Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at Salisbury

Minister Musing

Questions

Dear Ones-

Questions- our lives are filled with questions.  I’ve been thinking a lot about questions, lately.  We ask questions to learn, to clarify, and to explore the world around us.  Teachers often ask questions to stimulate conversation, or to help students learn. Recently, Kit and I went to a lovely Seder (Thank you , Seth!) and, of course, part of the Seder ritual is the asking of questions.  (Why is tonight different from all other nights?  Why on this night do we eat only matzah?  Why on this night do we eat only bitter herbs?  Why, on this night, do we dip our vegetables twice?  Why on this night, do we eat only reclining?)
Sometimes, as in our Seder, the questions are both ritual and a starting place for a larger conversation about slavery, oppression, and freedom.

There are those who feel threatened by questions, who see them as a challenge to authority and the status quo.

And I suppose they may be right.  Frequently that is exactly what happens when one asks questions.  Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong speaks of “comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable”.  He sees his life’s calling as asking questions that challenge, that stimulate, that threaten the status quo, that compel us to look at what is and compare it to what might be.  Our Unitarian Universalist faith, too, calls us to ask questions, to confront forces and systems of complacency and oppression and ask ourselves how we can make the world a better place.

May each of us continue to ask questions- to stand in the face of those very forces and institutions that would silence our questions and ask, “Why?”

Wishing you peace and blessings,

John

You can reach John at minister@uufs.net