Faith: taking the leap

One of my favorite advice columnists, Carolyn Hax, is often called on to find a way for people to get good results without taking risks.  Her expertise is in relationships.  How can I know that he loves me without me taking the risk of being hurt?  How can I get my mother-in -law to stop dropping by without hurting her feelings?  How can I accept a promotion and still not change the dynamics in my marriage?

There are a thousand variations to the question but the short answer Carolyn generally gives is "You can't".  Relationships and risk go hand in hand.  Sometimes the risks are small (I really don't like football, do you mind if I don't watch with you?) and sometimes the risks are big (I think living next door to your parents would be a nightmare.)  But there is always risk.  Who knows?  Not liking football could, indeed, be a deal breaker.

So it is no surprise that a life of faith....which is by definition, a life of trusting in Divine Power....is a life lived by trust.  And trust is always risky.  You know that.  I know that.

Furthermore, we tend to call on our faith in our personal lives when things are at their riskiest.  After a bad diagnosis or before a scary operation.  After a bad break-up or before applying for a new job.  We tend to call on our faith when we realize that the world is tilted off balance, injustice is real, evil is real, power is abused at the highest levels.

Each time we rely on our faith in God to unravel a dilemma, right a wrong, or make us feel better, we risk learning something new about ourselves and something new about God.  Let me say that again.  Each time we turn to God seeking a response for our lives, we risk learning something new about ourselves and God.

When our vision of God is rigid and our definition of God is precisely bounded, God's response is too often not only a surprise but a disappointment as well.  That is all well and good.  What we do next is important.

Do we then reject God for being something other than what we expected....or do we stop and listen and wonder and explore this new revealing of God in our lives?  Do we become one of the folks who got to know God in second grade and haven't upgraded our relationship since then even as our world and our lives became more complicated and confusing?  Have we allowed God to grow as a real presence in creation and in this life that we know, or has God remained a reassuring teddy bear on a shelf, reminding us of a good time long ago?

When God doesn't live up to our expectations, do we change.....or do we reject the God now revealed? To call God 'God' is to recognize that most of the time we will have just a small understanding of the universal picture....and to trust that holding the hand of this God is way better than walking alone.

The top 10 questions asked (by believers and non-believers alike)

1.  Is there a way to avoid the awful stuff that might happen to me or my family?
2.  When that awful stuff happens is there a way to make me feel better about it?
3.  Is God's list of 'You Have To Do This" shorter than the world's?
4.  If I drop my children off at church does that guarantee that they will turn out alright?
5.  What if the children and I go to church together?
6.  If I give lots of money to the church, am I guaranteed heaven?  How about roses?
7.  If I wear a cowboy hat to church and forget to take it off am I going to hell?
8.  All the sinners are outside the church and all the saints are inside.  Right?
9.  Since Jesus died on the cross there's nothing for me to do.  Right?
10.  God only loves the people in church.  Right?

The answer to them all is NO.  So what are the top 10 questions folks ask that have YES for an answer?

What do people want?

What questions are people asking?

As a teacher I learned that until I answer the question that YOU have, you have a difficult time listening to what I am saying.  You get stuck on that question; it becomes a block to further enlightenment.  Once it's answered you can go again.

I remember a cartoon from a long time ago where one character was carrying a sign which said 'Jesus is the answer.'  In the next frame, another character has a sign which reads, 'What was the question?'

So it is important to answer the questions that folks are asking, which has a great deal with what folks truly want.  I made a list:  folks want life to be a little easier, to have their struggles have some meaning or purpose, to have their suffering acknowledged or mourned or at least to have someone walk with them through it all.   People would like good to be rewarded and evil punished.  People want to both be loved and feel loved.  They would like to be blessed (however they might define that). *

All of this is background to Sunday's gospel reading (Mark 8.27-33) which is a pivotal text in Mark's telling of the gospel story.  It begins with Jesus asking, "Who do people say that I am?"

It is important for people to understand what they are looking for when they turn to Jesus and call him Lord, or Son of God, or Savior.  In this text, Jesus makes it abundantly clear that his definition of Messiah, Anointed One, includes more than just healing and teaching and extra bread.  It includes suffering, rejection and a cross. 

If you are looking for daisies and roses, then this Jesus just won't do.  It is best to get that straight right up front, because from this point on, the pressure is on and the cross is on the horizon.


*When I consider folks who seem to embody evil, who do horrific things to one another, I wonder if a list like the one above is too 'pollyanna'. Do these folks want the same things? How do these folks end up consumed by such a destructive force that they are dangerous to themselves and others? Have these folks been so crushed by this world that they can only crush it back?