Afraid to Ask – September 23, 2018, Sermon

Here’s my sermon for September 23, 2018. My sermon texts this week are the Gospel reading from Mark 9:30-37 and the epistle reading from James James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a. I’m grateful to David Lose in his Dear Working Preacher column from six years ago for the idea of writing down questions. 

This week in the Gospel reading, we hear Jesus teach his disciples a wonderful lesson about what it means to be great. If you want to be great, Jesus says, put yourself last and be a servant to others. Our world says greatness is found in things like sports heroics, or winning tv talent shows, or just being a popular public figure, but Jesus’ definition of greatness is different. He says greatness is found in love and service. We would all do well to remember that.

I’m more interested today, though, in verse 32 of the reading. Jesus is alone with his disciples, and he’s trying to give them a heads-up of what’s going to happen, how he’s going to be arrested and killed and then rise from the dead. Here’s the interesting part. Verse 32: The disciples did not understand what he was saying and they were afraid to ask him.

They were afraid to ask him. They didn’t want Jesus to hear their questions. They didn’t understand, but they’d rather just let it go than ask him to clarify and risk revealing their confusion.




A little later, Jesus asks them what they’ve been arguing about on the way, and again, they’re silent. They don’t want to tell him. Since he’s Jesus, he knows what they’ve been wondering, and he turns it into a teaching moment. But I’m way more interested in the disciples. After all they’ve been through with Jesus, how can they be afraid to ask him their questions? How can they be afraid to talk to him?

And yet, don’t we do the same thing? We often hold back on asking our questions. Sometimes it’s because we’re afraid of looking dumb when we think we should know the answer. Sometimes maybe we’re not sure we really want the answers.

Sometimes, though, people don’t ask questions because they’re afraid it might be unfaithful to ask. They’re not sure it’s even ok to have questions. I wonder if that might be what holds the disciples back.

Last Sunday, there was a three year old here who asked me where Jesus was. He didn’t mean like theologically Jesus has ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he didn’t mean is Jesus literally or figuratively present in the bread and wine on the communion table.

He was three. He knew Jesus should be at church somewhere and he wanted to know which classroom he was in, or maybe if he was hiding behind a pew somewhere. Four years of seminary does not teach you how to answer that.

In the next couple of weeks, we’re going to hear several lessons where Jesus welcomes children and their questions. He uses them as examples of faith. In Mark 10, he even says the kingdom of God belongs to children and whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.

I really don’t think Jesus is saying it’s too late for you to go to heaven if you aren’t baptized as a little kid, or you’re out of luck if you weren’t raised in the church. He’s saying we adults could use a little more of the curiosity of a child. We don’t outgrow our questions.

Now, I refuse to say there are no bad questions. You can come up with dumb questions, or questions intended to trap or hurt others. Sometimes questions prove you weren’t paying attention. Proverbs 17 says, “Even fools who keep silent are considered wise; when they close their lips, they are deemed intelligent.” But to learn and grow, you have to risk letting the people around you hear your questions. It’s better to risk asking the wrong question than to stay silent because you’re afraid of what others will think.

Little kids are not afraid of asking the wrong questions. That’s how they learn. They’re not afraid of the people around them questioning their faith, or accusing them of not paying attention. That’s something we learn as we get older.

Notice what Jesus does not say in this story. He does not say, “You idiots! How do you not get it yet? I just said whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. You’ve seen me feed 5,000 people and walk on water. And you’re arguing about which of you is the greatest!?” He does not say, “What a stupid question for you to argue about.”

Instead, he sits down with them and teaches them, as he will do again and again. Jesus is ok with your questions. God can handle your doubts. Jesus doesn’t give up on us when we don’t get it.

Sometimes it feels like I keep learning the same thing over and over and over. Jesus loves me, this I know. God forgives me and calls me to live as a child of God. Every time I think I’ve got the message, every time I think it’s sunk in far enough, I start to question and I need to hear it again.

I don’t think that’s just me. It’s ok to have questions. It’s ok to ask the questions. It’s ok to need to keep hearing the Gospel promise of God’s love for you over and over and over again.




Some people have been taught that doubt is bad, that it’s the opposite of faith. Maybe part of it comes from songs like Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee with lines like “Drive the gloom of doubt away.” That’s talking about the joy of eternal life, not something in this life. The life of faith on earth always has doubts.

I think a verse in the hymn Just as I Am is more helpful. “Just as I am, though tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt, fightings and fears within, without, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.” We all carry doubts with us. You can’t just stop doubting. Faith doesn’t work that way. The good news is that God accepts you with all your doubts.

In the New Testament reading, James tells us, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” I don’t think the devil works by stirring up questions. I think the devil works by tempting us to ignore the questions, to not engage them. The temptation is to pull back, to pretend God isn’t there or that God doesn’t matter. The enemy of faith is disengagement. If you’re asking questions then you’re engaged.

The opposite of faith is not doubt. Doubt means you’re asking questions of faith. Doubt means you’re wrestling with God, wrestling with faith. The opposite of faith is apathy. Apathy means you don’t care. It means you think the eternal questions of life somehow don’t apply to you.

Having faith doesn’t necessarily mean having answers. It means being honest about the questions. It means trusting God with the questions, even when you know you might not get answers.

In the very next line, James says to draw near to God and he will draw near to you. God wants you to bring your whole self, your faith and your praises and prayers and also your doubts and your questions. God can handle your doubts. Maybe, like Jesus does with the disciples, God can teach you something through your doubts. God wants all of you.

Before we continue with the hymn of the day, I’m going to ask you to do something. I want you to write down a question you have about Scripture, or about God, or about faith. The confirmation students are supposed to do this every time they do a worship note, so it’s only fair to have you do it too. So write down a question, and then in a minute I’ll ask you to put it in the offering plate as it comes around.

I’m not asking you to share it with your neighbor, or talk about it. You don’t need to put your name on it, and don’t expect an answer from me. Lots of my questions don’t have answers in this world. This is a way of offering our whole selves to God, our selves, our time, our treasures and our talents, and our doubts. I’ll give you a minute to write down a question and then we’ll continue with hymn #309.