SERMON ~ 09/23/2012 ~ Afraid to Ask

09/23/2012 ~ Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Proper 20) ~ Proverbs 31:10-31; Psalm 1; Wisdom of Solomon 1:16-2:1, 12-22 or Jeremiah 11:18-20; Psalm 54; James 3:13 - 4:3, 7-8a; Mark 9:30-37 ~ Reception of New Members; Initiation of the Church School Year.

Afraid to Ask

“...Jesus taught the disciples in this manner, saying to them, ‘The Promised One, is to be betrayed, delivered into the hands of others and will be put to death and three days later, after being killed, will rise again.’  But they did not understand, did not comprehend what was being said by Jesus and were afraid to ask.” — Mark 9:31-32.

When I landed my first job, my first time in the workplace, there was a given when it came to etiquette in an office environment.  There were three rules everyone followed.

No, I’m wrong.  There were probably dozens of rule everyone followed, but these are the three particular ones I’m addressing and I think they were pretty universal.

You never asked a question about the politics of another person.  You never asked a question about the religion of another person.  And you never, never, never, never asked a question how much any of your co-workers earned.

At that time, these were socially inappropriate questions.  In some quarters, I am sure, they still are socially inappropriate questions, questions which do not get asked.

Equally and in short, I am also quite sure about this: often questions which need to be asked don’t get asked.  Often questions which don’t need to be asked— things which are no one’s business— do get asked.  (Slight pause.)

Now, there was a public debate last week between two politicians, Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown, who are vying for a Senate seat in Massachusetts.  The topic of Ms. Warren’s heritage came up.  It is public knowledge that she had, at some point, checked a box on job application forms which indicated she had Native Americans among members of her family tree.

That claim was shown to be false.  So, Mr. Brown raised a question about the boxes Ms. Warren had checked.  I found her explanation as to why she checked those boxes, totally plausible.  She said her parents, who are no longer alive, told her there were Native Americans in the family tree.  She never thought to question her parents.  She just believed them.

I find that a plausible explanation because there are things my parents told me about my heritage which I never questioned.  I, for instance, was told that I had a great, great, great grandfather who had been the bootmaker for Napoleon.  That ancestor would have been on the German side of my family.  (My mother’s maiden name was Schwartz.)

I was also told being Napoleon’s bootmaker was not easy, since Napoleon had lost a couple of toes when the French Army retreated from Moscow.  History shows the French Army marched out of Russia in during what was a particularly severe Russian fall followed by an equally severe Russian winter.

So I do know and it is a fact of history that the retreat of the French Army happened in severe weather and I also know the Prussians had been an ally of Napoleon.  Hence, both the possibility of Napoleon losing toes and the German heritage parts of the story I heard sound right.  On the surface, the story seems plausible.

On the other hand, I really do doubt the veracity of that story.  Why?  Well, it does seem like it’s a pretty tall story, the kind of thing that somehow gets spun out into family stories, the kind of thing which may have been entertaining but was meant to be simply that: entertaining.  Afer all, where’s the proof?  I don’t even know if Napoleon lost toes on the retreat from Moscow.  Do you?

But let’s face it: since it was a family story, does its truth matter?  Does it mean I will love my parents less if the story is untrue?  No.  I still love my parents.

And, given it’s a family legend, perhaps truth is not the point.  Perhaps myth— a deeper truth— is the point in my family stories and in most family stories.

In the case of my family, perhaps the Napoleon story was a way to give some grandeur, some luster to my family of poor German immigrants and poor Irish immigrants.  It was a way to say we really are important in the scheme of things, even if we are important only to us.  (Slight pause.)

And these words are from the gospel commonly called Mark: “And Jesus taught the disciples in this manner, saying to them, ‘The Promised One, is to be betrayed, delivered into the hands of others and will be put to death and three days later, after being killed, will rise again.’  But they did not understand, did not comprehend what was being said by Jesus and were afraid to ask.”  (Slight pause.)

I think all of what I am about to say are valid observations (slight pause): sometimes we don’t ask questions because we don’t want to know the answer.  Sometimes we don’t ask questions because we feel they are intrusive.  Sometimes we don’t ask questions because there is a social stigma connected with those questions.  Sometimes we don’t ask questions because we trust too much.

The opposite of those observations can also be true.  Sometimes we do ask questions because we want to know the answer.  Sometimes we do ask questions despite the fact that the questions might be intrusive.  Sometimes we do ask questions because we think some social stigma connected with those questions is inappropriate, and so, we want to violate that tabu.  Sometimes we do ask questions simply because we don’t trust.

In fact, I’ve always wondered is there a deeper, darker secret when it comes to my family which was never broached.  The year my mother was born, her mother, my grandmother, was forty years old.  Given medical expertise in 1924, the year of my mother’s birth, the age of forty was not just old for a woman to give birth, it was dangerous.

Now, we— myself, my brother and my sister— were always told my grandfather, my mother’s father, died in 1924, before the birth of my mother.  Is that true?  I don’t know.  We were never told any details— like how he died.  We were never even told what his name was.

So, there are all kinds of questions which might have been asked about the situation around the birth of my mother.  I am sure I don’t need to fill in the blanks for you.  I never did ask any of them.  Was I afraid to ask?  Maybe.  (Slight pause.)

Of all the questions which don’t get asked, I think the worst one to fail to ask is the one for which we really don’t want an answer.  Jesus tells the disciples that (quote): “The Promised One is to be betrayed, delivered into the hands of others and will be put to death and three days later, after being killed, will rise again.”

We know enough about history to know a Messiah who would be killed was not the kind of Messiah for which the Jews were looking or wanted in New Testament times.  They were looking for a much more temporal Messiah, one who would vanquish the Romans, defeat the occupying Roman Army, drive them out of their homeland.

You see, I want to suggest that, aside from asking the questions we’re afraid to ask, asking the right questions can be a key component in our relationship with God.  When Jesus gathers the children it is not meant to be some kind of pastoral scene.  I think the story about the children is placed here as an example because children have very few preconceived notions about what questions can be asked in polite company.

The impolite question which needed to be asked here is simple: what kind of Messiah is Jesus?  (Slight pause.)  Anthony B. Robinson, a United Church of Christ pastor and writer say this on that topic (quote): “The Christian faith not only gives us an adequate and a truthful vocabulary.  It does far more.  It declares unexpected, even scandalous, news....”  (Slight pause.)  And what is that news?  Jesus is the Messiah.  (Slight pause.)

So, what kind of Messiah is acceptable?  What kind of message from God is acceptable?  What kind of relationship with God is acceptable?  Is it a relationship which understands Jesus is the Messiah?

Perhaps a way to personalize the thought that Jesus is the Messiah is by asking questions such as this: should a relationship built on love and on trust and on interactions with one another allow for all kinds of questions?  If so, then bringing up questions about Jesus and who Jesus is are valid.  These questions are not tabu.

But additionally, asking questions is a way to help understand relationships.  Therefore, we should not be afraid to ask questions of God— questions of all kinds.  Put another way: the stupid question is the one which is not asked.  Amen.

09/23/2012
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction.  This is an précis of what was said: “I hope you find this paradox as interesting as I do.  In my family we asked all kinds of questions about Napoleon’s bootmaker.  Yet, we asked none about my Grandfather.  It seems likely we had that backwards.  We have no need to be afraid of asking questions about God, about Jesus, about the Spirit.  But asking nothing is, I think, never going to be productive in our understanding of our relationship with God.”

BENEDICTION: Let us go forth in the Spirit of Christ.  Let us seek the will of God.  Let us put aside ambition and conceit for the greater good. Let us serve in joyous obedience.   This is the prayer recited by Melanesian Islanders: May Jesus be the canoe that holds us up in the sea of life; may Jesus be the rudder that keeps us in the straight road; may Jesus be the outrigger that supports us in times of temptation; May the Spirit of Jesus be our sail that carries us through each day.  Amen.