Questions...
August 2009
By Br. Daniel Chapin
ULC Monastery
Vice President
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A Person of faith does not avoid questions; we embrace them. In fact, to truly pursue the living God, the True Creator, the Same one who lives in you as in me, we as men and women of faith must embrace questions.
Questions, contrary to some beliefs, are not in fact scary.
What is scary is when thinking, feeling, pliable humans such as we are - Don't have any questions... What is beyond scary and even tragic is faith that has no room for questions. This is a close minded faith, a faith with no room for growth & increase. A faith with no free will to choose and stretch and expand.
A friend recently sponsored a "Doubt Night at this church a while ago. People were encouraged to write down whatever questions or doubts they had about God and Jesus, the Bible and Faith & Church & Various Religions - Anything.... They had to acquire a large box to hold all of the scraps of paper. The first question was from a woman who had been raped and didn't press charges because she was told that doing so wasn't the "Christian thing to do.." The man then went on to rape several other girls and this woman wanted to know if God would still forgive her even if she hadn't forgiven the man who raped her...
Did I make note that this was the First Question? Here are several more that filled the box & were asked during that evening:
"Why does God let people die.... So Young?"
"Why does it seem that mean people get the most money?"
"Why does the killer go free and the honest man die of cancer?"
"Sometimes I doubt God's presence in starving Africa."
"If we can ask God for forgiveness at our last breath, why strive for a Godly life in the present?"
Either God is in control of everything and so all the crap we see today is part of his plan (which I don't want to accept), or it's all out of control (which sucks too). What's up?"
The above is a random sampling. Personally I get dozens, sometimes hundreds of emails a week with questions. Heaven and heck and suicide and the devil and God and love and rape and religion - some very personal and heart wrenching and some very philosophical...
Most responses my friend and myself gave to the questions that particular evening were about how we need others to carry our burdens and how our real needs in life are not for more information but for loving community with other people around us in this "So Called Life..." But what was truly powerful for those who spoke with us was that they were free to voice what ran deepest in their hearts and in their minds.
Questions, Doubts, Struggles, Fears...
Questions - Questions - Questions...
It wasn't the information we provided to their questions that really helped them - Rather, tt was simply being in an environment in which they were free to voice what was inside.
This is why questions are so central to faith. This is why we at the ULC Monastery encourage you and you and you of all faiths, cultures, backgrounds, ideologies, etc., etc., etc., to come with your questions, your ideas, your beliefs. We want to nourish them, support them, uphold them even if we don't see eye to eye with you; Your questions, you own them, Your facts, you own them... And we encourage you to support others in this same light...
A question by its very nature, no matter how shocking or blasphemous or arrogant or ignorant or raw, find their roots in humility. This is a humility that acknowledges that there is a God. And there is more to know... Questions bring freedom. Freedom that I don't have to be God and I don't have to pretend that I have it all figured out.
In the Book of Genesis, God tells Abraham what he is going to do with Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham shoots back, "Will not the Ruler of the Earth do right?" Abraham seems to believe God to be in the wrong and that the proposed action is not in line with whom God is, and Abraham questions him about it. And, as the dialogue continues God does not only not get angry with Abraham, but he engages Abraham even more...
Maybe this is what God is looking for - People who don't just sit there and mindlessly accept whatever comes their way. What is the first thing Mary says to the angel who brings her the news that she is going to be the mother of the "Messiah?"
"But how can this be? I'm a virgin?"
Questions - Questions - Questions...
What are some of Jesus' final words as he hung upon the cross?
"My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?"
Jesus on the cross. Questioning God... Central to our faith is questioning. Not raw, belligerent arrogant questioning with no respect, but naked raw questions, which arise out of the desire to know and connect with the God of our understanding. This type of questioning frees us indeed. It freews us from having it all figured out. It frees us from always thinking we need to be right. It allows us moments when we can come to an end of ourselves and our ability to understand. It allows us the opportunity to learn about ourselves and our Makes, to learn about each other... Isn't that why we are here?
It allows us Moments when the very silence is plenty enough.
Hmmmm.
Ok, I'll open it up now for questions????
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