Ask Away

Yesterday I did my first question Sunday in Marceline!  It was a lot of fun, and I enjoy getting questions and finding answers.  I'll admit that I'm probably a little crazy for doing it, but its challenging for me, and over the years I've found that folks have questions that aren't always going to get answered through the normal course of my preaching.

Because it was such a different service, I'm not going to answer all of those questions here, but I will post them individually over the next few weeks.  There were also a couple of questions that I got on Jonah, and David & Bathsheba that I'll be taking on in another series starting in January.  You'll have to wait a little longer for those answers, but I will get to them.  There are a couple of things I wanted to look at, and one of the fun questions that I got Sunday morning.

We read 2 Chronicles 1:7-12a in the service.  If you aren't familiar with it, it's the passage where God and King Solomon are having a conversation.  One of the things that I take from this passage is that God is telling Solomon that it is okay to ask, not just for things, but also to ask questions in general.

Questions are not a bad thing, in fact they are an important part of our faith.  The challenge for us is to ask them like Solomon does.  You've heard to old cliche that there's no such thing as a bad question.  Most of the time I agree with that, but with one exception.  Bad questions are ones where you don't really want to know, accept, or engage with the answer you get.

Read God's response to Solomon's quest for wisdom.

God said to Solomon, "Since this is what you wish, and because you’ve asked for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I’ve made you king—rather than asking for wealth, riches, fame, victory over those who hate you, or even a long life—your request for wisdom and knowledge is granted. 

--2 Chronicles 1:11-12a 

When our hearts are set in the right place, then we are ready to both ask questions, and receive the anaswers.

There was one question that I got yesterday that I did want to share.  It wasn't one that I received in advance, and wasn't one that I've ever had before.  It was, about pets and if they went to heaven.  The answer I gave in church is about the answer I'll give here, except that I've done some more digging on it to see what is going on.

There is, as I initially thought, no real definitive statement in scripture on this topic.  However, we live in a world that values its pets, and for many folks they are an important part of their lives.  Because there is no Biblical answer that is easy to find, we're left with a lot of theory and supposition about what happens to animals.

The responses range from animals have no souls therefore don't go to heaven (no matter what the movie says about dogs) to of course animals go to heaven as God makes all things new.  There is even one bit of misinformation or bad journalism that says that Pope Francis declared that pets go to heaven.  He didn't. 

There are a few things that we know.  One is that God made a special relationship between humans and animals that is different from other parts of his creation.  So with them there is already something different that would seem to give animals a special place.  Second is that there are a few places in scripture, beyond Genesis, that would point to animals being in heaven, Isaiah 65:25, and Revelation 19:14.

Mostly, I rely on a third thing.  That is that God wants us to be fulfilled, complete, and happy.  For many folks that means pets.  For others of us, that might me not having pet allergies.  Because we have so little to go on, we trust in God that he will do what is best for us.  I like to believe that that means that my friends who have pets, will continue to have pets when life in this world comes to and end.