The comments on this blog are so great! Your thoughts made me think more, and I love that! I realized today that Sunday's sermon did not fully capture this topic of "is it okay to question God." As I re-read your comments this morning, I wanted to address this issue a little more.
I agree with all of you who said it is good to question God. I think that our questions actually can bring us closer to God. One of you said, "our persistent questioning shows we know who our leader is and that we trust him and believe he will take care of us." I think that this is very perceptive. When we bring our questions to God, we show that we believe God can and will answer these questions.
Another comment was "God allows us to question him, but we need to be prepared to hear his answer when he is ready to respond." This can also be a challenge. Several of you mentioned the plethora of Scripture passages in which people bring those deep, honest, and often pain-filled questions to God. But, at the end of every story we see that the people yield to God's will. "We can and should question God's actions, but not his intent."
I think that there is great freedom in being able to question God. It makes Chrisitanity real, and not just a pretend religion. When we are afraid to ask the hard questions, we are afraid to make God real. When we are willing to ask God the hard questions, we allow our personal lives to intersect with our religious lives, and this is where real faith happens.
Fredrich Buechner wrote, "if there were no room for doubt, there would be no room for me."
So, let us continue to question, doubt, and wonder about where God is and what our faith means. Because this is how we truly grow in our faith. And as we question, let us also remember that we are deeply loved and cared for by the God who created us and our abiltiy to question.
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Again, this Sunday's service was both thought provoking and challenging. I liked the use of the Phillip Yancy story during the adults' message. I may have misunderstood the Velveteen Rabbit analogy during the children's service though.
If God is the toy rabbit, then the implication is that He is only "real" because we love and believe in Him! But, if WE are the rabbit, then we are "real" because God first loves us. I like the idea of being a figment of God's imagination. The opposite? Not so much...
Thanks for your question about the children's sermon. That was an example of what happens when I forget about the children's sermon until the day of. I wrote a sermon last Easter comparing the Christians to the Velveteen Rabbit. The question was do we want to stay nice toys, or are we willing to lose some of our velveteen fur in order to become real to the world. I think the analogy worked then, but I was struggling to remember the previous connection, and obviously failed in the connection to Sunday's sermon.
Please do not think that I think our love makes God real. God is always real, whether we love God or not. And, I think the reality of God can be more clearly seen by others when we share God's love with the world.
I confess, I wasn't listening to the children's sermon. Please forgive me. Pastor, may I suggest the use of visuals for the children's sermon. maybe then I'd pay attention...
Pastor Becky, in your sermon Sunday you made a good point about how the Israelites saw for themselves many miracles/signs from God, but then they only wanted to see more signs. Their faith in God was not strengthened by witnessing miracles.
That reminded me of when the Pharisees and others kept asking Jesus to do yet another miracle. It isn't seeing the miracle or sign that changes the person, but believing in God that transforms us. Signs are visible things of earth, but belief is an invisible thing of the spirit.
So, I guess seeing isn't believing!
Pamago's message made me think also of the crowds who followed Jesus across the lake for more of that miracle bread. Are miracles addicting? Does it take more and more to get the same "buzz"?
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