Questions?

Questions?

Rev. Karla Miller, Eliot Church of Newton

Pentecost 21B, October 21, 2012

Mark 10:35-45 and Job 38:11-17, 38-40

A few weeks ago, Liz and I took a trip to Ikea, and among other things, we bought a few things. 

Now, if any of you have purchased furniture type items from Ikea, you know that everything comes in a flat box, and with directions, The thing is, the directions don’t come with words—just diagrams, and some of the diagrams are more clear than the others. 

I was doing pretty well assembling the t.v. console. Until I was on the last step, which was putting on the doors, and I realized that the top of the table face the back, so I had raw particle board facing the front.   Argggh.      

The table top was the second step out of 21.   I had no choice.  I had to take it all apart. 

Now, Ikea furniture comes with certain items of hardware that only exist, I am convinced, in Ikea   World.   One such of these items is something called a “cam-lock”  which serves to lock a bolt in place in a weird way, but they are really strong, and engage with a simple screw driver.   

That being said, they are not disengaged with a simple screwdriver.  Believe, me I tried.  I had eight cam-locks to disengage before I could continue with the deconstruction.   Those camlocks would not come out with a screwdriver, even though I had loosened them.   I tried holding the piece of furniture upside down to try to shake them out.  No budging.   

I asked myself, “What tool can I use to get these babies out?”

I rummaged around, and got a long fork that one uses in grilling, a tweezers, and a chopstick.  

(What?  You don’t have those things in your toolbox?)

I fiddled and fished and jimmy-ed and jiggled those darn camlocks.   I did deep breathing and meditated my mind on the tiny round things.   I told them, “I am not giving up!!
You will come out!”    After two hours (and this I do NOT exaggerate) I had only managed to pry two of the eight out of their lock-holes. I was tired and frustrated, and then decided that Ikea was to blame, because of their stupid cartoon directions that didn’t indicate front and back.   

So I decided to call them and complain, and to tell them I was bringing it back ASAP.   After a few nice computer voices transferred me to an actual person,  I burst out in my tirade.  “Look, I put this stand together backwards because your directions are not clear.   I can’t get the camlocks out of their holes, and I have tried everything--chopsticks, screwdrivers, you have no idea!  I have been trying for HOURS and I can’t, and now it’s not usable and...”

The representative kindly interrupted me:  “Ma’am.   MA’AM! They aren’t supposed to come out after they have been locked in.  That’s why they are called camLOCKs. .  They LOCK.     To which I screamed back, “WHAT??? Then what am I supposed to do?  Surely I am not the only person and....”

“Look,” nice clerk says, “you can still take the piece a part....you just need to loosen the lock, and gently pull, and the parts will separate.”

“Huh?  Really?”  So I tried, and guess what, she totally was right.   I backed down, profusely said thanks, and hung up.  

Albert Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.   I am pretty sure this applies to me in that situation.   

You see, I started with the wrong question.   Or, I persiverated on the wrong question.   My question was “what tools do I need to remove the cam-locks”....but I made an assumption--that the camlocks were removable.   After a few tries, I could have asked, “

This isn’t working!   I wonder if the cam-locks are even removable?  I ought to call someone who might know--Ikea World.  

Questions.   Our texts are full of questions today.   

Divine questions.  

God  responds to Job’s complaints of Divine  Absence with a poem of questions. 

Jesus responds to James and John request with questions.   

And the questions put forward in these two texts are open-ended, laden with possibilities and thoughtful wonderings,

rather than insanity.   

In last week’s reading,  Job was ready to die. He had lost to death his crops, his flocks and his children.  He is covered from head to foot with itching oozing sores.  His friends insist that God has punished him for some wrong doing, his wife urges him to curse God.  Instead, he sits down in the  dust, resigned, and stuck, crying out, “God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me; ¹⁷If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face!” (23:16-17)   He wants to disappear into the void.  (Robert Alter,  The Art of Biblical Poetry, New York: Basic Books, 1985) )    

 God responds, from a whirlwind,  to Job’s void by challenging him to turn his face into the breadth of life, beginning with the light and energy of creation, to the forces of nature and to the wild animal kingdom.  Indeed, the Divine response to Job was to remind Job of the  Power of Life.   God opens a way, through incredibly challenging questions, a path for Job, to look for the holy, for life, for hope beyond his loss in the sheer wildness of all creation--a path that might offer transformation in the midst of loss and grief and betrayal.   

Job was like the camlock.  He was stuck.   God’s questions don’t necessarily unlock him--but when considered, might gently loosen the grip of the void allowing him to breath and see the light. 

I wonder, 

In our Gospel lesson, Jesus uses questions to remind James and John, and yes, even the rest of disciples, of the risk and reward of following his teachings.   I love how Jesus answers J and J’s demand with a question, 

“What is it your want me to do for you?”

It’s the same question Jesus asks the blind man, Bartimaeus down in vs. 51, “What is it you want me to do for you?”

Bartimaeus asks to see.   James and John ask to be great.   There is nothing wrong in any of these responses, but it is clear that it has to be done in Jesus’ way, and not the world’s way.   

And so, Jesus questions their response, “Do you really know what you are asking for--to drink from my cup? “

I think that the same thing often happens in congregations. They will make statements like, "We want to grow," "We want to reach out to our community," etc., but they don't really know what those statements mean or the steps it requires to make such "glorious" things happen. This is clear in Jesus response--you must serve, rather than be served. (Brian Stoffegran)

And this is the heart of the matter, isn’t it, for the people of God?  

For example, in considering change, which is the servant question--

“Will this change upset our members and how will it affect me?”  or “Will this help us reach someone on the outside?”

Which is the servant question, 

“How do we save our congregation?”   or  “How do we reach the world?”

Which is the servant question?

“How can we get the community to support our congregation?”    or  “How can the Church support these people?”   (Brian Stoffegran quoting Harold Percy, “Good News People”)

These are hard questions to ponder, and being a servant is a whole lot of effort and risk and  strength.   And yet, it is what and who the church is called to be--anything else is “play” church.  But just as Jesus walked with the disciples, the Divine promises to walk with the people of God.  

And just like Job, the people of God can end up in a rut, and experience abandonment.   

But God will always come to us, whether from a whirlwind, a sunset, or some other part of creation.     

And there is one more thing, just as congregations are called to serve, we as individuals are called to serve.  

And so, I ask, 

What is the void in your life, what are the stuck places?   

Where is God’s presence (or absence) in those places?

I only have this to say:  Watch out for the whirlwinds!

And, I ask, 

What is it you want Jesus to do for you?  

To see? 

To be first?  

To make you a disciple, in love with Gods’ world enough to reach out in care and love and risk to it?  

It’s a question, isn’t it? 

full of possibility and hope and risk, and life. 

Amen.