Foundry UMC DC: Sunday Sermons
Religion & Spirituality:Christianity
Live the Questions?
A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC March 8, 2020, second Sunday of Lent. “How Can You Believe This?” series.
Text: John 3:1-17
Now there was a social worker named Martha who came to Jesus and asked, “What kind of God would create a world in which viruses and tornadoes and all other manner of thing are allowed to kill innocent people?
Now there was a lawyer named John who came to Jesus and asked, “Why was I sexually and emotionally abused?”
Now there was a musician named Claire who came to Jesus and asked, “What difference does my life make?”
Now there were janitors and students and judges and teachers and scientists and parents and nurses and people from all walks of life who came to Jesus and asked:
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus who came to Jesus with questions. And Jesus’s responses raise even more...
Questions are part of human life and they are part of faith. Sadly, many have heard or been taught that questions don’t belong in church. Some have been hanging out in church their whole lives without admitting they don’t understand or agree with some of what they’ve been taught—and so miss the opportunity to go deeper. Some don’t think they can bring the real questions of their lives into church for fear of judgment. This can happen in any context—but certainly in those churches where strict adherence to a particular understanding of the Bible or theological concepts is required, where the goal is to “sign on” to a set of statements that are presented as “the Gospel truth,” and the expectation to support those statements with your actions—even if you see harm being done to yourself or to others as a result. It’s no wonder so many outside the faith stay outside asking, “How can you believe this? And without question?? How can you live that way?”
So many avoid Christian community at all costs because they value honesty and authentic conversation and creative and critical thinking and science and what they’ve imbibed in the collective soup is that to be part of the church means blindly going along with what someone says is true about Jesus, about the Bible, about the world, about people, about everything. And so often what is proclaimed as “Gospel truth” is thin soup, less than satisfying, missing so much of the richness, depth, and nourishment of the Christian spiritual tradition.
Questions are a doorway into a very different way of engagement. Poet Rainer Maria Rilke is instructive in his book Letters to a Young Poet. He writes, “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
When we think about some of the questions we struggle with, the concept of “loving” those questions may seem absurd. But what might it mean to love our questions, to live our questions? Well, it certainly doesn’t mean avoiding or denying our questions. It doesn’t mean that we just find the easiest, tidiest answer available and then hold on to that for dear life, even when the answer is unsatisfying. Have you ever had someone give you the “pat” answer to a question of life and death, or suffering or God? Sometimes platitudes might manage to provide comfort—like a well-worn blanket. Sometimes the answer given will make us wonder if our own questions are ok. Other times, eye rolls and deep yogic breathing may ensue… Truth is, it can create anxiety to acknowledge that there are things we may never fully understand—things like suffering and death. It is painful to be in moments of life when we feel that we are wandering in a wilderness not knowing how to get out of that desolate place. It can be difficult to face a big life decision without a sense of clarity for the answer. But to love the questions, to live the questions, means that we give ourselves permission to be honest about where we are and how we feel about where we are, to admit what we don’t know, to ask our questions, to push back on easy answers; and this encourages us to search our own hearts, to lean upon friends, to pray and listen deeply and study the scriptures, to keep learning. It means allowing ourselves to sit in the discomfort of challenge and uncertainty, to “ride the wave” of experience—to “live everything”—trusting that, in time, insight will be revealed…
It has been suggested that the question mark is a profound religious symbol. Because the question mark is the sign of an explorer, a seeker, a wonderer. Just think of our children at that wonder-full age when everything we say is met with “Why?” or “How?” This is the posture of one who is growing and learning and being formed in the questions—by the questions—of life. To sit in the questions provides an opportunity for all sorts of new insights. To love our questions is to recognize that the questions bring opportunities for growth, maturity, deepening faith, a more profound experience of life itself.
We see Nicodemus being offered this opportunity to learn and grow as he encounters Jesus in his own questions. The question at the heart of our Gospel passage today is: how can we believe something that doesn’t make sense? When Nicodemus is faced with the teaching of Jesus about being “born from above (anōthen in the Greek which can mean “from above” or “again”)…” Nicodemus asks the question we all ask at one point or another: “How can these things be?”
Jesus speaks of “earthly things” and “heavenly things” drawing Nicodemus to expand his thinking from solely concrete, physical realities—being born as a flesh and blood child—toward the reality of life infused with Spirit who, like the wind, can’t be seen or controlled, but only experienced. Then Jesus speaks of “believing” and in a way that gets connected to eternal life. “For God so loved the world…” Such beautiful words…and yet these words attributed to Jesus in John 3:16 have been poured out as thin soup and even as poison for a long time. People have taught that you just have to believe a certain thing about Jesus to get your eternal life entry ticket and that people of other faith traditions are condemned (that is especially easy to suggest if you read 3:18). For a few minutes, I want to focus on the word “believes” because this is a word that can be such an obstacle.
In our rational, prescriptive way of thinking, to “believe” something has to do with words—it’s a head trip. We struggle to think of “believing” as something other than working down a checklist of statements and checking the box “yes” or “no.” But Jesus does not say whoever believes in what will be said about me will have eternal life, Jesus says, “everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.” Think about the difference between believing a statement and believing in a person. What does it mean to say to another person, “I believe in you”? This is about a relationship… The Greek word translated “believe” is pisteuo, a word that has several meanings, one which is to “think to be true,” and all the others relational—about trust and commitment. The invitation is to trust in the person of Jesus who proves his trustworthiness throughout his whole life; the invitation is to trust that Jesus’ words and actions contain truth in the largest sense. Theologian Jon Sobrino speaks of believing not in Jesus, but believing in God’s goodness and love through Jesus. That is, Jesus—in the way he “lives everything” and reveals God’s goodness, mercy, and justice—shows us that we can believe that God is alive, that God is working in the world to save the world from itself, that God is love.
Words can’t fully capture what it means to say, “I believe in you.” Every person—including the person of Jesus—is not completely definable or understandable, but always also mystery. This invitation to believe in Jesus is an invitation into the mystery, into the questions…because it’s not all defined or understood. God loved the world so much that Jesus came to the world so that whoever trusts God in the way that Jesus reveals is possible, whoever questions things without undue anxiety (encouraged by Jesus who lived everything), whoever is willing to entrust their heart in relationship as Jesus modeled, whoever is able to hold on in the wilderness place, taking one step at a time because they trust that God will see them through, whoever keeps trying to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly, empowered by the love of God made known to us in Jesus…these will step into a new life, a life held in the largest frame, the eternal frame, a life connected to God’s life which is eternal.
Richard Rohr writes, “Scriptures do not offer rational certitude. They offer us something much better, an entirely different way of knowing: an intimate relationship, a dark journey, a path where we must discover for ourselves that grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness are absolutely necessary for survival in an uncertain world. You only need enough clarity to know how to live without certitude! Yes, we really are saved by faith.”
The invitation is to enter into relationship with Jesus and to take the risk of hope, of love, the leap of faith that the God and the Kin-dom that Jesus speaks of and embodies is not only real, but our true home. And, by the way, I know persons of other faith traditions who learn from Jesus in ways that deepen their spiritual practice even as they don’t confess the fullness of Christian spiritual tradition…Just as we learn and grow through engagement with the teachings of other spiritual traditions. There is no condemnation in God’s love. There is invitation in Jesus’ way. The invitation is to live the questions of our lives, open to the Spirit who in ways unknown brings new life, new learning, growth, and an experience of God that is transforming.
And if you struggle with anything you’ve heard or read here today, then you’re invited to simply sit with that, to live that question with an open mind and heart. Our Gospel shows us that when Nicodemus comes to Jesus with his questions, Jesus doesn’t blow him off or discount him or judge him. Jesus engages him, enters into relationship with him, speaks not of God’s condemnation, but of God’s love.
I hope we will honor Nicodemus who came to Jesus asking the question we all ask at one point or another: “How can these things be?” Evidently, Nicodemus’ encounter with Jesus made a difference in his life because Nicodemus’ journey with Jesus didn’t end on this night with these questions. He continued to live the questions, open to the Spirit’s transforming power. We know this because he was there with Joseph of Arimathea at Jesus’ burial (John 19:39), gently and generously caring for the body of the crucified Jesus, the person through whom Nicodemus believed in a God who doesn’t always make sense.
https://foundryumc.org/
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free