There are no stupid questions…
There are no stupid questions…at least not on Sunday morning. Because there are no questions on Sunday morning. Right? The preacher always blows your mind, says Amen, literally drops the mic…BOOM! nailed it!! Right? And you always “get it”. Right? Sure…you didn’t exactly follow that part about synoptic eschatological discourse, post-narrative theology, and Sunday school attendance, but you can Google that after a few responsive readings. (You don’t)
Think about it…we willingly sit down for a lecture every Sunday. (Seriously…a lecture. Other than Sunday, name one time you’ve ever willingly sat for a lecture, and you get dressed up for it!) This is a lecture on what we claim to be the most important subject…period. Ever. We are likely in a fairly small setting …We are likely comfortable with the minister and congregation..and we don’t even entertain the idea of a Q&A session following the sermon? We have just heard a lecture encouraging us to follow a human being that is also a God and also somehow part of our selves, a man that has supernatural powers, but was brutally executed by the Romans without so much as a hiccup…a man whose own disciples missed His point more often than not, etc etc (insert any quote from Richard Dawkins) and…. and It doesn’t even cross our minds to ask a question? Ever? Seriously?
Frankly, I’d never considered the lack of Q&A as part of a sermon until recently. I attended a lecture that bordered on being a sermon, which concluded with the speaker thanking the audience for their attention and walking off the stage…only to reappear dragging a chair, unfolding it center stage, sitting down, and saying, “OK, we covered a lot of stuff…questions?” What followed was incredibly enlightening…for me and likely for the speaker.
I can’t help but think that our services would be better if we included a Q&A. And the more I think about it, the more reasons I find to believe a Q&A session would deepen our understanding of the message, the Divine, our congregation, ourselves and the relationship between all of these. Maybe there should be some more hand-raising in the Church, if you get my drift.
(Imagine that I slowly unfold a metal chair, sit down, shrug…and say…) “Ok…questions?”