Any Questions?

The poet and playwright Archibald MacLeish was once invited to lead Morning Prayer at Harvard’s Memorial Church. At first, he declined, explaining that his religious skepticism made him an unlikely choice for the task. A few hours later he changed his mind. “I’ll do it,” he said, “but one thing must be clear. I’m not at all convinced Christianity has all the answers we’re looking for—but I do think it has the right questions.”

MacLeish’s remark is worth remembering because the Bible is, in many ways, a long conversation between God and a questioning people. Cain asks, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Moses wonders why God seems angry with his own people. Job asks where hope can be found. The psalmist cries, “Why do you stand far off?” Even Jesus, from the cross, prays the haunting words of Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Beneath all these questions lies one that every thoughtful person eventually asks: What must be done…