questions. lots and lots of questions.
John 6:24-35
Way back in the fall of 2004, while still what some would call a young lawyer, most of my time was being taken up with preparation for my first jury trial. And even though I was not the primary attorney and would not be called upon to bare the weight of the trial on my own shoulders, I was still consumed with, and nervous about the job at hand. As the trial date got closer and closer my internal level of anxiety was ratcheting itself up… At least I was hoping it was only internal. There was no way I wanted to let the other lawyers in my firm, especially the Senior Partner and my co-counsel on this particular case know how nervous and how anxious I was. As much as I hoped all those nerves and all that anxiety was staying beneath my skin, if I had known myself then the way I know now, I would have known that try as I may, I am simply unable to hide my feelings in such a way that my inner feelings aren’t displayed in my outward appearance. While I’ve come to accept this about myself, you can believe me when I say, it is both a blessing and a curse.
Then came the weekend right before the trial was scheduled to start and when I woke up that Saturday I both dreaded and was excited about all the trial preparation work I was going to have to do that day. Unlike most of my Saturdays before then and since I became a Pastor, that Saturday was a day of work. So, there I was, a thirty-something, full of nerves, anxious beyond belief, reviewing documents and doing my best to put together a skeletal outline of question and answer testimony for the witnesses I was in charge of questioning. Bob and I took a short thirty-minute break for lunch, then immediately returned to the work at hand. But then something strange happened, something I’ll never forget. I guess Bob could read my body language so as I was just settling back into work after that lunch break he looked at me and told me to pack everything back up and be done for the day. I quickly and purposefully said no way, and then he said, I don’t want you to go home. There is something else I want you to do to prepare for this trial. He then said that he wanted me to finish preparing for this trial by going to this local movie theater on Battleground Avenue in Greensboro and watch an independent film that had just been released called What the Bleep Do We Know. And you want to know something, that is exactly what I did, and maybe you have to know a little something about Bob to understand that when he gave you instruction like that, the best response was acceptance, so as odd as it sounds, I finished my preparation for my first jury trial by watching What The Bleep Do We Know.
*************************************
[1]Now, this movie is part documentary, part story, and part elaborate visual effects and animations. The main character, Amanda, played by Marlee Matlin, finds herself in a fantastic Alice in Wonderland experience when her daily, uninspired life literally begins to unravel, revealing the uncertainty of the world we live in.
She is literally plunged into a swirl of chaotic occurrences, while the characters she encounters on this odyssey reveal the deeper, hidden knowledge she doesn’t even realize she has asked for. Like every hero, Amanda is thrown into crisis, questioning the fundamental premises of her life – that the reality she has believed in … isn’t reality at all!
As Amanda learns to relax into the experience, she conquers her fears, gains wisdom, and wins the keys to the great secrets of the ages... She is no longer the victim of circumstances. She is on the way to being a creative force in her life and her life will never be the same.
*************************************
Now, I love this film. I also know that I’m not afraid of questions, and I think that plays a big reason in my liking this movie. I’ll never forget the way a mother, during the middle of the movie, stood up, grabbed the arm of her daughter and dragged her out of the theater because she was so disgusted with the questions being raised in the movie. I remember feeling sorry for both of them as I watched the mother stomp out of the theater mumbling words of disapproval all the way to the exit door and most likely beyond.
Questions shouldn’t bother us in such a way, should they? Especially when they are genuine and asked in good faith. Right? Questions certainly didn’t seem to bother Jesus, at least not in today’s text because the crowd was full of them.
I thought a lot about this movie as I sat with this text last week. I thought a lot about the crowd, and I wondered if they found themselves sitting around after the whole loaves and fish’s episode asking themselves WHAT IN THE WORLD DO WE REALLY KNOW? It’s a legitimate question, I believe. Yet I think for us to really understand its legitimacy we have to stop looking at this story from today’s perspective and do our best to become a member of the crowd. You see, we today have the benefit of reading these stories and knowing the ending, but the crowd didn’t have that benefit. They were living the story in real time, and when you are living the story in real time you don’t have all the answers. Sometimes, in fact, all you have are questions. I don’t know about you, but when I try my hardest to become one of the crowd, in their time, I’m full of questions too. And luckily for them and luckily for us, Jesus appears to be ok with all of the questions. In fact, if you ever wondered if questions truly impact a story, ask yourself what would happen if all of the crowd’s questions were removed from this story. Would there be any dialogue at all? Would Jesus’ ultimate point even be heard?
In this story Jesus uses the crowd’s questions as the basis for entering into dialogue with them. And while some theologians and scholars have called the crowd’s questions misdirected, when I become one of the crowd, I don’t reach that conclusion. When I become a part of the crowd, I get the overwhelming feeling that we are seeking to know more. We are hoping to better understand what we have witnessed, and its impact on our lives. Seekers ask questions. Seekers desire more knowledge and better understanding of experiences. Never should the seekers be belittled or shamed for their authentic seeking. Jesus doesn’t seem to do that here. Instead he uses their question as the entry point for teaching a much larger lesson about life itself. He uses their questions as the entry point to teach the crowd about God and God’s desires. He uses their questions as the entry point to teach them about I am.
In this way, it’s the crowd’s questions that begin today’s journey for us. A journey that begins on the other side of the sea and ends with the revelation about The Bread of Life. The importance about whether or not the crowd fully understood everything Jesus had done beforehand, seems to lessen with the realization that ultimately, they want to know how they can always have The Bread of Life. Isn’t that a worthy pursuit? Don’t we today actually want the same thing? Doesn’t that desire make us a member of the crowd? And when seen this way, aren’t genuine questions amazing?
As one theologian writes, “Too often, we forget how to pursue what really matters. We are accustomed to inviting people into the community of faith for all the wrong reasons: for the ‘right’ kind of worship; for political engagement on behalf of the poor and downtrodden; for the sake of a Christian America; for a strong youth and family ministry; for the opportunity to practice mission in a downtown location, or to go on mission trips to Africa or Central America. Yet what we have to offer—in Christ and by Christ and because of Christ—first and foremost is ‘soul food,’ which lasts forever and does not change with the changing circumstances of the church or the world. It is soul food that we desire, and soul food in which we will rejoice, long after our bellies are full … and our lives know justice...” [2]
It could be good for us to ask ourselves from time to time what we know. Not as a challenge to our faith, but as a way of bolstering it. To never question is to become stuck, and when we are stuck then we should worry. Being a seeker should not scare us as much as it should liberate us. Seekers have questions, lots and lots of questions. And seekers ask those questions, and when they do, everyone benefits. How else would we know about The Bread of Life?
Amen!
[1] http://whatthebleep.com/bleep/synopsis/
[2] Sparks, Benjamin O., Feasting on The Word, Pastoral Perspective, John 6:24-35
Way back in the fall of 2004, while still what some would call a young lawyer, most of my time was being taken up with preparation for my first jury trial. And even though I was not the primary attorney and would not be called upon to bare the weight of the trial on my own shoulders, I was still consumed with, and nervous about the job at hand. As the trial date got closer and closer my internal level of anxiety was ratcheting itself up… At least I was hoping it was only internal. There was no way I wanted to let the other lawyers in my firm, especially the Senior Partner and my co-counsel on this particular case know how nervous and how anxious I was. As much as I hoped all those nerves and all that anxiety was staying beneath my skin, if I had known myself then the way I know now, I would have known that try as I may, I am simply unable to hide my feelings in such a way that my inner feelings aren’t displayed in my outward appearance. While I’ve come to accept this about myself, you can believe me when I say, it is both a blessing and a curse.
Then came the weekend right before the trial was scheduled to start and when I woke up that Saturday I both dreaded and was excited about all the trial preparation work I was going to have to do that day. Unlike most of my Saturdays before then and since I became a Pastor, that Saturday was a day of work. So, there I was, a thirty-something, full of nerves, anxious beyond belief, reviewing documents and doing my best to put together a skeletal outline of question and answer testimony for the witnesses I was in charge of questioning. Bob and I took a short thirty-minute break for lunch, then immediately returned to the work at hand. But then something strange happened, something I’ll never forget. I guess Bob could read my body language so as I was just settling back into work after that lunch break he looked at me and told me to pack everything back up and be done for the day. I quickly and purposefully said no way, and then he said, I don’t want you to go home. There is something else I want you to do to prepare for this trial. He then said that he wanted me to finish preparing for this trial by going to this local movie theater on Battleground Avenue in Greensboro and watch an independent film that had just been released called What the Bleep Do We Know. And you want to know something, that is exactly what I did, and maybe you have to know a little something about Bob to understand that when he gave you instruction like that, the best response was acceptance, so as odd as it sounds, I finished my preparation for my first jury trial by watching What The Bleep Do We Know.
*************************************
[1]Now, this movie is part documentary, part story, and part elaborate visual effects and animations. The main character, Amanda, played by Marlee Matlin, finds herself in a fantastic Alice in Wonderland experience when her daily, uninspired life literally begins to unravel, revealing the uncertainty of the world we live in.
She is literally plunged into a swirl of chaotic occurrences, while the characters she encounters on this odyssey reveal the deeper, hidden knowledge she doesn’t even realize she has asked for. Like every hero, Amanda is thrown into crisis, questioning the fundamental premises of her life – that the reality she has believed in … isn’t reality at all!
As Amanda learns to relax into the experience, she conquers her fears, gains wisdom, and wins the keys to the great secrets of the ages... She is no longer the victim of circumstances. She is on the way to being a creative force in her life and her life will never be the same.
*************************************
Now, I love this film. I also know that I’m not afraid of questions, and I think that plays a big reason in my liking this movie. I’ll never forget the way a mother, during the middle of the movie, stood up, grabbed the arm of her daughter and dragged her out of the theater because she was so disgusted with the questions being raised in the movie. I remember feeling sorry for both of them as I watched the mother stomp out of the theater mumbling words of disapproval all the way to the exit door and most likely beyond.
Questions shouldn’t bother us in such a way, should they? Especially when they are genuine and asked in good faith. Right? Questions certainly didn’t seem to bother Jesus, at least not in today’s text because the crowd was full of them.
I thought a lot about this movie as I sat with this text last week. I thought a lot about the crowd, and I wondered if they found themselves sitting around after the whole loaves and fish’s episode asking themselves WHAT IN THE WORLD DO WE REALLY KNOW? It’s a legitimate question, I believe. Yet I think for us to really understand its legitimacy we have to stop looking at this story from today’s perspective and do our best to become a member of the crowd. You see, we today have the benefit of reading these stories and knowing the ending, but the crowd didn’t have that benefit. They were living the story in real time, and when you are living the story in real time you don’t have all the answers. Sometimes, in fact, all you have are questions. I don’t know about you, but when I try my hardest to become one of the crowd, in their time, I’m full of questions too. And luckily for them and luckily for us, Jesus appears to be ok with all of the questions. In fact, if you ever wondered if questions truly impact a story, ask yourself what would happen if all of the crowd’s questions were removed from this story. Would there be any dialogue at all? Would Jesus’ ultimate point even be heard?
In this story Jesus uses the crowd’s questions as the basis for entering into dialogue with them. And while some theologians and scholars have called the crowd’s questions misdirected, when I become one of the crowd, I don’t reach that conclusion. When I become a part of the crowd, I get the overwhelming feeling that we are seeking to know more. We are hoping to better understand what we have witnessed, and its impact on our lives. Seekers ask questions. Seekers desire more knowledge and better understanding of experiences. Never should the seekers be belittled or shamed for their authentic seeking. Jesus doesn’t seem to do that here. Instead he uses their question as the entry point for teaching a much larger lesson about life itself. He uses their questions as the entry point to teach the crowd about God and God’s desires. He uses their questions as the entry point to teach them about I am.
In this way, it’s the crowd’s questions that begin today’s journey for us. A journey that begins on the other side of the sea and ends with the revelation about The Bread of Life. The importance about whether or not the crowd fully understood everything Jesus had done beforehand, seems to lessen with the realization that ultimately, they want to know how they can always have The Bread of Life. Isn’t that a worthy pursuit? Don’t we today actually want the same thing? Doesn’t that desire make us a member of the crowd? And when seen this way, aren’t genuine questions amazing?
As one theologian writes, “Too often, we forget how to pursue what really matters. We are accustomed to inviting people into the community of faith for all the wrong reasons: for the ‘right’ kind of worship; for political engagement on behalf of the poor and downtrodden; for the sake of a Christian America; for a strong youth and family ministry; for the opportunity to practice mission in a downtown location, or to go on mission trips to Africa or Central America. Yet what we have to offer—in Christ and by Christ and because of Christ—first and foremost is ‘soul food,’ which lasts forever and does not change with the changing circumstances of the church or the world. It is soul food that we desire, and soul food in which we will rejoice, long after our bellies are full … and our lives know justice...” [2]
It could be good for us to ask ourselves from time to time what we know. Not as a challenge to our faith, but as a way of bolstering it. To never question is to become stuck, and when we are stuck then we should worry. Being a seeker should not scare us as much as it should liberate us. Seekers have questions, lots and lots of questions. And seekers ask those questions, and when they do, everyone benefits. How else would we know about The Bread of Life?
Amen!
[1] http://whatthebleep.com/bleep/synopsis/
[2] Sparks, Benjamin O., Feasting on The Word, Pastoral Perspective, John 6:24-35
