After a session of Theology on Tap that went on more than two hours and easily could have continued for six more I was reminded of one of the very first lessons I was taught about faith. Saturday night's topic was wide open: bring any question you have about faith, God, church, or whatever. Spill it! Someone did. People spoke. Another question followed, then another, then another. It was intense, unscripted, and yet very Spirit-filled. We all marveled about these things that had been bubbling inside us and never found the forum to get out before. We wondered why our life of faith wasn't more like this all the time.
That made me think back to the first real, live pastor I had a conversation with...a Lutheran guy, in fact. As I sat in his office across from his desk he looked at me and said, "The questions you ask in your walk of faith are ten times as important as the answers you get." He was right! I've since found that a good answer only lasts for a day but a good question can keep you occupied for a lifetime. All of the greatest leaps and realizations I've had in my own faith life have come from other people asking questions like, "Why do these things happen?" or "Why did God do this?" or "Why did God say that?" or "What in the world does this mean?" Plenty of those leaps have come from people directly (but usually nicely) probing into church practices and doctrine, questioning why we say or believe certain things. Those questions are a blessing, as they open up avenues for learning among us all...the person asking the question, the person being asked, and everyone who hears or participates in the conversation. It's sad that we don't ask more!
I said something on Saturday night that bears repeating in public. In the course of our discussions quite a few people said they'd been told that Lutherans believe this or that. It was actually funny, because more than half the time they were wrong. (That wasn't their fault, mind you. People say Lutherans believe a lot of things!) Addressing these assertions I said that Lutheran doctrine, at its heart, proposes three things:
1. We don't know everything! In some ways we don't know anything. We are incapable of perfectly understanding God on our own. We aren't capable of believing in him on our own either. We are the lost folks.
2. The doctrine we teach is designed to point us towards God but also to start us asking questions about him and our faith...a necessary process given Point #1 just stated. At no point is Lutheran doctrine meant to shut down conversation or provide "the answer". Instead it stands as a road map delineating hazards and marking oases along our journey towards God. The minute you say, "This is the Final Word and I will hear no more about it" you have stopped taking that journey and thus robbed the doctrine of its reason.
3. God is the God of the lost, wandering people. From Adam and Eve to the Israelites to the apostles of Jesus he has always embraced those who didn't know it all but kept seeking anyway. The key to understanding his salvation isn't getting the right answer but understanding that we'll never have it (short of heaven) and that he's loving us and saving us anyway. If faith is all about being right we're lost. Half of us won't get things correct and we'll be lost. Meanwhile the other half will get it and think they're more special than everybody else because of that and will get trapped in their own pride and self-satisfaction. If, on the other hand, faith is about the God who calls you to question and discuss even when you're not sure you have the answer then both right and wrong work to his purpose, as they both spur us to seek him more. Sometimes we walk in an empty wilderness without good answers, sometimes in a lush garden full of them. Still we soldier on.
How long has it been since you've asked a question about faith in the presence of God's people and thus spurred them to conversation with all their glorious right and mistaken answers, all their interesting theories, and all of the questions of their own that follow? Might be worth a try sometime...
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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