Listening to a podcast this morning has me thinking about: are we church people trying to answer questions that no one is asking?
I do not know how to think about this. Of course, if we are trying to answer questions like, “Does God love me”, or “Is there purpose to my life”, or “Is God even real”, or “Does God want me to suffer” – you get the picture – then, I think these are relevant thoughts to opine about theologically. However, if the questions are like, “why some people kneel while others stand for prayers”, or “which one do you believe in pre millennialism or post millennialism”, or “which candles to light first on the Altar”, or “how important it is to believe in my denominational structure” – you get the picture again – then, I think it may be true that we are trying to answer questions that do not capture the imagination of many, if any at all.
My reflection and the thing that unsettles me about this issue is: why are we even wondering if we are answering questions no one is interested in asking? You see if we were listening to those we serve, then, we would know where they are at and what kind of questions are running through their minds. Maybe we are listening only to those we wish to serve! I think that is probably a better way of understanding why church is irrelevant to much of the population today in USA. We who are in church are not interested in serving those who are not in church. We are only interested in listening to those who are in our pews, and even amongst them, only to those who are the loudest. Unfortunately, the ones that are the loudest may just be those who seek to preserve what is irrelevant. Hence the new term, “Religious but not spiritual”. These are interested in doing everything that appears to be very religious but are not really interested in any deeper questions about faith and spirituality. For instance, their interests may include following the traditions and rules set by their church to the iota, never raising questions of why and why not. I think most pastors and church leaders love such “faithful” non disruptive church members.
The problem is that our leader, Jesus, was not interested in that kind of “faithfulness” to tradition and law. He wanted to be with people. He spent most of his time doing life in his community, eating, drinking, fishing, visiting, spending time in community gatherings (synagogue, quite literally means gathering). He loved to dialogue. He loved entertaining questions. In fact, he loved questions so much that he answered questions with even more questions. Why? Because he was interested in people sharing their hearts and minds. He was interested in listening. He was interested in listening to those who were the quietest and on the fringes of society. He wanted to hear women, lepers, Samaritans, tax collectors speak out. His presence even made evil spirits speak out! He wanted everyone to be heard. Anyone who wants the underdog to be heard is often labeled a rebellion and highly unfavored by establishments, because letting people be heard is the first step to changing the social order. Jesus sought to change the social order.
Are we interested in changing the social order? At The Table we are. We want to hear your story. Click here to share your story. We want to hear your prayers. Click here and share what you wish to pray for. In fact, join us in prayer every weekday at 7:30AM online or on Wednesdays at 6PM in person if you live in or around Shelton, CT. And when you take the step to join us in worship you will see that we begin with the question, “why are you here today?” We want to know the real reason for you to be in worship. We don’t want people to be doing things because it is a tradition or because someone else said it was a good thing to do. We want people to share the “why” of their action of being in a community to Worship our living God. And then we don’t have sermons, we have scripture conversations. We reflect on the Word of God as a community, not as one pastor telling everyone what to do. Why? Because we believe that Jesus was right in encouraging all voices to be heard around His Table. It is in listening to others that our lives transform.
So, now that you have read this post, I pray that you will spend time with your loved ones listening to the weakest voices and giving those voices a place at your own table. Dialogue with what you hear, not to win the argument, but to further explore. In so doing, you will be addressing the real needs of people around you – you will be following Jesus in making this place better for everyone. And then maybe we will no longer have to worry if we are answering questions no one is asking!
