September 23, 2018
When our son, Peter, was in the first grade, we learned from the mother of a playmate of his that he didn’t believe in God.
So, one day, when he and I were in the kitchen, I said to him, “Peter, Robbie’s mother told us you didn’t believe in God. Can you tell me why?”
He said, “Well, there aren’t any dinosaurs in the Bible.”
Of course, first grade is the stage in life when a young boy’s thoughts turn to dinosaurs. They are the most amazing creatures! So big and scary and powerful! And so real! It didn’t surprise me that he was concerned that they were not mentioned in the Bible. It’s not an uncommon question from kids.
So, I said, “Peter, the person who wrote that part the Bible didn’t know about dinosaurs. But if he had known about dinosaurs, they would be in the Bible.”
That didn’t really seem to satisfy his doubts. So, I said, “Is there anything else about the Bible?”
He said, “Some of the things in Bible – I just don’t see how they could happen!”
I said, “Yeah, there are some things that are really hard to believe.”
And that’s all I said. I left it at that. When I told Sylvia later on about the conversation, she said, “Couldn’t you have also said, ‘But we still believe in God, because….” But I didn’t.
It’s not easy when your father is a pastor. I didn’t want him to feel like he was getting extra pressure to believe because of my line of work. But I also didn’t push it because I think questions are good. And I wanted him to feel free to ask questions about faith and even to ask questions – challenging questions – of God.
I believe that questions are essential to faith. If we’re going to grow in our faith, if we are going to have a real and lasting relationship with God, we need to feel free to ask questions, even to ask God questions. When we have questions, but don’t speak them, then they close us off to God and they shut off new possibilities for our faith.
The disciples have questions, but they are not speaking.
At Caesarea Philippi, as we heard last week, Peter makes the momentous confession – “You are the Messiah!” Then Jesus spells out what that means – rejection, suffering, death, and resurrection. This is not what the disciples have in mind. They have in mind glory and honor and power. Not only that, the path Jesus is walking is not just his path; it is their path as well.
Jesus continues his ministry. He heals the sick and casts out demons. On a high mountain apart, he is revealed to Peter and James and John as the God’s Son, the Beloved.
Not long after, as they move down through Galilee on their way to Jerusalem, Jesus tells them a second time: “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” This time, in the gospel of Mark, Jesus specifically mentions betrayal.
But the disciples still do not understand what he is talking about. And they are afraid to ask any questions.
Why were they afraid? Were they afraid of being scolded for their lack of faith? I think that’s often why people are reluctant to ask questions. It may be that they feel they should know more than they do. A question will reveal that they don’t know what they assume everyone else knows about the Bible or about their faith. But there is a feeling prevalent among Christians that to ask questions shows, not merely a lack of knowledge, but a lack of faith. It is a sign of sin. And maybe this was also true for the disciples.
Were they afraid because of what it might mean for Jesus? Their Teacher, their Master, their Rabbi, their Lord. What they wanted was a cleansing of religious corruption in the temple and freedom from the political oppression of Rome. They were waiting for that kind of liberator. But how did a Messiah like that fit in with what Jesus said about betrayal, rejection, and death?
Were the disciples afraid about what it meant for them? Jesus told them, “If you want to be my disciple, you must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. If you want to save your life, you will lose it; if you lose your life for my sake and the sake of the gospel, you will save it.” Maybe the disciples are thinking, “Is this the trip I signed up for? Is there some other teacher I could follow?”
I don’t know exactly why they are afraid. I only know that they have two responses to their fear. The first is silence – they don’t ask any questions. Maybe they don’t understand. Or maybe they don’t want to understand. Maybe they would rather remain blissfully ignorant. Whatever the reason, they are afraid and so that do not speak.
The second is that, in response to their fear, they grab for something they can hold onto. They try to secure a place for themselves. Rather than talking to Jesus, they argue with each other. They squabble about their pecking order. Who’s better than whom? Who’s the best of all? Who gets to be in charge?
Of course, when Jesus questions them, they remain silent about that as well. Nevertheless, Jesus knows. So, he says, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”
To show them what he means, he takes a child and sets it in the center. Then he embraces the child. “Whoever welcomes one of these children, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the One who sent me.”
This is a sweet picture, but it’s far more challenging for the disciples than it looks to us. In Jesus’ day, children were not viewed as they are now. There was a high mortality rate among children – 60% by the age of six. Children had no standing in society and no legal rights. They were considered to be the property of their fathers. Given the economic predicament most families lived under, the child, even if it survived past age 6, was likely to be sold as a slave.
The children of Jesus’ day were among the most weak and vulnerable. They would certainly have been counted among, “the least of these.” Welcoming children would not have been a way for the disciples to make it to the top.
Jesus is not only showing the disciples how he wants them to relate to each other – as servants. He is also demonstrating how to lose one’s life – to take oneself out of the center and to place someone who is in need in the center; to step outside oneself and focus on serving someone else. And if we focus on someone else, we are less likely to worry about ourselves. We are less likely to react in self-protection. We are less likely to be afraid.
What questions are you afraid to ask? What have you been wondering about, but are reluctant to speak?
There is a slip of paper in each bulletin. I’d like to give you a chance to ask a question that you are hesitant to speak out loud. I often do this with confirmation students, because I know that sometimes, the best questions don’t get asked. And lots of learning can be done when we ask questions.
After you’ve written a question down, you can put it into the offering plate or put it in the question box on your way out or drop it by the church office or you could even email me. Next Sunday, I will shape my sermon around those questions.
Now you may be thinking, “Do I really trust Pastor Chris? He’s only been here a few weeks. A year from now he may no longer be here. What reason do I have to trust him with my question?” And you’re right. You don’t have much reason to trust me. You don’t really know me that well. And who knows how long I will be here?
But that might be a good thing. If you don’t like my answer, then you can think, “Well, he’s not going to be very long anyway. I’ll just ignore his answer.”
I’m not going to promise to answer every question next week. (Unless you all want to bring sack lunch and we’ll make a day of it!) The questions I don’t get to next week, I’ll try to address in other sermons or in one of our newsletters. And some questions may be more appropriate for a forum or discussion group, where you can be free to ask further questions or even disagree with me.
I’m also not going to promise to answer every question because I don’t know the answer to every question. Some years ago, I realized that, even though I am the pastor, it was OK for me to say, “I don’t know.” I’m smart, but I’m not that smart.
Finally, I’m not going to promise to answer every question because some questions don’t have very good answers. But I’ll still talk about that. I’ll talk about the questions that are hard to answer. I’ll talk about how we live with God and with our unanswered questions.
So, think of a question that you have. Whatever it is, feel free to write it down. There’s no need to include your name, unless you want a more personal response from me. It may be something that you have long been wondering about the Bible or about the Christian faith. It may be something that has kept you stuck in your faith, unable to move forward with Jesus on his journey to the cross. It may even be something that you have been afraid to talk to God about.
In asking questions, we have a chance, not only to learn, but to grow in faith. We have a chance to engage with God about things that deeply concern us. We have a chance to follow Jesus, wherever he leads.
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