answers

A Quest for Questions

/ JJS / 1 Comment

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Today’s readings:
Psalms 36; 147:12-20, Isaiah 45:5-17, Ephesians 5:15-33, Mark 4:21-34

Human beings like answers. It was true thousands of years ago in the time of the prophet Isaiah, it’s true today, and (if we are still around) it will be true thousands of years from now. Uncertainty vexes us. Sometimes we are more content to grasp at false answers than to have no answers at all. Yet sometimes the answer is simply … there is no answer.

When the exiled nation of Israel cried out because it seemed God had abandoned them, Isaiah challenged their right to take God to task. He compared them to lumps of clay questioning the choices of the potter. The God of Israel declared he “made weal and created woe” as he saw fit, and human beings should not strive to comprehend why.

Like the ancient Israelites, we often want to know why God has allowed bad things to happen to us (and isn’t it funny how we are less likely to wonder why we are deserving of the good things?). Some people’s faith evaporates when it does not protect them from the bad things and the world stops making sense to them. “How can a loving God let evil things happen?” they wonder. That question can feel threatening to people of faith. An entire industry of apologetics, creationist “proofs,” and theological musings has evolved to address that question. In the end, most of them are overly pat and largely unsatisfying. But “we’ll never know” doesn’t exactly sell books and videos.

Questioning is healthy, but some questions will remain unanswerable. Isaiah, Job, Proverbs: these scriptures and others advise us energy spent on unanswerable questions could be put to better use. If we can accept the paradox that God is good and bad things still happen, we can move on to address questions of a faith lived in the world as it really is: Whom shall we serve? How shall we love? Where is God leading us?

Folk wisdom tells us the journey matters more than the destination. If an answer is a destination, perhaps finding the right questions to ask matters more than getting there.

Comfort: Asking the right questions makes all the difference.

Challenge: We must learn to live with the reality that we’ll never have all the answers.

Prayer: God of mystery, may your love be answer enough. Amen.

Discussion: Do any unanswered questions really bug you?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group. You’ll  have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!

Putting the Math in Matthew

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 96; 147:1-11, Ezra 6:1-22, Revelation 5:1-10, Matthew 13:10-17

In mathematics, a parabola is a type of symmetrical curve which can be described by an equation. The parabola has many real world applications, such as headlights, satellite dishes, artillery, and telescopes. Because of its symmetry and focal point, a parabola can both focus and amplify signals and energy.

In Matthew, Jesus tells many parables to communicate important lessons to his disciples. He commonly responds questions not with clear answers, but with stories. Unlike the straight line between a question and an answer, a parable throws us a spiritual curveball which offers more than a pat answer.

Not surprisingly, parable and parabola share a common source in the Greek word parabolḗ, meaning application or comparison.

When the disciples ask Jesus why he speaks in parables, he quotes Isaiah: “You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive” and so on. By including this reference, Matthew makes a case for Jesus fulfilling the prophecies foretelling the messiah. But speaking in parables simply to fulfill a prophecy seems pointlessly circular, and Jesus does not do things without a reason. The parables themselves provide unique value to his ministry.

A parable like the Good Samaritan – which was told in answer to the question “Who is my neighbor?” – didn’t lay out hard and fast rules. The last thing the people needed was more legalism; they already struggled to live in the spirit of the law of Moses while abusing its technicalities. Parables forced them to spend some time in thought about how to live and why. When we’ve found our own path to an answer, we own it rather than treat it indifferently or resentfully.

We can be quick to identify with a particular character in a parable – usually the one who comes off best – but we gain a much greater understanding if we consider how we might be present in each of the characters. At different points in our lives we can be the prodigal son, the welcoming father, or the jealous brother. We can be the vineyard owner distributing wages, the resentful morning laborer, or the appreciative latecomer. Jesus doesn’t usually tell you which one you are – or even which one you’re supposed to be – so we are given the opportunity to explore multiple perspectives.

A parable, like a parabola, both focuses and amplifies a message. And like the infinite lines extending from each end of the parable, there is no end to how often we can revisit a parable for new insight.

Comfort: Complexity can be a good thing.

Challenge: Don’t be too quick to apply a one-size-fits-all worldview.

Prayer: Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Bless the Lord. Amen.

Discussion: When it comes to spiritual questions, do you prefer a straight-up answer or an invitation to explore?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group. You’ll be notified of new posts through FB, and have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!

Addicted to Answers

/ JJS / 1 Comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 12; 146, Job 12:1, 13:3-17, 21-27, Acts 12:1-17, John 8:33-47

Are you addicted to answers?

Plenty of answer-pushers are itching to sell them to you: evangelists promoting books and videos, self-help gurus offering weekend seminars, politicians telling you who to blame, and television doctors who just happen to own stock in the current miracle herb. Answers are tempting. They help us cope with life by providing a quick, if false, sense of security. Answers are different than truth, which is acquired through work, discernment, study, and a willingness to tackle the messy and often unanswerable questions of life.

Job’s friends were answer addicts. They clung to the answers which gave them comfort despite evidence before their very eyes (the ruination of a just man) even though in the long run these answers were doing them real theological and spiritual damage. Job’s mind, however, was clear. He would wrestle with the unpleasant truth, even if it meant taking on God:

I will take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand. See, he will kill me; I have no hope; but I will defend my ways to his face.

Such powerful words. Job tells his friends that in the end their flattery of God will not save but destroy them. He, on the other hand, will confront God with the truth even though it is harsh.

We want things to make sense. After all, we are genetically wired to detect patterns and impose order on the world. We want to blame vaccines for autism, foreigners for economic woes, and cartoons for real world violence. We want to understand the reasons behind people’s actions. But the truth is, the world is complex, confusing, and in many ways incomprehensible.

And that’s okay.

Our own relationship with God should be as personal and trusting as was Job’s. We don’t need answer-pushers mediating that relationship for us. Great spiritual teachers do not hand out answers, they teach us to how to seek truth. Sometimes that truth is: only God has the answers. Better to say: “I don’t know but I will trust God” than be made a liar by false comforts.

Comfort: It can be truly freeing to admit: “I don’t know.”

Challenge: This week meditate on some ideas that you take for granted.

Prayer: God of truth, I will trust you at all times and under all circumstances. Amen.

Discussion: Has anyone ever tried to sell you false answers?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group. You’ll be notified of new posts through FB, and have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!