Don't put a question mark where God put a period

Believe it or not we only have two more weeks of our series on Bumper Sticker Theology. As we begin to wind this down to a close we get to look at the phrase “don’t put a question mark where God put a period.” What do you think of when you hear this phrase? Throughout this series I have always given my impression of what I think this phrase implies but I want you to take a moment and think about what this might mean if either you said this to someone or someone said this to you.

Now that I’ve given you all of 5 seconds to think about it, I do want to share with you what I think people might hear if this phrase was said to them. Perhaps you have already come to this conclusion because I think this one might be one the easiest to see it’s pitfall: Don’t question God. If God put a period at the end of a statement then who are we as humans to dare question what God has said.

The reason why I see this as a real pitfall is that the Bible is full of people who ask questions of God. Read almost any psalm and you will have the author asking God questions all the time. God why are you so far away? God why have you abandoned or forsaken me? Why are you absent in times of trouble? Why do trouble and my enemies surround me? If we aren’t supposed to question God then why did Jesus pick the disciples he chose? In John’s gospel Jesus says he is preparing a place for them and they know where Jesus it taking them and Thomas flatly ‘asks how do we know’? What about all the times the disciples asked questions about the parables that Jesus told because they didn’t understand them just like the crowds didn’t understand them.

There are many other examples, but one of my favorites is from what we read earlier today and that is the book of Job. Job, in my opinion, is like the book of psalms. If you want to know the range of human emotion, questioning, and beyond then look to these two books and you will find all the ways that people in the Bible share every emotion with God and ask so many questions of God because of everything that is going on in their lives. To give us as brief a rundown as I can about the story of Job here’s what happens. Everything in Job’s very comfortable life is taken away from him by the adversary as a way to prove that even a righteous person will give up on God if everything is taken away from them. God agrees and Job has everything taken away from him but his own life. Job’s friends come to comfort him, but end up accusing him of essentially sinning against God and insist he repents. Job rebukes them and insists on his innocence and then questions God as to why all this has happened to him. Job and God have monologues back and forth and our reading today is Job’s final response to God before the end of the story of Job.

What is incredible about the conclusion that Job shares with us is that Job admits that he doesn’t understand, as a human, everything that God does and that knowing about God and experiencing God are two different things. What Job never does is apologize for questioning or being upset with God for what happened to him. Job maintains his innocence before God throughout the whole ordeal. What is equally as incredible is that God doesn’t blame Job or consider him unrighteous for all the questions he has or the anger he had about what happened to him. In fact, if we read on to the epilogue of Job we see that God gets upset with Job’s friends for insisting that Job had sinned and actually praises Job for speaking rightly about God. While God never gives in to God’s character, God also doesn’t fault Job for needing that time and that space to express himself truthfully and honestly.

I personally find great comfort in Job, the psalms and the disciples, showing me that all my questions, wonderings and searchings are good. Just like any part of our life our need to ask questions and the permission to ask those questions is a a way to find either answers or a greater understanding of what it is we are looking for. So, if we question something in our faith, or let’s even go so far as to say have doubts about what we believe, and we know we have permission to ask questions or seek the answers, then we have the ability to dig deeper. Another way I used to say it whenever I would teach confirmation to youth was this, “there is nothing wrong with questions or even doubts about your faith, so long as you take those things and use them to go and find the answers or a deeper understanding of what you are looking for.”

Job essentially held a court case for God and what happened to him, but as we see in the end Job doesn’t get ‘answers’ and Job is essentially ok with that. But what Job does have is an experience with God. Now in this story it is a literal encounter with God, but Job was able to be with God in his frustrations and his sadness. He was able, as I have said before, to ask his questions and have that relationship with God. God was also able to share about God and who God is and what God is all about. In the end Job is able to get off his ash heap and return to his life which ends up being more blessed than he had been blessed before. Even though Job didn’t get the answers, even though he dropped his case against God, he continued to have a relationship with God and know that God would be with him and God had always been in the past and would be in the future.

For me what that says is the simple journey of asking questions, having doubts, and seeking God is just as, and probably more important, than any actual answer we could possible get. Maybe because like Job we need to admit it’s just something we can’t understand as humans and maybe that’s enough. Knowing that no matter what happens in our lives we can come to God and let God know we’re upset, we feel like God is far away, that we don’t know where the rights answers are, and that God will let us sit in those moments with God. I don’t know about you but simply knowing that if and when those feelings and questions happen in my life I have a God who is willing to listen and engage with me in them helps me to realize just how much God truly does care for me and each and every one us. So, today, I say to you, ask your questions and share your feelings with a God who is willing to sit with you as you share and ask, and that when you arrive on the other end, God will be there for you just as God had always been. Just as God was for Job, the psalmists and so many others in the Bible and throughout history God is there for you with any and all of your emotions and pondering. Amen.