Mark 9:30-37
“Questions Asked and Unasked”
September 19, 2021
Why does it rain?
Why does our neighbor look different?
Where do babies come from?
Why is the sky blue?
Why do people die?
Why do I need to eat vegetables?
How do birds fly?
And then a favorite that was shared with me yesterday from personal experience:
How come no matter where I am the moon is there, too?
If you’ve ever spent time with a 3-year-old you know that they are endlessly curious and will bombard you with questions like these and so many more.
Often as soon as you give an answer the next question out of that little mouth is “Why?” and “Why?” leads to more explanation and before you know it you are trying to explain concepts that are way beyond your skill set because when they are only 3 years old you can’t really encourage them to go look it up.
Around 3 years old is when the left side of children’s brains begin to mature and from then on, they strive to find the logic in how the world works.
Most of us might vaguely remember something from being 3 ourselves but more than likely somebody told us about something we did or said or captured it in a photograph so we probably have little memory of being so curious.
It can be exhausting to be the parent or adult in that child’s life, but it also forces us to answer some of those questions with real answers that we have to actually do a bit of research to be able to respond truthfully but in a way that they will understand.
And curiosity is such a gift to be nurtured and encouraged – that’s how scientific breakthroughs are birthed.
When Jesus embraced a child and held them up as an ideal to strive for, we can only assume that what was seen as most important for those who wanted to claim to be his followers was to allow for curiosity and imagination to be a part of the Kingdom of God on earth that Jesus was proclaiming.
The questions we ask as well as the ones we don’t help define who and what we are.
If we think back to 3-year-olds again with their never-ending questions what we do know is that if they don’t understand something they will keep asking.
While Jesus and the disciples are traveling through Galilee, Jesus is trying to explain to them what the much-awaited messiah is all about.
His explanation seemed so improbable but also hard to hear that they were bound to have many questions, but they didn’t ask because they may have been afraid of the answers they would get.
When they swallowed their questions without asking them, the disciples turned to arguing with each other about who Jesus’ favorite was, which one might be next in line for the version of power that they assumed would be in place because the Messiah would of course get rid of Roman rule and usher in a new form of greatness.
Somewhere between 3 years old and adulthood, someone or a bunch of somebodies in our lives got to us and some how the message we heard was keep quiet and don’t be so curious – I definitely heard that message loud and clear in my second-grade classroom at St. Mary’s when we were preparing to make our First Communion and there was little patience for the inevitable why questions we were filled with.
Once we were shut down by our teacher, we tended to ask each other the questions, whispering them during lunch or recess or on the school bus.
They were questions like “why is it so important to fast before taking communion?”
“If this is supposed to be the body and blood of Christ does that mean we are cannibals?”
“What happens if we go to confession but then before we actually have communion, we do something that would be considered a sin?”
For a 7-year-old that might be using a swear word or talking back to our parents or pushing our annoying little brother away in anger.
What grown-up questions are we afraid to ask?
If we answer that we then must ask why we’re afraid.
Could it be that if we got new information, we might have to alter our viewpoint by shaking up our comfortable world like a snow globe and then things would look different.
If we keep our mouths shut, we can just continue on our merry way with our deeply held unquestioned beliefs which puts us egotistically on par with these arguing power-seeking disciples, doesn’t it?
What if we were instead to go about, to quote the study group that 12-15 of us participated in way back in the spring of 2008, “Living the Questions?”
Where instead of assuming we had everything figured out, we made room for the big questions of life by asking them of each other and maybe even friends or relatives we know who share in our curiosity?
Many wisdom teachers throughout history and various cultures and traditions encourage the idea of a “beginner’s mind” where questions are asked and with time, one develops a comfort and acceptance of the role that “not-knowing” has in our lives.
What questions have you been afraid to ask?
If the wide-eyed wonder of young children is what Jesus is pointing to as what we should aspire to, how might we cultivate our curiosity?
Maybe we’re afraid of not having the right answers.
The test-taking we did earlier in our lives may have embedded itself in our adult psyche so much so that we at least want to appear to have the right answers.
To embrace the attitude that we are never too old to learn is to also recognize that we may never get all the answers we’re looking for in this life.
We will learn that the answer to some questions will remain mysteries – such as what happens when we die.
The mystery is an answer unto itself.
It was Nelson Mandela who proclaimed:
“I never lose. Either I win or learn.”
Let’s keep learning from our questions. I invite you to lean into this prayer from the book, A Child Laughs (Elaine S. Gaetani, p. 246):
Gracious God, am I good enough?
Will I cut muster, make the grade, pass the test, show my worth?….
…I am confused, my God and my Friend, because I have come to know You as a God of creativity, spontaneity, curiosity, experimentation, and faith in all the different kinds of cleverness in the human spirit.
Is there a standardized test for that? ….
God be with me now…
Help me to remember to never stop learning even though I hate the testing.
Show me again and again, Brilliant God, that Love can’t be measured, creativity can’t be harnessed, and the human spirit is far too great to test by human educational standards.
Let them not break my spirit, Your spirit in me. Amen.