Scott Adams the "Dilbert" cartoonist once famously asked, "If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? So, what do you think? Are there any stupid questions? Or are you of the mind that there are only thoughtless people?
I don't think there are stupid questions or people. I do believe however, that there are pointless questions, "like why does that screwdriver belong to Philip?" I also believe that there are unanswerable questions, for example, how is Christ present "in, with and under" in Holy Communion? I also believe that there are questions that make no sense like "how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"
But in all of these cases the problem is more often than not a question of perspective. For example, when the recent New Horizons space probe reached Pluto, a person could wonder how it managed to carry enough fuel to travel that far. To anyone who knows how physics works that may sound like a "stupid" question, however for the people who ask that question, to those without an understanding of physics, the question was reasonable. Of course there are those queries that are deliberately pointless and asked more as a joke. Nevertheless, even with those questions, sometimes the answers can be stimulating.
It would be nice then --- as disciples of Jesus --- knowing that "there are no stupid questions" --- to export this model --- especially in regards to questions of faith. But, unfortunately that has not been my experience. Rather, I think many of us would prefer to not admit that we have questions at all, especially about God and faith. And since we don't like to ask, we don't like to answer. We do not model "there are no stupid questions" in regards to faith.
Why is it that? Why as people of faith do we not like to admit that we do not have all the answers and find it difficult to ask questions of and about God? It could be because we don't want to appear less smart than those Baptist's or Catholics. Or it could be that we don't want others to think that we need more help to understand. We need not feel that badly however, because if you haven't notice, the disciples had the same problem. They were no different from us. Instead, like many of us, these disciples did what many of us do, either they went along with the crowd, or if they did ask a question, they proceeded to ask the wrong one to avoid the question they really wanted to ask.
If you don't believe me, let us review our Gospel. If this lesson sounds familiar it could be because you heard something similar last week, but the location was different. This is the second of what is known as the three passion statements made by Jesus in the book of Mark. The first was the one we heard last week, in the region of Caesarea Philippi. Today it is Capernaum, Jesus' home base. The last one will be "on the way" to Jerusalem.
Although in different locations in all three passion statements, the message is the same: "the Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again." To which the disciples respond differently each time. Last week, Peter rebuked Jesus. Today we hear that "they did not understand what Jesus was saying and were afraid to ask him." In the third, we hear how the disciples begin to wonder if that means that they will receive places of glory in heaven.
Today, we are told that the disciples "did not understand what he was saying." That could mean a few things right off the bat. Maybe they couldn't hear him. I get that a lot. Or maybe the concept was just too mysterious for them --- especially the whole Son of Man thing and the rising again part. Or perhaps the idea of Jesus being arrested and killed was simply inconceivable --- too ridiculous to be understood in any way. But in this case we also have added information about the disciples' understanding, or lack thereof. "They were afraid to ask him."
Why were they afraid to ask? What was there to be scared of? After all, wasn't this Jesus, their friend and teacher we are talking about? Why should they be afraid to ask Jesus a question --- isn't that what a disciple means?
Were the disciples afraid because the last time Jesus said something about dying and rising, Peter rebuked Jesus --- and in response Peter was asked to step aside because he really didn't understand what a messiah meant? Or were they afraid of Jesus himself, a man who could cure might be able zap them? Or… perhaps they were afraid to ask --- because they now had an inkling that there was some truth in what they desperately hoped was not the case.
Possibly they were "afraid to ask" not because they were afraid of asking a silly question, but afraid of what this would mean for them. They had left everything to follow Jesus. Had they made a mistake? Was it all for nothing? What would become of them now?
Well, we could go on wondering why the disciples didn't ask, but it doesn't end there. Because the disciples did what some of us do when we don't understand something and are afraid. We change the subject. "Then they came to Capernaum; and when Jesus was in the house, Jesus asked them, 'What were you arguing about on the way?' But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest."
Ironic isn't it? The disciples were to "afraid to ask," but Jesus wasn't. "What were you arguing about on the way?" It seems so much like one of those 'Garden of Eden' questions that makes us realize there is no hiding from God. "Who told you that you were naked?" Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent who had no one to blame. In this case, the disciples 'kept silent.'
As it turns out, the disciples had been discussing their own personal reputation and prestige. In response, however, Jesus does not call them stupid rather Jesus provides an answer to their questions with "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." And to illustrate, we are told that Jesus "took a child and put it among them; and taking the child in his arms, Jesus said to them, 'Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.'"
Notice carefully that Jesus is not saying that we should not strive to use and cultivate the gifts God has given us to the best of our ability. Rather, Jesus is teaching us how we are to use these gifts in a healthy way.
Not only is it an interesting response to the fact that earlier the disciples had been too afraid to ask Jesus any questions, but an interesting teaching event. Because have you ever noticed that an important attribute that makes a child a child is the questions they ask?
Children try hard to make sense of the world, and questions are how children begin to piece together a working understanding of how the world works, and of their place in it. The questions may be practical or knowledge-building, or they may be signs of creativity and playfulness. Questions are important because children are actively trying to puzzle things out, and they want input to help them do so. Children ask adults questions because they trust that because of our greater experience we will be able to provide the answers they're looking for. They feel safe asking almost anything, because there is relationship.
Jesus may have been using this illustration as well because as we age, the questions slow down until finally they become a trickle, and the adults become the ones who have to ask questions to drag grudging responses out of adolescents. We adults may do this because we have acquired enough knowledge about a subject that we believe we know all we need to know. Sometimes it's because we're confused, or struggling with the basics, and we don't want anyone else to know that, because we're afraid we'll look stupid. Or it could be because we are jaded, and no longer believe there is any truth or any authority.
Sometimes we've been told, either implicitly or explicitly, that it's not OK to ask certain questions, or that it's not OK to ask questions at all, or that there are certain questions that are off-limits, because asking questions implies that we're not faithful for example. Somehow we have that impression that questioning equals doubt, and that doubt is the opposite of faith.
By lifting up a child when the disciples themselves had been shown to be afraid to question may be reminding us that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but fear --- fear to ask questions.
In lifting up a child, Jesus is reminding us that God's kingdom is upside down from the way things typically work in this world. We have questions! We will always have questions, we will always struggle to see how God is working, we will always find things mysterious, and we'll always be puzzled at what God is up to.
And as disciples not only can we ask questions but in God's Kingdom we are received and receive others as those like us, who do not know everything. It is perfectly fine to admit that we don't understand and to question how something could possibly be. And to ask is a holy thing. Holy in that we are to join with all who ask "why," who yearn for deeper understanding and wisdom, trusting God to provide answers, and asking our questions again and again until we begin to grow in understanding. Holy means that as disciples we are a learning band of sisters and brothers, where wisdom is not what we claim for ourselves or establish by means of the strongest arguments, or the most answers, the most votes or how many others we draw to our flag. Nor is this holy learning band of sisters and brothers come from bullying others into a point of view. Instead in the Kingdom of God, discipleship is exercised through being a "servant of all."
Being servant people, a servant community presumes that we are also a learning people and community. It is based on the fact that the toddler didn't understand what Jesus was doing in today's gospel; the child simply was wrapped in God's arms. I like that image because in reminds me that Jesus has wrapped his arms around us in our baptism. That means that as learning community, we are set free from all of the competition and arguing and striving to be greater than those with whom we work or live or whose wisdom we admire.
Instead, as a learning community we can be all about questions, receptive to days of Pentecost when it was the Holy Spirit that opened the mind of the disciples to some answers as well as more questions as they journeyed from Jerusalem to the world. What that means is that if there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do Christians ask? All kinds because the way of the cross after all is the path of foolishness, a stumbling block, where we don't have all the answers and where an innocent questioning child is a model of faith and we are servants of all. Amen.