We live in a world that can seem very frightening. If we spend only a moment simply glancing at the headlines or listening to the sound-bytes in the mega-media, we are doused with an overwhelming barrage of news that can incite fear, loathing, anger, despair, and even worse, numbness and indifference.  In a reactionary stance, we pose ‘solutions’ to the ‘problems’ that we diagnose in the chaotic arrangement of what we consider reality and many times feel comfortably justified in these well-thought-out delivered prognoses.   Alas, though, these solutions themselves become fodder for the next round of political, social, religious, racist, and narcissistic configurations that pose as saviors, but fail to engage the heart of the matter.

Where is God in all this, we may ask? Why doesn’t God do something to stop this, or redirect us, or even punish those that so vehemently exclude and brutalize others?  If God is the Greatest of All, why is this ‘greatness’ not being used in the service of ‘correcting’ all that is amiss in our lives, in our world, in our universe?  This God, who we know as the Almighty, the All-Knowing, the All-Loving – Where, where, where!?  Still there are some who don’t even ask these questions perhaps.  Muddled in intransigent attitudes of self-assurance, each issue arises simply to forward another judgment or opinion that justifies the judger with really no regard to that which is at stake.

What is at stake? What is being missed? Without question, literally, it is EVERYTHING?   This line of thinking is nothing new, as we see in Luke’s Gospel (Lk 9:46-50)

“An argument arose among the disciples
about which of them was the greatest.
Jesus realized the intention of their hearts and took a child
and placed it by his side and said to them,
‘Whoever receives this child in my name receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
For the one who is least among all of you
is the one who is the greatest.’ “

Any question can be a starting place, even one we may consider wrong-headed (or wrong-hearted)!  I can imagine a look of exasperation on Jesus’ face when he hears this crazy bickering going on between the disciples about ‘greatness.’  So, what could he possibly do to disrupt this narcissistic program?  Hmm… –  A child!

Now, be mindful that a child in Jesus’ time was not necessarily someone of value. Children had no rights and were not considered to be of any importance at all in the world.  So, for Jesus to place a child “by his side” in the midst of this self-justifying argument among adults would be at the least extremely confusing to the disciples.  The unimportance of a child disrupting the ‘importance’ of their discussion on which of them was the greatest?!  And then for Jesus to make it clear that anyone who would consider themselves to be a follower of Him, would have to RECEIVE this child, and in so doing receive the One who Sent Him!  How is it that what we consider unimportant becomes the overlooked ‘way’ that turns the whole idea of ‘greatness’ on its head?  Alas, the no account child in the Mediterranean World, the one considered “least among you” is the greatest.

How could we possibly entertain such an idea that flies in the face of our…culture?  Indeed, for the most part, we would rather change the subject, just as the disciples do in the next part of the passage:

“Then John said in reply,
‘Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name
and we tried to prevent him
because he does not follow in our company.’
Jesus said to him, ‘Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you.’ “

Really!! Let’s dismiss the invitation to ‘receive’ the child, and now focus on some ‘other’ who is basically doing the same things that Jesus is doing; however he’s not ‘hanging out’ with us!  Rather coolly, I imagine, Jesus simply invites them again to look deeper into their one-dimensional faculties of observation and recognize that the ‘way’ to follow him does not carry a printed ID card – I am a FOLLOWER OF CHRIST!

What can help us ask questions? What can point us toward the questions that will do more than scratch the surface, but begin breaking through the paralyzed judgments that we all carry, and allow that initial woundedness we feel from this vulnerability to come into  us – to come inside us?  How can we welcome and receive the child that does nothing but question?  The wonder of what we deem unimportant by our cultural, political, and many times religious standards become the very specific way to ‘follow Christ.’

Who is this God that we place so far removed from us? Who is this ‘OTHER’ that we fail to recognize because the appearance is not confirmed in our judgments?  Could God be a Child who ‘plays in wonder’ – not playing with us in a ‘toying’ fashion, but within us?  Still we hide the Divine Child because it doesn’t seem to fit into the scheme of things.  Too many questions seem to water down the certainty that we so heavily rely upon.  And this Child is asking questions that don’t make sense to start with.

Can we practice to wonder? Can we disrupt our lives in a way that will stimulate our hearts to ask questions that the mind by itself cannot formulate?  This is the creativity that we each have within us and among us.  Together we can, if we risk opportunities that can loosen our deadening judgments, and wonder our way into that which may not yet have been considered.  The lonely Child among us WHO is never without question.   Questions can be facilities of hope that rend the garments of our ‘greatness’ and lead us somewhere that enlivens because it is a place NEW and MORE.

God lives in our questions and waits to lead through and in us to Moreness without question, as the prophet Zechariah so beautifully describes (Zec 8:1-8):

“… Old men and old women,
each with staff in hand because of old age,
shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem.
The city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.
…Even if this should seem impossible
in the eyes of the remnant of this people,
shall it in those days be impossible in my eyes also…?
… Lo, I will rescue my people from the land of the rising sun,
and from the land of the setting sun.”

tpt