There's no such thing as a dumb question

There's No Such Thing as a Dumb Question

A sermon for First Baptist Church of Austin

May 21, 2023

Ascension Sunday and Graduate Recognition Sunday

Acts 1:6-14

Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash

Asking questions is a fundamental part of the learning process. In asking questions, we are able to unpack concepts that are complicated and confusing, like, “What is the process of photosynthesis?”  Some questions can bring about answers that challenge our own assumptions and encourage deeper reflections. Like when we ask a dear friend, “What has been your experience as a gay man in Texas,” These types of questions help us practice empathy and understanding. 

Then come the existential questions like, 

“what is the purpose of suffering” or,

“what happens after death?” Or,

“has everything already been decided for us?”

 These engage our imagination and our critical thinking skills during a time of crisis, or after a glass of wine.

A good teacher can create a learning environment for students to explore the world by allowing them the freedom ask questions of the material. Nothing is off-limits. The learning space becomes a safe place to wonder without fear of judgement or ridicule. Carl Sagan writes, “there are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question.”

As Christ followers, we should engage our scripture with this kind of confidence that there are no dumb questions.  Rather, our questions are valuable and serve as a way to understand the world and our role in it. Our curiosity opens our eyes to the possibilities of God working in our own lives. 

And a good church encourages this kind of exploration. People from all walks of life on the same journey of discovery should be allowed to ask even the toughest of questions without fear of being labeled as a heretic or shunned by the church simply because they asked,

“was Jesus truly human?”, or 

“was Mary really a virgin?” or 

“is there really a hell?” or 

“Does any of this even matter anymore?”   

Without questions, we would be mindless droids devoid of creativity, thought, or free will to decide our own fate.  Without questions, we wouldn’t be able to challenge the status quo to push for justice.  Without questions, we wouldn’t be able to innovate solutions to problems.  Asking questions is a fundamental part of being human. God created us this way for a reason! So, we should be so confident of God’s love for us that asking questions about faith shouldn’t scare us into keeping our questions under wraps.

You know what group was frequently asking Jesus brave questions? 

The disciples. 

I admire the safe learning environment Jesus had created for the 12.  It’s obvious by the clueless questions asked throughout the gospels that, truly, no questions were off-limits. It’s sometimes laughable. 

When we meet up with the disciples again, it’s been forty days after Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus had just spent the last 40 days with these same devoted followers, and as Luke says, Jesus was, “speaking about the kingdom of God.” I have to wonder what those conversations were like, though. I would have SOO MANY questions of Jesus. I mean, they just witnessed his death AND his resurrection in real time. And looking back at the totality of Jesus’s ministry on top of that, I can imagine that witnessing all the bizarre and miraculous ways of Jesus would test anyone’s critical thinking skills. It’s no wonder the disciple’s questions seem off and out of touch sometimes. It’s a lot to process. 

The disciples believe Jesus is the Messiah who will finish the work of restoration, redeem Israel, and fulfill prophesy. But they are still waiting for Jesus to complete it so it makes sense that they have some impatient questions. 

They ask, “So, when are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

Instead of screaming in exacerbation like a parent who has just been asked for the 50th time, “as we there yet?!”, Jesus likely takes a deep breath in response to their short-sided question. There are no dumb questions, but they haven’t caught on yet. Even after forty days of exclusive access to Jesus teaching of the kingdom of God, the disciples are still anticipating the kingdom of Israel to be restored to its once ancient power.  This is not what Jesus had in mind. 

Jesus responds to their question bluntly and honestly by essentially saying, “that’s none of your business” so as to shut down further questions.  Is it a satisfying response? Certainly not.  It’s a bit like a “because I said so” answer.  It wasn’t the answer you were looking for but continuing to push your parent for a different response wouldn’t be wise, either.  But the disciples are misguided in their thinking about power and Jesus has to redirect them.

So, Jesus shifts the conversation away from the second coming and gives the disciples a purpose going forward- they are to be a witness to the ends of the earth and will have power and authority from the holy spirit that is coming soon. There’s a lot to unpack in his statement but Jesus doesn’t give them a lot of time to think before he is suddenly taken up into a cloud out of their sight.  

This sudden exit reminds me of the phenomenon in psychotherapy called “doorknob moments.”  A doorknob moment is when a client drops a dramatic truth bomb with no time for the therapist to follow up right as the client hastheir hand on the doorknob to leave. It would be like a client saying, “see you next week! Oh by the way, I quit my job this morning! Bye!” That’s a pretty big revelation that could have been unpacked at the beginning of a session but instead, was saved for the very last moment with no time left to process. 

Jesus gives us a doorknob moment here. No time for questions, or clarity. Just gives us the tasks and poof! Gone.  Taken up into the sky. 

Surely the disciples are getting used to Jesus doing these non-human things, like healing people, turning water into wine, dying and coming back to life, and now… he’s floating up in the sky like something out of an alien abduction story. Are they in shock,  fear, disbelief with mouths wide open as they try to process what is happening? The scripture doesn’t elaborate at all but surely they haven’t seen something like this before, and this was well before any Hollywood production and the invention of CGI effects.

Even though I've seen tons of alien abduction shows (you all might remember my love of the X-Files!) I know I wouldn’t believe my eyes if this happened in real life right now. Imagine the person sitting next to you right now starts defying gravity and disappears into the heavens. You’d bet I’d be staring up into the sky wondering what was going on. 

While the disciples are craning their necks at the sky, staring in bewilderment, two men in white robes appear out of nowhere.  The angelic creatures confront the disciples for their fixation on the sky and tell them that Jesus is will come back in the same way he left. This shocking interruption snaps the disciples back into reality. 

Jesus was gone.  Again. 

I was 17 years old on the morning of September 11th, 2001.  I remember the day clearly.  It was the beginnings of my senior year of high school, and you know how exciting being a senior is! The anticipation of finally getting to be the top dog, getting your own parking space, eating lunch in the senior cafeteria.  I had finished most all of my required courses to graduate so a lot of the classes I was taking were for fun- like human anatomy where we got to dissect a cat, music theory, and orchestra.  I had a tight group of friends I did everything with, including the dance team, where we enjoyed performing at halftime on the football field. 

That morning as the class of 2002 was pulling up to campus to gather for our senior class picture, I heard on the radio that a plane struck one of the Twin Towers in New York. I couldn’t understand at that moment the gravity of the situation. Nothing like this had ever happened in my lifetime and being young, naive, and sheltered, I couldn’t fathom it being anything other than a costly mistake on the part of an inexperienced pilot. 

After our class posed for our senior group picture, the truth of what was happening in New York, DC and Pennsylvania started to become clear. We didn’t have smart phones to watch the footage,  so concerned teachers threw out their lesson plans for the day, rolled in big tvs on stands into classrooms, and tuned in to watch the live events unfold.  

My dad was an airline pilot at the time, flying the Airbus A320 for America West Airlines. I remember first, the feelings of relief knowing my father was home from his trips and not flying that morning, and then the hypothetical fear that he COULD have been flying that day, compounded by the anxiety of the unknown…it was a lot for a 17 year old to deal with. I wanted to run home to be in the safe arms of my parents because staying at school didn’t seem like the appropriate response to what we were experiencing. I was looking for someone to comfort me, to tell me it was all going to be ok, to distract me from the realities of the morning.  I wanted to retreat to the safety and security of my own home, my family, my bedroom.

The disciples wanted the same thing.  After witnessing Jesus’s ascension and departure, their Lord leaving them again, they journeyed an entire day’s journey to a place that was safe and familiar and of great significance in their lives- the upper room in Jerusalem, likely the place where the last supper with Jesus occurred. There, they met together with the people who most loved Jesus, like his mother Mary and the other women, to process and pray.  

Just like so many Americans who flocked to churches, synagogues, and mosques the days after 9/11, the disciples sought out a place with meaning, ritual, and memory that would provide them a sense comfort and stability while they waited for the spirit as Jesus promised. Their posture of prayer and fellowship anchored them in those moments of waiting for God to do something big.

In this in-between time, post resurrection and ascension, but before the final restoration of God’s peace and justice on earth, Jesus specifically calls on his disciples to be a witness to all of Jerusalem, all of Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Not just to the Jews, or the Gentiles, but to every person everywhere on the planet. They are to take their first hand experience of the miracles and the resurrection and the ascension of Christ and tell everyone about what they saw. And they won’t be left without spiritual power, either. Jesus promised the arrival of the Holy Spirit as their source of power. This is their new purpose as they wait in the in-between times. 

And so this is also our call and our task as the modern day church too.  Our identities as Christ followers is to be a witness of the good and the miraculous that Jesus has done. 

Now, let’s not get tripped up by the word “witness.”  For some, it may conjure up images of a guy with a bull horn, yelling about Jesus on a street corner, or maybe handing out bible tracks on mission trips.  For me, I am reminded of the times I was taught to uncomfortably force Jesus into every conversation with my friends out of fear they would miss the chance to hear about their sinfulness and their need to repent to avoid the eternal fires of hell.

I do not believe this is what Jesus meant when he called us to be his witnesses. We all know by now how unsuccessful those tactics are and how damaging it has been to the church to lead with a posture of shame and fear. 

Rather, Jesus calls us to proclaim the radical and inclusive love of God.

We are witnesses of Christ when we take seriously the work that is to be done.  When we ask questions like, 

“how can I help you today?”  Or, 

“What role do I play in the fight for justice?” Or, 

“how should I use my free time for good?”

And when we go do those things, we are actively engaging in the work to be done in this in-between time. This is our call to action.  

 

Jesus gives the disciples everywhere a command to go to the ends of the earth, taking with them the power to tell the truth of who Jesus is and the new world he has ushered into being.  And we do it all in communion with a God who healed the sick, defied politicians, forgave sins, raised the dead and did radical acts of love towards the unloveable.   We are witnesses of this Christ. 

It seems appropriate to speak of being witnesses on graduation Sunday, a Sunday that signifies the upcoming life changes of our young people.  So what are the questions you’ve been wondering about or meaning to ask? What have you been scared to ask or afraid someone will judge you for simply asking a controversial question? 

I believe  it’s in your seeking of the answer to these questions that this is how you will be a witness for Christ. You will uncover the truth and when you do, may you proclaim it loud and clear, from the tops of the mountains.  But don’t worry about being alone8.  You will be empowered by the Holy Spirit, and surrounded by a community of believers here at home to guide you along the way. 

 May you ask questions to find your role in life changing mission and service to others. May you work to make a difference in this world, because God knows we need your voice and your heart and your love.  Do this all in the name of the resurrected one, the Christ, our Lord. 

Amen.