Questions and Answers

After a Sunday service of a local church, a few conversations were over heard in the parking lot:

Q: How did the service go?

A: Good.

Q: The choir good too?

A: Very good.

Q: And the sermon?

A: Very Interesting.

Q: What was the interesting part?

A: Well, don't remember.  My memory loss perhaps.

Q: What did you remember after all?

A1: Good chat with friends which made me homesick.

A2: By the way, the lunch was extraordinary good. There were some homemade sausages mixed with the Johnny Walker Black, I was told. Very tasty, you know.

As far as I can tell the scriptures are full of questions and most answers are rather too traditional and/or predictable. Let me quote two paragraphs from the bible:

And after a time, when men were increasing on the earth, and had daughters, The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took wives for themselves from those who were pleasing to them. And the Lord said, My spirit will not be in man for ever, for he is only flesh; so the days of his life will be a hundred and twenty years. There were men of great strength and size on the earth in those days; and after that, when the sons of God had connection with the daughters of men, they gave birth to children: these were the great men of old days, the men of great name.  (Genesis 6: 1-4)

And he said to them, Truly I say to you, There are some here who will have no taste of death till they see the kingdom of God come with power. (Mark 9:1)

I don't know about you but I do have some questions from the scriptures above. 

Such as where did the sons of God come from?

And why did Jesus emphasize the kingdom of God was at hand and at the same time Jesus said "Truly, I say to you, this generation will not come to an end till all these things are complete. Heaven and earth will come to an end, but my words will not come to an end. But of that day or that hour no one has knowledge, not even the angels in heaven, or the Son, but the Father." (Mark 13: 30-32)  

Let us look at the questions and answers in the gospel of Luke between the young man and Jesus below:

Question: Master, what have I to do so that I may have eternal life?

Answer with question: What does the law say, in your reading of it?

Answer: Have love for the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and for your neighbor as for yourself.

Question: And who is my neighbor?

Here comes the most beautifully and often quoted story -- A Good Samaria story -- followed by yet another question:

Question: Which of these three men, in your opinion, was neighbor to the man who came into the hands of thieves?

Answer: The one who had mercy on him.

And...

Jesus final conclusion: Go and do the same (Luke 10: 25-37) 

What are we really doing in the church service Sunday after Sunday?

There is nothing wrong about the social conversations or enjoying the tasty homemade sausages after the service.  What about the un-answered questions deep inside of your heart?  Have you ever asked the pastor of any of the long time church sisters/brothers?

In case we forgot, we, all of us, whether we are the sheep or the goats, will face the questions at the end of the world as illustrated in the Gospel of Matthew 25: 31-46:

- When did we see you in need of food, and give it to you?

  Or in need of drink, and give it to you?

- And when did we see you wandering, and take you in?

  Or without clothing, and give it to you?

- And when did we see you ill, or in prison, and come to you?

And the King will make answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, Because you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.

Thank goodness that the final question is not going to be whether we are the Baptists or the Catholic, but what we did to the least of the Lord's  brothers and sisters.

p.s. The Bible texts quoted here are from the Bible in Basic English

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