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THE SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

Good Question!

Confirmation Sunday

            On occasion, I will hand out slips of paper to confirmation students and ask them to write down a question that they have about the Christian faith or about the church.  Often students will be reluctant to speak their most serious questions aloud in class.  This gives them an opportunity to do this anonymously.

            I only did it once this year, at the very end of the year, but the quality of questions I got was higher than normal.  I’d like to share some of them with all of you. 

            The first question is, “How did we get here?”  Often I’ll get a question like, “Is it evolution or creation?  Is it science or religion?  Who has the right answer?” But I like this question better because it underlies the other questions.  Science and faith, in their own ways, are trying to answer this question – How did we get here? 

            I’m not one who thinks that science and faith are opposed, much less hostile.  What I do believe is that, no matter how we got here, God is behind it.  Whether God created something out of nothing or God took what was already here and shaped something new, God is behind it.  Whether it happened in a few short days or over billions of years, I believe that God is behind it.

            I also believe that the creation is not done.  The creative work of God is not confined to one week or one period or one segment of time.  Creation is on-going.  And I believe that God created us to be co-creators, to fill the earth, to till the earth and keep it. 

            This confirmation class has four boys who raise livestock.  That is part of God’s on-going work of creation.  Whether it is animals or children or plants, whether it is tools or machines or ideas, this is part of the on-going work of creation. 

            “How did we get here?” is a good question because it also keeps us open to wonder.  Carl Sagan, the late astrophysicist, once said, “If you want to make apple pie from scratch, first you need to create the universe.”  Where did this apple come from?  It came from a tree.  Where did the tree come from?  It came from a seed?  How did the seed become a tree?  Soil and air and water and sun and even the process of growth itself – all of this take us back to the beginnings of the universe.  Sagan didn’t believe in God, but this question evokes wonder in me at the universe, wonder at the immensity and complexity and interconnectedness of the universe. 

            If the whole creation is on-going, where is it going?  Where are we going?  This second question was not asked by the confirmation students, but it is related to a question they did ask.  Their question was, “Is there life after death?”  This question does not get asked very often by confirmation students.  So, that it was asked at all is rare.  But it was not one of them that asked this question.  It was seven of them out of seventeen that asked this question.

            At first I thought they must have all been sitting together and they all copied each other.  Then I thought maybe it was a question that had come up in one of the small groups that night.  Finally, a mother reminded me that, last fall, I took the confirmation class to Gunderson Funeral Home.  This question grew out of that visit.

            Yes, there is life after death, but beyond that there is not a lot I can say because the New Testament doesn’t say very much.  I can’t say that there will be puffy clouds and angels with haloes, or streets paved with gold or buildings studded with diamonds, or championship golf courses or tropical beaches.  The only thing I can say is that Jesus will be there and God will be at the center.

            I would also say, though, that this is part of a larger question.  The larger question is, “Where are we going?”  Most of the time, we are most concerned with what happens to us and to our loved ones.  God is concerned about us, too, but God is also concerned about the whole earth. 

            The vision that we see in the book of Revelation is that God is making all things new.  God is leading us to anew heaven and a new earth.  Revelation can be difficult to understand and it’s been used in some pretty scary ways.  But the basic message is simple – Don’t give up hope; God is in charge. 

            I listened to a podcast of a radio interview this week with Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of South Africa .  Bishop Tutu grew up in the apartheid of South Africa and spent most of his life under that system.  But he was one of the leaders, and certainly the leader in the church, that saw the end of that system.  There is injustice and oppression and inequality and suffering in the world, but he said, “God is a God of surprises.”  And the new heaven and the new earth promised in Revelation will be God’s biggest surprise.

            So, no matter how bad it gets, don’t give up hope!  God is in charge!

            The first question was about the past.  The second question was about the future.  The third question is about the present: “What religion is the true one?”

            When I spoke with them about this question, I told them that, since I am a Christian – and a professional Christian at that – they could guess what I would say.  I also told them that I was interested in a related, but slightly different question.  The question I am interested in is, “What is true religion?”  The first question is a matter of truth claims.  The second is a matter of life practice.

            We tend to focus on the first question.  It’s an important question, but I think the more we focus on the first question, the more we ignore the second question.  The Bible knows this and so it also addresses, in some succinct ways, the second question:

            “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”  (James 1:27)

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’  He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”  (Matthew 22:36-40)

We could debate the truth claims of various religions – Is Jesus the Son of God?  Is Mohammed God’s prophet?  Is the Buddhist notion of emptiness where it’s at?

These are good questions, but I think the most important question is this:  Is your faith helping you to become more loving, more compassionate, more gracious, more generous toward yourself and others?

The truth claims of Christianity support this love, this living, this transformation.  For in the beginning, God made us to be part of the creation and to work as co-creators with God.  In the end, God desires to remake us and all things, so that, even in the face of the great challenges before us, we do not give up hope and can continue to offer ourselves in service to others.  And, for the present, we can be confident that God sent his own Son, to willingly give his own life for us all, and, out of his love for us, we are transformed – heart and soul and mind and strength – into people of love.