Sermon – Preaching in Holes: The Gift of Not Knowing
2 Corinthians 12:2-5; Job 39:1-11; 42:1-6
6/28/26
If you got a message that said something absolutely amazing was going to happen tomorrow. Would you want to know what that something was? I am assuming that this promised news was probably not from a fortune cookie, a horoscope, or a palm reading. Let’s say that the message had every assurance of reliability. You could absolutely trust that something amazing was going to happen tomorrow. Would you want to know what it was going to be, or would you rather not know? The flip side is just as valid a question: if you were certain that something difficult and troubling was going to happen, would you want to know what was coming? Maybe you would want to know for one and not the other. Maybe you would want to know neither or both. Maybe you would be upset to even have the warning at all. What we do know is that there are things we can know with relative certainty, but there are LOTS of things that we do not and cannot know – like the future, and it can be VERY frustrating to not know so many things. Yet, I am going to propose that not knowing something, even a great many somethings, can be a good gift.
Yes, I realize what I just said. Yes, I might well be completely wrong, but I do not think so. It might just be a blessing for us to often be ignorant about things in the world, in our lives, and regarding God.
This is not easy for me as my personality and the way my mind works is that I do want to understand whatever it is that I am thinking about, but Job might just be the answer that I need to hear.
The Book of Job is the oldest of the wisdom books in the Bible, and it is the most unique. The entire book is a series of speeches or conversations through which Job and his supposed “friends” try to figure out why disaster has come upon him and his family, disaster that is a result of a wager between a Satan character and God. Again and again, a devastated Job challenges God to answer for the tragedies. He wants God to come take the stand and explain. He needs to know why he has suffered because he wants to make sense of it. However, this is one of those “be careful what you ask for scenarios” because God DOES appear – out of some kind of tornado even, but God, to be clear, does not answer Job’s questions. We read the beginning of what God does say. God goes on for chapters actaully questioning Job about what God has done in nature, incredible and amazing things, but God does not actually answer Job. God is not angry at Job. Job is not in trouble for asking or even challenging God. When Job tries to shut his mouth in chapter 40, God won’t let him remain silent but compels him to answer. He has a voice here, and Job’s final answer is the last part that we read. My take-away is that God cannot answer Job, not really. Job’s questions about why all of his disaster happened are too big and too tough for his little mind. He cannot even understand God’s work in nature, so there is no way that he might be able to understand the things he is asking. He cannot even comprehend the basics of the world and God’s role in it. At the very end, Job is left with his questions unanswered, but, but, but he has a stronger relationship with God whom he understands better. The questions and their conversation helped Job to know God better, even if his questions remain.
That is what I desire for us all – to understand God better when we do not have the answers. Having questions is the key.
Questions are what cause us to learn as they motivate us to seek knowledge and understanding. That drive keeps us curious. People who never wonder will never grow. People who refuse to ask will never find. People who already have all the answers are deluded, and the people who have no need to question anything in life are not possible. The child of God with questions will seek greater understanding and will know God more, even if the questions are never answered. Yes, like a child growing in the world must question their parents, we must question our heavenly parent. That is how we know our parent better. We might even understand the world better.
Questions keep us humble, and they give us space for wonder and surprise. If you have not learned anything amazing lately, you are not trying very hard. The world is so incredibly full of God’s glory that it is only our distraction or refusal that prevents us from the wonder around us. We live in an incredible world that God has given for our enjoyment and care.
Questions keep us talking to others. Asking, hearing, and sharing are wonderful ways to meet others seeking the experience of our Lord. Being open to having questions, uncertainty, and even doubts draw us into spaces of possibility where we can encounter greater truths and grow or change from them. We may even find ourselves reformed in more honest and loving ways. There is nothing wrong with sitting in uncertainty as long as we keep asking.
The story of Job ends with him finding new life. He is freed from his grief and guilt and is renewed in blessing. Encountering God frees him to get back to living, even if he still has the questions. The questions do not limit his freedom but give room for him to experience new, unexpected things.
We live in a world of so much more information and uncertainty than Job could have imagined. It is ok and honest to admit how much we do not understand. We are all in this boat together. Artificial Intelligence will figure into this, but it will not solve our uncertainty. It will offer us paths to ask other questions, but ultimately truth is going to be a gift of life and experience and learning. Our greatest truths as people of God in the family of God will be in our relationship with God.
But what if I said you actually must have questions and uncertainty to even have faith? Paul points us in 2 Corinthians to an experience of God that honestly does not make sense and does not fit into any of our understanding of God or heaven. It somewhat sounds like one of those out of body death experiences we hear of from time to time, but it also does not sound like that, so it is really impossible to grasp what Paul is saying specifically. He is most likely speaking of his own experience that opened up a kind of glory and wonder that shaped his life or at least the life of whoever it was, if not Paul. Even after experiencing it, Paul does not really understand what it was or what it means. But it did build his faith, even if he does not understand it.
There is a wonderful scene in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in which Jones must take a literal leap of faith into what looks like a chasm. There is absolutely nothing there for his step, but faith means stepping into the unknown. It turns out that there is a path that he could not see, but he willingly stepped into what he did not know through trust.
Faith is our courage to affirm what we hold in the face of the unknown and even our doubt. No one here knows what happens after we die, but we trust. No one here knows that there is even a God, but we trust, some with all of their heart. No one here knows that Jesus ever walked the earth, let alone died and rose again, but we trust. We can struggle with these things, question these things, maybe even doubt these things, but faith is stepping forward into what we do not know, into what we cannot see, into what makes no sense, into what we struggle to understand.
God never requires us to grasp it all but just asks us to trust. Holding questions can keep us closer to God as we trust. Holding questions prevents us from growing stale and can help us avoid idols. When we are struggling with feeling separated from God, it can be that we are just actually in a question waiting for wisdom. When we see uncertainty as a friend and not as an enemy, we can grow to love God in greater and deeper ways.
The older I get, the more I am determined to be more open and honest in how I see the world. We all have doubts and uncertainty in our lives. We all have questions and things we wished we knew. This applies to our relationship with God also, maybe especially with our relationship with God. Like Job, some of us may have railed against what feels like a smug or cruel God content to play games with us. Yet, our questions can also draw us into God’s heart. Our uncertainty says something about us, about what is important to us, and can even be a prayer for help. We will always live with that uncertainty this side of eternity, but with help and faith, we will be able to still affirm our God of love who is love, even when we do not understand. To God be the glory. Amen.