Sermons

“Questions and Answers”

Acts 17:22-31; John 14:1-14 – Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn

Vista La Mesa Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), La Mesa, California – May 14, 2017

Holy God, bless the speaking and the hearing of these words that our faith might be renewed by the wonder and assurance of your love. In the name of the Risen Christ we pray, Amen.

Do you know this child? Tracy Flick, the character played by Reese Witherspoon in the movie “Election” is sort of one of my alter-egos. You don’t really need to have seen the movie to know what I’m talking about. You can tell from this picture. She’s the girl with her hand insistently raised, chomping at the bit to demonstrate that she absolutely knows the answer to that question, even if the teacher isn’t done asking it yet. Do you see how those other kids are looking at her? Most of you, even if you’ve been out of school for many, many years, probably remember who this person was in your class. If you don’t, stop to think if it might have been you. Don’t be afraid to admit it, even if the person next to you is elbowing you mockingly. Tracy is what might have been called a know-it-all in an earlier, less enlightened age, what we are now encouraged to refer to as having “leadership skills”. Be proud.

And since we’ve wandered so close to the realm of internet memes – Yes, it was a Facebook trend that made me realize Tracy Flick is one of my familiars – let’s go ahead and devise a new personality test. This one is called “Which one of Jesus’ disciples are you?” Actually, I’m pretty sure that one already exists, though I can’t vouch for how reliable it is. But let’s just imagine for a moment, Tracy Flick categorized as one of the disciples. This is an easy one, right? She has to be Peter. The first one to speak up whenever Jesus asked them a question; the one most likely to make emphatic declarations of loyalty. Leadership skills!

But why bring up Peter? He’s not even mentioned in our scripture passages today. And yet, he came to mind, as I was considering the theme that did emerge for me from these two readings. The theme is “questions and answers”, and Peter represents a different reaction to them than Thomas or Philip, who we did hear about in the lesson from John. It’s such an interesting reading. I often use John 14 when I’m choosing scripture passages for memorial services. There are very comforting assurances from Jesus in this chapter. But I always have to use excerpts, because if you just read it all the way straight through, you’ve got all these distracting interruptions from the disciples!

Jesus is trying to tell them about where he’s going and how he’s going to prepare a place for them there, and how they don’t need to fear, and how God loves them very much and they can be at peace. But Thomas bursts out with, “Now where are you going again? And how do we get there?” And Philip chimes in, “Can you go over the part about the Father again? How come you haven’t shown him to us?” And you can hear a note of slight exasperation in Jesus’ reply, as he reminds them of what he just got done saying. If you’ve seen him, you’ve seen the Father. Calm down. Pay attention. Listen more carefully.

Questions and answers are such a huge part of our lives. When we did the “Talking Faith” series back in Lent, the very first session was about the balance between certainty and mystery. What do you need to know? And what are you okay leaving ambiguous? This balance is different for each of us, of course. But in that first session of the class, we did create a long, comforting list of things we feel assured of, primarily focused on God’s love and mercy and goodness. It’s interesting, though, to see the disciples struggling with some of these same issues.

The question we need to ask about them is one we frequently need to ask about ourselves. Do they not understand because it really hasn’t been explained thoroughly? Or do they not understand because they don’t want to understand? Do they claim not to know where Jesus is going because they missed a few of his speeches about it? Or do they say they don’t know how to get there because the path of sacrificial love is not the one they were hoping to follow? What happens when we don’t like the answers that are given to the questions we’re asking?

In other situations, our questions may not get any answers at all. Just a bit ago, we all promised to raise up a child so that she might come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. I think we all know that such a proposition involves a lot of questions, big and small. Some of those questions we’ll have answers to, and some of those questions Evelyn will have to answer for herself. Some of them will never get answered on this side of Jordan. Sometimes her answers will make more sense to us than the ones we thought we’d already figured out. Questions and answers go both ways. I don’t know if Evelyn has entered her “Why?” phase yet, but don’t most children have one? If you think about it, it’s not hard to see why the question “Why?” is so attractive to a child. To have suddenly discovered that there are reasons why things are the way they are is a major step in coming to understand the world. Something like that cannot be left uninvestigated. And yet, sadly, it is not that long before we reach the limits of “because”, and there are no more answers to our “Why?” questions. How old were you when you stopped asking why and expecting a satisfying explanation?

And then there is the situation we see in our reading from Acts. Have you ever been given an answer to a question you hadn’t asked? It’s interesting to imagine how the Athenians related to that statue “to an unknown god” before Paul filled in all the blanks. Was there something about the vagueness of it that many of them appreciated? With the certainty and specificity of the lives and foibles of all the other Greek gods, it seems likely to me that the “unknown god” might have been some people’s favorite. The less we know about God, the easier it is to shape God into whatever sort of deity is pleasant or convenient today. Two thousand years later, this is still an easy trap to fall into. Yet, somehow, Paul announces what he knows as good news, so perhaps we should consider how his answers to questions we might not have been asking are good news. And when we listen carefully, we’ll hear it: God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, including each one of us, who were formed in God’s image. God is not far away, impossible to find, but as close as our own breath. God deeply desires for us to seek God’s love and mercy, and Jesus came to show us that, by offering himself up in love and then defying the power of death through the power of that same love. Even if we hadn’t gotten around to asking the question, this does sound like good news!

As a denomination, the Disciples of Christ have always rejoiced in the idea that we worship a God who is plenty big to withstand our questions. We celebrate the questions our children ask, and the ones that our grown-ups grapple with, because they represent engagement with the God of wisdom and creativity, in whose image we were formed. But that doesn’t mean we are completely without answers. To pretend we are entirely without moorings, free to make our religion up as we go, is unhelpful at best and idolatrous at the worst. We have chosen the Way that is Jesus, and there are certain things we know about that path. It is a path that requires deep love, unending mercy, and generous compassion. It is a path that is not free of danger, nor without cost. It is a path that we never walk alone, for Jesus walks beside us. And it is a path that is best traveled together, as a community where our questions and our attempts at answers can deepen and sharpen one another’s faith.

Whether you were the one enthusiastically waving your hand in the air, or the kid in the back of the room trying to become invisible, questions and answers will always be part of our lives. Questions and answers will always be part of our faith. We will do well not to pretend we haven’t gotten an answer just because we didn’t like the one we were given. It’s important to open ourselves to the messages God is sending us, even if they are answers to questions we weren’t ready to ask yet. But most of all, we must keep searching and groping, as Paul describes it, for the wisdom and presence of God, discussing our questions and our answers, sharing them with our children and inviting them into the conversation, for this exchange of wisdom is one of the ways we experience the presence of the Risen Christ. Alleluia and Amen.