete, but also to anyone interested in faith and/or comics. Other freaks like me.