Author: SusannahDB

Jesus is the Question: The 307 Questions Jesus Asked and the 3 He Answered Martin B. Copenhaver

Emotional Response-5

Scholarly Response-5

Most days, I am so thankful that my faith isn’t an easy answer faith. I don’t believe that if a happens then I need to do b. In my life, when a happens, I ponder and pray about the appropriate reaction, I consult my faith family, I read the Scriptures, and then discern whether b, c, or d are the correct course of action. Sometimes it takes longer to make a decision. I am included in the process of partnering with God and my faith community to see where God is leading me. Now on really rough days for just a few minutes, I covet a faith that has answers to every question. These times doesn’t last long. I am grateful to understand that God welcomes our questions, our concerns, our praises, our laments, and our anger.

“Easy answers can give us a sense of finality. By entertaining questions God has a chance to change us. Answers can be offered as a conclusion. Questions are an invitation to further reflection. For the most part, answers close and questions open” (20).

This book is not a book of easy answers because Jesus didn’t give us easy answers. Jesus asks 307 different questions in the Gospels. He is asked 183 questions (16). I’m thankful that someone else counted up these questions for us to let us know that Jesus asked almost twice as many questions as he was asked.

My sister sent me this picture recently. Her daughter has recently turned four and questions everything. While parents and others may tire of constant questions, questions are vital for learning. Maybe Jesus is asking us to channel our inner four-year old and ask more questions.

How does Jesus teach us? Questions and parables are two of Jesus’ favorite methods of communication. Both of these methods have in common that they are not direct answers. They are asking the listener to participate in this process of understanding. “The goal is not to communicate knowledge but to elicit new understanding in the listener. Information is not the goal. Transformation is” (20).

Jesus asks questions about longing, compassion, identity, faith, doubt, worry, the reach of love, and healing. And finally, in Chapter 9, we read about the questions Jesus answers. The book says that Jesus only answers 3 questions and that is because the author believes that Jesus directly answers only 3 questions. The following 8 are answers that Jesus gave, but they don’t always directly answer the question he was asked. Jesus tells us how many times we must forgive (Matthew 18:21-22), when a husband may divorce his wife (Matthew 19: 3-9),  what we must do to have eternal life (Matthew 19: 16-22), what is the greatest commandment (Mark 12: 28-34), why the disciples are unable to heal someone (Matthew 17: 14-21), where they will eat the Last Supper (Mark 14:12-16), who will betray him (John 13:21-30), and after many times not answering Jesus finally tells us who is (John 18:33-38).

Who is Jesus? Who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am? These two questions are so similar and yet so different. The first one requires no commitment. The second one comes from the heart if we follow Jesus (Chapter 10). A Question from the Cross is a great look at what it means to have a Savior who asked, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” is the focus of Chapter 11. Chapter 12 finishes the questions with questions from the Risen Christ.

The book ends with a long list of questions in Chapter 13. The author encourages you to read them without thinking about the context or looking up the context. What are these questions that Jesus asks?
This book was recommended to me by a dear friend. She read this book and enjoyed it so much that she used it as a book study at her church. After reading the book, I would love to do the same. This book is easy to read and challenging in the way it makes you think. I would highly recommend this book to everyone who wants to grow a bit in their faith. I’d recommend it for individual reading as well as part of a book study. You should read this book!

Eating and Drinking Elizabeth T. Groppe

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Scholarly Response-4

This book is a part of a series by Fortress Press called Compass: Christian Explorations of Daily Life. This book is divided into three sections. Section 1 is a look at eating and drinking in 21^st Century America. Section 2 is a “Christian theological vision of eating and drinking” (4). And section 3 helps us make sense of the first two sections by reflecting on how we as Christians can eat and drink in ways that are more in tune with our faith.

In section one, she eats like a “typical American” for a day. She has coffee, serves her son a sugary breakfast cereal, a banana for a mid-morning snack, a fast food lunch, chocolate as an afternoon snack, and a dinner of frozen French fries and chicken nuggets. As she eats this foods, she describes the history of each food and how it comes to be in our grocery stores and homes today. I appreciated how she combined history and current farming practice to give us a full picture of how the food we eat is produced.

In section two, she utilizes the work of theologians and our sacred text to contemplate our relationship to food. She begins by exploring the two creation stories and then moves on to Adam and Eve in the garden. I found this thought about their sin to be thought provoking, “We transgress not because we desire things that are evil, but because our desire for lesser goods eclipses our desires for God” (49). What is it we value too much? How might we value God more? Did Adam and Eve’s fruit eating mark the moment when humans first became consumers? (49-50). We continue our journey through the Bible with the stories of Noah, Abraham and Sarah, and surviving in the wilderness. She reminds us of the biblical mandates to care for those who are hungry and to live in harmony with creation and with the plants and animals who also call creation home. Using miraculous stories of feeding and the story of the last supper, we are reminded that eating was important to Jesus.

Section three opens with my favorite Scripture, Luke 24, where the risen Christ is recognized at table in the familiar act of breaking bread. She takes this story and pushes it back at us asking if the disciples would recognize Jesus today in the meals we eat? In this section, she opens our eyes to ways that our ancestors in the faith have been faithful in eating. She discusses fasting as a way to be more connected with so many who lack food and a way to think about eating more spiritually. She reminds us to offer a blessing before eating food and to ponder if we can ask God for a blessing on our food if the food was not grown and harvested in a way that is compassionate for the animals, soil, or workers? She asks us to start or continue to share the bread we have with others who are hungry. We can have more involvement in our own food by working to turn our national swords into plowshares. In a few pages entitled “Feasting”, she shares the story of how she made new friends by sitting down and eating a meal with them. Her book ends with a reminder to give thanks to the Creator who gave us life. “To give thanks is to receive without grasping, to eat without consuming, to taste without transgressing, and to live in the awareness that both the bread on our tables and the food and drink on the altar are unmerited gifts of the God who is love” (112).

I apologize for not posting an image of this book. I read it in the Virginia Theological Seminary Library and forgot to snap a picture before I left the library. Augsburg Press has more information and a picture too!