November 16, 2024

Dear Road Church Friends,

Most of us have plenty of answers ready and waiting to spring upon someone who asks us a question. Answers easily roll off of our tongue. But good questions are hard to come by. They require research, reflection and most of all, wisdom. Answers are plenteous and cheap. Good questions are rare and valuable. Most answers are intended to settle a question or end a discussion. Good questions make us think. They generate more good questions and initiate productive conversations. Jesus was a master of asking good questions. He had good answers too, but he was more often a “question-asking man” than an “answer-man.” Perhaps there is a lesson in this for the Church today and for each of us as well. More about this Sunday morning.

SERMON: “The Wisdom of Good Questions”

SCRIPTURES

Job 42:2-6

Job said, I know, Lord, that you are all-powerful. You ask how I dare question your wisdom when I am so very ignorant. I was dogmatic about things I did not understand. You told me to listen while you spoke and to try to answer your questions. In the past I knew only what others had told me, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. So, I am ashamed of all I have said. I humbly repent in dust and ashes.

Matthew 22:41-46

Jesus said to a group of Pharisees, “I have a question for you about the Messiah: Whose descendant is he?” The Messiah will be a descendant of David they answered. “Then,” Jesus asked, “why did David call him ‘Lord’, saying: ’The Lord God said to my Lord, (the Messiah): “Sit at my right side until I put your enemies under your feet.”’? “If David called the Messiah ‘Lord’, how can the Messiah be David's son?” Not one of them was able to give Jesus an answer to his question, and from that day no one dared to ask him any more questions.

GIVE ME JOY IN SIMPLE THINGS

Give me work to do, give me health.

Give me joy in simple things.

Give me an eye for beauty, a tongue for truth,

A heart that loves, a mind that reasons,

A sympathy that understands.

Give me neither malice nor envy,

But a true kindness and a noble common sense.

At the close of each day give me a book,

And a friend with whom I can be silent.

  Blessings to you all,

Pastor Norm

This Service on YouTube: there is a bit of lead time here:  https://www.youtube.com/live/xZv7ZN9OA9s?si=yMJB8yyw5axbarjp