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Who’s Asking?

In this reading there are two people who ask the question, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?” The question comes from the “wise men from the East” (notice there is no mention of the number three) and it comes from Herod. We can’t tell by the text who the wise men ask. Herod, however, gathers the chief priests and scribes, all of them, and inquires of them where the Messiah was to be born.

I can’t recall who said it but the statement was, “You tell the truth to the people who deserve to hear it.” That’s interesting to ponder. But this text can put us to thinking about who it is that is posing the questions that matter to our common life.

When questions about health care are the topic, who is it that’s behind the questions? When questions of faithful partnerships are asked, can we discern the heart of the one asking? Questions of war, questions of justice, questions of honesty, questions of life and faith: who’s asking? Is it power and control asking the question? Is it bigotry or greed asking the question? Is it fear asking the question? Is it a brand of imperialism or nationalism asking the question? Is it a question Jesus would ask?

Sharon Deloz Parks of the Whidby Leadership Institute has written a book entitled “Big Questions, Worthy Dreams.” Some of her big questions are, “Why is the prison population highly African American?” “Why are an increasing number of our children on anti-depressants?” “Why do they hate us?”

Dr. Parks contends that when we ask the big enough questions, we become engaged by worthy dreams. We can’t let our hearts be captured by “how much will I make?” “What kind of car can I get?” “Can we buy a cabin?” It’s not that those are bad questions. But if we never get beyond them, we live unto ourselves “while all creation groans in travail.”

Who’s asking the questions, and are the questions big enough to raise up worthy dreams? Advent is surely a time of dreaming, born out of the big question, “Is God with us?”