Beer, brawls, backaches and baseball.

No, I'm not describing my summer vacation.

These are the topics covered in a tell-all book by New York Yankees pitcher David Wells, a book which created a firestorm of controversy when it was published earlier this year. Yankees management felt that the tome tarnished the team's image, so they immediately hit the author with a fine of $100,000. Then, when Wells tried to schedule a meeting with George Steinbrenner, the team owner, he got the cold shoulder.

When Steinbrenner gives you the cold shoulder, it's a very cold shoulder.

The English language has some delicious expressions: The cold shoulder, bringing home the bacon, stewing in your own juices. Despite the fact that these are all well-known clichés, they have retained at least some of their original zest and tang, so we use them from time to time to spice up our conversation. Problem is, most of us have no idea where they come from.

The magazine Mental Floss has done us a great service by digging up some of the curious origins of these tasty clichés. Did you know, for example, that there was a time when giving someone "the cold shoulder" meant more than simply snubbing them in public? It actually meant handing them a cold shoulder of beef. During the Middle Ages, if you wanted to communicate to your guests that they had overstayed their welcome, you would serve them a big hunk of cold meat, instead of a nice hot roast. With any luck, they would get the message, and leave.

How about "bringing home the bacon"? It now means coming home with a paycheck, but it used to be understood more literally. In the 12th century, a church in Britain started to award cured bacon strips to newly married couples if they could pass a particular test: They had to swear, after one year of marriage, that they had never once regretted the decision. If they made the grade, they could bring home the bacon.

Nancy and I had a wonderful time on our honeymoon in Great Britain in 1985, and then we returned with our children this past August. Problem is, no one told us where we could pick up our bacon. After 18 years, I think we deserved some!

And how about "stewing in your own juices"? Today it means to suffer the consequences of your own actions, as pitcher David Wells is doing after writing his controversial book. But in the 13th century, the phrase was a euphemism for being burned at the stake, a horrible fate in which you would literally simmer in your own bodily fluids. To my knowledge, the owner of the Yankees has not subjected David Wells to this particular fate ... yet. ("Delicious Phrases: Curious origins of our tasty language," from Mental Floss, reprinted in Utne, March-April 2003, 87-88)

Here's another well-known cliché: "The patience of Job." What's that all about? The saying comes from the Old Testament story of Job, the tale of a poor soul from the land of Uz, described in today's Scripture lesson as a "man who was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil" (Job 1:1). Despite his moral and spiritual perfection -- or, perhaps, BECAUSE of it -- Job is subjected to a supernatural test in which he loses his property, his children, and his health, and is challenged to retain his integrity and remain faithful to God.

Our cliché about Job's "patience" comes from the New Testament letter of James, King James Version, in which the author says, "Ye have heard of the patience of Job" (James 5:11). Oddly enough, the word "patience" doesn't appear anywhere in the Book of Job itself.

No matter. The point that people make about Job is that he had patience - patience that enabled him to endure for God. He took the long view in life, looking well beyond his considerable losses, and because of this he was able, eventually, to experience the compassion and mercy of God.

But is this true to the story of Job?

Not exactly.

There are many adjectives that can be used to describe Job, but patient is not one of them. Blameless, upright, faithful, long-suffering, steadfast, honest ... yes, these all work. But Job does not bear his affliction calmly, as a patient person would; instead, he cries out, "I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul" (10:1). Far from showing "cheerful endurance," Job screams, "My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me" (17:1). Then he moans, "God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me; If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face" (23:16-17).

He's an honest man, yes. But a patient man? No.

There are many life-changing lessons in the story of Job, but patience is not one of them. It is more fruitful for us to focus on several other messages that are delivered by the book with far greater clarity, messages about the nature of suffering and the importance of faithfulness to God. These are not clichés like "the patience of Job," but are, instead, insights that leave us with something truly nourishing to chew on. A focus on suffering and faithfulness enables us to read Job and then ... bring home the bacon.

First, the nature of suffering. The Book of Job makes it clear that not all human suffering is deserved -- it is not necessarily a punishment for a life of beer, brawls, fornication, impurity, passion, and greed. Job is a righteous man, described by God as being "a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil" (1:8). And yet, he loses his property to raiders, and his sons and daughters die in a natural disaster (1:13-19). As if this is not painful enough, he comes down with loathsome sores which cover him from head to foot (2:7). Job is an absolute mess, leaving us to wonder, "What did he do to deserve this?"

The answer, of course, is, "Nothing." This intense suffering descends on Job through no fault of his own. Jesus himself knew this, and observed a number of years later that God "sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:45). We should never be quick to conclude that anyone deserves the suffering they experience ... anyone, including ourselves. We don't deserve to get cancer, or develop heart trouble, or suffer heartbreak, or lose loved ones.

Gerald Sittser was a history professor with a wonderful family. But one day, his wife, his four-year-old daughter, and his mother were all killed in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. Sittser's life had been going very well, but then, in one horrible moment, he lost three of the most precious people in his life.

His suffering was compounded eight months later, when the driver of the other car was acquitted of vehicular manslaughter. The defense attorney was able to cast enough suspicion on the testimony of several witnesses that he was able to get his client off the hook.

Sittser was enraged. But then he began to be bothered by his assumption that he had a right to complete fairness in life. "Granted, I did not deserve to lose three members of my family," he writes in his book A Grace Disguised (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996). "But then again, I am not sure I deserved to have them in the first place." His wife was a woman who loved him through some very hard times. His mother lived well and served people to her life's end. His daughter sparkled with enthusiasm, and helped to fill his home with noise and excitement. "Perhaps I did not deserve their deaths," he concludes; "but I did not deserve their presence in my life either."

There's truth in Sittser's words: Perhaps I did not deserve their deaths. But I did not deserve their presence, either.

We should never be quick to conclude that anyone deserves the suffering they experience ... but at the same time, we should never jump to the conclusion that anyone deserves their blessings, either. Job makes much the same point when he asks the question, "Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?" (2:10).

The second clear message of Job is that faithfulness to God is of critical importance, in bad times as well as in good times. Gerald Sittser did not turn his back on God after his family was killed by a drunk driver, nor did Job abandon the Lord in his time of overwhelming loss. It is essential that we not give God the cold shoulder when we encounter a period of undeserved suffering.

Can we scream and yell at God? Sure. "I will not restrain my mouth," shouts Job. "I will complain in the bitterness of my soul" (7:11). There is nothing wrong with offering up a passionate and honest complaint, as long as we direct our complaining to God. Job grabs hold of the Lord like a dog with a bone, and he won't let go until God responds to him. What saves Job is that he remains faithful to God, always demanding that God hear him and take him seriously and respond to his concerns.

In the end, Job hears a word from God and is satisfied. "I know that you can do all things," Job admits, "and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted" (42:2). He finds a sense of peace in his relationship with God, not in a list of neat and tidy responses to all his unanswered questions.

The same can be true for us. Like Job, our challenge is to accept both the bad and the good, and to remain in close contact with God through every twist and turn of life, never turning from him and giving him the cold shoulder. This means leaning on God when we get rejected, as I have been by many book publishers. It means turning to God when we experience heartbreak, and trusting that he will never abandon us. It means crying out to God when we are given a heart-sinking diagnosis, and offering him our deepest expressions of anguish. Ultimately, we'll find that it is an honest and intimate relationship with God that saves us, and puts us in a position to discover true serenity and peace.

With this relationship, we'll be able to face any ordeal. Without it, we'll just stew in our own juices. Amen.

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