Asking the Questions

Yesterday's gospel text (John 3:1-17) contains the most famous verse in the bible (John 3:16) yet the context of that verse is not well know.  Nicodemus came to Jesus to ask him questions and find out who this Jesus person was.  And Jesus tells Nicodemus about how one is able to enter the kingdom of heaven and why God sent his son.  It is one of these text that could have 20 different topics for the sermon.  I went with the fact that Nicodemus was able asked Jesus questions about his faith and Jesus answered him.  I don't know why I exactly went with this topic, but I think it is one that was appropriate for Bethlehem, being able to ask the questions that we want to ask.  


Enjoy!

Joan Osborne had a hit in the late nineties that you still hear on the radio on occasion “One of Us.”  It begins “If God had a name what would it be, and would you call it to his face?  If you were faced with him in all his glory, what would you ask if you had just one question?”   The song goes on to talk about what would you do if God was one of us, just an ordinary person, someone that you probably wouldn’t look at twice while walking down the street.

But the end of that opening verse has always made me wonder: what would I ask if I could pose just one question to God?  What would you ask?

We all have questions for God.  Some are majestic in nature, questions about the whole of creation.  Or maybe the question is eschatological, “How will all this end?”  Maybe it is personal, “Why did something happen to me?” or “What is God’s plan for our life?”  We all have questions for God?  We all at times have wished that Jesus was here in person so we could get some explanation for the things that don’t make sense to us.  And I think it would be very hard for us to ask God just one question. 

Nicodemus was given this opportunity and boy did he have questions.  But he doesn’t start with a question, he starts with a question shrouded as a statement “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”  Nicodemus’ questions starts with a statement of faith.  When really the subtext is: “You are from God right? So then who are you?”

Nicodemus is not yet certain that Jesus is the messiah but he does believe that Jesus is sent from God. And this leads to one of the most famous conversations in the bible including the most famous verse.  And yet it is a conversation that doesn’t translate well into English. 

We have probably all heard at one time or another the phrase “Born Again” and that phrase comes from this gospel passage, but that is not what Jesus says.  Just like in English, Greek has homonyms – words that are spelled and pronounced the same and yet have completely different meanings.  Left – past tense of leave or the opposite of right.  Stalk – a part of a plant or to follow a person.  And in Greek – ana-oth-en – again, anew or from above. 

And so Jesus is telling Nicodemus that he must be born from above, from the spirit.  And Nicodemus is hearing that he must be born again, hence that wonderful image that makes just about every woman squirm about a full grown man entering his mother’s womb and being born a second time.  And yet even with this confusion, even with Nicodemus continuing to ask questions, Jesus takes the time to answer them. And he answers Nicodemus’ original question about what it means to see the kingdom of God with this wonderful statement about eternal life. 

Even though that one non-questions lead to another question, and another and probably even more questions than are mentioned in this gospel, Jesus takes the time to answer them….at least to an extent. 

Nicodemus wanted information and Jesus wanted transformation.  And slowly Nicodemus was transformed. He wanted to know the details about Jesus before he was willing to put his complete faith in him.  And Nicodemus was slowing transforming, in John’s gospel he is one of the men who take care of Jesus’ body after his death.  Nicodemus’ faith was not sudden.

Jesus could have come right out and said to Nicodemus “I am the Messiah, the Son of God.”  But would that have actually answered Nicodemus’s questions?  Would that have given Nicodemus the information that he wanted?  Probably not.  And would those answers allow Nicodemus to transform in the way Jesus was hoping he would transform?  Probably not. 

We need those conversations at times, time to ask our questions, regardless of how numerous they may be.  And in those conversations we are able to explore our faith, to see God’s Kingdom and even realized that we have been born of the Spirit and therefore we are God’s Kingdom. 

Our faith does not grow from just listening to others, even me, absorbing what the other has to say.  Our faith grows when we have the opportunity to question, to ask, to explore what the other is saying and figure out what it means for us.

Our faith doesn’t grow when we just read scripture, creeds or prayers.  Our grows when we take the time to understand what the author was trying to get across, realize how much debate went into every word that is part of the Apostle, Niece and Athenaisian Creeds, and when we add our own petition and voice to the prayer by lifting up the concerns and celebrations that are on our hearts and minds,

Our faith doesn’t grow when we come here for one hour and change every week or so and think this is the only place God exist in our lives.  Our faith grows when we take the things that we have heard about here and apply them in the rest of our lives.  Our faith grows when we start to see God in all the area’s of our lives and know that God’s love and God’s abundance are with us always. 

Our faith grows when we take time to ask the questions; the questions that we have about faith, worship, the Church universal.  We can ask those questions to our friends, family, peers, a bible study group, or our pastor.  They might not know the answer, especially because some questions are unanswerable, but in just the asking our faith grows.