Ask why...

Anyone who has been around young children is familiar with the phenomenon of the “why” question.  It goes something like this:

Adult: You need to brush your teeth.

Child: Why?

Adult:  Because you need to clean them so they don’t rot.

Child: Why?

Adult: Because if they rot you won’t be able to eat anything.

Child: Why?

Adult: Because if you don’t have any teeth you can’t chew anything so you can’t eat anything.

Child: Why?

Adult: Because if you don’t chew your food you will choke.

Child: Why?

Adult: Because…

And on and on it goes.  When you’re the adult in this situation – it can be infuriating at times.  We ask our own why question – why won’t you just listen to me?  Why don’t you just trust what I’m saying? According to researcher Brandy Frazier of the University of Michigan, "Even from really early on when [kids] start asking these how and why questions, they are asking them in order to get explanations."1 Kids want to understand.

In this morning’s scripture those who are watching Jesus closely seem to fail to consider the question – why?  Before he heals, Jesus even addresses this directly - “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?”  Like so many other stories about Jesus in the Bible, the Pharisees don’t get it.  As soon as Jesus heals the man, the Pharisees set out to destroy Jesus.  They don’t process the question – why?  Why sabbath?  Why heal?  Why laws?

Throughout his ministry Jesus pushes people to deepen their understanding.  To consider the why.  In his book, Jesus is the Question, Martin Copenhaver notes that Jesus asks 307 questions in the New Testament but only directly answers 3 of them. Lutheran Bishop, James Hazelwood, has this to say about the frequency of Jesus questions:

Is it possible that we find God when we are asking questions? In my mind, the answer is a resounding, yes.  We see God in all the questions we ask, whether or not they are religious.  The simple act of asking questions indicates that we are meaning-seeking creatures.

And yet – so often in the context of our institutional churches it can feel almost sacrilegious to ask questions.  Questions can be seen as the enemy of tradition.  We often accept that tradition as being sacred in and of itself.  To question it, to consider altering it is to not only question all of our ancestors in faith but God herself.  Who are we to do such a thing?  Perhaps that is true, but who are we not to do such a thing?  Yes, it is important that we root ourselves in God’s story – but we need to remember that, Jesus, the center of our understanding of God’s story, asked questions.  Jesus modeled critical thinking.  Jesus modeled mining for deeper understanding.  Jesus modeled that our understanding of God must be dynamic and explored based on the world that we live in.  Context is important.  And context did not stop being important when Jesus died on the cross.  It stopped being important when hierarchical structures worried about what would happen if people questioned things.  What would happen if the hierarchy was unable to exert control?

This week I attended a training called Leading Well.  One of the sessions I found most helpful was entitled, “Adapting to Disruptive Change by Rethinking Church Norms.”  Disruptive change, is of course, all of those things happening in our culture that have fundamentally shifted how the church exists and operates as an institution.  But, I would dare say, that rethinking church norms is critical whether we were experiencing disruptive change or not.  In fact, I would dare say that rethinking church norms is exactly what Jesus modeled throughout his ministry with all of his questions.  And as the people who carry Jesus story – isn’t it our responsibility to constantly be asking questions of church norms.

This might leave you asking the question, what are church norms anyway?  Church norms can be everything from what we do in worship, to how we run meetings, to where we spend our money.  Most of the things we do as an institution have a “way that we do them.”  Some ways work very well for us.  Some ways work well for some of the people but not all of the people.  And some ways don’t work well for most of the people, but we’ve always done it that way.

This morning after worship we’ll have a brief meeting to give you updates on the business of the church.  We are a church in transition.  9 months ago, Kent Allen retired as our senior pastor and I moved from the associate role into the senior role.  Since then we have hired 4 new staff people and we have not yet found a settled Associate.  One gift and challenge of times of transition is that they provide a natural reason to ask the question, why?  New perspectives and new realities make space for new possibilities.  New possibilities as Jim Hazelwood would say for the holy work of engagement.

Because of the long process we went through to discern my call as Senior Pastor here at First Parish and the lead time on Kent’s retirement, it is easy to get frustrated with the fact that we are still in a time of transition.  And yet, I encourage you to embrace the questions.  Embrace the opportunity to understand and reimagine.  This is holy work we are doing – holy work that follows in the ways of Jesus.  May God bless us on this journey.  Amen.