Faith and Questions, Part III and Conclusion

Part III, Conclusion

In asking these questions we are following a number of scriptural examples of people who wrestled with God: Abraham, Jacob, Rachel, Hannah, Moses, Job, Jeremiah, Jonah, and Jesus.  These prophets in our tradition show us the way to take the words and promises of God seriously.  After all, the name “Israel” means “to wrestle with God.” And part of what it means to be faithful to God is to have the courage and tenacity to wrestle with God.  Wrestling with God can be wonderfully intimate and gracefully comforting. And it can also be argumentative, accusative, and sometimes quite harsh.  Sometimes we feel close to God and sometimes we feel there is no God.  Such is the nature of trusting, not trusting and living with an invisible mysterious God. 

In wrestling with this God we are obligated to have a broad notion of revelation.  Revelation can certainly come through our scriptures, traditions, creeds, confessions, doctrines, rituals, and theological opinions.  But there is more, much more, that we must pursue in our wrestling with God.  We must listen and carefully study the various religions of the world, the natural and social sciences, the arts, the writings of atheists and agnostics, the influential works of the great philosophers and so on.  Our wrestling with God and the truth may require a great deal of work but our fidelity to our  varying traditions propels us forward.  We have no choice but to skeptically raise any question which would gain us entry to the truth.

Our questions should not be against the religious tradition, nor for the tradition but within the tradition.   We are, all of us, heirs to these religious traditions which have in many ways, for good and for bad, influenced our morality, our understanding of the way the world works and the meanings we give to what goes on in the world.  So, the questions we ask need not be particularly hostile or friendly.  The questions must be intended to pursue the truth.  They ought not be polemical or rhetorical.  They must be direct and honest.  People within particular religious traditions may want to address their questions directly to their deity based on the divine promises made to that community.  People outside religious communities can express their questions through their vocations, their readings, and in discussions with their friends and neighbors.

But, really and honestly, what can actually be accomplished by asking all these questions?  Many people have been wrestling with this deity for thousands of years and have not received a tangible or definitive answer.  Spending all this time formulating and asking unanswerable questions can seem like a waste of time and energy.  If we scream questions at a silent sky, day after day, what have we accomplished?  Sometimes lying in bed in the middle of the night, asking questions, I wonder is anyone listening except the ceiling? 

All this may be true but I do not think we really have a choice.  We humans are meaning seeking creatures.  It is in our nature to ask “why” when terrible things happen.  While it may be true that “excrement happens” we are not content with such a philosophy.  We want to know if there is any justice in the universe.  We want know how it is possible for someone we love to be here, with us, one moment and the next to disappear.  The fact is: as human beings our lives are terribly fragile.  We are here and then we are not here.  What is that all about?  Sickness and death seem to happen indiscriminately or randomly.  Is there no meaning to such events?  Religions have always asserted that there is more than meets the eye.  Is there?  How can we know unless we raise our questions and pursue what might be there.  And even though we have not received the answers we may want, we have discovered through our various scriptures, through science, through nature, through art and literature, glimpses of the truth. 

So, the questions we ask take on a holy or sacred quality.  They are a form of prayer.  Think about it.  Each of us gives our lives to certain questions.  And the questions we give ourselves to, the questions that grasp hold of us, determine the course of our lives.  

Finally, and most importantly, the fact that faith and questions are intimately and inextricably connected does not mean that we are left without anything to do except sit around wondering.  Ultimately, we do not know who God is but we know what God wants.  And that is vital!   God wants us to be human beings.  God commands us to care for the neighbor who is in pain.  God commands us to run after justice, to do what we can do to change the world where we live.  There can be no excuse for being indifferent.  In every small situation where you live, ask yourself, what can I do to help, to change what needs to be changed, to help one neighbor, to do one kindness, to speak out against injustice?   Sometimes, it is true, there is not much that can be done but try to do something.  I know I cannot fix the many broken people and situations in the world.  I admit it.  But I can do something.  The secret resides in the doing.  It is in the doing each day that we become more human.  And questions about God are no reason to be indifferent.  Embrace the questions, be embraced by the questions and do what you can do in every situation to stand with the neighbor. In doing this you will approach becoming a mensch, a person of character. Such is the vital power hidden inside faith and questions.