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"Asking the Right Questions"
Luke 20:27-40
A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley
November 11, 2001
University Baptist Church
Minneapolis, MN
Have you ever experienced a nonsequitor? It’s when someone starts off a sentence and then ends it with something that doesn’t make any sense. Like, "I was brushing my teeth with avocados." Or "Do you walk to school or carry your lunch?" or "If I went three blocks down the street and then turned left and went two miles and then turned at the Mobile station, could I get there before I left?" I know, these are trite and absurd and not a good way to start a sermon. But what I want to briefly look at today is what happens when we don’t ask the right questions. What happens is they could sound just as absurd as the nonsequitors I just mentioned.
Today’s scripture points out the absurdity of focusing on questions that don’t mean anything. The Sadducees, who were really asking about the resurrection since they didn’t believe in it, asked Jesus a convoluted question. They used the strange property rights laws of leverite marriage to try to trap Jesus.
"Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless." Got your minds around this one? Now here comes the question: "In the resurrection of the dead, whose wife will she be since the seven were married to her?" In other words, which one would own her in the afterlife? To which Jesus responded, "Huh???"
His response was all but, "Who cares? Life isn’t a formula. Faithful living is not following a set of doctrines. Faithful living is constantly asking questions and constantly seeking answers that actually mean something." We find those answers through scripture, through tradition, through reason (we don’t have to check our brains at the door) and through holy experience which each of us has.
Sometimes our lives feel like a nonsequitor. When it feels like that, we need someplace where we will be loved as we are and challenged to be better. We need someplace where we can ask the right questions. We need someplace where we can be vulnerable enough to say, I need some answers.
We have just celebrated 80 years on this spot and for all of those years (and the 71 before it), we have distinguished ourselves as a church that has seldom been satisfied with easy answers. We have never been a church that coddled to the masses. Folk come to UBC and not only get their questions answered, but they get their answers questioned. We need to continue not only to question answers, but also to answer or at least address the questions that make a difference in people’s lives. Our time is too precious to spend it on something not worthwhile, or that doesn’t seem to meet our needs.
Every generation or so, you have a group of people who gather together and say that the institutions that once fed them are no longer relevant. That they are answering questions no one is asking or they are speaking in a language no one understands. As people of the 21st century church, we need to consistently find new ways to make things relevant for people.
So the question then comes, what are our needs?
What are the questions that need to be answered?
Here are some that have come to my mind. Some of these have been shared by many of you in these past few weeks.
Where is God in the midst of terrorism?
What is the Christian response to warfare?
Is simply loving each other enough?
Shouldn’t we defend ourselves?
If so, how?
How is the Christian community different?
Who is God to contemporary people of faith?
What do you do when you feel you have lost faith in God—and no spiritual junk food will satisfy your hungry soul?
How do I feed my passions?
How can we deal with depression?
How can we deal with oppression?
How can I make my relationships work better?
How can I find meaning for my life?
How do I piece my life together after a tragedy or a loss?
How we address these questions will distinguish us as a Christian Community.
How we address these questions will determine if we are relevant in today’s world.
How we address these questions will reflect where our faith lies.
All of us, the new and the veterans are here together in this Christian community on this corner because it is worth it.
It is worth it when friends gather together.
It is worth it when we can hear each other’s pain and share in each other’s triumphs.
It is worth it to get ourselves a fix of focus in an all too blurry world.
When we come together in this community, we seek to ask the right questions and thereby find the word of God for our lives and live by that word.
And that is what living a relevant faith is all about. The foundation of our faith is in Jesus who dared to see that people ask the right questions. When old-time faith n longer worked, Jesus integrated new practical ideas. In the Sermon on the mount, Jesus said, "You have heard it said, love your friends and hate your enemies. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you….You have heard it said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you, do not resist the evildoer." What he was saying was retaliate in a creative way that does not bring violence.
Our faith, our foundation, our very life as a church is built upon faith in that holy questioner and the ethics that he portrays.
So as we enter the next 80 years on this corner, let us recommit to asking the right questions of our church and mostly of ourselves as we seek to live in faith. A community of holy questioners is right here waiting to solidify our foundation of faith.