Just Curious

The art of questioning

I visited the West Philly Mennonites today morning again to worship with them. Today, they have a guest preacher, who is apparently a member of the congregation (perhaps an Anabaptist seminary student somewhere in Philly?) The topic of his sermon was very interesting. It was about the role of questions in the communications between the human race and the Divine.

There's an old joke. A Jewish student raised his hand and asked his rabbi why was it that whenever someone asks a question, the rabbi replied by asking him more questions. The rabbi smiled, "Why not?"

Our preacher reminded us that God, in a way, spoke to the prophets, etc, in exactly the same way. When he asked Adam "where are you?" and Cain "where is your brother?" God is essentially reminding man of his two relationships, vis-a-vis God, and vis-a-vis his brother/neighbor. ("Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength...Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these.")

Similar questions can be found throughout the Testaments.

Which reminds me of an important one, "For what shall it profits a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his own soul?" The same question was directed to Sir Richard Rich by Sir Thomas More, when the former perjured against him.

posted by James Chang @ 10:33 AM